How heavy is your diving gear bag?

We all buy that great tec gear so we’re kitted and fitted the way we want. But traveling with it is not only a pain, it’s become frighteningly expensive.

The U.S. PADI America’s Instructor News Blog today has a guide to weight allowances for major U.S. carriers, which they promise to keep current.  For those with travel to Thailand in the cards, the chart does show international weight limits as well.

Weights of about 22 kg / 50 pounds are pretty common. Some have more, some have less. But one thing remains true: Go over the limits and you’ll pay dearly.

Maybe it’s time to start a Diver Airlines?

A large wooden ferry that shuttled goods between Koh Tao Island and Chumphon Pier sunk one night in late April. The crew was recovered, but the Save Koh Tao group wanted to find the wreck. So they contacted Big Blue Tech on the island to do a survey and environmental assessment.

The problem is, Big Blue can’t find the wreck.

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American public television this weekend will debut a documentary about the mission, sinking and — 60 years later — discovery of the USS Lagarto, a U.S. submarine sunk by the Japanese during World War II in the Gulf of Thailand and found by Jamie Macleod and the crew of Koh Tao’s MV Trident.

“Lost and Found: The Legacy of the USS Lagarto” will air on Public Broadcasting System channels in Chicago, Milwaukee, Wisc.; and Indianapolis, Ind. to mark the annual Memorial Day holiday.  Airing times can be found here. The one-hour film was made by Chicago filmmakers Harvey Moshman and Chuck Coppola, who produced the Emmy Award-winning local documentary “The Eastland Disaster.”

The Lagarto was one of 28 submarines built by the Wisconsin’s Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. during World War II. Weeks before the end of the war in May 1945, it sank in the Gulf of Thailand. The sub was lost for more than sixty years, until May 2005, when it was discovered  sitting upright in 225 ft. of water. (more…)

Thailand’s pre-eminent technical wreck divers, the MV Trident, will embark on their next expedition May 18. The “Closed-Circuit Divers Australia” group has booked many of the spaces on the tech liveaboard, but more spaces are still available.

The Trident’s Jamie Macleod says the trip will be both a mix of wreck-hunting and diving known wrecks as far south as the Malaysian border.

The trip runs out of the Trident’s home port of Koh Tao between May 18-26. The price is 75,000 all-inclusive except for helium. Booking details and contact information can be found on the Trident’s website.