After the course Jon and Dag continued on to complete their advanced open water course, which included navigation, peak performance bouyancy, deep, wreck and a night dive. Whilst Ingrid, Birgitte and Zack all went for some fun dives.

We hope you enjoy the rest of your travels and continue to dive – the DJL team

It is not middle earth or is the above paragraph an extract from a Harry Potter book, this is Koh Lipe. DJL’s new dive shop. Some say it is the holy grail of diving, I would have to agree.

Koh Lipe is located very close to the Malaysian border and is easily reached by plane, train or automobile, then a speedboat from the mainland which travels at the speed of light across the glasslike Andaman sea.

After arriving and settling into my accommodation in the dive lodge, it was good to catch up with my mate and yours, Simon, who runs DJL Koh Lipe over a refreshing beverage.

Diving in Koh Lipe will make you a more rounded diver, if you are not used to diving in current. Some sites really have to be dived on slack tides. Drift diving is also a big part of Koh Lipe dive culture.

The next morning diving began in earnest. Here in Lipe we dive off Longtail boats, balance is key when gearing up. We dived first on the shipwreck which is an arduous journey of ten mins by boat from the shop. The wreck is a fishing processing vessel which lies on it’s side in 30m of water. She has been there quite a while and is providing an excellent artificial reef with fish a plenty. Lots of barracuda as big as your arm, lion fish and huge groupers were seen. An excellent dive. I maybe slightly biased as I adore wreck diving.

We then dived a few islands further out. The coral is so alive and untouched. The colours are better than watching tv in high definition. The pinks, purples really stand out. It is wonderful to see coral that alive Also for those who are not the best at navigation as a few of the dive sites are drift dives the boat follows you so no frantic search for buoy lines at the end of the dive.

The more I dived these small islands that dot the Andaman sea around Koh Lipe, the fish life and coral got better and better as I learnt the dive sites. Some huge lobsters, lion fish and copious amounts of clown fish in virtually every soft coral peeking there heads out to say hello.

The rocks of Pattaya corner offer a perfect site for those who like to hunt in cracks and crevices for hidden gems of aquatic life. It is also a great place to play spot the stonefish although I just kept pointing at random bits of sand and rocks thinking it was one.

There are so many dive sites to choose from, you can dive off the beach or take a full day and dive the far away islands (guess they called that because they are far away). As all the islands around Lipe are uninhabited you can have lunch on a beach where the only foot prints are your own, unless Bigfoot exists and has decided he likes sunnier climbs.

A personal highlight was Tom’s ledge, a dive site the author found. This is a personal favourite from my time there. A lovely shallow site with amazing coral and fish. After diving this as a small squall passed through, myself and my customers Pete and Matt surfaced to the flattest sea with steam coming off the trees and only the sound of the wildlife mainly monkeys and birds greeting us. It was quite surreal way to end the dive surfacing into jungle soundtrack. It was heavenly to float there for a few minutes as the long tail came to pick us up.

It was a wonderful experience for me to get the opportunity to go down there and teach for a few weeks. My thanks to Simon and Sam for being great hosts. I will be heading back soon……why not come join me????

Big Tom DJL

Then the following day we will head out again for our final two dives. The first dive is playing around with a reel again, this time on the outside of the wreck. A dive is a good amount of time to master the tie offs that you have already practiced on land. However this time you will need to think about buoyancy also. Sounds easier than it is but you soon get the hang of it! Then we go down for one final dive and this is what all the training has been for, going inside the wreck!! You will put all the dives together and working as a team you will lead me on a dive into the wreck.

We have a perfect training wreck very close to the dive school. The H.T.M.S Sattakut, She was sank in June 2011 as an artificial reef project and since then has become a popular dive site and is already playing host to a large variety of marine life.

Schmike

As part of the divemaster course, the DMT’s (Divemaster Trainees) complete several different scenarios, including assisting on courses from Open water, advanced, rescue, and others, they also practice navigating around dive sites and leading dives.

Another scenario is the search and recovery, this is where the DMT’s learn about tying knots from bowline to half hitches, they also gain more experience navigating with a compass, by using search patterns, and then finally when they find the missing item they use a liftbag to bring it to the surface. This scenario helps the DMT’s alot with becoming more comfortable navigating and also working as part of a team to find and recover different objects, and helps with communicating and solving problems underwater. For more info on the divemaster course have a look on our website.

Only five years earlier , Jamaica was a weakly guarded Spanish island, which was seized by the English and converted into a colony. Guards defending the island were taken off the street, and as a result were thieves, murderers and cheats.

Henry had the good fortune to fall into favour with Sir Thomas Modyford- Governor of Jamaica, who, although proclaiming loyalty to the Crown, went against the king and provided Morgan with letters of marque to attack Spanish ships and settlements. Modyford was required to call in all pirates and privateers when a temporary truce between Spain and England was called, however the majority did not come in, or did not recieve the recall message. Modyford continued to issue letters of marque and in an effort to rid the Carribean of its Dutch presence , issued one to a Captain Edward Mansfelt who, with Henry as his Vice Admiral, was to assemble a fleet and attack the Dutch settlement of Curacao. Once at sea though , a vote was taken and the crew decided that the risk associated with the attack on that particular settlement outweighed the potential financial gains. In spite of losing some of their fleet , when buccaneers , unhappy with the plan to change course, returned to port, Captain Mansfelt and Vice Admiral Morgan were able to take the Spanish island of Providence. The buccaneers lived in the city and collected all of its wealth, whilst Morgan and Mansfelt returned to Jamaica to gather reinforcements. It was decided that Providence would become  a pirate run settlement, and Modyford put his brother in the role of the Governor. However, the pirates did as they always did and raided the place, then left, so the island was quickly retaken by the Spanish. Modyford was again reprimanded and ordered to call the pirates back, and again, he refused.

Modyford heard a rumour that the Spanish were planning a retaliation attack for providence, and comissioned Morgan directly to gather a fleet and protect Jamaica. Morgan gathered his fleet very differently to most Admirals of the time. He sailed to the places where the most daring pirates coud be found and dressed himself in silk and fine jewels to appear successful, to draw the swashbucklers to him. Using word of mouth he gathered five hundred of the best pirates in the area.

Morgan then began his first independant command. His first expedition was to take the inland Cuban city of Puerto Principe. The fleet encountered heavy storms which forced them to land further from their planned landing point to search for food and provisions. One of their prisoners escaped and warned the citizens of Puerto Pricipe of the impending attack so that when Morgan arrived and began the raid he found that many citizens had escaped with their valuables. The buccaneers were only able to squeeze 50 000 pieces of eight out of the remaining people , which was not enough to pay the debts. They needed another raid.

Morgan announced his plan to attack the third most important Spanish city in the New World, Porto Bello. Porto Bello was considered to be the centre of the Spanish trade in the Americas, as its warehouses contained the goods and valuables of many merchants, and it was extremely well protected by three Spanish forts. Experienced sea pirates scoffed at Morgan’s plan.

When he attacked Porto Bello, he arrived on canoes, silently and under the cover of darkness. His men slipped into the harbour before anyone knew they were there. The element of surprise brought the first two forts down quickly. There are conflicting stories about how the third fell, some suggest that having seen how easily the first two went down , it surrendered, whilst another story tells of how Morgan’s men used Catholic nuns and priests as shields to enter the fort. Either way the fort fell and the city was claimed. Fending off Spanish counter attacks , Morgan and his men collected all the wealth of the city that they could find and then ransomed the Spanish for the safety of its town and citizens. Morgan came back to Jamaica with full pockets and the nickname”Morgan the terrible”.

Modyford was in trouble again and attempted to justify the attacks by emphasising the rumoured Spanish invasion of Jamaica, however he did not believe that this rumour was enough to save his Governorship so he attempted to provoke the Spanish into actually attacking by granting Morgan another comission.

The original plan was to attack Cartagena, which would provoke the Spanish and also make for a very large loot. However a series of bad luck( including a drunken member of crew lighting a fuse for an explosive on board the flagship, the HMS Oxford, and blowing it up) forced a change of plan, yet again. On the advice of a French captain, who had visited the area three years earlier, it was decided that Maracaibo was a suitable alternative. However the town was located at the mouth of an inland lake, with access only by a narrow channel which, unbeknownst to the Frenchman, was now guarded by a Spanish fort. By the time the pirates reached the town, having taken a fair amount of fire from the fort, the town’s inhabitants had escaped , with all their valuables. Again, Morgan needed a backup plan, and set off to attack Gibraltar , a town on the southeastern shore of Lake Maracaibo. Whilst Morgan was ransacking the two towns, the fort on the channel were gathering reinforcements, and when Morgan’s fleet attempted to leave via the channel, they found their path blocked by three Spanish Man’O'War ships. Morgan decided to fight his way out rather than give up, so he ordered that the “Satisfaction” , the largest of their fleet,  be turned into a “fire ship” that would be sailed directly into the Spanish Flagship- the “Magdalen”. Hollowed out logs were filled with explosives and dressed to look like the crew, and twelve men that manned the ship were instructed to throw grappling hooks into the rigging of the Magdalen so that it could not pull away. The plan worked and the Magdalen was destroyed. Subseqently the other two ships were also destroyed. The pirates could not get out of the channel because of the fort, but the Spanish had no ships to attack with so Morgan led a landbased attack on the fort which convinced the governor to shift his cannons and let the pirates through. On return to Jamaica, Morgan was again reproved but not punished, and the Spaniards began to threaten Jamiaca as was intended. Morgan was promoted to Commander in Chief of all the war ships of Jamaica and was commissioned on expedition to destroy and loot Spanish ships and stores… this time as a privateer and not a pirate.

In January 16 70, Morgan set out on the largest venture of his career- to plunder the loot of Panama, the richest city in New Spain. Once he took over Fort San Lorenzo, he led his crew on a rough jungle trek to flank the Spanish , however the Spanish were prepared for them , and six hundred cavalry swooped down on the pirates. After a fierce battle in which the pirates stood their ground , the Spaniards fled  in retreat. The buccaneers had won the city, however at that time a treaty had been drawn up between the Spanish and the English, and England was no longer at war with Spain. Morgan was recalled to England to stand trial as a pirate, however King Charles the II, learning of Morgan’s great deeds knighted him instead, and promoted him to Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. He was odered to rid Jamaica of pirates.

Morgan did well to rid the seas of pirates, but fell out of Favour with King Charles over time. When he died in 1688 he had a reputation for rowdy drunkeness and is believed that he died of liver failure. He was revered as one of the most ruthless of pirates. His daring, brutality and intelligence made him the most feared and respected of baccaneers of the time: a true King of Pirates.

The MSDT is the next step up from Open water scuba instructor. Becoming a MSDT it enables you to teach specialities enabling you to become a more rounded instructor. Before you start the course you choose a minimum of 5 specialities from the extensive PADI speciality courses available.

The most popular choices are Deep, Wreck, Enriched air, Night, Search and Recovery,  Underwater navigation and oxygen provider.

Myself and Emilio elected to do 7 specialties. Before we entered the water we spent a few days in the classroom with our Course director covering the necessary theory to complete the dives.

The first dive on that dark and misty,moody night was our night dive. We descended into the black with ample torchlight. We navigated our way round the dive site and completed the tasks required from us. Using our excellent navigation skills in the darkness we surfaced right next to our dive boat. It was an excellent dive and I always enjoy the different variety of fish you see on a night dive.

The following morning we embarked on our deep dive and wreck dive. During our descent on our deep dive we were lucky enough to come into contact with an excellent 4 metre whale shark which obviously was a welcome sight. We spent some time with the whale shark before continuing on with our dive objectives.

The second dive of the dive day was our week dive on the excellent wreck the HTMS satakutt. This is one of my favourite dive sites here on Koh Tao and I always enjoy diving the wreck especially with Emilio.

The following afternoon Emilio and I put our underwater navigation to the test with a series of skills and challenges which Emilio and I enjoyed completing. The final dive was our Search and Recovery dive where we practiced many varied search patterns and lifting techniques.

It was throughly enjoyable course and excellent to gain the MSDT qualification. Our thanks must go to Peter the course director for challenging and expanding our dive knowledge.

Created begins its life as lava, traveling with the flow of water, eventually they lay to rest. After finding a convenient place, a change occurs, known as metamorphosis. It then becomes a primary polyp, the foundation of a successful coral reef. It will then clone itself to create a colony of polyps, over a period of several months. The coral will begin to grow. The polyps feed using tentacles, these pick up plankton floating in the water, once its food is caught its passed down through the mouth into the main body, after which the nutrients are consumed.

Coral reef will grow in shallow, tropical waters where sun light is in abundance. Much like trees, they grow up, towards the light and therefore the surface of the water. The reef, when it reaches the surface it will often struggle to cope with the harsher conditions, will grow out horizontally, this creates large expanses of reef potentially stretching for miles. Currents will bring much needed nutrients, this means that coral reefs will thrive in areas with large water movement.

Coral is reproduced in a similar way to other animals, they simultaneously release eggs and sperm, this happens each year, usually after a full moon. Once the egg is fertilized a lava develops within a few days and is released to begin its own journey to find a suitable place to rest, when it has, again metamorphosis occurs and the cycle is repeated.

There are 3 main types of coral reef ‘Fringing Reefs’ which lay near to shorelines, expanding seaward and also parallel the shore. ‘Barrier Reefs’ which are similar, forming along shorelines, except, further out than fringe reefs – A large expansive of open water will separate the reef from the shore. Then we have ‘Atoll Reefs’ where they rise from the water creating islands circling a lagoon within.

Not only are coral reefs great for scuba divers to explore but they play an integral role in maintaining a successful habitat for marine life. 71% of our planets surface is covered with ocean. Although coral reef makes up less than 0.5% of the ocean, its estimated that 90% of all marine species are dependent on coral reefs, directly or indirectly.

Congratulations to you all!!!As usual the party was mayhem, and we were joined by the folks from the Koh Tao pub crawl, which just added to the madness!

Don and Abel have their IDC’s to look forward to next month, but this month we are able to congratulate Tom Warren on becoming an Openwater Scuba instructor yesterday!!

Pictures by CJ!!

The course is run over six days and includes theory and hands on operating and maintenance of all of the critical areas of a dive centre. At the end of the course we gained three qualifications: Compressor Operator, Advanced Equipment Maintenance Specialty and Trimix Gas Blender.

The course is aimed at people who want to have a full understanding of the operating and maintenance procedures of a Dive Centre, and are considering either moving onto leadership positions in the dive industry or who would like to work in remote locations such as liveaboards or who are interested in technical diving.

The Compressor Operator section of the course covers the theory of how a compressor works, the design of an ideal compressor room, and practical sessions on filling tanks, logging compressor run times and when essential maintenance should be carried out, changing air filters, changing compressor oil and basic maintenance on compressor motors and engines.

The Gas Blending section of the course covers the theory of Gas Blending, how to build a simple Gas Blending System, how to build a Nitrox Stick, and practical sessions in Continuous Flow Blending and Partial Pressure Blending.

The Advanced Equipment Maintenance section of the course covers the theory of how tanks inspections and valve inspections should be carried out, the theory of how a balanced and unbalanced regulator works, and the theory of how to oxygen service equipment. The course also includes a full set of service manuals for the most common types of tanks, tank valves, and regulators.

From a practical point, we spent time actually oxygen serving tank valves, completing visual inspection and hydrostatic testing of tanks, oxygen servicing unbalanced and balanced regulators, and serving BCD inflators.

I have completed DSAT Trimix Gas Blending Instructor qualifications before, so it was nice to be able to contrast the different courses. The Davy Jones’ Locker course was a very hands on course compared to other courses I have attended. Theory was covered and a full set of instructional materials were provided. But as leadership level divers you are expected to read much of this in your own time. The classroom time is spent actually filling tanks and blending gas, completing general maintenance on compressors and completing serving on regulators and BCD inflators.

The Advanced Equipment Maintenance Specialty was actually written by Dave himself. So this part of the course is a unique specialty. Dave soon hopes to have this part of the course also endorsed by Apeks. This will allow you to be qualified to service Apeks regulators.

The next Dive Centre Operations Course will be run at Davy Jones’ Locker on December 17^th. If you are interested in joining the next course please email info@davyjoneslocker.asia for more details.

Sarah & the Whale Shark

It’s my first month on this rock they call Koh Tao and as the divers enter back into the shop’s territory after their morning or afternoon dive there is one word that you pick up in their mixed rambling of conversation. Whale shark. While others get excited and run to put their name down on the boat list, I don’t think much of it. This is now the 3rd place I have worked in the past year and a half that was known for its popular visitor, Mr. Whale Shark, but I had better luck buying lottery tickets then having one grace me with its presence. It just never happened, I never got that lucky. I was either not on the boat at the right time, not diving at the right site, or just the 1 in 20 divers that happened to miss the biggest fish known to man swimming overhead. So it wasn’t the main reason to go fun diving that Saturday morning. The shop was headed to a dive site known at Chumpon, a pinnacle about 45 minutes north west of the island that was known for always making a diver happy. Lots of colorful fish, huge grouper, and yes (or so they say) the occasional whale shark. Not a bad reason to get up at 6:30am I’d say. So as we jumped in the water we were met with mild currents and great visibility, but it was still just as good as ever. Schooling giant barracuda right in front of your face, fields of pink anemone and giant menacing looking grouper that in reality are more afraid of you then you should be of them. Not a bad dive I would say and definitely not a bad way to start out your day. As we came up to do our 3 minute safety stop at 5 meters the current pulled us from the pinnacle and we found ourselves floating in crystal clear blue water. It had been a good long dive and we were all starting to get low on air but it had been well worth it, Chumpon never failed to amaze me. As my friends and I signaled that time was up and started to surface, I did a double take. Out of the blue it came, like some huge UFO out of a Spielberg movie, except this time it came with spots and a tail, a shark tail. I looked back at my friends who were also just as awestruck as me, but unfortunately unlike me, they were low on air. After a sorry look they signaled to me that they were heading up and went to the surface. I glanced back at the whale shark that was heading straight for me. Nope, I will not be missing it this time and quickly swam back down to be at eye level with it. It was by far the most amazing thing I had ever seen. Later friends would tell me ‘he was only 4 meters long, just a little guy. The last one I saw was 10.’ Do you think I care?! That fish could have been 40 meters long, it was still the biggest thing I had ever seen, and to have it swimming next to me, only a few feet away, I felt like the krill and plankton you always hear are their only source of food. It took my breath away, which in the end benefited me because I got to spend the next 5-10 minutes alone in the ocean with one of its most unbelievable creatures. I took my alternate out and purged it, watching it twist and turn as it came back for more of my bubbles, swimming over top of them like it was in some whale shark Jacuzzi. This was my first whale shark and I had it all to myself. In that moment I felt like I could spend the rest of my life, or at least the day, just following that fish around. But all good things must come to an end and as I saw my time down in the sea was starting to run short, I waved (yes, I actually waved) goodbye to my new found friend knowing I would be seeing him again. As I got back on the boat all I could think to myself was, wow, this is not a bad way to start off a day.

It’s been nearly two years since Prezemyslaw & Sabina first completed Discover Scuba Diving and Scuba Diver with me in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Since then we’ve kept in touch, and they decided to visit me in Koh Tao, Thailand to continue their learning.

This perfectly highlights the flexibility of the PADI system of education. Someone can start with a diving experience in one part of the world, and continue on with a portion of education that suits their time and budget. Then when it suits the student, they can complete the Open Water Course further on down the line.

It’s great to see old friends again in another country, and it’s good to know students are continuing to dive, and getting the same enjoyment out of it that I do. And it’s nice to reaffirm that I must be doing something right if people come back to visit!

Prezemyslaw & Sabina were lucky enough to spend over twenty minutes diving with a four metre Whale Shark on both Open Water dives three and four. In Koh Tao, November through to February is the time when Whale Sharks visit as part of their migration odyssey following the plankton blooms.

It’s Whale Shark season here in Koh Tao right now through until February. So if you want the chance to see one of these amazing creatures, come and visit us!

One of my favourite PADI courses to teach has got to be the advanced open water course, this is for many reasons but the main reason I love teaching it is because I get a chance to take my students on possibly their most exciting dive since their first ever dive. The Night dive!
As the sun starts to set we set off for the dive site, we get to the boat, set up our kit and have a dive briefing. Everyone who has never been on a night dive before seems a little bit on edge, not scared, but excited. As the sun starts to dip below the horizon we all get into our kits, do our buddy checks (remembering torches of course) and jump into the water. As we are jumping in with some natural light available we can look down onto the site and it already looks different, apart from being much darker you see lots of different fish down there.
I have two favourite night diving spots, one being the famous “White Rock”. Students come here for an exciting treat of great barracuda hunting by our torch light, rays swimming around looking for food, Cuttlefish floating in a ghostly manner over the sand and recently lots of sightings of sleeping turtles. The other spot I love for night dives is Hin Wong Bay, which we take the taxi over to the other side of the island for a shore dive. The great things about this site, it’s far away and most dive schools don’t go there at night because of its distance by boat, but with the taxi only 15 minutes away, which means we have the dive site all to ourselves! Also its maximum depth is around 10 meters which means nice long dives. Things we get to see here are a little different to White Rock also. We get to see lots of different crab species hiding in and around the rocks and corals. We almost always see the camouflage scorpion fish sat on the sand, Loads of rays hunting over the sand and if you look very hard you might even see an octopus! There are other great sites too but these two are my favourite and I usually try hard to get my students out to one of these sites. All around the island we are always in for a treat with the phosphorescent algae that glows with every movement you make leaving trails of stars behind your fins! Either one we go to everybody always has a great time and loads of things to talk about when we get back to the shop!

Schmike

4m Whaleshark Spotted at Chumpon Pinnacle

This November has seen a huge increase in the number of whale shark sightings around Koh Tao and we are wondering if this has been due to the lack of rain we were expecting. Maybe the whale sharks have always been around in November but because of the usual monsoon season we have been unable to see them. This month we have been extremely fortunate with the amazing sharks being seen on many of our open water courses and on more than one occasion, two sharks on one course or even dive. This is because the huge fish (they can grow up to 14 meters in length) have been spotted around our shallow dive sites that we use for our courses, such as Twins, White Rock and Hin Pee Wee. I was fortunate to teach an open water course last week where on dive 3, we went to an old World War ship wreck and found out that we were not the only one interested that day. We were accompanied for most of the dive by a 5-6 meter whale shark which of course the students loved. On dive 4 about an hour later we were on a second dive site, White Rock and as we were hanging around a really cool hawksbill turtle, it suddenly went dark and the shark was back for another half an hour with us. So forget what the weather report says, Koh Tao is scorching hot and the diving is as good as ever so hopefully we’ll see you soon!

Lead by the vastly experienced course director, Pieter, students Kathryn, Emilio and Tom were like rabbits in the headlights looking at the course schedule in front of them.

Luckily Chris and Harry, current DJL instructors ,were taking their next step too and doing the staff instructor course, thus enabling them to pass on their knowledge and allay any fears the IDC candidates may have.

After a day of lectures and paperwork, the pool work began in earnest, on day 2. The candidates were given a multitude of skills to demonstrate as if teaching an open water course. Over the next few days of lectures and pool work, this was increased to full confined and open water presentations where Pieter and Chris and Harry brutally watched our every move, going through everything with a fine toothed comb.

Exams were also a constant with Pieter even bringing his own out to test us. We were examined on Physics of diving, Physiology of diving, the RDP dive planner table, the ERDP dive planner, Equipment and ……….. We were also examined on the PADI Standards and guidelines which is an open book exam. This was Emilio’s personal favourite.

Also after each confined pool session we practiced our rescue skills by doing rescue exercise number 7, unconscious diver on the surface which, to anyone that has done it, is a very exhausting skill.

As we concluded the IDC each candidate was feeling confident and at ease with the requirements of the IE.

The next day we completed our Emergency first Responder Instructor course with the resuscitation doll being incredibly well looked after.

Then came the mock IE for the following two days where everybody looked excellent in the water and achieved great scores in the exams.

So off to the IE we go.

Many thanks must go to Pieter for guiding us and passing on his valuable knowledge. Also to Chris and Harry who, while doing their staff, passed on valuable hints and tips to us all.

Here on Koh Tao we get two types of turtle; the Hawksbill and the Green turtle.

Both similar in appearance the green turtles are usually bigger and have a ligther shade on their shell than the hawksbill, they can be found on several of the dive sites around Koh Tao.

Harry