With Christmas time approaching itis very important to spend time with the people you love.  Well maybe in this case “love” a little bit of a strong word. No offence guys. “The office” is a place where your motorbike goes automatically as soon as you start it. People come in an have a cup of coffee and a chat about the weather. HAHA!  We do have some good conversations as well.  It is nice to come in to work and be a part of a team that enjoys diving as much as you.  Not only is diving about enjoying the fish ,but it is also about spending time with people with the same interests as you.  Koh Tao internships is your way to really get to know the people here at Davey Jones’ Locker.  Working as a diving professional is not a dream but a reality for me…

Watch out ladies, Dan's qualified as an OWSI today and so he's sure to be out celebrating tonight

OWSI completed next up for Paul the MSDT

Stefan receives his Instructor certificate

Congratulations to December’s IDC candidates, Stefan (Germany), Paul (England) and Daniel (England) on becoming PADI Instructors.  We had some great fun during the IDC and they all had excellent scores during their Instructor Exams.

Here's our Course Director Pete with three of the newest PADI Diving Instructors on Koh Tao

Tonight we’re gonna celebrate at our pool bar with a BBQ and DJ’s so leave your bikes at home! On the 19th we start with the MSDT Course intro and we have a group of 7, so this is gonna be fun.

Dan & Paul both completed the Divemaster training here with us at DJL and are both going to go on to take the MSDT here starting in a few days time, then who knows where they’ll end up, but as the season here is just about to start I’m sure they’ll both be looking to get straight into teaching their first courses as PADI Instructors here on Koh Tao and sticking around for a while.

Peter our Course Director here at DJL was extremely happy with the guys and they all passed which means 2009 is another year of 100% pass rate for his IDC candidates, keep up the good work Pete!

While talking to one of our friends over a beer (Tim at Good Time Adventures) he mentioned he had circumnavagited Koh Tao in 19 minutes; we reckoned we could do it faster and in the sprit of friendly competition the gaunlet was thrown down. That afternoon I set out to have a rekki with a 0 .5 mtr sea state blowing into the east coast, we knew the record wasn’t on but we still managed to get around in a respectable 24 minutes. We reckon if we reduce the weight by removing the 5 passengers, and by getting the right amount of fuel on board and with a flat sea state we will get around in 15 minutes; watch this space…

Just after circumnavigating Koh Tao

View of Sairee Bay from villa balcony

We are pleased to announce the completion of our villas on Koa Tao. This accommodation is intended to give our customers the chance to enjoy all the benefits of luxury in paradise. The two bedroom villas have air-con and satelite TV, although with the amazing views over Sairee Beach you probably wont want to watch it. They also have a private pool and complete seclusion. There is a kitchen with breakfast bar,  maid service and the option of having your own chef to prepare you some of the best of Thai cuisine. If you would like to book one of our villas or for further information contact phil@daveyjoneslocker.asia

View of bedroom from balcony

View of balcony and pool from bedroom

Breakfast bar and kitchenView of lower and upper balconies

View of upper and lower balconies

So.. I was sat in a pub havin a pint and reading the paper. It was Sunday afternoon, it was raining and I was in my home town, Derby. My mind was wandering, I’d been working a lot of hours saving up for a trip to South America, when my attention was suddenly drawn towards an advert in the travellers section. It read something along the lines of ‘DiveMaster Internships, Koh Tao, Thailand.
Now I’d done a little bit of this diving lark and always loved it so I gave the number a ring pretty much straight away and was given all the info I needed; full instruction up to Divemaster, materials, accommodation, my own gear, break-dancing lessons (I’m still waiting for them actually), and all this at a dive school called Davy Jones Locker. A couple of months later, on a sunny Monday morning I arrived on Koh Tao and was taken straight to the dive school. Now I was excited but a little apprehensive about what I’d got myself into. However, I was greeted by the lovely Rosalyn and Luke who quickly sorted me out with my accommodation and made me feel right at home.
Three months, four whale sharks and a ton of parties later I was qualified as a Divemaster… hooray! Ok so my intentions at this point were to continue with my original plan of goin to South America, but in what must’ve been a moment of madness, the good people at Davy Jones Locker offered me a job. I’d be working with my friends, on a beautiful island doing something I love…why not? After seven amazing months of ‘work’ I started to think about the next step, instructor. I hooked up with Pete the PADI Course Director at Davy Jones. After a lot of hard work on my part and a lot of patience on his he got me through my Instructor Development Course [IDC]. Thanks Pete! I passed my Instructor Exam with flying colours and am now working as the shop Divemaster/Instructor. Honestly, a bad day for me is 5metres visibility, a cloudy sky, maybe havin to write a blog. On a good day pretty much anything is possible, and to think that just over a year ago I was sat in that pub in Derby.
Neil Draycott

Hi my name’s Steven I’m from Scotland and I have just completed my open water to dive master course, or zero to hero as it’s known at DJL, I was working in Singapore before I came here and fancied going somewhere for a holiday before I went home and I saw this course on the real gap website so I decided that I would have a holiday and get a qualification at the same time. DJL is a really good dive school it’s not the biggest dive school but I think that’s part of it’s charm, everyone knows you which helps with meeting new people and girls…, the training I got was second to none and all the instructors are a fine bunch of guys and girls Alex, Callum, Emil ,Fred, Hanna, James, Luke and last but not least Si , special thanks to Tim for letting me do the intro to tech with him, nice to know that you’re in safe hands at 45.2 meters don’t think I’ll laugh so much underwater again. I would recommend taking the course to anyone because it’s a great experience and if I can manage to pass anyone can! Haha, the hardest part is just saying good bye to all the people who have became my friends over the past 3 months.
Cheers guys have a laucow for me at the bar!
Steven aka Scotland

After working as a PADI Dive Master and Instructor for two years at Davy Jones Locker I’ve experienced many amazing trips on our high speed RHIB, from diving with the many bull sharks at Chumphon Pinnacle to searching the Gulf of Thailand for sunken shipwrecks. But I always wanted the chance to get behind the wheel, so when the opportunity came up for me to do the BSAC Boat Handling course, I jumped at the chance.
The course started out with an afternoon of theory, learning how to find my way around the boat, basic boat handling and some safety and rescue work. Then the fun part arrived.
Getting behind the wheel for the first time was a little bit scary but my instructors, Les and Tim made me feel really comfortable and with all their experience gave me the confidence to drive the RHIB for the first time. We started with some high speed turns and then moved on to more technical low speed maneuvers. It was a perfect day in the Tao for boat driving, the sea was as flat as a pond with no wind. As we progressed throughout the course I became more confident and learned about chartwork and position fixing using Seacharts and GPS. I got to put everything I learned into practice when my instructor Tim told me he had some GPS marks for some possible ship wrecks in the area. So, using my training we located the marks on a map and planned our day at sea. Sadly, nothing came of the GPS marks but Tim and his technical diving student, Jeremy did a dive to 50metres on a wreck called the Torpedo so the day was not wasted, I learned how to pick up marks using GPS and I logged valuable hours driving the RHIB.
The day came and it was time to take my driving test, I was nervous and admittedly I didn’t drive my best, but I was glad to hear from Les and Tim that I had passed. Now I’m looking forward to more shark dives and wreck expeditions and after gaining more experience driving the RHIB I aim to go on to become a BSAC Boat Handling Instructor at DJL Diving. It’s a great addition to any CV and will help to get a job in the dive industry, especially Australia. So, many thanks Tim and Les for the great course and if anyone wants to do something more than diving then I strongly recommend the BSAC Boat Handling course which is an Internationally recognized license, so you can drive anywhere in the world.

The contest began with a duet and our lovely ‘ladies’ performed a version of ‘Year 3000’ by Busted which had the audience wincing to the beat. This was followed by a classic solo and dance performance from the Spaniard crooning ‘Don’t cha’ by the Pussy Cat Dolls. Ollie’s performance was not bad but not quite good enough to knockout Johnny’s alternative rendition of Five’s ‘Everybody Get Up’! The X-Factor panel of judges consisted of our very own Simon Cowell (Neil, DJL DM), Lou (Alex, DJL mentor & Instructor) and Madonna (Rachel one of our own former DMTs). Neil was so disappointed with all the performances he had to leave the building! Either way we thought they were both stars and give them our very special thanks and congratulations on completing their Dive Master course. They both worked really hard over the past 3-6 months are going to be great dive masters and will be missed by us all here.

Back at DJL Diving…we say ‘bring on the next snorkel test’!

After spending 3 years traveling between Thailand and the UK I decided it was time to do something in Thailand. I was
searching the internet for divemaster internships around Thailand and after many e-mails sent and received I decided to do my divemaster internship with DJL diving on the island of Koh Tao.
I first arrived here just after Christmas 2007, to a great reception. I was shown my home for the next 2 months while I would be doing my course, introduced to the team at DJL and given my own full set of dive equipment which was my own to keep. So i did my Open Water course, Advanced Open Water course, First aid training and rescue diver. By this time I already had taken full advantage of the unlimited fun diving included and was well on my way to getting the 20 dives needed to start the Divemaster course. During my divemaster training I learnt how to organise a busy dive boat, how to safely navigate and lead divers around divesite and about all the theory behind diving. But the best thing about the course apart from the partying on the island was assisting the dive instructors at the shop on their courses, getting to watch and learn from experienced professional PADI instructors was amazing and made me decide that this was the job for me .
So after many hangovers, intro to tech dives, diving with whalesharks, bullsharks and all the other amazing underwater life here I finally completed my Divemater course and was lucky enough to be given a job as a divemaster here at DJL. After I working my ass off for a year and gaining loads of experience and losing a few pounds i was ready to take the next step in the PADI system and go on to do my PADI instructor training here at DJL. It takes just over two weeks of classroom and water work and I learned how to use my divemaster skills in new ways to teach people how to dive. I was finally there after lots of hard work I was a PADI Open Water dive instructor and was given a job here at DJL. Now I’m still on the amazing island of Koh Tao working a dream job, meeting lots of people and diving all the time. So when you come to Davy Jones Locker to do your Divemaster Course you don’t just do your course and then leave, we will help you with your future career in diving if thats the path you choose.
See you on the island soon.
Luke White

I highly recommend the Search and Recovery Speciality course and you can  give it a go here at Davey Jones’ Locker. See you soon…

Tim and the team from Ko Tao were up to old tricks in the straits of Mallacca recently, on an as yet, undisclosed island talking to fishermen for an upcoming expedition to look for a WWII Japanese shipwreck, The Maru which was lost in an action by the submarine, The Tally ho in 1943. The official War record report has the chart datum 50 metres in the area, so we’ll probably be running the expedition using a tri-mix. We were also there to secure logistical backup for Oxygen, Evac and boat transportation to the mark with another diving company in the area. When the team arrived we set off to talk to some fishermen and came across a Thai vessel which looked promising, Tim jumped on board the boat and was met by a group of irate Thais all wondering what this Farang was doing on their vessel; but soon had their tongues loosened and put their knives away when Tim pulled the chart out and offered cigarettes and whiskey. We managed to procure some very interesting new targets in the area. The trip is planned for the next neaps which is at Christmas time; watch this space…

The team comprised of Tim, Juliet and Fri.

We incorporate this type of research into our exploration diver package which is an add-on to the divemaster internship.

So after getting settled in, it was time to start teaching.  This was to be my first opportunity to use my BSAC instructor qualification which of course is always a little nerve racking but with some hard work I had high hopes of producing some exciting new divers.  So indeed it proved, because as I was teaching my first pool session the weather took a turn for the worse.  In came the wind!!  Well after a couple of shallow shore dives we were ready to head out to the big boat. The conditions were not perfect,  but when are they.  No problems for my student Marie though who was in the water and descending like a pro within a matter of minutes. She was clearly progressing into a confident and competent diver.  Watching  her develop from what had been a nervous new diver into one taking charge and able to monitour herself and others under water always gives you great satisfaction and we all wish her all the best in the future.

As the month continued I was able to keep that ball rolling and I have to congratulate the lovely Chloe and Sian on completeing their Sports Diver course. This included a wonderful job of briefing and leading me around Twins on what was only their tenth dive. A really impressive achievment and one of which they should be extemely proud.  They also managed to provide some hysterical moments, that I will never forget.  Just ask poor Ian about being rescued by these two young ladys.  Nonetheless they perservered and turned out to be enthusiastic learners and great fun to teach. So Chloe now its time for your Boat Handling, eh.

All in all though it has been productive and enjoyable first month and lets hope there will be many more. You will be hearing from me soon………….

Buoyancy World is a new artificial dive site that has been designed to take the strain off of some of the most commonly dived dive sites on the island. The new site will contain a large number of man made structures, including a giant lizard, a concrete butterfly and a bamboo forest. In addition to the weird and wonderful structures that will make the new site so interesting, a number of fixed objects will also be added, with the aim of these assisting in the teaching of buoyancy control.

However, before the structures for the new site can be deployed they must first be built. The building phase of the project has been going on over the last few days, and today saw several of the larger structures nearly reach completion thanks to the hard work of all the volunteers.

The volunteers were divided into small teams, each responsible for different aspects of the building project. These roles included welding, steel cutting, rendering, meshing and my personal job of the day, smashing coconuts into tiny pieces to use as stuffing for the structures.

As the day went on, and the blisters came, a real sense of camaraderie was built up between all of the volunteers. I felt privileged to work on a project with a group of people so passionate about preserving the underwater world of our beautiful island. I have no doubt that the new dive site will be absolutely amazing. I look forward to seeing how it develops over the coming months and can’t wait to see which aquatic life will end up calling it home.
James, Instructor at DJL