Hello everyone and thank you for tuning in. We have been busy little bees here in Khao Lak, with the season now in full swing, plenty of memories have already been made. Our staff are working hard (and playing hard) to ensure all guests expectations are being met, and exceeded. In addition to diving, snorkelling, camping, and liveaboard fun, our eco projects too, are top priority.

The first thing I would like to share with you is about our. Over the past few seasons, Wicked has built, and placed 3 artificial reef projects close by to one of our favourite local dive sites, Boonsung Wreck. There is the porcelain head (fancy terminology for a toilet!) the great pyramid and the peace pipe. The last survey of reef and marine life growth was taken by our Divemaster trainees in March, 2013. Myself, Dmt Mentor Julio, and his 3 minions went out to the wreck to do a mapping project just the other day, and I am pleased to announce the incredible amount of growth in both reef and marine life! Not one, but 2 honeycomb morays have found a new home in our structures, along with multiplied amounts of glass fish, dancing Durban and banded boxer shrimp, Moorish idols, puffer fish, scorpion fish, a blue spotted stingray and so much more. This just goes to show how much our efforts are really paying off. Not only does the artificial reef take stress away from the wreck itself, but is also providing a home for many varied marine life. We are stoked!!! So with this news, we are already planning to add another structure for the next set of dive master trainees to build and add to our growing artificial village! Yay

In other news, we have already had a few visits to this season. On our last visit, I taught the children how to make friendship bracelets. They love it, I love it, and you too, will love it. They have been learning different patterns, using many different colours, and making bracelets and anklets so that we can sell them to our guests, and 100% of the profit will go directly to the child that made the bracelet. We are always looking for ways to increase their revenue, and it gives them a new fun craft to do. Christmas is just around the corner, and these little beauties are great stocking stuffers!

From our Similan Liveaboard http://htl.li/r0GNo We have been loving cruising around in eco-friendly style bicycles! The DMTs have been riding them all over town, and to prove they have been serving a great purpose, all of them have passed their watermanship tests, because their legs have been getting such great exercise. The new set of DMTs will be arriving in just a few days time, and I can only hope that they too will get such great enjoyment out of their new set of wheels Beach Clean ups. On every liveaboard trip and Surin Snorkel trip done this season so far, Wicked has been making a difference on all of the beautiful beaches they visit. A little bit really does go a long way, and if we continue to lead by example, we are hoping that all of the dive shops and locals will feel inclined to get involved and help out. It is imperative that we protect what we love. Even when we feel discouraged, we keep on keeping on.

Shark Data Collection.

We have implemented a shark survey on all of our liveaboard trips. Sharks. We love sharks. We have been so lucky and blessed this season with the amount of sightings we have had already! Whale shark, white tips, black tips, and leopard sharks! We will be continuing to collect the data throughout the whole season, as it as just as important to record what we DON’T see, as what we DO. We will be working with Shark Guardian on this, and we hope that we can see a consistent amount of sharks, or even better yet, an increase. It is important to stay positive, not all hope is lost.

Thanks for reading! Until next time…

-Wicked Diving Thailand