TDI Trimix Instructor Course

In terms of training this season Khaolak Scuba Adventures have been very busy. We have now issued over 100 certifications ranging from PADI Scuba Diver through to (the most recent) TDI Trimix Instructor!

With a large team of multi-lingual instructors and a combined experience of over 100 years of teaching, Khaolak Scuba Adventures offers the most diverse course options in the region.

The latest course on Manta Queen III was taught by Ben Reymenants and was attended by Alex Leeming (taking Trimix instructor course) and Larry Smith (taking TDI closed circuit rebreather, trimix level).

 

At this level of training, nothing can be taken for granted. As a diver on open circuit (regular style scuba) I have to take two tanks (minimum) of the gas mixture to breathe during the dive (either air, nitrox or trimix, depending on the depth) and then two or more nitrox mixes to breathe during the decompression stops. For Larry (on the Megalodon CCR) the dive requires not only the rebreather unit and its two tanks of oxygen and diluant (diluant can be air or trimix depending on the depth of the dive) but also two or three bailout tanks. Attached to all these tanks is a regulator, looking a bit different from a normal scuba regulator, with only one second-stage per first-stage, a pressure gauge and sometimes a low pressure inflator. Then we need a BCD to control buoyancy. These look a bit different from the recreational ones and mine has two inflation cells inside and a harness to hold it all together. Larry has his BCD and harness all together in one unit. We also carry multi-gas dive computers, surface markers with spools, dive knives, lights and back-ups of all of these. Then we work really hard to make it look neat and tidy and streamlined in the water! 

In reality getting in and out of the water can be the toughest part of the dive!

Analysing and labeling ALL tanks.

This kind of diving takes a lot of practice and demands a good deal of planning and attention to detail. If you make a mistake, you know it’s going to hurt! We have to practice, practice, practice.

 

Skills with tanks and a CCR rescue scenario.

So why do it at all? We made some amazing deep dives on sites that may not have been dived before. At 60m we found pristine sea fans, soft corals, sea whips and barrel sponges, not to mention all the trevallies, groupers, rays and fusiliers. We felt like pioneers discovering new dive sites and new parts of well established dive sites like West of Eden. I can’t wait to go again :D