New Way IDC NewsA new IDC started again and we wish all of our candidates good luck during this IDC. Today we’re conducting a skill circuit and we do some divemaster theory. Make sure you bring all your equipment and tomorrow we will have a look at the schedule for the next coming days and all the materials you need.
Congratulations to everyone with your EFR Instructor rating. We had some great fun during the course but you were also very professional and serious. As soon as you get approval from PADI you can start teaching. If you need some more tips or if you want to attend a EFR workshop just drop me a e-mail. Take care and remember ALWAYS carry your gloves !!
Today we did an oxygen provider course for all our staff and everybody did really well. We are proud of having a 100 % safety record and with our highly trained staff we can keep it that way. Jim and Mike I will see you tomorrow for the Oxygen Provider Instructor Course. Have a nice day and remember be a SAFE diver.
Great dives today, we had some great fun during our search and recovery dive. We found 2 masks, 1 snorkel and also the object we had to recover. We brought it safely to the surface using a lift bag, well done guys. Tonight we do the night dive and than you’re all Master Scuba Diver Trainers !!
We had some great dives today at Chumpon. The deep dive to 40m on normal air was a bit cold because we hit the thermoclyne and the visibility went down to 2m. Nobody was really narced and you all did great on the simulated decompression stop. On the second dive we did the nitrox dive, we were the only boat there and the visibility was awesome ( 30m + ). Great job, see you all tomorrow for the search and recovery, multi level academics.
Today we did the nitrox acadamics and we had a look at the standards and the instructor outline. This afternoon we will pick up the tanks and tomorrow we will conduct the 40 m deep dive on air and the nitrox dives. See you all at 6.00 am !!
Congratulations to our new PADI Instructors !! Very well done on your Instructor exams. We Hope you have a good party tonight and we see you back on the 4th for your MSDT Program.
One more day to go, well done with your open water presentation and your rescue assessment. I must say that this was a real role model rescue assessment and I know you all will be great instructors. If you all do the same tomorrow as you did on your last confined water presentation you all be PADI Instructors around 1pm. Keep up the good work !!
Yesterday the Instructor Exams for the Divemaster theory and Standards took place in the Montra Resort on Koh Tao. Everybody passed with great scores so congratulations to all of you !!! Good luck with your classroom presentation and your open water presentation today.
The Thai New Year (Thai: สงกรานต์ Songkran, from Sanskrit sankrānti “astrological passage”; Chinese: 潑水節) is celebrated every year from April 13 to April 15. It coincides with the New Year of many calendars of Southand Southeast Asia.
The date of the festival was originally set by astrological calculation, but it is now fixed. If these days fall on a weekend, the missed days off are taken on the weekdays immediately following. If they fall in the middle of the week, many Thai take off from the previous Friday until the following Monday. Songkran falls in the hottest time of the year in Thailand, at the end of the dry season. Until 1888 the Thai New Year was the beginning of the year in Thailand; thereafter 1 April was used until 1940. 1 January is now the beginning of the year. The traditional Thai New Year has been a national holiday since then.
The most obvious celebration of Songkran is the throwing of water. People roam the streets with containers of water or water guns, or post themselves at the side of roads with a garden hose and drench each other and passersby. This, however, was not always the main activity of this festival. Songkran was traditionally a time to visit and pay respects to elders, including family members, friends and neighbors.
Besides the throwing of water, people celebrating Songkran may also go to a wat (Buddhist monastery) to pray and give food to monks. They may also cleanse Buddha images from household shrines as well as Buddha images at monasteries by gently pouring water mixed with a Thai fragrance over them. It is believed that doing this will bring good luck and prosperity for the New Year. In many cities, such as Chiang Mai, the Buddha images from all of the city’s important monasteries are paraded through the streets so that people can toss water at them, ritually ‘bathing’ the images, as they pass by on ornately decorated floats. In northern Thailand, people may carry handfuls of sand to their neighborhood monastery in order to recompense the dirt that they have carried away on their feet during the rest of the year. The sand is then sculpted into stupa-shaped piles and decorated with colorful flags.
Some people make New Year resolutions - to refrain from bad behavior, or to do good things. Songkran is a time for cleaning and renewal. Besides washing household Buddha images, many Thais also take this opportunity to give their home a thorough cleaning.
The throwing of water originated as a way to pay respect to people, by gently pouring a small amount of lustral water on other people’s hands or over a shoulder as a sign of respect. Among young people the holiday evolved to include dousing strangers with water to relieve the heat, since April is the hottest month in Thailand (temperatures can rise to over 100°F or 40°C on some days). This has further evolved into water fights and splashing water over people riding in vehicles.
Nowadays, the emphasis is on fun and water-throwing rather than on the festival’s spiritual and religious aspects, which sometimes prompts complaints from traditionalists. In recent years there have been calls to moderate the festival to lessen the many alcohol-related road accidents as well as injuries attributed to extreme behavior such as water being thrown in the faces of traveling motorcyclists.
The water is meant as a symbol of washing all of the bad away and is sometimes filled with fragrant herbs.
Songkran is also celebrated in many places with a paegant in which young women demonstrate their beauty and unique talents, as judged by the audience. The level of financial support usually determines the winner, since, to show your support you must purchase necklaces which you place on your chosen girl.
