SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Wow. Wow. Wow. Koh Tao is nice. Very few places make my grade of the ‘return list’, but staying a suite in Bans Dive Resort on Koh Tao and heading out for a few dives per day and relaxing the evenings with cocktails on the beach has.

This is tropical. Proper S.E.Asia beach stuff. Great restaurants. Spectacular scenery. Really chilled. We went to do our PADI Open Water and stayed to complete the PADI Adventure Diver.

Having arrived and been brought to the resort in the back of a pick-up truck we started into an evening of theory followed by more theory the next morning. The next afternoon got a little more interesting as we started off in the pool getting used to equipment.

There was predictably lots of trying to fly, waving arms about until working out was neutral buoyancy was. Here’s a video of me looking like a bird that can’t get off the ground.

And Aoife looking, as always, slightly more graceful…

And so from out of the pool on our second day and into the dive-boat for enroute to our first dive site. Two giant rocks… called ‘Twin Peaks’. Afterwards we moved on to a giant white rock, aptly named White Rock! We repeated these dives the next day, building up our confidence and experience to 18m. That’s Days 3 & 4… and Open Water PADI, Easy!

The next dive was a night dive to start our Adventure Diver certification. I loved this - it was like something out of SeaQuest! But it really wasn’t for everyone. The water is completely inky black and lit only in a narrow by your torch. We spotted a giant barracuda out night hunting as he flashed by. Very cool.

Day 6 was Deep Diving (30m) which was the best dive of the trip. We expected to see sharks, but instead saw millions & millions of tiny nemo’s. Millions! Really amazing dive at an offshore pinnacle. Green Rock (a big green rock!) was our final dive site, this was navigation. By this stage we were wearing our own dive computers, compass and slate with map so after descending with the instructor in the group we were set off to complete a navigation course through the rocky arches of Green Rock. The last half of the dive was alone with our buddy to explore and try and surface using our new navigation ability beside the boat. We got it bang on - but the boat had moved (no really!).

Could it get better? Yes! Our final day we hired a tandem surf kayak and headed off into the mid-morning sun to a nearby island with snorkelling gear and an underwater camera.

What a view…. savage island!

And a Koh Toa story wouldn’t be complete without the beach bars.

A great trip and another TGU adventure!

-Robin.

(Image Credit: By Author).

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - I didn’t know about this until informed by an Australian tonight.

It looks like a still from an action film, but an extraordinary picture of a diver lying prone on the seabed is at the heart of an Australian inquest.

The grainy image was intended as a holiday snap of a tourist diving on Australia’s spectacular Great Barrier Reef. But it inadvertently showed, in the background, the motionless body of 26-year-old American honeymooner Tina Watson

Here are the facts as I’ve heard them:

- He thought she was panicking so much he needed help
- He went to surface to get help when she tore her mask off in a panic.
- He was a certified RESCUE DIVER! trained to deal with this.
- They were in 28m of water.
- Her air supply was found on when her body was recovered.
- The week before getting married she signed her insurance benefit to him.
- He took a massive payout.

Talk here tonight was he switched the air bottle off behind her back, then back on again - hence her pulling her mask & regulator off in a panic. Why would you go to surface?!

Full Story

-Robin-

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Polar Madness grips scientists! New Research possibilities for space travel.

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Solar Powered Beard Trimmer / Shaver. Good for extended basecamp sessions.

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The Magic Wheel. It’s sort of a bike wheel for your foot. Crazy! When will the 4×4 off-road version appear?

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Are you a scuba diver? Are you a fashionable one? Suggest you get some modded fins then! Try High Tide Heels.

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Now this is Extreme Kayaking! This piece of video featured on Top Gear not so long ago. It’s a kayak fitted out with a engine.

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Patagonia have their own blog. The Cleanest Line. Nice too.

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-Robin-