Getting Jacked...

Alright...sore fingers for typing mean we've been out climbing...so this one will be short. The past few days have seen some hard climbs here on Koh Tao--some serious grunting, bleeding and pulling have been done by all and it has been sweeeeeet. On Monday, December 8th, five Swedish lads (Michael, Mathias, Max, Robert, and Viktor) took on lower Fraggle and Car Jack; two climbs that will punish and deliver the goods. After a long work session, a couple finally made it up to the ledge atop lower Fraggle. This was a serious boulder session on top rope and all pulled their hardest to puzzle this one out. All in all, it was a fantastic day for everyone and nothing is better than watching a group of guys who have only been outdoor climbing once before really take on the granite with all they got...excellent work guys!!!

Today, I took Jeff from Vancouver, BC out climbing and we both had a great day on the rocks. We roped up Eagle Wall first and both Jeff and I took on and conquered the climb directly up the center to the left of the fern. This is just a mean move, the whole wall bulging out at you trying to push you off if you breath too much and only a tiny, high dish to step into with a couple of sharp frictiony crystals for hands to cling on...commit and go! Charly's Crack was always rewarding and we both took a stab. The day finished for us on Car Jack--a new climb that was set right before the season ended for us. The climb has a lot of variety to it--stemming, laybacks, jams, friction across exposed faces with nothing but shallow slopers, underclings, mantles and then you finish the course with a 10 meter block that is all grueling vertical face with only tiny, sharp two finger holds and single crystals for the feet. After a lot of swearing and yelling and two falls, I made it to the top--and it was glorious.

There are lots of boulders about on the island at present, so get and go no matter what your level or lust...it's on!!!

REOPEN n' ROLLING

We are open for another season of serious adventuring here at Goodtime!!! The office doors were opened on the first of December, the ropes dusted off, and the roster quickly filled up with climbers and abseilers alike. Most of the crew is still on their way back to Koh Tao from various parts of the globe, but I (Slade) have been running the show solo here and keeping plenty busy. Monsoon may still be trying to hang in here, but the wind and clouds only make the climbing that much cooler (really I mean actually cooler as in you don’t sweat 2 liters when scaling the rocks…not a bad thing). So while the ocean is choppy and the visibility marginal for diving, the conditions are A+ here on Koh Tao for getting out on the rocks.

Getting back out there atop the island after a month off has been a seriously great thing, and it would not be possible if it wasn’t the true Goodtimers…you guys!!! On the 3rd, I took three Anna, Lone, and Cecilie out for their first session of outdoor rock climbing and they literally flew up every route. We finished the day being punished on Charly’s Crack, but all made it to the top leaving only a little bit of skin and blood on the rock…the sacrifice you pay for a hard days climbing. The 4th had me back setting more climbs up for Armand, Yasmine, Noel, and Kristian—a brilliant, sunny day with all taking their licks and giving it back to the rocks. Some great photos came out of this day and they have been posted on our website and facebook group page along with some here. Carolien and I went Abseiling on the 5th, another sunshiny day with all of Koh Tao below us as we dangled above the jungle. Luke, a local DMT from Asia Divers, did a Rock 1 course with me on the 6th, and we spent the afternoon progressively working on harder and harder climbs. It was Luke’s first time outdoors on the rocks and he did awesome (thanks for the great belays and catches there Luke!). The end of the day saw us tackling a new climb that we have only roped up a couple of times—Car Jack. It’s located on the north side of Fraggle Rock and is a series of vertical cracks and blocks with some great fully exposed face climbing as well—the end being a large, brutal slab where every obvious hold is inverted and useless, so you really have to search out for the tiny crimpers. I went for the inside of the last face and tried to chimney the dihedral, got to the top and had nowhere to go and was looking at a very massive swing out into space with my belayers rope smack in the middle for me to snag on. Luke held the line perfectly even when I snapped off his side of the rope like I was plucking a guitar string with entire body…thanks for the great catch!!!

Well that is the update from our first week of being reopen. I hope to see you all out here and on the rocks again or for your first time with us soon. Check out our website for new pics and drop us an email if you have any questions or just want to say hey. Cheers…

CLOSING FOR MONSOON

We are officially shutting the shop today and will re-open early December.

From all of us here as Goodtime I want to say thank you to everyone who has supported us in our first year and to all who came and adventured with us, you guys rock!

We are looking forward to bringing in some new adventure experiences in 2009, so keep posted.

Have a good November...... wherever you are!

Full Moon Night Climb!
Instead of another Full Moon party we decided to do something a little special this week. A couple of nights ago just after the sun went down we packed all our equipment, jumped on our motorbikes and drove up to our mountain top climbing area. We had one torch that just wasn't needed as the Full moon shone down on us lighting the path and rocks with an eerie glow. The lower section of the climb was a little shadowy due to the palms, so climbing was very much by feel.... climbing by brail! As you emerged above the canopy the rock just glowed, tho I did have a little frustration with my shadow that kept hiding my holds! An experience that I wont forget and can't wait to do again.... only a month to wait!

'Quit Your Bitchin'
More new climbs to play on.......... here are some pics of Jens and Malene, a lovely newly wed couple who tore up 'Quit your Bitchin' with minimal complaints! With a slight overhang and some finger slicing holds the wall lived up to its name. Jens and Malene, you guys were awesome to Climb and dive and drink with! Hope to see you back here in the not to distant future, and once more... congratulations!

30m Above...... 30m Below


Today is a full day, especially for Karen who came to Koh Tao in search of some adventure. This morning we started early and headed up through the jungle to 'Fraggle Rock' a massive boulder perched near the summit of the second highest mountain on the island. We were here to do one thing.... test her nerves with some abseiling. First time abseiler, Karen took to the cliff with no fear and after a few warm up runs on our smaller abseil we then moved to our spectacular 30m overhang. The view over Koh Tao is amazing from Fraggle and even more special when viewed while dangling from a rope high above the jungle canopy. After completing four abseils we then had to pack up the gear and head back to the shop for a quick lunch before I handed Karen over to Slade and Jeff for an afternoon double dive Sail Rock...... 30m down here they come!

WHALE SHARK at Sail Rock!

After almost having to cancel our Wednesday Sail Rock trip due to questionable weather and a couple of drop-outs we decided to head out there anyway with three excited divers ready to hold on tight! The journey proved to be pretty smooth and we made it the 30Km to Sail Rock in under 40mins. The conditions were perfect; minimal currents, up to 25m vis and more fish than you could shake a stick at. We dropped down the chimney (a vertical swim thru from 5 to 18m) and crused around the pinnacle's steep walls confronted with all kinds of creatures. As well as many giant groupers, massive yellow tailed barracuda, Great barracuda, snappers, emperor fish, yellow box fish, giant morray's ect, it was the travallies that really gave us a show (and were the likely cause of the biggest fish in the sea arriving). It looked like they were having a mass spawning with a huge energetic shoel forming from 30m up to the surface, individualy dive bombing the rock and manny forming pairs, the lower fish turning to a dark almost balck colour. An amazing sight. As we slowly came up through the shoel for our safety stop I heard a high pitched scream and Shireen was pointing franticly at something behind me. I quickly turned and instantly emited the same bubbly scream as the massive form of a Whlae Shark cruised slowly passed us. It gave us one of the best safety stops I have ever had just slowly swimming under, over, around and in between us, right under the boat! This proved very lucky for Tim who was driving the boat that day and had seen its massive patterend head from the surfance and free dived down to swim with it as well.















I would like to thank my lucky Whale Shark divers, Anauk and Poffet, who had seen a Whale Shark just off the Koh Tao coast just a few days before. I hope they contunue to attract Whale Sharks for all who dive with them!

New climbs!
Some of the crew were free yesterday morning to go and try out one of our new climbing sites situated on the coastal cliffs near Jansom bay. It's not often we have the time to climb much together so the opportunity was jumped upon and in moments equipment bags were packed and we were on our bikes racing to the rock. From the rocky coastline you are confronted with a massive 30m granite cliff overlooking all of Sairee beach. Jeff, Tim and Charly accompanied by Mike explored just a couple of the countless possible routs on this massive slab and returned with huge smiles, sore fingers and excitement to return. Here are some of the pics....

Full Moon rush beggins

Koh Tao as usual goes quiet over the Full moon period which gives a chance for the locals to party a little! This full moon happened to co-inside with mine (Charly) and Tim's birthday which strangely enough happens to be on the same day! Hearing this Lud down a MOOV (the best bar on the beach) organised an awesome party. We had party games, goodtime cocktails and DJ Absolud rocked the decks till the early hours of the morning! Thank you all for an amazing night I wont forget in a long time.


Two days later the Full mooners have started to fill the island and we have a full day booked for tomorrow. Two Guys from Iceland are off for a full day on the mountain doing Rock climbing and adbseiling. We also have two couples, one of each pair wanted to rock climb and the other wanted to snorkel, so we have taylored an adventure to the east of the island with the two climbers getting their thrills on the coastal cliffs, and the other two snorkeling below with the sharks! We may even do a little cliff jumping to top off the day, im looking forward to tomorrow.

Good bye clouds hello party's!
Good morning, and what a beautiful morning it is! The sun is shining, the birds are singing and there is not a cloud in the sky! Today the team are full of coffee and ready to attack the rock. We have a new climb just bolted so Tim ans Jeff are heading up the mountain to give it a clean, removing all loose rock, ready for climbers......us first! We have a couple of abseiler's this afternoon ready to attack any fear of heights by throwing themselves off our 30m overhang, and a couple of hikers and cliff jumpers also ready to do the same! Its going to be a thrilling afternoon.

On the party side of things we had another successful pub crawl on Friday. 12 dedicated drinkers gathered at our shop, donned their t-shirts and drank themselves round the island! We went to MOOV on the beach, then taxied to Dragon bar in Mae Had, then to Choppers in Sairee and finally ended up at Lotus bar..... I don't remember much after that!!

Tonight is mine and Tim's birthday party at MOOV, so productivity today is high in preparation for a likely slower day tomorrow. If your here on the island hopefully see you all at MOOV for another one of DJ Absolud's excellent party night's

Charly

Diving all day

So it was that on Monday 8 Sep I found myself managing to be wet all day. Some early morning dives trying to beat the inevitable crowds at White rock proved successful as our customer Gideon from Israel and myself (Tim) took to the water and where instantly rewarded with 25 meter vis and no other divers!! Finding a quality site with little or no other divers is not always an easy thing on Koh Tao, but after a little observation you can determine that most resorts hit up the same sites and the same time so off we go!. A second dive at Red Rock also yeilded great results with 20 meter vis on sheltered water. The only issue was the biggest Titan trigger I have seen guarding the entrance to the cave causing us to backtrack a little!!

The afternoon saw Fabio and five others pile on board for a Sail Rock / South West trip. Unfortunaly a Koh Tao island wide fuel shortage changed to plan to Chumphon Pinnacles and Green Rock. Driving the boat out into the increasing weather slowed us down a little but the dives went off with 20-25 m vis, sharks, caves, Yellow Margins and a numer of rays. The divers surfaced after Green Rock to a boat driver (Tim) wrapped in a yellow hammock against the rain with rolling waves everywhere. Once on board a quick surfing session for the boat later we where deposited back on Sairee beach with beers in hand!!

The evenung saw the farewell of team Portugal from our midst as their vacation is over and the pull of jobs and school draws them back. It was great having you guys here, you really created an atmosphere (kind of like manpower) where ever you went. Safe travels and see you all again next year!

Cheers,
Tim

Impressive Light Show

We have had some impressive weather here recently. With all the heat rising off the mainland during the day huge electric storms start giving us a show at sunset with massive anvil shaped clouds flashing on the horizon and sending off huge forks of lightning. The best thing about these storms is that they have been staying off shore, though this morning we did have a little shower which helps to keep the daytime heat at bay.

Koh Tao Adventure begins
As the clouds part Jeff and Slade with three ladies keen for some adventure have just left from the beach on 'The Hair Of The Dog' (our speedboat) for a full day of activities. They are off to the other side of the island to Laem Thian where they will be doing the 'Koh Tao Adventure' which includes rock climbing, cliff jumping, snorkeling and SCUBA diving... yes, it can be done!

Back on the Rock, back in the water!

Cheers from Koh Tao,

After a much needed holiday to Laos, I am back in paradise. First things first, I went to Sail Rock. We had 7 divers and 2 dive masters. After a quick run on flat seas, we get to the dive site and see there is only one other boat with 2 divers. We basically had the dives to ourselves. Upon entering the water, I looked down through crystal clear water to see the entire site down to 30 meters/100 feet.

There a couple of memorial plaques off the main pinnacle. If there is a thermocline, then it is impossible to find. As there was shockingly brilliant viz, we went straight to the caves that house the memorials. The rest of the dives consisted of tons of fish. Notably the massive school of Giant Barracuda, free swimming Puffer Fish, baby Eels, massive Groupers, and Emperor Fish. 

All in all it was a wicked way to return to Koh Tao. Yet another reason to be here in paradise! Get here when you can.

Jeff

Cilmb till your sore, Drink till your poor...

We never know what the next few days will bring till someone comes in and it gets in black on the whiteboard...we are literally a choose your own adventure kinda company. Well we did see yesterdays pub crawl looming on Fridays horizon; it's not like it sneaked up on us but for some reason it still managed to get a bite in. It was back to basics, the traditional, tried and true GTA Pub Crawl...starting here at the shop with a cold Tiger, getting kitted up in a Goodtimes T-shirt, and then down the beach to MOOV. After that, we roared around in the island in the back of Lek's taxi to Dirty Nelly's in Mae Had, back to Sairee for a beer tower at Choppers and finally we advanced on Lotus Bar taking over the dance floor with our drunken shenanigans. The crews from Asia Divers and Scuba Junction were there supporting the cause (cheers guys!) and although the island is somewhat quiet at the moment, we managed to make a showing that I am sure made a few people wonder what was going on (by the end of the night it was a fine line between promotion and annihilation). A great night of cavorting and dancing with friends though...yet another Goodtime!

We do actually work here though, so before the drinking started all of us (Andre, Tim, Charly, and Slade here) had a shot at getting out on the rocks. The weather has been amazing this past week--flat calm seas, marbled clouds towering over the mainland to the west, sunshine and butterflies all across the island--so a day spent atop Koh Tao is never a day to forget. Andre played climbing guide in the morning, while Charly and I taught a Rock 1 and Rock 2 course, and Tim rocked up the hill in the afternoon to take a client on the abseiling experience of her life (I presume). Well now the crew is recovering and looking forward to the week ahead with another pub crawl coming soon!!!

Sail Rock Success
As predicted both dives were awesome!! I watched through the crystal clear water as Tim with two divers and Nell with three all descended down through Sail Rock’s dramatic chimney. There were big smiles when all came up, giant groupers, great barracuda, a giant moray eel, big shoals of Trevally’s and more were all spotted. Thank you Nell for you assistance at such short notice, good to have you on the team.

It’s all about the Night dives
Last night Andre took Amiram, Tal and Tzach on a night dive to Green Rock. They left from the beach after a beautiful sunset, cruised passed crowded White Rock and on to one of my favorite dive sites, Green Rock, known best for its many swim thru’s and caves. Amazing visibility, no currents and in the torch light they were confronted with a rainbow of colorful sponges covering its massive submerged boulders. Four very happy divers returned.

Tonight we are doing a very special night dive to………. Chumphon pinnacle! After our highly successful Chumphon Night dive last month with DM’s and Instructors from Scuba Junction, we now have a selection of professionals from Sairee Hut and Asia Divers, all recruited by a very excited Lewis. The weather is fine, the seas are flat and the visibility has been amazing recently, it’s all adding up to be an exciting night, keep posted.

On the rock report, Tim took Takahiro for his first day climbing this afternoon, five routs later a very sweaty but smiling Japanese man returned with talk of doing more pushups when he gets home ready for next time!

On the drink report, Slade is off with Nell and some of the DJL crew for an afternoon booze cruise round Koh Tao. They packed three cartons of tiger on the boat (we have a lot of cooler space) and set off into the sun, first stop Banana rock bar near Si Tong.

Setting Sails for Sail Rock...

Mornings in the office here really suck! A fresh ocean breeze gliding in through the open glass doors that look out over a mottled deep to powder blue sea, fresh coffee in hand on way to mouth, music, and a general yet increasingly vague understanding that somewhere out there people experience this phenomenon called "stress"... Well looking ahead the rest of the day seems to be headed in an all out excellent direction: double-diving Sail Rock this afternoon! We roll out of here at 1300 and are there on flat seas (and today is looking placid as an underground lake) in 30 minutes...we are always the only ones in the water in the afternoons and the visibility has been crystal lately, so we are looking forward to one hell of a dive set today!

Yesterday was a full day with all of us running different events throughout the day. A sunny afternoon lent its hand at making a Beginning Rock Climbing (Rock 1) course a seriously memorable afternoon for Glynn...this guy could not get enough of his first time climbing and sent 6 different routes and tallied up 8 climbs for the afternoon, on top of learning how to tie in, self anchor, belay, and rappel...whew. Stef went with Tim for an afternoon of Rappelling/Abseiling down the coastal cliffs off of Jansom Bay, and Charly and Andre headed out to Shark Island for a dive with visibility that made Andre shed a tiny tear. Later in the day Tim took a crew around the island for a sunset Booze Cruise. Well that's the rundown so far...another lovely day on Sairee Beach and all about the greater Koh Tao region...we'll be keeping it real for all you out there!

A couple of us were free this morning to do a little development. We drove the dangerous road to our mountain top climbing area (usually accessed by 4-wheel drive taxi) to mend one of our access ladders and bolt a couple new climbing routs. A very productive morning indeed, I can't wait to get on our new routs, chimney-tastic!

A busy afternoon by all; there was hiking, cliff jumping, sharks and an amazing late afternoon dive at Chumphon. We arrived with our two divers just in time to see the last three boats leave and through the still clear sea's could see the submerged pinnacle and the sea bed 30m below from the boat..... need I say more!

Hello all

Welcome to the Goodtime blog, keeping you up to date on our goings on here on the beautiful island of Koh Tao. It has a been another perfect day on the rock, not a cloud in the sky but a nice breeze keeping the sweating at bay! After a morning of rock climbing Tim and Jeff are now out on the boat with 8 booze cruisers. I'm here in the office (after a morning of hiking, cliff jumping and snorkeling with sharks) watching the waves roll into Sairee beach, sparkling in the sunlight, and thinking..... its about beer o'clock!
Charly