Posts tagged ‘bsac’

New BSAC Mixed Gas Courses at DJL

By djl_team, 7 August, 2010, No Comment

Davy Jones Locker Diving is to be the first dive school in Thailand to adopt the new BSAC Sports Mixed Gas, Advanced Mixed Gas and Explorer Mixed Gas courses.

These courses are designed to incorporate helium into the breathing gas in progressive amounts and at progressive depths.

The sports mixed gas diver course will allow the diver to use a minimum of 20% O2 and a maximum of 30% helium content, decreasing the effectiveness of narcosis and CO2 retention normally encountered on air dives to 50 metres.

Tim Lawrence at Davy Jones Locker commented that the new BSAC materials have up to date information on decompression techniques used when diving helium profiles. The helium content on the first course is controlled to avoid problems with isobaric counter diffusion and the depth is limited to 50m to avoid the normal problems encountered in air diving.

At present we intend to give our customers the option after completing the BSAC advanced Nitrox course of completing the existing extended range course using air to 50m or switching to the sports mixed gas diver course to 50m. We believe that using tri mix will always make diving to more than 40m less problematic than diving with air due to the cost of helium and the financial constraints placed on diving professionals which make up the majority of our courses. There is a high chance that our customers will dive to 50m on air, consequently it’s better to teach these divers the dangers of narcosis and CO2 retention to prepare them for this eventuality. We do however fully embrace the BSAC philosophy using mild helium blends to enhance the safety of this type of diving. We feel that by giving our students the opportunity to chose between these two courses is a more realistic approach in our market place at present and intend on giving them the discipline they require to progress into tri mix and become better tri mix divers.

Davy Jones Locker Pricing details for these new BSAC courses are as follows:

Sports Mixed Gas Diver – 25,000 baht, plus gas costs (diver must have complete advanced Nitrox course)

Explorer Mixed Gas Diver – 20,000 baht, plus gas costs

Advanced Mixed Gas Diver – 80m depth required, price depends on dive sites chosen POA

For more information please contact kris@seaexplorersclub.com

Divers go 1st Class

By frankie, 22 March, 2010, No Comment

Two Divers from the SEA Explorers club, Tim Lawerence and Francis Leigh will be attempting to complete their BSAC First Class Diver qualification over the next three months. As all you BSAC divers will know this is the highest ticket anyone can attain from BSAC and will require many hours of hard work and study over the coming weeks. So for now its time to stick our heads in the books and get practising our search patterns and hopefully by the end of May we will be celebrating the clubs first two members achieving its highest award. Stay tuned for updates on their progress in the coming days.

BSAC divers see bull sharks and whale shark!!!

By frankie, 2 February, 2010, No Comment

Getting out of bed at 6:30 on any morning is never an easy thing to do, but of course the opportunity to head out to Chumphon Pinnacles always makes it worthwhile. As it was the full moon, we had to do a thorough check of the tide tables and weather conditions. Even though we were aiming for slack, we knew there would be a distinct possibility of some current and reduced visibility on the site. However surface conditions were perfect and we decided it was worth a visit.

Heading towards the shot line at the site, it was clear that we had managed to hit slack pretty well and there was very little surface current. But as expected visibility was fairly murky. Good conditions for seeing sharks. Chumphon Pinnacles is known for its shark sitings and that morning it didn’t let us down. As we headed around Barracuda Rock out of the thermocline at about 25m came a big female bull of about two and a half metres followed by a smaller one of about one and a half . As it was my divers first experience with these impressive predators it was a special moment for them. We hovered in the same area for about 10 minutes and then swam back towards the main pinnacle all the time the sharks were below us occasionaly moving up to our level of about 18m and then darting back into the murk below. As we surfaced there were woops of joy from Markus and Philip and we still had another dive to go. This was shaping into a really good morning.

After a cup of coffee and a chat on the boat we arrived at our second port of call, White Rock. This a shallower site closer in to Koh Tao, but still known for its abundant marine life, especially stingrays. Visibility was still not perfect but still close to 10m. As it was we had a very enjoyable dive, seeing moray eels, stingrays and of course the resident triggerfish but as we neared our deco stop I heard a constant banging not far away. Signalling my divers to follow me, we went too see what all the fuss was about. Then I saw it heading straight towards me, the mecca for all divers, the whale shark!! It was only a baby, maybe 3m, surrounded by ramoras and shark suckers, but these fish never seem to leave you in anything but a state of awe. Gracefully gliding by and then turning swimming up and over our bubble trail. Even under the water I could see the glee in Markus and Philip’s faces.

As we were getting low on air we had to surface after about 10 minutes, but it had still be an incredible experience to end what had been a brilliant mornings diving. The chatter on the boat as we headed home was non-stop. So to Markus and Philip wherever you are, I hope you enjoyed a great days diving and come back and see us again soon.

St.Andrews John completes course

By frankie, 2 February, 2010, No Comment

I remember meeting John for the first time, big hair, and boundless enthusiasm ready to start his Dive Leader and knew that whatever happened on the course, it would be really good fun. Working on a pretty flexible timetable, as of course he was on holiday we got stuck in to the training. As he had done the theory part of the course some time ago we decided that it would be best to run over it again. Luckily for me John had a PhD in Mathematics so he was pretty switched on and breezed through the theory and exam in the first few days.

Now of course we could get on with the good stuff, in the water. Within the programme we hd to complete a number of different dives, dealing with many different skills. Starting slowly with a check up dive it was clear that John had done a lot of diving. He was of course enjoying the fact he didn’t have to wear a dry suit and 14kg of weight for once!!. So it made for a nice change in conditions for him.

As we progressed through the training dives he seemed to take each one in his stride and was constantly looking for new challenges within the course. One dive in particular stands out, when he navigated us from no-name to twins (2 different dive sites) in current and in no more than 2m visibilty. No mean achievement. The more we dived together the more we enjoyed it and a real diving friendship between the two of us developed.

Towards the end of the training, we headed onto the dry practical lessons and with this experience and by this stage, knowledge of our shop and boat, had a great time running things and working with the other members of the club and boat crew. When his time finally came to an end, it was of course sad to see him go. However its always pleasing to see another happy and enthusiastic diver head on to pastures new, with hopefully some good memories to go with him. So good luck John and we will be diving together in Scotland in the near future, can’t wait!!!

Wolfie goes Advanced

By frankie, 23 December, 2009, No Comment

Wolf Wolvekamp, NATO Scuba Diving Club Brunssum, The Netherlands

Finally Koh Tao! After a week I was back on the “Turtle Island”. This time not alone but joined by my wife Sylvia (not diving) and daughter (Iris) , finalising her Dive Leader training. I clearly remember my previous stay. SE Asia explorers club was based at DJL which was still in Mae Haad. A tiny shop, two instructors (Les and Tim). I found the SE Asia Explorers club on the internet when I was looking for a BSAC centre with an Advanced Instructor. I wanted to finalise my Advanced Diver course and the required AI are very scarce in the Netherlands. This time was great. Les went through the theory and he did part of the practical lessons. Together with Tim I did the Expedition planning which we executed the next day. We dived on a just discoverd wreck ‘The Unicorn at 48m and that experience was the reason for my return this year.

But many things had changed. Mae Haad had become Sairee Beach. The tiny shop had become a well developed dive centre, teaching almost all BSAC courses. Two staff had become a pool of instructors involving single courses and internships; what a surprise. Not that I really needed BSAC instructors because in the past year I became an instructor myself and only recently passed the Advanced Instructor exam, so signing off Iris certification book could be done myself. I did enjoy their knowledge, expertise, equipment and boats. Especially the comradeship and the help of the instructor team was great.

Just a few more days before we need to move on, but I am sure that it will not be three more years before we return. When I return I may do some more technical diving where I again will need their teaching support. Looking forward to the future here at SE Asia Explorers Club.

SEA Explorers Club