Koh Tao project "Buoyancy World"

[mgmonk]

Well, the weather has kept us from deploying anything.
We were supposed to start sinking them three or four days ago, but it's too windy over here. Damn monsoon coming early this year.

I'll upload some pictures of what's been done so far soon.

 

[lord khram]

One the one hand it sounds like Disney World Koh Tao H2O.
On the other, if constructed well and deployed with good judgment, it could reduce crowding and lessen the impact of new students practicing buoyancy over live coral.

I think it should be completely unnecessary.
Surely any responsible instructor would select such a site from his own initiative and should not need tellling to prevent his students from damaging corals whilst they are learning to dive.

 

[lord khram]

I do like the idea of having a special training area for student divers in a non-coral environment but I'm not sure how much it will contribute to coral-preservation.
Imho (In my humble opinion) it's often certified and "experienced" divers that do most damage to the reef and its creatures.
Student divers tend to be more careful not to touch the reef than the average (camera carrying) certified diver.

I find it often amazing, frustrating and sometimes hilarious to see the complete lack of skill or care of the way "certified and experienced" divers move around on their fun-dives.

I think a (free or very cheap) mandatory check-out dive on a buoyancy-underwater-world site for every visiting certified diver regardless of experience and strict rules and regulations while joining fun-dives are the only way to decrease diver induced damage.

I completely agree here.
Just go to Pattaya and watch Mermaids Interns at work, some of the sights that I have witnessed amongst the coral are nothing short of disgracefull.
And in turn these people are 'teaching' others to dive.
What an example to set new divers!!
Also when it comes to training new divers, surely all instructors should explain to their students, the importance of protecting the marine ecosystem, and explain/demonstrate this most important philosophy by keeping them away from corals and preventing any damage whilst they are learning to dive.

 

[jamiemac]

Bowmouth.... not a bad point at all... who says that the project is limited to students only? Scuba reviews... new customers (certified) that are a bit rusty... the project had multiple possible benefits.

The only negative feed back I've gotten here is people who think it sounds "cheesy". Disney Land underwater. Well, if that's the worst criticisim anyone can think of, then I'm ready to embrace the idea until it proves to have real negative impacts.

That's my main reason for this post. Anyone with previous experience with similar projects have any input? Anyone with ideas about what could go wrong? We're all ears on this one. Everyone wants it to be a success, and no one is taking a stand on what's right or wrong. It's proactive and that's a start.

All I can tell you is that I've seen a lot of people working very hard over the last week for no pay and sweating their ass off mixing cemment and welding until they go blind. People have put a real genuine effort into the construction so far.

As for the deployment, and assembly in the water... I'll let you know. It's scheduled for around the 20th. No question about it, it's going to be time consuming and difficult. I'm just proud to see so many dive shops put in a collective effort to try.

Please give as much feedback as you can muster. What's around the corner is anyone's guess.

cheers for the input.

When I learnt to dive in Pattaya in 88, ( don't fret,LK, Aquanauts and Mermaids weren't around then), there were a few projects going on.

One was a reef made of bottles wired together, gave a great habitat but soon rusted apart and was a bit ugly.Be interesting to se it now.

Another was made of concrete drain hoops, nice coral grew quickly and it was fun swimming through them.

Yet another was made from car tyres and nothing grew at all, I don't mind man made stuff on the bottom, but that was too much ugliness to bear. I bet they're still there, just east of Koh Krok

Very good luck to you, there's always pros and cons, but you seeem to have considered them. Don't worry about Cheesiness, from what I see that 's what most of our customers like, dude, cheesier the better,man, like awesome dude.

Not sure about mandatory dives for divers though, leave all that organised stuff to the west coasties, they love it.

Looking forwasrd to seeing it, you got a few weeks until the real monsoon hits.

If you need some big lift bags and a smallish crane, 250kg, give me a call

 

[mgmonk]

LK, I asked for feedback, positive and negative, but can you help me out how to classify yours?

1) You find it unnecessary because instructors should "select such a site from his own initiative and should not need tellling to prevent his students from damaging corals"

2)You agree with Bowmouth that "all instructors should explain to their students, the importance of protecting the marine ecosystem, and explain/demonstrate this most important philosophy by keeping them away from corals and preventing any damage whilst they are learning to dive"

Where's the contribution to this post on your part? We're discussing a site that is coral free, in the sand, and at appropriate training depths. It fits every criteria you just mentioned. No one is going to be forced to go there. Instructors get to choose what sites they want to dive. If they want to avoid "Buoyancy World" they can.

I think it's also important to go back to Bowmouth's earlier post that certified divers need practice as much as students in some cases.

Perfect. The main focus is using the site to help teach Nav and PPB in the AOW course (not OW students), but there is no reason at all that DMs can't take fun divers there for practice as well. Essentially it is designed to aide certified divers become better divers.

The concept here is to have a permanent site off the reef system where instructors can do everything you, Bowmouth and myself all agree on. The real question is "why not?"

If it's a failure, if the structures don't last, if the deployment is a nightmare...
what was the real harm here. Getting competing shops together during the construction phase was a good sign for starters. I can't tell you how much the larger shops helped out smaller shops like mine. All of the work was volunteer, so no one was forced to get involved unless they found it worthwhile.

Once the structures are in the water, how long they last and how they get used are anybody's guess, but I, personally, can't wait to see them. There are some real creative ideas and some really beautiful structures that have been built.

Any CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is more than welcome.

Hopefully I'll have some pictures and good news about the weather soon.

 

[mgmonk]

Jamie, thanks for the offer and thanks for the input.

From the sound of the three projects you saw in Pattaya, it sounds like appearance can make all the difference. Are you here now? Pop by the field across from the GPO and they're all laid out last time I went by. Some of them are really creative.

As for the offer of your crane, I'll kick it upstairs at the next meeting. Thanks for that. I think the deployment plan needs all the help it can get.

By the way, what's this "you got a few weeks till the monsoon hits" crap? I saw the Trident moored up at Hin Wong two days ago. Are you off the island? As for me, I'm running like hell in November. My shop closes for six weeks, and I've stayed here through the monsoon enough to know that I can only handle a week or two at a time. I plan on skipping out as much as possible until we re-open.

 

[jamiemac]

Jamie, thanks for the offer and thanks for the input.

From the sound of the three projects you saw in Pattaya, it sounds like appearance can make all the difference. Are you here now? Pop by the field across from the GPO and they're all laid out last time I went by. Some of them are really creative.

As for the offer of your crane, I'll kick it upstairs at the next meeting. Thanks for that. I think the deployment plan needs all the help it can get.

By the way, what's this "you got a few weeks till the monsoon hits" crap? I saw the Trident moored up at Hin Wong two days ago. Are you off the island? As for me, I'm running like hell in November. My shop closes for six weeks, and I've stayed here through the monsoon enough to know that I can only handle a week or two at a time. I plan on skipping out as much as possible until we re-open.

Yes I'm here.

When the wind blows hard from the south west the boat moors the other side of the isalnd in the lee. The crew sleep better and so do I.

The November monsoon comes from the North East, every year without fail, no 'crap' as you so nicely put it.

Look out for a NE storm, a week's calm, then it's here to stay until after Xmas

It'll be a few more weeks coming yet, I'm prepared to bet on it, I normally make a few baht betting on weather this time of year.

We're out 200 miles on the 13th for a week's diving so I hope I'm right

This rain is unusual, but the wind is just a touch stronger than normal, believe me, in my line I study the weather very carefully.

I'll be staying put, the family still needs taking care of, kit needs a clean, tanks need servicing, beer needs drinking

J

 

[stiggy]

Monsoon comes from the NE normally in November right now we are getting tail end of ketsania.

Buoyancy world is a great project and in time will create another site complete with its own residents. The awareness it creates alone is golden.

Its very sad too see others putting a downside on it, and use it to bash another store .

Jamie ill put money on the storms arrival to the hour .

 

[mgmonk]

Am I just romanticizing, or was last september and october much calmer? I remember I was in Indonesia for the last half of October, but this has seemed like an exceptionally bad Sept as far as wind goes.

I guess the knuckle heads kite surfing in Chalook are happy about it though. I spent a good part of the afternoon watching one of them get raked across the coral just after low tide for the better part of an hour.

Maybe that's the new Koh Tao scar.

 

[Bowmouth]

Am I just romanticizing, or was last september and october much calmer?

I'm sympathizing with you over there, I really do.

I hate to admit it but weather has been horrible here in Phuket too. That's quite unusual because normally the sun shines every day on the westcoast ....