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Sawasdee Khrup & Greetings from another beautiful day in the Gulf of Thailand.  photo by Tetsu Kusu Now in addition to a very successful dive shop we also have our own restaurant, bar, air-conditioned classrooms, and the largest fleet of dive boats in Koh Tao, making the most amount of daily departures from the beach, right outside our resort. |
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Monday 25th August 2008 Last night was a special occasion for two proud clownfish parents on Sairee reef.Our Japanese colleagues from Chaba Big Blue have learned by waiting for hours at a time, when exactly the eggs will hatch, to the exact minute!  Its all done in a very military fashion. You swim out into the middle of nowhere following Mayuko and Asukas’ white fins, ignoring all the stingrays, porcupinefish and HUGE barracuda’s that are following you, a light is flashed at everyone as a signal to stop, kneel down and turn of the torches. Minutes pass, sitting and waiting in the dark. Every now and then a light pops on and off, checking the progress of the hatching. Mayuko on hatching duty and Asuka telling us to slowly move around to get into position doing a commando style crawl on our bellies in the direction of the eggs and parents. Then lights on and hundreds of baby Nemo are released with the help of the parents flapping their fins over the eggs. It’s a pretty amazing sight and rarely seen by non-Japanese so thank very much for letting me tag along. |
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 Of course any business aim is to make a profit but how one makes the profit is our aim!
Koh Tao is a relaxed little tropical island paradise. The water is never cooler than 27 degrees and averages throughout the year at around 30 degrees. Water visibility often stretches 20 meters or more and the diversity of our dive sites generates continuous tourist interest throughout the year.
Our resort is situated on the west coast of the island in Sairee Beach, the nicest and largest stretch on Koh Tao. Every day you awaken to the crystal clear azure waters of the Gulf and each night we are greeted with the glowing warmth of a setting sun. There is an atmosphere on Koh Tao like nowhere else in the world. Its easy to arrive here & immediately fall in love with the island.  Our Staff realize how lucky they are to live and work here. They love their jobs and look forward to coming to work. They are able to have fun while being strongly committed to all elements of safety. The frequency with which these guys get complimented by our divers is abnormal but these guys do do a great job. All of them, our Boat staff, our Restaurant staff & all our Dive staff. Their enthusiasm is infectious and consequently the atmosphere they generate increases the profitability of the business.
Our aim is to supply you, our holidaymakers and divers, with an enjoyable and safe experience & memories that will last a lifetime. Our business is to make you happy! |
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When all is said & done the success or failure of any business relies very much on the involvement of the staff. Big Blue has a fantastic Dive team & we all know that every time we start a course we know this is big deal for you the students & therefore we got to make this experience the highlight of your holiday! So lets see who these clowns are shall we...  Dean Jenkins – Deano, the boy from the valleys, has also been with Big Blue for 2 years now & has proven himself to be one of the most committed Instructors in Koh Tao. A mechanic by trade Deano learnt his diving skills while on holiday, quickly fell in love with it & decided to change his career direction & became a PADI & SSI Dive Instructor. Soon, Deano was working at Big Blue as an Instructor & is now highly involved with our Divemaster training & our equipment maintenance & servicing courses aswell. Deano is another member of our Instructor team that is a PADI Staff Instructor aswell which means he can assisit in the Instructor Training of Divemasters.  Anna Berntsson- Anna came to us acouple of years ago to learn how to dive & now, after a stint working in Thailand & another stint working the west coast of Australia she is back & we just couldn't miss the opportunity to employ her. Anna is our Scandanavian Swedish Divemaster workhorse! She is always busy running around getting things ready for everyone & the boats when she is in charge are immaculate. Anna is an excellent divemaster and gets many compliments from customers for her professionalism her knowledge of marine life & stunning true Scandanavian beauty!  Guillaume Fargues- more affectionatley nick-named 'G' for short is our French speaking PADI & SSI Instructor who has been at Big Blue now over 2 years. G is a Gaelic gentleman who knows that your diving course with us should be special which is why he’ll ensure that 110% of himself goes into every course. Extremely reliable & a good team player G is never shy of stepping forward to lend a hand. He has recently completed his Instructor Development Staff training and is looking to go the whole way to becomming a Course Director in a few years. He is also a keen rugby fan & DJ & can often be seen spinning the decks at the Big Blue Bar, when he's not on his knees in tears after losing the rugby to England... again!  Ricky McKendry- Every good dive shop needs a good Irishman & Ricky, well ... he's a good crack! He is also a very experienced Divemaster & has been with us at Big Blue for over a year & consequently knows exactly where to find all the good stuff. He is also in charge of our Equipment maintenance & is a certified Equipment Technician, every good dive shop should have one of these aswell! On top of all that Ricky is also a PADI Instructor & we have employed his Irish charms to teach a few courses in the past. He is very organised & highly responsible & takes considerable care to ensure all his divers have had a great day out on his boat.  Rick – James ‘Rick’ Rickert- Our resident Hawaiian American is an SSI Instructor & PADI Instructor. Rick is another Instructor with a nicely laid back approach to diving. He has a great sense of awareness & is very quick to help & improve his students skills where & when needed but by doing so without being all hands! Rick spends some months of the year working for our west coast Big Blue branch in Khao Lak & gets to dive the Similan Islands alot. He is also a big fan of travelling the world & likes to pop off for a jolly every now & then! He has a great sense of humour that comes out in his classes & he is the winner on every occasion for best fancy dress costume.  Simon Garrity- Worked as a Divemaster at Big Blue before becoming an SSI & PADI Instructor. His loyalty & passion for Liverpool Football Club is rivalled only by his enjoyment & enthusiasm for diving. Recently he has done a season working for our west coast branch of Big Blue Diving in Khao Lak & loves the diversity of fish life between the two sides of Thailand. He is unquestionably the one Instructor that gets the most returning customers & highest amount of compliments. Simon is exactly what you see. He is shy but friendly, funny & serious & is also a very key member of the Big Blue Dive Team.  Sonia Scott- Represented England at Rugby League & then became a Sports Physiotherapist by day & a nightclub Bouncer by night before finding her true calling as a diving professional! Sonia worked at Big Blue as our head DM for over a year & is now one of our main Instructors. She is very organised & knows exactly what is going on at any moment of the day & has worked at our west coast office in Khao Lak putting the place in order. She is a very experienced diver & does a fantastic job in Koh Tao & Khao Lak of scheduling the boats & the divesites & entertaining the crowds when out at sea.
 Jim Donaldson- SSI & PADI Instructor (retired!). Has worked as the Manager at Big Blue now for almost two years and has been in Koh Tao since the millenium. He has worked at various different Diveshops as a cook! a Divemaster, an Instructor & a Manager & now sits around wasting away his retirement years filling in & keeping updated the Big Blue page on Facebook. He's been poncing around now for quite a while making out like he actually knows what he's doing but just like his rugby team, its all just a show! Speaking of which, Jim just got married this year to his longterm German babe as a means of getting over his depression from the New Zealand All Blacks failure to win last years Rugby World Cup... again!  Eberhard Kirchner- More commonly known as Church! We wanted to call him cherry as the literal translation of the name suggests but Church said he wasn’t keen on being referred to as a soft red fruit but would rather be referred to as a revered towering concrete erection! Church is from Austria & he is one of our very experienced team of Divemasters & has already logged almost 1000 dives in the crazy chilly lakes of Austria before he even became a Divemaster. Church is a very accomplished diver & I'm very proud of having stolen him from another Diveshop on the island! He has an excellent command of Austrian though his German could do with improvement. Oh yeah & he can't ski for toffee!  Dan Bolton- Originally from the beautiful suburban paradise of Gravesend, UK, you might recognise Dan from a few famous movies & TV Shows with big fabulous Hollywood Stars! Dan is our Celebrity Staff! He left the glamour & glitz of acting & modelling to become one of Koh Tao’s most sought after Divemasters. When he’s not busy ‘sharing’ he can be found hard at work leading divers around Koh Tao’s many sites & will one day soon be a PADI & SSI Instructor. Dan has an amazing ability to get on with everyone, which makes him one of our more popular Divestaff all round the resort. And lately has become our 1st choice DM / Instructor for taking people on their 1st Discover Dive. Definitely a customers favourite! Sometimes 2!  Helen Sabin- Helen is a sort of Old School Koh Taoian in that she first arrived in Koh Tao in 1995. She has however been away a while & has only recently joined the team after working a number of years at different dive schools around the UK. Having seen sense she realized working in diving would actually be a little more enjoyable if she did it somewhere where it wasn’t so bloody cold so came back to Tao! Helen is a PADI Instructor & soon to be SSI Instructor & is our environmental monitor as well, which means she is responsible for Big Blues environmental awareness & responsibilities- beach & divesite cleanups, report on whaleshark sightings, & environmental support campaigns. A busy girl is our Helen!  Sanna Levin- Another one of our resident multi-lingual Scandanavian Queens. Sanna is a PADI Instructor and will also be doing her SSI crossover soon aswell & although she has only been with us a few months she has a wealth of experience behind her. She spent a number of years in Thailand working as a holiday rep in Thailand for one of the largest travel companies in Europe. She can teach in English, Swedish, Danish, & Norwegian & before starting at Big Blue has worked as a Divemaster in West Coast Australia on the Ningaloo Reef, & Krabi & Koh Lanta in Thailand. Sanna is very unassuming & friendly & has been a very well received addition to the team. She is also very patient very relaxed & finds it very easy & enjoyable teaching new students how to dive.  James Caliendo- Not only is James a laid back Californian, he is also a fully qualified acupuncturist & also practises in herbal & chiropractic medicine & has been working aboard luxury cruise ships sailing the Seven Seas treating patients. Now he works on not so luxury dive boats cruising around the dive sites of Koh Tao. James originally came here on holiday & dived with us just as a fundiver & had such a blast he came back the next year & did his Divemaster Course with us. The next year he came back he came looking for employment.He was very quickly snapped up by another Dive school on the island before we nicked him back from them with our offer of free needles to acupuncture people with. An offer he just couldn't turn down.  Hal Thorsrud- Hal has been hunting high & low for years now. He used to be a professional snow boarding instructor but it scared the Living Daylights out of him & now he is a PADI & SSI Dive Instructor. He can Take on me as he speaks a mind bogglingly impressive 7 languages – English, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, German & Spanish- a different one for every day of the week! Hal is originally from Norway and finds Koh Tao a refreshing change to the violently biting chill of a Scandanavian winter. Hal pretends that he has never ever liked A-Ha music & flatly denies ever having had his hair cut modeled on Morten or Mads. He also claims that at his bungalow the Sun always shines on TV.  Barry Coville- has been living in Koh Tao a number of years already & has now found himself enjoying life as a PADI & soon to be SSI Instructor at Big Blue. He’s served a number of years in the military & learnt a number of invaluable skills as part of his training. Interestingly enough Scuba Diving wasn’t one of them! Barry is also the founder of the Facebook Group “ Just say no to speedo’s “ which actually has more members than our own “Big Blue Diving Koh Tao” group, with over 1000 members! Which doesn’t say much for our group but we don’t blame Barry for that! It just means there are more people out there who like revealing their personal photo collection of men in their budgy smugglers!  Filip van de Vyvervandervyvanderarverve – From Belgium! Filip is another recent addition to the team at Big Blue who comes with a wealth of experience having worked for 3 seasons on Liveaboards in the Similans, Instructing in Greece & he also operated Koh Tao’s first Liveaboard in the Gulf of Thailand. He is an SSI & PADI Instructor & hails from some dodgy town in Belgium. Filip speaks English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish & Greek. Filip is a workaholic & will always be found somewhere around the Big Blue Resort even when he has a day off. Its not weird. Apparently they all do that in Belgium. What haven't they invented Pubs in Belgium yet?
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James Caliendo- Not only is James a laid back Californian, he is also a fully qualified acupuncturist & also practises in herbal & chiropractic medicine & has been working aboard luxury cruise ships sailing the Seven Seas treating patients. Now he works on not so luxury dive boats cruising around the dive sites of Koh Tao. James originally came here on holiday & dived with us just as a fundiver & had such a blast he came back the next year & did his Divemaster Course with us. The next year he came back he came looking for employment.He was very quickly snapped up by another Dive school on the island before we nicked him back from them with our offer of free needles to acupuncture people with. An offer he just couldn't turn down.
