We all know that age is not a significant barrier to recreational diving. People can learn to dive — or even become instructors — in their 60s. But technical diving has generally been a younger diver’s game. The number of people who learn to tech dive in their 50s is much smaller than that of those in their 40s, 30s and 20s.

But, as these photos show, you’re never really too old to learn. Aquanauts Master Instructor Gary Tytler decided to finally strap on the doubles and get properly tech certified at age 55.

This month’s course also saw Aquanauts student John Paul complete his Tec Deep certification. Dan Beldon was the instructor.

So, how did it go? You’ll have to ask Gary, but from what those who watched him over the course will tell you, it took a lot of effort and academic discipline. (more…)

We finally got our hands on the photos from Aquanauts’ Cavern Diver course last fall at Thailand’s Thong Pha Phom near Kanchanaburi and what a great surprise they were.

ANDI Instructor Roger M. Smith led the course for Aquanauts interns (and now PADI instructors) Greg Hannigan, A.J. Rankin and Scott Clark. Hannigan was behind the lens and shot a bundle of photos. The best ones were without the direct strobe, which too often illuminates the suspended particles in the cavern waters.

After a bit of Photoshop “channel mixing,” that restored proper color values and added luminence, what you see below is how things looked to the divers on the three-day course. (more…)

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…)

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…)