Scuba Diving Internships:

After another successful Instructor Development Course (IDC) on Koh Tao, Mark and I have each gotten a bit of free time to rest-up and look forward to a very demanding, but eventful month of March. Our last group of Instructor Candidates including Team America (Francis, Rick, Steve and Josh who completed the Assistant Instructor Course) and Tom from Belgium, absolutely sailed through the PADI Instructor Exam as expected. We've completed the instructor specialty courses, Mark had a few days at home in front of the TV and I'm relaxing in the Spa Samui for a few days in anticipation of the coming month.

Sorry about the poor quality... this photo's from my Nokia. Congratulations anyway, guys!

On the 6th of March we'll be conducting our first Instructor Course on Koh Phangan for one of our ex-IDC candidates. Alex and Rachel, from Sail Rock Divers, have been in the industry for years and have got a fantastic shop on the big island. A few months ago we discussed the possibilty of conducting the first PADI Instructor Course and Instructor Exam on their island, and we all agreed that it would be a great laugh.

Venue for The Koh Phangan IDC... not bad...

Tomorrow, Mark will go across to begin the course and complete the Marine Resource Management specialty and the Emergency First Response Course Instructor (EFRI). I'll follow on the 10th to take care of the Open Water presentations and prepare the guys for the PADI Instructor Exam.

On the 16th, we'll begin the Koh Tao IDC with another fantastic group of people from all over the world. At last count, we had 8 different nationalities from 6 different continents (if you count Australia as its own continent, as Mark does!).

We look forward to branching out and helping people in new areas realize their dream of becoming PADI Instructors. Later in the year we'll be running another IDC on Koh Phangan and one in Bohol, Philippines. In the future, we expect to start running IDC's in Beijing and we're in negotiations to begin running courses in Vietnam!

The Thailand Gap- Year Internship crew will definitely be tested in March, but we feel we're up for the challenge!

With the return of the great weather for the best part of 2010, the staff from Thailand Gap Year Internships has been in full swing! The sunshine and clear, flat seas make all of the Koh Tao training programs seem to run smoother.

A few days ago we started our February Instructor Development Course (IDC) on Koh Tao with 5 eager IDC candidates. In marked contrast to last month's group which all hailed from different countries, 4 out of 5 of these guys are Americans with one Belgian thrown in four good measure. As it's a relatively small group, and because they have all completed their Divemaster Internship with us, we anticipate an easy, enjoyable few weeks on the IDC. Afterwards we expect them all to stick around to complete the MSDT Internship with us to gain further experience before going out into the world to teach diving!

In other news, the video team at Oceans Below is still hard at work at the business of training underwater videographers. Colby is still around and finishing up his Pro HD Underwater Videographer Internship and we have (strangely enough) 2 more Americans in the shop- Dave and Erik. Perhaps it's just a coincidence that there are so many yanks around at the moment- or maybe something else is at play here...??? Aidy has just completed an Underwater Photo course with a couple of Advanced Open Water divers from Koh Tao Easy Divers. They thoroughly enjoyed the course and had some fantastic results! All of the photos on this article were taken by Aidy's students.

Monica and the freediving team are also in high gear with loads of Freedive Master Trainees around the shop. Everyone enjoys having a few more people around so that they can take the boat out on special trips to more remote locations as well as the positive social aspects!

Tomorrow will be a fight night at the Muay Thai stadium . Our own Kerri who has been training in the sport for many months now will get into the ringto face off against an opponent for her first fight ever- we wish her luck!

We can't ask for much better than the weather that we've been getting in the last few weeks on Koh Tao. It has been absolutely stunning! The visibility in the waters is somewehere between 25-35 meters and the water temperatures are up near 29C making for some of Thailand's most amazing dives.

A few days ago the video team invited me out on a special charter with their Professional HD Underwater Video Trainees to see the Bulls Sharks at Chumpon Pinnacle. As we arrived, the boat from Ban's Diving was just leaving, so we had the site to ourselves for 2 dives just as the sharks were beginning to feed. It was amazing! There must have been at least 30-40 individuals around the pinnacle with some as big as 3 meters!

Me, on the way out to the shark dive at Chumpon...


Post-dive...

The Oceans Below team have been in high gear since the beginning of December with loads of people coming in to do their underwater video training in Thailand. It was a real pleasure watching them work and I really enjoyed myself on their trip!

Today is the culmination of 2 weeks of work for myself and the staff on the Koh Tao IDC. Our guys will be finishing off the PADI Instructor Exam with our Confined Water presentations at the pool today. It's been a great course with another very diverse group. We had candidates from Russia, Egypt, France, South Africa, Canada, Wales and New Zealand joined by the TGI staff from Australia, the States, England and Sweden. We've got the Instructor Exam party scheduled for this afternoon at Choppers. We all look forward to letting off some steam after a job well done and getting back to work with the Master Scuba Diver Trainer (MSDT) Internship which will begin on the 26th.

Instructor Exam at Mango Bay...

Joe after passing the Open Water portion of the IE...