Wreck Diving | Overhead Environments Courses

Diving overhead environments is a whole different ball game than any other form of technical diving. You are in enclosed spaces with no direct access to the surface.

Wreck Diving invites you to have a look at a part off the lesser-known underwater world. Colour ceases to exist, daylight no longer penetrates and nature has set aside a biological clock, especially made for the slow ticking world of overhead environments.

Technical Divers wishing to venture in historical overhead areas can follow us deeper into deep-sea Koh Tao where time has stood still. Go where few divers go and re-live life on board of a ship, venture into the bellows of the hull, engine rooms, passageways and passenger galleys.

Diving overhead environments is not everybody’s thing. Blue Label Diving in Thailand Phuket is specialised in the training for Overhead Environments such as the Advanced Wreck diving course, Cavern, Intro to cave and Full Cave diving courses.

With these courses you are taught how to safely dive these beautiful and dangerous diving locations.


TYPES OF WRECK DIVING

In his classical work on the subject, The Advanced Wreck Diving Handbook, Gary Gentile sub-divides wreck diving into three categories:

    • Non-penetration diving (i.e. swimming over the wreck)
    • Limited penetration diving, within the “light zone”
    • Full penetration diving, beyond the “light zone”

Each succeeding level involves greater risk, and will normally require greater levels of training, experience and equipment.

Non-penetration wreck diving is the least hazardous form of wreck diving, although divers still need to be aware of the entanglement risks presented by fishing nets and fishing lines which may be snagged to the wreck (wrecks are often popular fishing sites), and the underlying terrain may present greater risk of sharp edges.

Penetration within the light zone presents greater hazards due to overhead and greater proximity of the wreck’s structure, but because of the proximity of a visible exit point, and some amount of external light, those hazards are more manageable. However, there is clearly a greater risk of entanglement and silt-out inside of the structure, as well as the requirement to move laterally to a defined exit point before one can surface in the event of an emergency.

Full penetration involves the greatest level of risks, including the risk of getting lost within the structure, the risk of complete darkness in the event of multiple light failures, and the inability to escape unassisted in the event of a disruption to air supply.

These categorisations broadly coincide with the traditional division between “recreational” wreck diving (taught as a specialty course by recreational diver training agencies and normally limited to the “light zone” and/or 100-130 cumulative feet of depth plus penetration) and “technical” wreck diving (taught as a stand-alone course by technical diver training agencies).

Why Wreck diving

Wreck Diving – A shipwreck is attractive to divers for several reasons:

    • it is an artificial reef, which creates a habitat for many types of marine life
    • It often is a large structure with many interesting parts and machinery, which is not normally closely observable on working, floating vessels
    • it often has an exciting or tragic history
    • it presents new skill challenges for scuba divers
    • it is part of the underwater cultural heritage and may be an important archaeological resource and aviation archaeology
    • it provides a first-hand insight into context for the loss, such as causal connections, geographical associations, trade patterns and many other areas, providing a microcosm of our maritime heritage and maritime history.

WRECK DIVING IN THAILAND

Tec Divers have been fascinated with wreck diving for centuries; salvage of gold or other cargo, but in the recent years, more out of interest to answer open questions into how and why the ship did sink, what was on board? Blue label diving has a few flagship wrecks to offer for training or exploration;

Or wrecks else where in the World:

    • HMS Hermes of Sri Lanka
    • HMS Repulse and Prince of wales off Malaysia
    • Truk Lagoon
    • Scapa Flow
    • and many more
helitrox course
Steve line drill, no mask swim – wreck diving racha yai

All wrecks are deeper than 100Feet or 30 meters and need more decompression training before engaging in dives on them. Inform yourself about the possibilities of combining courses with expeditions to these wrecks and check our schedule for future trips.

Every year we receive more and more inquiries from diver who want to go wreck diving. At Blue Label Diving, we are not alone fully equipped with rugged wreck diving equipment, we also offer specialized courses as advanced wreck diving, Koh Tao and CCR diving all can be combined with the wreck trip of your choice.


WRECK DIVING COURSES

Wreck Diving invites you to have a look at a part off the lesser-known underwater world. Color ceases to exist, daylight no longer penetrates and nature has set aside a biological clock, especially made for the slow ticking world of overhead environments.

Technical Divers wishing to venture in historical overhead areas can follow us deeper into deep-seawrecks where time has stood still. Go where few divers go and re-live life on board of a ship, venture into the bellows of the hull, engine rooms, passageways and passenger galleys.

Tec Divers have been fascinated with wreck diving for centuries; salvage of gold or other cargo, but in the recent years, more out of interest to answer open questions into how and why the ship did sink, what was on board? 

EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS ALL COURSES
Primary and secondary regulators (for back gas or Sidemount set-up)Two stage/decompression regulators
Mask + Back-up maskBCD (wing) and harness or Sidemount Wing (with a min lift of 40 pounds)
Depth gauge/computer Timing device and backup timing device
Appropriate exposure suit 3mm or 5mm Knife/cutting device and backup
Two inflatable signal tubesReel and spool
Slate and backup slateCompass
Torch and Back-up torches (Trimix Diving, Wreck diving and cave diving courses)Hood - for Cave, Deep and Wreck Diving

BLUE LABEL CAN TEACH THE FOLLOWING WRECK COURSES ON OPEN CIRCUIT: TWINSET OR ON SIDEMOUNT –  AND ON CCR

TDI Advanced Wreck Diver
TDI advanced wreck diver course

The TDI Advanced Wreck Diving manual covers all the most commonly used wreck diving techniques in cold and warm water. The manual also covers team diving techniques and preservation of wrecks.

Minimum age: 18 years
Min certification/diver level: Advanced open Water diver, Basic Wreck or Cavern or equivalent.
Min amount of dives: 50 logged dives.


SSI EXTENDED RANGE WRECK
SSI Extended Range wreck diver course

The SSI Overhead course Extended Range wreck allows unlimited wreck penetration to a maximum depth of 50 meters.

Minimum Age: 18
Certification Prerequisites: Wreck Diving, Diver Stress & Rescue, Extended Range, Advanced Wreck or Cavern Diving, AOWD
75 logged dives


SSI TECHNICAL WRECK
SSI Technical wreck diver course

The SSI Overhead course technical wreck allows unlimited decompression wreck penetration to a maximum depth of 60 meters (during training).

Minimum Age: 18
Certification Prerequisites:Wreck Diving, Diver Stress & Rescue, Extended Range, Advanced Wreck or Cavern Diving, AOWD
75 logged dives


 

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