Written by Sophie Kalkowski-Pope, November 2023
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I just don’t think I can do it” our open water student splutters. “Hey, hey! It’s okay….” I reach out and gently reassure her. “We’ll do this together”. I take her hand and gently hold it in mine.
We’re kneeling in the shallow end of the pool, taking some open water students through their first mask removal and replacement exercise underwater. While some wouldn’t think twice about this, for others this can be a real challenge! After a bit of trial and error, we figure out the sensation that’s bothering her.
“Okay, does that feel better? C’mon, you’ve got this!” I’m right here with you. After a few goes, she successfully completed the exercise, and is a whole lot more comfortable breathing from her reg without her mask on underwater. The newfound joy and spark of confidence in her eyes made all of our patience even more worthwhile!
When my instructor approached me later and told me my presence really made a difference, it made my day. This was one of my most impactful memories from my divemaster training here at Koh Tao.
Koh Tao is a small island off the Gulf of Thailand, referred to as a mecca of dive education, and is one of the highest certifying regions in the world each year! After 3 flights and two ferries, I arrived at this tropical paradise that already felt like home. With over 70 dive shops on the one tiny island, there is an abundance of choice on offer. The largest however, and one of the largest dive centres in the world is Bans Dive Resort. In the high season, over 100 open water dive courses could be starting training simultaneously.
A family-owned business, Bans offers a suite of diving experiences along with its sister resort Assava on the South of the Island. With over 7 pools, manicured gardens, restaurants, bars, and a variety of accommodation options, Bans is arguably one of the best equip dive centers on Koh Tao. From my first foot in the door, and a big hug from our program manager Neil, I immediately felt so welcome. The culture is so warm and friendly with people congregating from all over the world to share their passion for diving and the underwater world.
The resort sports not just one, not two, but 4 PADI course directors, making this an ideal place to begin my professional training. Upon arrival here, we quickly got into training, practicing skills circuits, and important technical skills like navigation, mapping, gear maintenance, and how to give an effective dive briefing. We also learnt about the specific courses a DM can teach or assist on, like Discover Local Diving, or the PADI Skin Diver course.
My first dives on Koh Tao were on newly sunk HTMS Suphairin and the HTMS Hanhak Sattru. This was one of my first experiences diving on a vessel underwater, and it was surreal to think these ships had been on the surface just two months prior!
The skills training in the pool was particularly helpful. The training standard here is thorough, with candidates expected to demonstrate skills to an instructor level, with clear gestures and lots of detail. I found these sessions very useful as they represented a chance to practice and also get detailed feedback from supervising instructors.
The Divemaster training also has a positive practical element. Each DM has the opportunity to do unlimited diving during their traineeship, while assisting with diving operations on the vessel and managing. Additionally, each participant undergoes a day of training with the admin team to understand how the dive shop runs behind the scenes. This includes insight into the paperwork and logistics required for the day’s dives, and even simple things like how to greet friendly customers. Each DM also shadows the “Boatmaster” for a day, learning how to manage assigning spaces on the boat, and coordinate diver check in and check out procedures throughout the afternoon. We also had the opportunity to take a tour of the servicing workshop, where we saw how tanks are hydrostatically tested, given their annual visual inspection, and how regulators are serviced!
Of course, after training then came the opportunity to assist on courses! Getting to help on an Open Water Course and Advanced course was one of the most rewarding moments of my time in Thailand. I witnessed how a passionate instructor can make a difference in helping people overcome their fears and discover a whole new world below the surface. I was lucky enough to assist with a large group of students visiting from the USA for their open water course, and seeing their progress throughout their training was highly rewarding.
Sustainability initiatives
One of the things that impressed me the most about staying at Bans was their incredible sustainability initiatives, which are central to how they operate.
Arguably their one most unique and fascinating components is that Bans makes all of their own eco-friendly toiletries and cleaning products! All of the shampoos, conditioners, soaps, detergents, and cleaning products are produced on site, and from materials at the resort! The process starts all the way on the boats, where scraps from leftover fruit are collected, sorted, and processed. They are left to ferment in large tubs for a number of months, distilling down to a liquid form. The result is a variety of producing tropical, floral smelling liquids that go on to become the perfumes for various products made at Punrak Farm.
A range of their other initiatives include:
- Water management system – Water is a previous resource on the island, so the dive centre has a large scale water management system. This includes a large concrete water reservoir, and his includes drainage sump systems designed to aid water retention
- Recycling processing – Bans has an active waste processing facility, where cans are crushed into blocks for transport off the island, and glass and other materials are sorted into their respective categories.
- Organic farm – The resort is set up with a large farm that produces fresh fruit, vegetables, and eggs for use in their kitchens! Talk about farm to plate.
- Waste water processing – All grey and black water from the resort is processed on site, using UV technology, aka the sun! After around 30 days rotating through filtering ponds, the water is naturally sterilised, and then repurposed to water the gardens of the facility!
- Bio-gas – The gas byproducts from the fermentation process are captured and stored in large vats. This gas is then used by staff to cook food on site.
- Composting – The resort has a large scale composting facility, which then gets recycled into a natural fertiliser for the gardens.
- Pan Raak Education centre – This on site centre is used as educational facility to for guests, tours and school groups to highlight the amazing initiatives here at Bans and educate the next generation.
Ban’s reputation in the area is well known even internationally. During my stay here we even got interviewed by a Chinese travel TV Show explaining how Punrak farm creates their cleaning products in house! This certainly wasn’t something I foresaw as a part of my scholarship year… but it just shows how Ban’s really seen as a leader in this field.
The thing that blew me away the most about these solutions is that they are SIMPLE. It’s doesn’t require expensive, technological solutions to make this work. Imaging if every dive centre around the world was doing this. Imaging the difference we could make…
Aside from my training, I also partook in a few other activities while visiting Koh Tao…
(1) Underwater photography and modelling
While visiting the island, I had the opportunity to work with Sania Tamimi, an experienced photographer and videographer. Getting to work with her collaboratively on an underwater photoshoot was an absolute pleasure. This was my first time modelling underwater, and Sania was completely professional while also making process relaxed and fun. It was it was so enjoyable to get to explore the creative process and vision for a photoshoot.
(2) Coral Restoration with Black Turtle Dive
There are a number of active conservation groups on the island including Black Turtle Dive! Here, I met Claudia and spent an afternoon in the workshop learning about their artificial reef program for coral restoration. It was a hands on deck afternoon where I actually learnt how to weld! This was certainly not something I expected to learn during my scholarship year but I loved it. Seeing the metals blend together was strangely beautiful, and it felt great to do something practical with my hands. Throughout the course of the afternoon, our little team constructed two new artificial reef structures
(3) Coral Watch presentation in conjunction with PADI AWARE
One of my favourite evenings here on Koh Tao was giving a CoralWatch presentation in conjunction with PADI Aware. I had the opportunity to speak alongside Andrea Warren, the PADI Regional Manager for Thailand East. We learnt all things Dive Against Debris, and other ways to get divers involved with conservation via PADI! I has the pleasure of meeting and Gage Veridiano the PADI Regional Director from the Philippines, who was visiting.
It was a fun, informative evening, with an engaged audience thats asked lots. It felt great to explain an interactive evening that felt more like a conversation than a. It was fantastic to explain the CoralWatch citizen science monitoring methodology to such a switched on group, who was eager to implement it into their diving practices.
I wanted to say a sincere thank you to the Bans family for hosting me at your beautiful piece of paradise here at Bans Dive Centre. You truly have built not just a remarkable legacy, but an incredible community in the people around you. Finally, a MASSIVE thank you to Tim, Natalie, Jess and especially Neil who was the primary supervisor for our Dive Master training.
You truly made me feel so welcome on the island, and my training here felt like I was a part of a huge, warm family. Plus, a special mention to our instructors Neil, Heidi, and Jess who helped with many of the practical components of training. I met so many beautiful, passionate people here and made some incredible friends from all over the world. I loved my time at Bans. Thank you.
I am so grateful to OWUSS for making opportunities I would not have dreamed of before and broadening my horizons to a global scale. A special thank you to the countless volunteers behind OWUSS, and the sponsors that make this scholarship possible at ROLEX. I would also like to thank my equipment sponsors at TUSA, Waterproof International, Reef Photo & Video, Mako Eyewear, my camera gear sponsors at Reef Photo & Video, Nauticam, and long time scholarship supporters DAN, and PADI.
To follow along on my adventures, I highly recommend you follow me on social media!
My Instagram @sophie_dives is where I post most regularly.
You can also contact me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Tiktok, and the Australasian Scholar Facebook Page.
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