Big Blue Diving Koh Tao

Latest News - February 2012

2012-02-01T12:36:00.001+07:00

Wednesday 1st January 2012-

"Hello Big Blue, Once upon a time I got my OW and AOW at Big Blue thanks to the charms of Koh Tao and the charms of everyone at Big Blue I became addicted to diving. 2 years later I'm battling to win a 25,000$ dive internship in Bali as part of "The Best Dive Job in the World" competition in Bali. I need all the support I can get to help me win! Please take a minute to like my fanpage "Joe Zeiler for best job in the world 2012" and visit my application page, scroll to the bottom and leave a comment of support. Help me change my life so that I can become an instructor and move back to K.Tao and work at Big Blue!!!

Probably not the best time to have started digging a hole measuring 12 meters long by 8 meters wide and 3 meters deep at its maximum depth, but then again I don't think anyone was expecting 48 hours of solid rain which is pretty much what we've just had here for the past few days. So the swimming pool at the new resort, although it has a lot of water in it, it isn't quite what we had in mind when we designed our new Dive Resort, but I assure you... just give us 4 weeks & we're gonna be diving in the best pool on Koh Tao...

The first month of 2012 is already over and what did January bring us? Well, it started off with the grand visit of a couple a whalesharks, while the turtles been around throughout the whole month, especially on our night dives at White Rock! Big Blue headed out to our coral nursery with DMT's Jason Thorburn, Anke, Rich and Kevin and DM Kelly Richards to check how our little ones were doing and they sure look great, and so does Sairee North, Big Blue's adopted reef. Together with Big Blue Tech's Andrew F Cavell, James Foleher, Rachel, Sara and Bryan Big Blue Conservation and DMT's Sara Göransson, Stina Undén, Jason, Nick, Donny and Chris Garcin headed out to Southwest and Chumpon Pinnacle and removed the nets there. Those trips were successful in many ways - nets were removed, we all learned a lot about technical dive planning but most importantly - Techie Cav can now spot a scorpion fish AND he knows the sign for baby barracudas! The month of January ended nicely with a lionfish at Hin Pee Wee and of course our monthly clean up. This time 17 divers volunteered to give us a hand cleaning up Sairee Beach and Liam Thien Bay, and DM Regina Tofte Petersen was of course there to help! Thank you January and bring on February!

Big Blue Diving- About Us

2012-01-26T12:59:00.012+07:00

Welcome to Big Blue Diving Resort, a PADI Resort and SSI Platinum Instructor Training Facility, BSAC Center of Excellence and a TDI/SDI 5 Star Instructor development Facility.

In 1991 we opened a small little dive shop at the end of the pier. At that time it was only the second shop on Koh Tao.

By 1999, as Koh Tao became more popular, we opened Big Blue Diving Resort, a PADI Gold Palm Resort, offerring Beach bungalows as well as fan rooms & AC rooms, and restaurant dining quite literally on the waters edge with one of the islands most popular beachside bars.

By 2000 we branched out & opened up a small Dive Center in Koh Samui with luxury speed boat trips to Koh Tao, Sail Rock & the Angthong Marine Park.

Then in 2003 we opened Big Blue Diving Khao Lak, on the West Coast of Thailand in the sleepy seaside resort town about an hour north of Phuket. Here we originally offerred Full Day trips to the Similans and within a year or 2 were also offerring Liveaboard cruises onboard our own private Liveaboard MV Pawara, aswell as faster daily speedboat services to the Similan & Surin Islands.

In 2004 Big Blue Diving Koh Tao became Koh Tao's first SSI Instructor Training Center with South East Asia's most experienced Instructor Trainer, Simon Garrity.

In 2007 we opened Big Blue Tech- our Technical Diving division of Big Blue Diving specialising in Wrecks, Tech, Depth, Nitrox, Trimix, Rebreathers, Caves, & Side mount diving. With excursions around Thailand Singapore & the Phillipines, Big Blue Tech fast became one of Thailands leading Tech, Wreck & Cave Diving Operators.

By 2008 we were outgrowing our Sairee Beach Diving Resort so we opened up Preewa Guesthouse. A brand new clean, spacious & quiet little building set back about 100 meters from the beach & just a 2 minute walk from our main resort. It was perfect for light sleepers & also for Dive club Groups who were looking for something a little bit nicer & where everyone could stay at the same place. In early 2012 we renamed Preewa Guesthouse to Big Blue Bed & Breakfast.

2009 saw Big Blue Diving become a BSAC Center of Excellence

Also in 2009 we officially opened Big Blue Conservation an Eco Conservation arm of our organisation. They organised the Charity Event Swim for Sharks which raises money & awareness of the inhumane practise of Shark Finning. We've won awards every year since we formed Big Blue Conservation from the Project Aware Foundation for outstanding contribution to Eco Awareness & in 2010 won SSI's prestigious award for Most Environmentally Active Dive Center in Thailand.

In 2010 we also won other awards from SSI. Outstanding Contribution to Tech Diving, Best Dive Center in Thailand, Best SSI Instructor, Dive Center with the most SSI Certifications & the most SSI Instructor Certifications in Thailand. The same year we were also recognised for the highest amount of Tech Diving & Rebreather certifications in Thailand.

In 2011 Big Blue Diving became the first Dive Center in the world to partner with the Coral Cay Conservation Society in the education of Marine conservation & Coastal resources.

This year -2012 - we are very proud to be opening our second Beach front resort also on Sairee Beach. A little more upmarket than our original resort Big Blue Two offers Air Conditioned Bungalows on the beach, Private AC & Fan rooms with ocean views, a purpose built divers pool, & another excellent Beach side Restaurant & Bar. From here we also offer the accommodation at Koh Tao's legendary backpacker beachside bungalows- Mama O'Chais.

We got it all! Rustic Beach Bungalows, Backpacker domitories, Bed & Breakfast, Air Conditioned Beachside Bungalows, private AC & Fan rooms for those on a budget or for those looking for something a little nicer. Beachside bars, beachside Restaurants, sea views, sunset views & Swimming pools.

Check out time is 10.00am and we can look after your bags in the diveshop if you need to store them somewhere. We offer a free pick up service at the pier if you let us know what boat & at what time you will be arriving & we also give you a free lift back to the boat from our resort twice a day at 9am & 2pm when you need to leave, sorry if you really have to leave.

For breakfast our beachside restaurants open at 6 am every morning in plenty of time to tuck in to the most important meal of the day before the first dive boat of the day departs. The restaurant tends to stay pretty busy throughout the day as it is in such a great location quite literally right on Sairee Beach! The place is a throng of activity especially in the mornings as new arrivals arrive & existing guests depart.

Around lunch time, the place throngs even more as our morning trip returns & our afternoon trips get ready for their departure. After lunch the restaurants tend to quieten right down as the sunbathers come out in their droves to laze around & relax on our sunloungers, or the surfers come out to use our free wi-fi service. Our television is on all day usually with news, sports or music but we do play movies in the afternoon and programmes can be changed at your desire!

Late afternoon, early evening gets very busy again especially at the bars as our afternoon trips return & divers collect a round of beer or 2 to discuss the afternoons events & highlights. Many of us gather around the video with a pizza & enjoy our videographers efforts at making a visual recording of our day! If there’s no party at the bar that night then wait a day & there’ll be one tomorrow!

We also offer laundry service & motorbike hire at the Sairee Village entry side to our Resort. Laundry service is charged per item & the motorbikes are among the cheapest available to hire on Koh Tao. You also don’t need to leave your passport with them if you are staying & diving with us. Always a bonus!

Our dive shop can organise onward journeys off the island & is also where you can organise all your diving activities, or lust after the latest dive gadgets in our dive retail section..

In Sairee Village you can find ATM's, 7/11's, internet cafes, clothes shops, pirate DVD's, sports bars, sandwich bars, restaurants & now there's even a live cabaret show for all our lady boy friends! Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Big Blue Restaurant

Big Blue Restaurants at both of our resorts offer great quality food from all over the world at affordable prices, together with an ambience afforded by the beachside location makes our Restaurants the perfect place for a lunchtime snack or evening meal.

Add a little spice to your life with one of our local

Thai dishes:

Kaeng Phed Ped Yang - roasted duck in red curry.
Kaeng Kua Gung Supparot - prawn and pineapple in red curry.
Gung Phad Ped - curried sautteed prawn with young green pepper corn

Or if it's Italian food you're after, you won't be disappointed;

Spaghetti Marinara - fresh local seafood in a tomato sauce.
Tagliatelle al Genberete - with tuna, prawn in a tomato sauce.
Fetuccine al Fredo - in a ham and mushroom cream sauce.
Freshly Baked Pizza- voted the best Pizza on Koh Tao 2006 & 2007!

Thai style fresh local seafood:

Kung Thod Kratiem Priktai - deep fried prawns with garlic and pepper.
Taley Jan Ron - stir fried seafood with sweet and sour sauce.
Pla Naung Manow - steamed fish with garlic, lemon and chili sauce

...as well as a range of other top dinners that won't disappoint.

So whether you're an early bird after breakfast, or need a power lunch between dives, you'll find some tasty dishes in East Restaurant, and we don't just mean the restaurant staff!

Big Blue Beach Bar

Divers are many things and having a beer and filling out logbooks at the end of your days diving is what makes après diving as well known now throughout the world as après skiing!

Chill out and enjoy a sunset beer or two after a day's diving, or stay to drink the night away in an atmosphere and ambience a little different from what Koh Tao's other bars have to offer.

Choose from a wide range of beers, spirits and cocktails, or get into the spirit of things with an island bucket.

Party Time... Dive Master Challenges are arranged for all of our recently certified Dive Masters to celebrate their work, past themes have been Stocks and Shares, Play Your Cards Right, The Alcoholic Olympics, James Bond party, Sumo night, drag queens, and many more.

Big Blue's Beach Bars arrange many special themed nights. Come to one of our legendary parties, where you learn the fundamentals of enjoying tropical island life!

Staff Updates 2012

2012-01-23T15:16:00.006+07:00

Serena McGibbon- PADI Instructor. SSI Instructor. BSAC Instructor. Swimming Instructor. Serena is a Koh Tao record breaker after her under the hour swim around Nang Yuan Island for the Save the Sharks Charity Swim which we host every year. Serena represented Canada at the World Cup Swimming competition & would have been there at the Olympics & Commonwealth Games aswell but had a scheduling clash with a Star Wars themed fancy dress party! Massive Sci-fi Geek is our Serena & when not teaching in her bikini can be found hanging round Tattooine dressed as Princess Leiea with her ear muffs on!

Iain Goodfellow- Another one of our main pool of PADI & SSI Instructors, but this one is from the Highlands! Iaian has been a Big Blue Instructor for a couple of years now & is also one in our team of 6 who train our PADI Divemasters & SSI Divecons. As the name suggests Iaiain Goodfellow is a jolly nice chap, as opposed to being a member of the Las Vegas Mafia, though there are doubters among us. Iaiaian is one of the most patient Instructors around apart from that one time when his student woke up with a horses head in their bed! Very chatty, extremely friendly, looks good in a kilt, Iaiaiain is the island champion at Beer Pong. An accolade he wears with pride as would any true Scotsman... who can't spell their name right! Its I-A-N! Ian. Not I-A-I-N! Eyein!

Germaine Maguire- probably Koh Tao's most well known person! Everyone knows Irish G! If you don't know Irish G then you obviously haven't been to Koh Tao! Long time Instructor on Koh Tao, G has also did a stint teaching in South America & Australia, you know, for a Crack! Now a full time Instructor here at Big Blue and our only female Mentor in our Divemaster Training Programmes G has certified thousands of students already. She is a PADI & SSI Instructor & when she aint teaching she is also the owner of Moov! One of Koh Tao's most unique, hippest & funkiest clubs & restaurants. G is an island legend & if you end up being taught by her when you get here then be prepared to pay a little more. We charge extra for diving with celebrities!

January 2012 Latest News

2012-01-04T11:07:00.018+07:00

Monday 30th January 2012-

A Lions Mane Jellyfish, the largest jellyfish in the world. First mistaken for a large whale bogey, the Lions Mane Jellyfish have been swimming in arctic waters since before the dinosaurs (over 650 million years ago) and are among some of the oldest surviving species in the world. There you go. How's that for starting your day off with a useless bit of Marine trivia!

“Professional, Safe and Fun!” - Arriving in Koh Tao it's difficult to know who to choose for diving and accommodation as it is so competitive. Big Blue has it all, free accommodation (if you're diving), excellent and knowledgeable staff, a great atmosphere and an excellent restaurant. The equipment we had was of a very good quality, the boat was fully equipped and the Dive sites were amazing. This was my first experience of Diving and it couldn't have been better, we learned a lot and had a lot of fun along the way. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Big Blue to anyone! Trip Advisor- 5 out of 5 stars.

Afraid the weather has let us down a bit. It precipitated down on us pretty much all night & now its precipitating down again pretty much all morning! Good thing we're all going scuba diving! What else you gonna do when its prepissitating down like that! If you're gonna get wet you may as well do it diving!

Sunday 29th January 2012-

Good to see Big Blue Diving is still rated First in Lonely Planets list of Must do things on Koh Tao! & even better to see that we are rated 4th out of 2960 things to do in Thailand! I see that the 3 biggest reasons for rating us so highly is 3) the quality of Dive Instruction, 2) the welcoming & friendly atmosphere of everyone at Big Blue & the Number One reason for making Big Blue Diving the Number place to visit in Koh Tao & the fourth place in Thailand is .... the Big Blue Pizza! Still the best Pizza on Koh Tao! & apparently the fourth best in Thailand!

Well the office is almost completed! So close to completion in fact that we asked the local monks to come over yesterday morning to bless the place! Its always a good thing to do in Thailand as the Thai people beleive in Ghosts and a monk ceremony is often performed on new building or homes before the tenants move in to rid the place of bad spirits. So last Friday we rid the place of the bad spir. You know people like Canada & Yvonne (lol guys only kidding) & had our new office blessed with prayer, food drink & holy water. I just know 2012 is going to be our best year yet! Can you feel it? Ooh I can!

So its Instructor Crossover day tomorrow for any existing Instructors from PADI or SSI who are interested in being able to teach BSAC courses as well. We have about 2 or 3 of our own Instructors adding another string to their Bow & I beleive there will be a few more from other Dive centers coming here tomorrow aswell. The Instructors will each be taught by our own BSAC Instructor Trainer Andy Cavell, Manager of Big Blue Tech & Big Blue BSAC & BSAC Director Les Skelton. A legend of British Scuba! A man who has been involved in the diving business since 1894!

Thursday 26th January 2012-

Fancy another WW2 wreck trip to one of the top multi-wreck destinations in the world with Big Blue Diving's Tech Department? This October we're off to the Phillipines, to a fleet of Japanese supply ships that were found and bombed by the American Pacific fleet and in specific task force 38 from aircraft carrier USS Lexington. It is unsure how the ships were spotted, some say from a high level spotter plane, others say it was interpreted Japanese radio transmissions. But the end result was a massive loss on behalf of the Japanese and a big development for the Americans in the pacific. From this horrendous act of war in the 1940's we now have a world class diving destination with lots of 100m+ length wrecks in a very small area, all within 30mins of the expedition hotel. The depths of the wrecks range from 15m - 43m and there is the possibility for very long penetrations through these big ships. If you fancy a bit of pioneer diving with Koh Tao's leading Technical Diving experts then drop us a line to andy@bigbluetech.net or jim@bigbluediving.com for more info and bookings.

Don't forget, the first land and underwater clean-up of 2012 will be on this Saturday, the 28th. The land Clean-up will be in Mae Haad starting from the main pier at 9am, and the underwater portion will be in Chalok Ban Kao, from 2-4pm. Don't forget to bring your Project AWARE clean-up bags, we will supply baskets for the boats. Join us afterward at the Aquamaster Party taking place at the Moov Bar in Mae Haad for some great food, drinks, and prize giveaways. Thanks a lot, hope to see you there!

" “Probably one of the best on the island!”- We have over 500 logged dives and twice as many unlogged, so we know a professional diving center when we see one. Big Blue is definitely one of them, with knowledgable and experienced diving instructors, especially Steven, a nudibranch freakguru, who's been able to spot even the tiniest of the tiny one's. Thanks again, Steven, for the dives we've had together, it's been fun! We've also seen him use his verbal whip once in a while to discipline the younger DMT's, so we KNOW the site is being run well. All equipment available on spot (ABC's, BCD's, wet suits of all sizes, regs), rather standard, but well maintained and taken care of (large wash tanks and professional storage). BB has two large, comfy doubledecked boats it uses to get the divers to the sites (oxygen on board, fruits and drinks served after dives). Dives organised on time and according to schedule. The dive sites itself are pretty, but rather for the undemanding divers, most of which we dived on were easy, quite shallow (max 30 m), rock formations with medium sized coral gardens, few large pelagic species, plenty of reef fishes, practically no currents. Visibility rather annoying at 5 - 25 m. Personally would recommend the Chumpron Pinnacle with nice swim throughs and depth up to 35 m, where whale sharks are sometimes sighted (schools of barracuda almost on an everyday basis) and the Red Rock with the Japanese Gardens at 10 m, having one of the most beautifull coral formations I have ever seen." Trip Advisor

Wednesday 25th January 2012-

We are diving the mother wrecks of the South China Sea on the 27th of April 2012 aboard the brand new vessel MV The Ark. The HMS REPULSE & HMS Prince Of Wales are both huge WW2 battle cruisers with an amazing yet very sad history. Both of these machines of immense power and strength met the same destiny when they were attacked by Japanese torpedo planes on the 10th of December 1941 at 12:33 (Repulse) and 13:18 (Prince of Wales) both disappeared beneath the surface of the South China Sea with massive losses of life. The boats now rest on the seabed at >60m (Repulse) and >70m (Prince of Wales) and are both around the 240m in length mark meaning loads to see on these wrecks. As they are war graves we do not promote penetrations on either wreck and this is actually no officially illegal on both of these war graves. Andy Cavell, manager of Big Blue Tech will be leading this trip and this is especially sentimental for him as one member of his family died whilst serving on board HMS Repulse. We will be bringing a reef to lay in respect of all British soldiers who lost their lives whilst in the attack out of respect. The trip will be 2 days diving on HMS Repulse, 1 day diving on HMS Prince of Wales and the last day will be diving a NEW WRECK, NEVER DIVED BEFORE!!!!!!!!! The undived wreck is believed to be a tanker undived and unexplored. A perfect trip for some really good diving onboard a brand new vessel MV THE ARK. Amazing facilities onboard, fantastic food and remarkable crew services. Come and experience it... ! Contact andy@bigbluetech.net or jim@bigbluediving.com regarding your booking etc. We have 3 places remaining and these are strictly 1st come 1st served.

“Inoubliable !!” I decided to go to Big blue instead of another diving resort simply because you get free accommodation when you do your open water certification ! I wasn't expecting anything but a good time ! well, it was even better ! The Staff is brilliant ! I did my open water certification and my advance one has well with Luke White ! An amazing guy who's really passionated and professional ! He's ready to do almost anything to make you succeed, and he's a really laid back instructor :) he will make it has easy has possible :) the resort is great ! the restaurant is really good ! though i have to say, my room could have been better. It was really humid and smelly... but can you really complain when it's free ? I can't wait to go back ! Thank you BB for the amazing experience and Give LUKE WHITE a pay raise :) he really deserved it! Daphnee." Trip Advisor 5 out of 5 stars.

So today its extreme makeover time! The pool people are popping by to plod on with the ploughing of the place where the pool will be placed! Its all happening right now! Aow Muang will be back in the next couple of days having been painted to look like Banzai's twin. The new office in Big Blue 1 should be ready to move into tomorrow. The restaurant on the beach at Big Blue 2 is now open. 14 of the 21 rooms are ready to be moved into also at BB2 & as I say today we procrastinate no further with the pool. Pool people! Place that pool!

Monday 23rd January 2012-

Over the past few days Big Blue Tech has been involved in a reef clean-up project. Our 2 premier dive sites here on Koh Tao had fishing nets reportedly on them ranging from 35m to 18m which were causing not only a detriment to divers visiting the dive sites but also were trapping the marine life. We took this opportunity to include in the project the chance for our BSAC dive leader intern, Bryan to conduct his 1st planning and execution as dive manager. He planned and organised everything for the whole team including bottom teams and safety divers all with their own plans and objectives from the dives. This worked really well and I'm sure everyone involved would agree Bry did a brilliant job with both days. As this kind of project requires a certain knowledge level and expertise from a number of different sources we had a technical dive team (Cav & James) who were conducting the bottom/working phase of the dives, this meant that these guys could run into decompression if necessary and things would all be fine as everything was planned much deeper and longer than the actual depths. We also had a fish and marine expert (Emma), she was heavily involved in the organising of the actual trip and the person who was to brief all divers on dangerous and delicate marine life that was or may be caught in these nets. Also as with any project we couldn't have done this without the shallow support divers (Jason, Chris, Sarah & Rachel) and our fantastic surface cover guys (Nick, Stina & Sarah) who are simply there for the safety of the underwater teams, this requires great concentration and organisation to check everyone in and out of the water and make sure all limits were adhered to with respect to time and depth. The team managed to pull lots of fishing net off the pinnacles and save lots of the marine life that was entangled within them. Unfortunately there was a lot of dead fish that had been trapped for a number of days prior to us getting there which is a little upsetting. Now these nets are removed and everything is back to normal on these tropical paradise reef environments, the visibility is improving and the dive sites are ready and waiting for divers to come exploring. Congratulations to all divers involved in this project and thank you for giving your time and efforts.

“BIG on fun, deep BLUE waters, amazing DIVING”, BIG BLUE HAS IT ALL. To start, welcoming friendly staff whos passion for diving clearly showed when they spoke to you, Great resort with resturant a must is the bbq with a cold beer, DIVING IS A MUST, your mind is put to rest from your dive instructor whos great advise, knowlege and the fact that your having fun while learning was a big help. Once you have sorted your equipment, got your final breafing its to the boat, again great staff to asist you and with the bonus of drinks and fruit on board. Then to practise all that you have learnt. With my open water and advance tickets the ocean does'nt seam like such a big place after all.............Much love and thankyou big blue" Trip Advisor 5 of 5 stars

Sail Rock is one of the best dive sites in the area. It’s a big granite pinnacle that breaks the surface half way between Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Samui and as there are no other rocks around it acts as a congregation point for all the fish in the surrounding area. The pinnacle drops down to 30 metres in the sand and is typically dived in a circular route around the rock, spiraling slowly shallower. If currents are strong however, divemasters will guide customers around the sheltered areas, avoiding hard finning in the currents. There are other outer rocks a little deeper that can be seen from the main pinnacle and are home to reef sharks. On a clear day, with light filtering down into the crystal blue water, the granite boulder looks stunning. Enormous schools of trevally are all over the dive site and they energetically harass the smaller fish which bunch together and move as one for protection from these darting raids. The always-friendly longfin batfish are also often present in great numbers. They may follow divers and curiously peer into your mask, seemingly as interested in you as you are in them. They make wonderful photographic subjects. Whale sharks occasionally cruise by too, especially between February and October, as do other pelagic fish. Always keep an eye on the big blue! Sail Rock is best known for its chimney, a large swim-through that is entered at around 20 metres and can be exited in 2 places, first at around 10 metres or shallower at around 5 metres deep. The chimney's cavern-like area is a haven for all sorts of fish life like schools of glassfish that appear to block your exit, only to part at the last second to reveal the holes. Hingebeak and boxer shrimps inhabit the coral wall. The latter can sometimes be seen cleaning a moray eel's teeth and, with patience, a lucky diver could get a free manicure if they leave their hand still for long enough. Scorpionfish are well camouflaged on Sail Rock's wall so care with buoyancy is required when exiting the chimney. The hole at 10 metres is quite tight so most divers carry on up to the 5 metre exit and are rewarded by a blanket of anemones on the outer side.

Sunday 22nd Janury 2012-

Chumphon Pinnacle is proably Koh Tao's best divesite as it offers a myriad of differing marine life from the smallest Durban shrimp to the largest Whaleshark! Its where most of our students who are undergoing their Open Water Training License first see scuba diving for what it is. A fantastic peak into a totally mystical world. It's you where they first realise that this is what all the fuss is about! & for those of you who are going to be diving Chumphon Pinnacle over the next few weeks its also where you will get a chance to dive with the most legendary underwater creature of them all. The Shark! Blacktip Reef sharks, Bull Sharks, & Grey Reef Sharks, all flock to Chumphon every January & February. Do you want to dive with sharks? Better come & see us then!

“Thank you Big Blue Diving, you really did make my holiday in Koh Tao”- We decided to go with Big Blue Diving by chance really, after looking at their website we decided just to go with them. I bought the Lonely Planet book a week before I visited Thailand and was comforted by the fact that they had recommend Big Blue Diving too. A quick summary, they have a friendly highly trained group of diving instructors that you can have the utmost faith in particularly if you're new to diving (which I was!) and the organisation of the diving operation is second to none, both in the water and out of the water when doing your theory and exam etc. They are perfectly located by the all the main shops, restaurants and hotels and their own restaurant and bar is great (PS. the BBQ kebabs are to die for!!) Our instructor was Luke, who taught a diverse group from couples, singles and father/sons. Luke was friendly, funny and had a relaxed teaching style that put everyone at ease but at the same time was professional and knowledgeable at all times. The confidence that Luke gave me allowed me to do Open Water Dives in Koh Phi Phi a week later! PLEASE GIVE LUKE A PAY RISE!!! Trip Advisor 5 of 5 stars Reviewed January 15, 2012

Well time is ticking on & I'm still looking for staff! I need 2 shopgirls who can meet & greet guests check people in & out of their rooms, take money, answer phones & emails & deal with the endless questions we get asked everyday in a friendly & patient & informative manner. Must be able to work in Microsoft Excel, & happy to work 6 days a week in an air conditioned office on the beach. English essential, Thai a plus. Salary relative to experience. All applicants please send CV with photo to jim@bigbluediving.com. If you are in Koh Tao already then hurry the flap up & pop by Big Blue Resort & see me in person. Interviews start as soon as I've finished... typing... this... sen...tence!

Saturday 21st January 2012-

Colombia and Costa Rica have agreed to create a joint taskforce to combat illegal fishing and shark finning. The announcement was made by the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry, two days after five Costa Rican fishermen were detained for illegal fishing in the UNESCO protected Malpelo National Park, inside Colombia's water borders. Colombian officials visited the Costa Rican capital San Jose on Thursday to thrash out details of the two-pronged effort. Shark finning is the practice of cutting off sharks' fins, after which the fish are normally left to die in the water. The fins are sold to the Asian market, where they are considered a delicacy and cost up $350 per lb. Colombian Ambassador to Costa Rica Hernando Herrera said that from now on the two countries will "dramatically strengthen mechanisms which exist to prosecute those who engage in illegal acts." The move comes two months after the Colombian government denounced the killing of 2,000 sharks in Colombian waters by Costa Rican fishermen, an incident shortly followed by the detention of an Ecuadorian ship carrying over 660lbs of illegally caught sharks and other marine life.

And out of nowhere the heavens opened & pissed down upon this town! But not to worry. The sun is shining again & the topless sunbathers are back out! Always a sign that the good times are back! So its sunshine, flat seas, great visibility, blood red sunsets, pizza's on the beach, exposed breasts & Full Day trips to Sail Rock! Could there be any better reasons for choosing Big Blue as the number one Dive Resort to stay at on Koh Tao?

" Hello Jim, here we are back in France after our 9-day stay in KT and 2 days in BKK (....!!! ???......) We had a great time on the island, and would like to thank you for sorting out our accommodation problems when we arrived. Could you also thank Emma and Jason for being so patient and reassuring with us : Catherine started the course completely terrified by the idea of scuba diving and being exposed to all the risks attached, and took a lot of persuading to carry on till the end of the course. The penultimate dive at Chumpon Pinnacle was pretty daunting because of the waves and the surface current : Emma and Jason did very well keeping everybody together before we went down. By the last dive, Catherine was completely at ease, and I'm pleased to be able to go diving with her in the future (probably Malta this summer). I won't keep you any longer, you must be a very busy man with two BBs to run now ! Our warm regards to Andrea."- Tony and Catherine Marsh.

Tuesday 17th January 2012-

Well it is with great sadness that we announce the passing away of Meow our cashier in our restaurant for the last couple of years. She passed away at 5.20 on Monday morning having been evacuated from Koh Tao after becoming unconscious after sufferring what we beleive to have been a severe blood infection. We've all been deeply saddened by this extremely unexpected piece of news & our hearts go out to her 10 year old daughter May & her husband P' Lan. Our thoughts are with you Meow & your family. "I'll have my usual big cup of coffee with sweet milk & a tequila please Meow!"

" Hello, I did my open water course at the end of November at Big blue diving. I wanted to tell that I loved it. Felix was my instructor and he is so good at what he's doing. He helped us being confortable under water without pressuring us, transmitted me his passion and was always very calm and under control what was very reassuring as I knew he would alwyas be there if any problems would happen. If i go again to have my advance course i wouldlike him to be my instructor again. I loved the relax and casual ambiance of Big blue. It was a very good place to be in Koh tao. Emma and Dave who were doing their dive masters were also so helpfull and present. I considered myself lucky to have them in my group. Thank you so much in particular to Felix. P. Nolet. Québec, Canada"

Soft opening for Big Blue 2 Restauarnt this morning. Open up with out telling anyone, no signage etc & just have walk in customers walking along the beach looking for somewhere to have breakfast. Get the teething problems out of the way before we get the ball rolling with our massive opening ceremony when we open up for real with a fanfare of trumpets, glitteratti & high class call girls!

Sunday 15th January 2012-

This week I will be ordering our new Big Blue Tech dive computers, as Thailand dealer for the market leading Liquivision X1 this will be our standard school dive computer for Big Blue Tech from January onwards. If you would like to place an order for one of these fantastic must have pieces of dive kit or would like to come and have a dive with one prior to buying please drop me an email to jim@bigbluediving.com or info@bigbluetech.net. Our stock order will be going in on Monday the 16th of January so get your order in to get your shiny new full trimix, O/C, C/C dive computer.

“BIG on fun, deep BLUE waters, amazing DIVING”
BIG BLUE HAS IT ALL. To start welcoming friendly staff whos passion for diving clearly showed when they spoke to you, Great resort with resturant a must is the bbq with a cold beer, DIVING IS A MUST, your mind is put to rest from your dive instructor whos great advise, knowlege and the fact that your having fun while learning was a big help. Once you have sorted your equipment, got your final breafing its to the boat, again great staff to asist you and with the bonus of drinks and fruit on board. Then to practise all that you have learnt. With my open water and advance tickets the ocean does'nt seam like such a big place after all.............Much love and thankyou big blue. Trip Advisor 5 of 5 stars

Well for those of you here right now it has in all honesty been a very disappointing weekend weather wise! We've had an awful lot of rain, the waves have been quite big & the vis did get somewhat reduced yesterday. However for those of you arriving here this week the good news is that the forecast is for a big improvement with heaps of sun, flat seas & that will bring about a clearing in visibility & then a plethora of travelling pelagics! Wouldn't be at all surprised if we see a Whaleshark or 2 this week!

Thursday 12th January 2012-

Only 3 or 4 days left & we open our new restaurant on Sairee beach at our New Resort imaginatively christened Big Blue Two! Its the talk of the island & we're getting all sorts of people popping over to see if we have any jobs available for them! Its very flatterring as it seems everyone on Koh Tao wants to work for Big Blue right now. & why the hell shouldn't they. Its got to be one of the best places to enjoy Koh Tao these days. Sorry one of 2 of the best places to enjoy Koh Tao! Big Blue Diving Resort & Big Blue Two. Your number choice for diver accommodation on Koh Tao.

The Florida Sun Sentinel reports… "Rosie O’Donnell and her family caught huge hammerhead sharks in fishing trips off the South Florida coast. Now environmentalists (are) irate at the killing of ocean predators that are considered overfished around the globe. “Right now sharks are the most endangered animals around,” said Erik Brush, a Sarasota marine conservationist. “This is basically an endorsement. It sends the message that it’s an OK activity. And this is not an activity that we want celebrities endorsing.” As for O’Donnell’s reaction to the controversy: “She’s amused by it.”- Now I'm only vaguely aware of who Rosie O'Donnell is but I'm pretty sure she'd look better with a gaff through her head hanging off a hook!

Highlight of our Thai trip” -
We had a fantastic experience with Big Blue: a highlight of our trip to Thailand. We hadn't booked (or dived before) and were lucky to go straight onto open water course within a small group. Our instructor was brilliant and put us completely at ease immersing into the new underwater world of skills and fishes, genuinely helping the group to bond and to get the best out of our dives. Loved it so much we stayed for the advanced course too.
BB's resort / beach front bar and restaurant serve good food; also music, bbq and fire-shows most nights. V friendly and helpful staff all round. Reasonable accommodation is available at BB for all budgets, 'out of town' bunkhouse 5 mins up the beach recommended if you're a light sleeper. Overall, A +++++++ Trip Advisor- 5 of 5 stars

Wednesday 11th January 2012-

Who hasn’t dreamed of traveling the world and getting paid for it? Meet 1 person who has turned the dream into reality.
Name: Theresa Kaplan, Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.
Occupation: PADI diving specialist and communications manager
Coolness factor: “My job allows me to travel often and scuba dive in some of the most serene and beautiful locations. Because I oversee the PADI Diving Society, I join in on exclusive diving trips. This year, we traveled to Curacao for a seven-day trip of diving, meeting new people and having fun. In past years, I have had the opportunity to dive in Grand Cayman, Fiji, Bonaire and more.”
Over-the-top experience: Diving or snorkeling with whale sharks, animals that are larger than a school bus.
How can I do it? “Anyone can become a [Professional Association of Diving Instructors] professional, so long as he or she completes their certification and the appropriate advanced-level courses. To start, visit www.bigbluediving.com and sign up for your PADI course. After completing the online course, one must complete a number of confined water dives followed by open water dives under the guidance of a PADI instructor.” Start your dream today!

The Big Blue Tech opening party was a complete success, thanks to all who came along and supported us, a big thank you to Phoenix and Siam for coming and taking part in a very entertaining beach olympics. We are pleased to be able to say all the very kind people who entered our raffle draws. We raised a total of 10,000thb for save Koh Tao, the island charity here on Koh Tao. We have chosen the school children project for our donation. This is teaching kids in the island school to dive from an early age, and also educating them about sustainability and the ecosystems within the reef environment around the island. The idea of this is to make future divers more aware of good practices and make them much more environmentally aware.
BBT IS BACK!!!!!! www.bigbluetech.net

Thank you Jason Thorburn, Rich, Anke & Kevin for doing a great job yesterday monitoring our coral nursery and Sairee Reef for us at Big Blue Conservation! The nursery is looking great and our resident batfish family is growing. We will go back for another check very soon, and you are all more than welcome to come along and help out! Contact Emma for a good time!

Saturday January 7th 2012-

So what does 2012 have in store for Big Blue Diving this year. Well its going to be a big year in the history of Big Blue. Quite possibly our biggest year yet! First off we are launching Maya boat as the the number one vessel in Koh Tao for Fundivers! How? Well Maya will only take 1 hour to get to Sail Rock, which is twice as quick as any other boat on Koh Tao & we will also be starting Full Day trips to the as yet relatively unexplored Chumphon Marine Park ( great viz, no fishing. heaps of turtles & whalesharks). As well as Full Day Trips to the world famous Ang Thong Marine Park, where Alex Garland based his best selling book The Beach! So if you are already a certified diver & want to dive the best sites in the Gulf of Thailand then contact Big Blue Diving. Koh Tao's leading dive center for certified divers.

Second big thing for Big Blue Diving this year is growth! We realize over the last couple of years that we have actually grown from a relatively medium sized center to one of Koh Tao's largest. And of course it makes no sense for a business to be turning away customers so we have gone & rented ourselves another resort here on Sairee Beach, about 200 meters up the beach! Here we have 16 AC bungalows, 7 dorms, 7 rooms with 3 beds & 7 rooms with double beds all in a 3 storey building & with a swimming pool! We have a classroom there, an equipment room as well & a restaurant & bar right on the beach. The restaurant will be run by one of Koh Tao's most successful restaurants namely, Farango's, Porto Bello's & Coffee Corner for those of you who know Koh Tao already. We are sooo excited about this new project & can't wait till the 15th Jan when we open up the restaurant & then beginning of Feb when we'll have all the rooms ready aswell. Word of warning this place is going to be extremely popular so get in quick!

So all in all a very exciting year ahead for us. With our existing resort comprising of 5 Dorms, 5 AC private rooms, 5 beach bungalows, 16 fan rooms, a restaurant & bar, the dive shop, 2 classrooms, Big Blue Tech Diving, 3 transport boats, 4 Dive vessels, one house reef, plus our 16 room AC guesthouse at Preewa, our 3 private swimming pool villas at Baan Sawainam, & now this new resort as well Oh yeah & don't forget our PADI Dive Resort, our SSI Platinum Center, our BSAC Center of Excellence rating, & TDI & SDI ratings. Plus our pool of 20 dual certifying Instructors. I beleive Big Blue Diving could just be, probably, the best Dive Center & Resort not only on Koh Tao but Thailand wide! Shame all those Instructors who got us where we are today left last year!

Wednesday January 4th 2012-

Home sweet home! Back at last after galavanting round the European Alps & the South of Germany in search of Santa! & now I'm back in the real world! So whats been happening while I've been gone? Well a compressor broke, we damaged someone's personal BCD, we fixed the compressor, we replaced the BCD, Anna left, Bye Anna, Med left, Bye Med. Med came back. welcome back Med. Santa was here for Christmas. Simon got Tea bagged! Kelly got Skuiied! Heaps of diving. 3 whalesharks. 1 dead reef shark?! 1 baby! Congratulations Tosh & Vicky! 1 destroyed accounts office. 1 still in the stages of being refurbished into a brand new accounts office. 1 disasterous attempt at channelling Sairee Villages waste water. 2 holes in 1 boat. 1 pimped up Banzai boat, the Rebirth of Cool - Big Blue Techies are back! & 1 brand new Resort! Cheers Rozza!

2011- has been one incredible year especially for Big Blue Conservation who would like to thank you all for getting involved, helping out and making sure that Koh Tao stays green and clean! So let us just say one huge thank you to all our volunteers and to all Big Blue guests for choosing to stay and dive with Big Blue, one of Koh Tao's most eco-friendly resorts. Also a big thank you to Save Koh Tao and fellow eco teams on Koh Tao. We would like to wish you all a very happy new year, see you all in 2012 when there will be even more opportunities for you all to do something good for our paradise island!

Weather report! Well it seems monsoon came a bit late this year so its still a little choppy out there at the moment but its completely flat calm here on Sairee beach so here is a great place to be. We've had quite a bit of rain over the last few days but the forecast says that that is all clearing now & that we should be tropically sunburnt this time tomorrow!

Latest News December 2011

2011-12-19T15:10:00.010+07:00

Latest News 21st December

Courtesy of our most hobbit like instructor, Little “Massive” Dave, the long awaited Big Blue challenge went off at Vibe Lounge last night, and what a night it was! It saw Big Blue’s finest battle it out against a rival dive school (no names I’m afraid) in round after round of farcical challenges to decide who would be crowned the ultimate champions of the rock! Mental challenges, physical challenges and the usual, mandatory drinking challenges we fought harder than we ever have and we kicked arse!!! Well done to everyone that showed up and participated, you did us proud! Big Blue Champions! Better luck next time Crystal! Oh, I didn’t did I…

So congratulations are in order this week for our slim, trim, strawberry blonde instructor Paul Toshy Tanner and his lovely wife Vicky on the arrival of their beautiful baby girl, Grace Mary Tanner! She weighed in at 4kg and measured 51cm and was born around 6pm Thai time on 12th December (it’s a bit late I know but that’s what happens when you leave Pi Roz in charge!). Big Blue and every member of staff here would like to say big congratulations to the three of you and we wish you all the best in your long and happy future together! A wonderful new addition to the big blue family! Babys head wetting time soon then…?

“I was really apprehensive about diving before arriving in Koh Tao as after contacting some other Dive schools i was told i may be too big to dive. Big Blue assured me that i had nothing to worry about and they were right. All in all i had an amazing experience and i fully recommend diving with Big Blue to anyone. Diving is such a unique and unforgettable experience that it's changed the way i think about my holidays. It's opened my eyes to some countries which i had never ever considered visiting but would love to now because the diving is meant to be amazing there. Thank you Big Blue for an amazing 4 days and for believing in me and convincing me i could do it when other dive schools didn't.” Jaz, Birmingham, UK. No worries Jaz, maybe next time we’ll be able to find you a whaleshark. Just keep rubbing those nipples!
Latest News 19th December 2011

So, while our glorious leader is away in freezing cold Deutcherland, probably shuffling around Christmas markets wearing 57 varieties of warm clothing, slurping wine made of glue and being force fed worst bras…the rest of us are stuck on our little tropical island for Christmas, lumbered with amazing blue skies, glorious sunshine, fantastic diving conditions and a party every night. I’m not sure how we’ll cope! We’ve managed to get the Crimbo tree up and duly decorated in lots of tinsel, lights and sparkly things, our instructors are getting in the festive mood with heated debates of where to have our Christmas dinner, who’s going to work on Christmas day [yes, we are open every day!!] and most importantly, who’s going to be playing the role of Father Christmas at our infamous Christmas Eve party, the current favourite is our Luke, which honestly has absolutely nothing to do with his waistline. Watch this space…

The floor boards were creaking in the Big Blue Bar the other night when we bade farewell to our very own disco dancing queen, Chakajamiroquai Techno Ian. Since he arrived at Big Blue here on Koh Tao Ian’s managed to survive 26 bouts of Dengue, 12 bouts of the Chimmy Chengers, bird flu, asian flu, gin and tonic flu, panda flu and compressor flu he was also awarded the title of ‘Dive master most likely to get lost at White Rock’. Depsite this he’s still managed to spend his time and money wisely doing every conceivable course available here at Big Blue, 27 in total, 12 land based, to name a few, Dive master, Advanced Wreck, Compressor operator, Gas Blender, Tech diver, BSAC instructor, Trimix instructor and still managed to find time to be our best Father Christmas. Ian is now heading to the west coast to work with one of the best tech divers in the world, Ben Reymenants of Blue Label diving and learn all about ReBreathers. We all wish you tons of luck Santa Ian we’re going to miss you and huge thanks for all your hard work here.

"I was in Koh Tao this past May staying at Big Blue and even though it's taken me forever to send I wanted to write this to thank and compliment my dive instructor, Curtis. I usually am not very anxious when it comes to these sorts of activities, but for some reason I kept having panic attacks while being under water and nearly didn't finish my certification. Curtis really helped me get through it by taking everything one step at a time with me and even taking me out for a dive after I bailed on the group dive. He talked me through everything and if it wasn't for him I probably wouldn't have finished my certification which I am very happy I did because I ended up seeing some awesome things and having an amazing experience! I hope Curtis gets the recognition he deserves and that he knows I am very thankful for all his help!" Courtney Sabey