PADI, diving and Instructor Development IDC

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Puffer-fish ball manufacturers will face harsh actions
2008-04-21 02:59:00
Puffer-fish ball manufacturers will face harsh actionsAs you may know, in Japan there's a fish which they name fugu which in the rest of the English spoken world is known as puffer fish. As you may know, the fugu has a deadly poison and if not prepared correctly, the consumption of the fish can be deadly. It seems to be part of the attraction in Japan.In Thailand puffer fish is not on the menu, however, some cheapskate soup producer has ground 'cheap' puffer fish products into his soup and this has caused 140 Thais in the Northern province of Nan to suffer poisonous reactions.Puffer fish can be seen on many or almost all dive sites in Thailand, both at the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, if you're interested in diving, come and see me for a some diving in the Gulf and spot puffer fish in real live.Suspected puffer fish poisons 140 in Thailand: report20 hours agoBANGKOK (AFP) — More than 140 people have been rushed to hospital in northern Thailand after snacking on fish b...
More About: Fish , Manufacturers , Face , Ball , Puffer

EFR Instructor course April 08
2008-04-19 17:19:00
EFR Instructor Course April 08Was one on one teaching for Ulrike.This morning at 9 am we met at the classroom of the local recompression chamber and we started the EFRI course.After a theoretical morning, we went on with some hands on teaching after lunch and got Little Anne and Baby Anne to work.Ulrike trying to figure out how an AED or automated external defibrillator works. Little Anne is undergoing her efforts.After Ulrike showed some smashing performance during the course, it was time for a picture. Here we are in front of the actual 'pot' in the chamber. Camille

PADI IE April 2008 is completed
2008-04-17 09:22:00
The April 2008 IE has been completed.My two students, Ulrike and Melita where successful during this PADI IE.Here's a picture taken after the closing ceremony, from left to right; Ulrike, Rob who was PADI's examiner during this IE, Melita and myself. Ulrike will do some courses later this month, so stay posted! Camille
More About: Padi

Completing MSDT training
2008-03-20 07:29:00
Yesterday Gideon and Simon's Instructor Specialty training was completed,With Search & Recovery and Night diving. I we over to Koh Tao where I met them.We had two very enjoyable dives for the Search & Recovery Specialty at Chumpon Pinnacle and Twins followed by a Night dive at a new site for me, the Pottery. There's a first for everything!We saw this interesting crab during the night dive. And more bizarrely shaped shell housings for crabs.Gideon on the left and Simon at the right hand side a the end of the night dive. They both are now finished with their Instructor Specialty training and are currently in the middle of their MSDT training, although Gideon is taking a break for a few months to travel Australia, and coming back after this trip to complete his internship.Camille
More About: Training

Stop diving after 50 years of age?
2008-03-17 03:55:00
This question is raised after reading a newspaper article that involved Hollywood star Donald Sutherland.The 72-year-old star was taken ill after returning to Los Angeles, where he lives, during a break in shooting Fool's Gold – a sunken treasure adventure starring Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson and Ewen Bremner.Consequently, Donald Sutherland, age 72, claimed that scuba diving almost killed him.The specialist that treated him, told Mr. Sutherland that he shouldn't have been scuba diving beyond the age of 50.This statement is completely unfounded and rather typical for a physician who is not familiar with diving.The article, which is posted below, got a lot of interest on the Scubaboard forum, the biggest Dive on line dive Forum that I know. There are two threads discussing this article and although one is rather long, with currently more than 80 posts, they are well worthwhile reading up on and get a better insight on diving at 'older' age. The threads can be found here and...
More About: Stop , Diving , Years

Box jelly fish warning for Thailand waters
2008-03-11 08:15:00
This post is about a new warning for Thai waters; box jelly fishRecently the waters surrounding Thailand have a new guest, the box jelly fish.Previously it was thought that the box jelly fish only was around in Australian waters but unfortunately more and more proof shows up that the box jelly fish are on the migration path around various parts of the Asia pacific region.My post is not about creating panic but more to raise the awareness levels of people visiting Thailand and simply to carry a bottle of vinegar when visiting the Thai beaches, since this is your first line of defense.Asia Pacific's Diver Alert Network (aka DAN) John Lippmann, the CEO for the Asia Pacific region has been warning and talking about their presence for at least 5 or more years already and he even had footage of a box jelly fish being filmed around Koh Tao during a "First Aid for Hazardous Marine Life Injuries" presentation he gave in Koh Samui around 5 years ago. If this topic has your interest, it is al...
More About: Fish , Warning , Jelly , Waters

Fitness in diving
2008-01-03 06:48:00
Happy New year to you all.Hope you enjoyed my scribblings last year and that you will come back to enjoy this years posts and blogs.My next IDC doesn't start until the end of January, so I'd like to take the opportunity to discuss some other dive related topics.One thing I receive many questions about is if working out in combination with diving is possible.Right now, we have a person who went through Divemaster training and is about to participate in one of my IDC's scheduled in early 2008.He's also participating in Muay Thai courses, the Thai boxing sport, which is a very physical intensive sport. He, like many others, asked me before signing up for the courses of the diving courses wouldn't interfere with his boxing courses.A good source of information is DAN Asia Pacific and their members only, quarterly magazine, Alert Diver. This magazine has very interesting articles on a wide variety of topics, ranging from 'pregnancy/women and diving', 'children and diving' and man...
More About: Fitness , Diving

The last courses of 2007
2007-12-27 15:01:00
The last courses of 2007 have been completed.On the 24th I completed a night dive with Ivo and Joakim, which was the last diving Instructor Specialty for both of them and with Ivo now being completely finished for his CDC program.Joakim went on to complete his EFR Instructor course yesterday, together with Gideon who is a PADI Divemaster now and who will participate in the February 2008 IDC.Today Joakim completed his DAN O2 provider course. Which was literally the last course I taught this year!Here are myself, Joakim and Gideon, from left to right, after having completed the EFR Instructor course in front of the panel of the local recompression chamber.It's been a busy year, with 10 IDC's, over a hundred Specialty Instructor courses, well over 20 EFR Instructor courses and various other courses along the way, like DSAT Gas Blender and DSAT Gas Blender Instructor courses, Nitrox courses and DAN Oxygen courses.Thanks for following my blog this year, I most certainly hope to see yo...

DUP and various other specialties
2007-12-24 03:38:00
The last 3 days where dedicated for more Specialty training. Marcus who lives in Singapore came to see me for Specialty training and he wanted to take the Digital Underwater Photography Instructor course, the only course a PADI Divemaster can participate at Instructor level. Besides this course at Instructor, he also participated in the Underwater Naturalist Specialty and the Diver Propulsion Vehicle or DPV Specialty, aka under water scooter. Late January Marcus will return to Samui to participate in my February 2008 IDC. Here are some pictures that I took during the last three days whilst diving with Marcus. This picture shows a massive school of fish at Chumpon Pinnacle. The school consisted of a couple of hundred fish and it is fasciniating to see the school move as one body. All change direction at the same time. Here's a picture of a very common stingray in these waters, the Blue Spotted Sting ray Red Sea Fan Reef live, with a sea urchin, various Christmas Trees and ...

Specialty Training in Progress
2007-12-18 01:26:00
We're in the midst of Instructor Specialty Training .Having just completed the boat dives of the current Instructor Specialty training, we're going to have a look at the beach today to complete the Underwater Navigation and Search & Recovery Specialties, with Night Diving to follow tomorrow.First things first though, Saturday and yesterday (Monday), we completed the boat dives. Two morning dives at Chumpon Pinnacles for the Deep Dive Specialty, which were just stunning.Saturday we had great visibility up to 20 meters depth, which had fish everywhere including a massive school of big barracuda's hanging in the current. Below 20 meters was a thermocline, where the visibility went down and the temperature dropped. We went down to 29 meters and I almost descended on top of a shark, without noticing it, I was told after the dive!During the safety stop at 5 meters we saw another shark cruising around, either a blacktip or young bull sharks, the two types of shark that prevail at this di...
More About: Progress , Raining

Will and Sophia's EFRI course, November 2007
2007-11-16 08:26:00
Today I conducted an EFRI course before the IDC starts,Since Will and Sophia, 2 of my 4 upcoming candidates for the upcoming IDC, starting 29th November , will be leaving to the cold UK for the holiday season, so we decided to get a few courses done and out of the way before the IDC starts. Next week they will be participating in the DAN O2 provider course.Here's Sophia practicing the log roll on Will. They also practised skills like Scene Assessment, Rescue breathing, CPR amongst others. One of the skills they also got trained in is the correct use of an AED or Automated External defibrillators. This is a picture of our training purpose AED. Training on infants and children is also included in the Instructor course. Here's a shot of Baby Anne in full pose.After completion of the course we had the a group picture taken in front of the local recompression chamber and they received a short introduction to the Chamber and the way it works, which they found very impressive and informa...
More About: November 2007

Take Part in Global Shark Census
2007-11-13 14:53:00
Here's a way to help in shark conservation.Just received an email from Project AWARE, asking to help out in a shark conservation survey;Are you interested in shark conservation but are unsure how to participate?Now dive professionals like you can take just a few minutes to contribute to a global shark census using information you’ve already logged or memorized from past diving experiences. The information from you will help protect threatened shark species worldwide.By participating you will greatly increase scientific knowledge of shark populations around the world. To date, most of the information on global shark populations is gained from fishermen and tracking of individual sharks. Scuba divers are a vital, untapped resource and key to filling information gaps.Who can help? As long as you have more than 100 dives or snorkels in a particular area (recently or in previous years) you can help.Fill out the online survey. Information is needed from your dives – whether you did o...
More About: Global , Shark , Part , Census

Equipment and DSAT Gasblender Instructor courses
2007-11-11 09:33:00
Ivo finished his Instructor Specialty training today.We completed the DSAT Gasblender and Gasblender Instructor courses today with Ivo as well as the Equipment Instructor course, as part of his extensive GO Pro CDC package, which includes up to 8 Instructor level Specialties. We started off with completing the DSAT Gasblender course, which he started already last week, with the Oxygen cleaning part, together with Stuart as posted last week.Here's a picture of the actual Gas blending mixing desk. The wheel on the left is the Oxygen supply, the wheel lower middle is leading to the tank being filled and the wheel left of this is the air supply, to top of the tanks after they're filled with Oxygen. The upper top left wheel is a vent.The square box on the left bottom corner is the on/off switch and also counts the fill status of the tank being filled. Part of the course is the Oxygen cleaning process, here are some tools used for this cleaning process; vinegar, steel brushes, PH pape...