Thailand’s southern islands and coastline are dotted with cavern and cave systems tech divers are anxious to dive. Aquanauts has the advantage of being centrally located so we can dive the southern caves as well as those near Kanchanaburi. One we haven’t done yet is Khao Sok on the southern side of the Gulf of Thailand. The Internet today, however, brings us a trip report and photos from a group of divers who completed a cavern diver course there. (more…)

Broadening the appeal of closed-circuit rebreathers and the evolution of DSAT’s TecRec program lead the topic’s at this week’s DSAT Tec Diving Conference, an invitation-only workshop/conference held this week in the U.S. for DSAT TecRec Instructors, Instructor Trainers and other tech diving industry. (more…)

Some exciting news coming out of PADI’s Diving Science and Technology arm, . Some recent moves suggest the world’s largest diving agency is preparing to move even further into tech and has named a team to head its effots and started an online weblog. (more…)

Leaving behind the hustle and bustle of Pattaya, a group of Aquanauts instructors and interns last month embarked on a four-day expedition to the scenic mountains of western Thailand’s Kanchanaburi region for the ANDI Cavern Diver course. The site was the network of caves and caverns at Thong Pha Phom. (more…)

The famous “Samesan Hole” was featured recently on stylish blog WebEcoist in a feature on some of the world’s deepest and most dangerous dive sites. It’s a bit of a misnomer, as the site notes the sites are only dangerous if you don’t have adequate technical dive training.

Similar to Valhalla Missile Silo, the Samaesan Hole in Thailand is a 90-meter-deep former military ammunitions dump. Technical divers come here to practice on trimix. It’s called an ‘explosive dump ground’ on marine charts because it contains unexploded bombs.

Ballsy divers have to bring multiple lights since sunlight doesn’t penetrate the depths, and the currents are extremely strong. It’s said to be fascinating but unfortunately, no one seems to have taken any photos.

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In the previously mentioned article on the development of technical diving in Thailand, the Tourism Authority of Thailand gives a good, if basci, overview of not only reef and wreck diving, but the increasing prominence of cave and cavern diving in the Land of Smiles.

Divers experienced in the use of tri-mix can enjoy some major challenges here. Indeed two of the largest caves so far discovered in Asia are in the vicinity of Krabi province, on the mainland near the island province of Phuket.

Sre Keow was one of the first to be explored. It is accessed through a pond of about 15 metres in diameter that was once mainly used for washing elephants. A small entrance at a depth of ten metres leads into one of the deepest caves so far discovered in Thailand. (more…)

A good overview of the development of Thailand’s dive industry — particularly technical diving — was recently published by the Tourism Authority of Thailand. A bit basic for experienced tech divers, the article nonetheless offers interesting background on the Gulf of Thailand’s many wrecks accessible to technical divers.

Two of the most popular new activities in Thailand are wreck diving, mostly in the Gulf of Thailand, and cave diving, mostly along the Andaman Sea coastline. The Gulf of Thailand falls well short of being an Asian Bermuda Triangle, but is rich in sunken wrecks resulting from misadventures in trading, piracy and war. Many stories have been lost in the mists of time but, according to one list, there are at least 179 sunken Japanese ships – or marus, as some divers prefer to call them.

Some of the biggest recent discoveries date from the Second World War. In mid-2005, a group of technical divers from Koh Tao came across a US submarine that had been sunk in 72 metres of water by the IJN Hatsutaka, a Japanese minelayer that recorded an anti-submarine action with depth charges at the time…. (more…)