Archive for June, 2011

IDC Candidate Review

By , 29 June, 2011, No Comment
PADI Instructor course Koh Tao Thailand

IDC and staff instructor candidates koh tao

INSTRUCTOR DEVELOPMENT COURSE- JUNE 2011 WITH DAVEY JONES’ LOCKER KOH TAO, THAILAND
COURSE DIRECTOR: PETER NIEUWHOF
The IDC course started with an extra two days preparation course, which consisted of a pool session, demonstrating all our skills (including rescue scenario), followed by an afternoon sitting all the divemaster lectures and exams. This enabled Peter to see what our strengths and weaknesses were before the initial course started this I personally thought was an excellent idea, also it broke the ice between the class before the whole course started.
The IDC course structure itself was perfect; we started our days at 8.45am, had plenty of breaks and were always finished by 4pm (5pm at the latest). This gave us plenty of time in the evening to prepare for the next day’s presentation, whether it was confined; open water; or academic. There is a lot to cover in the 2 ½ weeks, but I felt that there was ample time to practice things that I felt were not my strong point (i.e. physics).
Peter is a very relaxed instructor and is always open to questions, and definitely explains all your queries thoroughly and doesn’t mind if it takes hours, his teaching skills and diagrams make your learning more visual and this way I found worked for me. He was very supportive throughout the whole course and very positive towards his students, which I feel is detrimental to his role as a Course Director.
The DJL experience as a whole was amazing. The staff are very friendly and always talked to us and enquired about our progress. The resort itself is was situated perfectly and clean and tidy.
If I was to do this whole course over again, I wouldn’t even consider going anywhere else. I am so happy with the completion and even scores the examiners gave me, that I owe all this to Peter and have since completed my MSDT with him, gaining more experience from him with respect to speciality courses. I will definitely be recommending any of my friends considering doing their IDC, to go straight to Peter at DJL. The smaller class size means more personal tuition when it’s needed.
OVERALL EXPERIENCE 5* :)

Anna Proudfoot
PADI OWSI & EFRI (250060 MSDT pending)

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Barracudas at Chumphon Pinnacle

By , 9 June, 2011, No Comment

I was recently teaching a PADI Advanced Open water course, doing the deep dive at Chumphon pinnacle, the weather was great, flat seas, sun shining, and crystal clear water, throughout the dive there were big groups of yellow tail and great barracuda all over the site.

The barracuda is a ray-finned fish known for its large size and fearsome appearance. Its body is long, fairly compressed, and covered with small, smooth scales. Some species could reach up to 1.8m in length and 30 cm in width. The barracuda is a salt water fish, and is found in tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide.

The collective name for a group of barracudas is a battery. They are voracious, opportunistic predators relying on surprise and short bursts of speed (up to 27 miles per hour) to overtake their prey.

Adults of most species are more or less solitary, while young and half-grown fish frequently congregate. Barracuda prey primarily on fish (which may include some as large as themselves).

To finish off the course we did the night dive at White rock, where we followed some great barracuda while they were hunting, using our torch light to hunt small fish.

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Boat Handling at DJL

By , 9 June, 2011, No Comment

Being on the DMT programme at DJL has been a challenging and rewarding experience.  Having a passion for boats all my life, i decided to take BSAC Divers Coxwain course under the supervision of Tim Lawrence.  During the course i had the opportunity to take out customers to number of local dive spots taking time to master the manouvers and techniques i had practiced under instruction.

Thanks Tim for an awesome course which turned out to be a fun learning experience and a worldwide recognised qualification to add to my portfollio from the DJL dive school.

Robbie – Divemaster Trainee, DJL Diving

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What is Nitrox?

By , 7 June, 2011, No Comment

What is NITROX?
In diving terminology; any mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, where these two gases represent the major constituents of the gas mix, is termed NITROX. Note that mixes which contain more than trace levels of other gases in addition to nitrogen and oxygen are not NITROX. Air (which is what we breath on land) is considered a NITROX mix. NITROX mixes which are hyperoxic (contain more than 21% oxygen) are variously known as; Enriched Air, Enriched Air Nitrox (EAN or EANx). For the most part, sport divers will only be interested in hyperoxic NITROX mixes.

Why would you want to use NITROX?
The biggest reason you would want to use NITROX is longer No Decompression Limits or NDLs. With this, we get a reduced decompression penalty due to the lower level of nitrogen absorbed during the dive. This may be realized by surfacing according to the NITROX tables or as an additional safety factor by following the standard air tables.

Shorter surface intervals and longer subsequent dives due to the lower residual nitrogen level following a dive. The surface interval is followed for the EAD not the actual depth. Again it may be used as safety padding by following the standard air surface interval. Nitrox provides faster off-gassing than air during decompression. It may be used to reduce the length of the decompression penalty by following a nitrox decompression schedule, or it may be used as padding to increase the safety factor by following an air decompression schedule. This is similar to the use of pure oxygen during decompression. On the surface it also provides an alternative to pure O2 in situations where it is desirable to breath a mix with a higher O2 percentage than air.

The reduced level of nitrogen in your system has also been claimed to reduce the feeling of lethargy or tiredness following a dive, this is thought to be due to a reduction in sub clinical DCS ie a reduction in the number of asymptomatic bubbles in our system after a dive. The following claims are also made of nitrox.

For more info come into the store and ask one of our PADI nitrox instructors about the many different courses which are avalible here.

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Going Pro

By , 4 June, 2011, No Comment

I arrived on Koh Tao to do my PADI Open Water Diver course. I’d already booked with DJL Diving so I got picked up at the pier and started the same day. After four days of diving I decided to do my advanced course. This was the most fun I’d had so far.

After finishing my open water and advanced I left to continue my travels, but I soon realised I wasn’t finished diving on Koh Tao. I returned a week later to start my Divemaster course. I’m almost finished now and still enjoying it. I dive almost everyday and assist on open water courses when the instrucors need an assistant.

I’ve enjoyed everyday of my Divemaster course and it’s a shame I have to leave in three weeks, but I’ll be a certified Divemaster.

Andy Richards – DJL DMT

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