“Lost and Found-Legacy of the USS Lagarto,” the Emmy Award-winning documentary about the mission, sinking and — 60 years later — discovery of the USS Lagarto, will debut in Thailand at a Dec. 12 event in Koh Tao hosted by the MV Trident, the famed wreck hunters who found the U.S. submarine sunk by the Japanese during World War II in the Gulf of Thailand. (more…)

Thailand’s premier wreck hunters, the MV Trident, have published their 2010 schedule and it looks like more deep diving fun. From the base in Koh Tao, tech trips will depart every couple of weeks and fall into three categories (based on direction from Koh Tao): northern, eastern and southern routes.

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Aquanauts' Roger M. Smith (center) with the MV Trident's Jamie MacLeod (left) and Stuart Oehl. The Trident's famed deep wreck explorers finally got CCR certified with Aquanauts' help.

When it comes to wreck hunting and exploration in Thailand, there are few who can rival the experience of the MV Trident’s Jamie Macleod and Stuart Oehl. But what may surprise many is that nearly all their technical expeditions have been done on open-circuit, not closed-circuit rebreathers.

“We’ve been meaning to get some proper training on CCR for ages,” Jamie said. “We’ve organized dozens of CCR expeditions and supervised thousands of dives so the theory and logistics of the unit weren’t going to be too much of a problem. It was simply the diving we needed.”

Having known for Jamie for years – and with Aquanauts positioned as one of Thailand’s premier rebreather-training centers – I offered to get both guys certified and started on the road to becoming CCR instructors. (more…)

Editor’s note: The story below, while tragic, should not be construed to mean that diving the wreck mentioned in this post is any more dangerous than any other wreck. Properly trained, diving any wreck is safer than riding a bicycle. But, even with good training and conditions, accidents can happen. Some, as events in the case below suggest, are not caused by diving itself but by health factors.

Ted Conner, 45, poses in a photo posted to his Facebook page the day before died after making a technical dive on a wreck in Koh Tao.

Sad news today out of Koh Tao where technical-diving enthusiast Ted Conner died after ascending from a dive on the Unicorn wreck whch had claimed the life of a German diver in 2006.

Conner, Asia-Pacific regional manager for Germany’s URACA Pumpenfabrik GmbH & Co., reportedly died whle on the ascent line after making on open-circuit “build up” dive on the 60 -meter steel freighter that sunk during a powerful typhoon in a suspected insruance scam in 1989.

In a post today to the Scubaboard message forum, Jamie MacLeod of the MV Trident (which was not the company Conner was diving with) said the reason for Conner’s death, for the moment at least, is a mystery. (more…)

One of the best thngs about tech diving in Pattaya is that it has the best weather of any Thai dive area. It’s not seasonal — so dive sites don’t close — and the waves and wind are much less severe than Koh Tao / Koh Samui.

It seems the wind is whipping things up down there again. Big Blue Tech reports: (more…)

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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