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