We, as students, are not always easy and Marcel’s good explanation is intentionally interpreted the wrong way, more than once. To the hilarity of the other students. During dry practice of the skills on the beach, there is a moment when it goes completely wrong.

George needs to play an unconscious diver and Marcel shows what steps you have to go through to bring the diver to the surface. But George is less unconscious than he should be and before Marcel knows, he is lying on his back on the beach with George on top of him. During the course it never feels like we are “students” and Marcel is the “teacher”; it feels more like a group of friends, who have a great time together, joking and learning new things in the meantime.

The training involves a lot of practice under water. Each time one of us gets the role of instructor and has to teach “awkward students”. Each students receives an “assignment” to perform the exercise wrong, like not being able to clear your mask, not blowing bubbles if you don’t have your regulator in your mouth, etc. The dive instructor must quickly recognize the problem and solve it. On one occasion it almost goes completely wrong. I am the student who must pretend that I have no more air and then go over to do buddy-breathing with my buddy. It sounds very easy, but when I take the alternative air supply from my buddy, unnoticed the mouthpiece became half loose. Without being aware of it, I put the mouthpiece in my mouth and exhale forcefully. When I inhale, I get a big gulp of water in my mouth. I still think “Apparently I did not exhale properly.” So once again I empty my regulator and inhale again, with the same result. “How is this possible? I would like to have some air now.” Fortunately, Tobias, who has the role of instructor, responds very quickly and adequately and puts a working regulator in my mouth. Tobias, as far as I am concerned, you have already passed your exam!

The exams refer to school phobias. It is 2 days of sweating. More than 70 men/women in a room to do theory exams. You can almost smell the sweat. The PADI examiners do their best to reassure you, but that doesn’t really work. I am very relieved when I hear the final judgment and that I have passed the theory, eventually with flying colors. Through a “lottery” we are told which exercises we have to do for the practical exam. Unfortunately, I get an exercise where many things can go wrong and where you have to do the exercise completely over again. An extra challenge. In the afternoon we show our skills in the pool. The next morning we present our presentation skills in the classroom and in the afternoon we go into the sea for the final challenge. I can’t tell you how happy we are when we have all passed our exam!

Now we can train non-diving volunteers for CoralGardening ourselves. We can also help more experienced divers to a new level. Everyone is welcome! If you want to become a PADI Dive Instructor (IDC) yourself, contact Marcel.

Marcel and team, thank you so much for the nice inspiring lessons and thank you for your endless patience with us. We had a great time despite studying hard.

Thank you very much!

Frank and Veran

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July 29, 2018 EcoDay: A boat full of divers and equipment is on its way to Hin Wong Bay to deploy the Thai Wai hands …

Hands that have been designed and constructed in recent months by Veran, Willem, Emiel and Frank, and many others.

The hands have the shape of the Thai “Wai“. The Wai is the Thai gesture and also our gesture to greet and thank the community of Koh Tao for making a positive impact on their island.

A few days before they were deployed, there was a ceremony on the beach, next to Sairee Cottage Diving. This caused attention and interest from many volunteers who wanted to help a ‘hand’ in placing the structure underwater a few days later.

“A few years ago I came into contact with Veran and Frank and heard of their dream to realize a CoralGarden that is both intended as a new reef to create more life in the sea, but also a nice place for divers to see beautiful underwater life. As a diver and a lover of documentaries, especially from Jacques Cousteau (from the sixties of the last century and the first in black and white!), my interest in contributing something to the CoralGardening foundation was immediately awakened.
In recent years I have seen the CoralGarden grow from the Netherlands. In the meantime it had been possible to place 8 flowers under water by beautiful donations. The show-piece, the Wai Hands, was placed on July 29, and I could be there! The day was not only festive but also a logistical challenge. After all, the hands are more than 3 meters high, sometimes there is current, strong winds and therefore strong waves and steel and seawater are enemies, as Willem says.

With careful thinking and experience with previous placement of the flowers, the design team made the foundations, palms and the ten fingers as separate components. The hands could be easily assembled under water. A simple modular system that we will certainly take with us to future projects in perhaps other countries ..? To allow the hands to stand upright, the palms are placed on a steel foundation. These have to be ballasted, so there are also around 30 bags of stones. These foundations and hands are made of steel and therefore rust through the seawater. This process is delayed by an electric current that is passed through from land. The current is generated by a solar panel which is placed on land earlier and from which about 200 meters of cable runs under water to the hands.

Now all we have to do is to walk the parts of the workshop to the beach, and from the beach to small longtails. There everything, including the approximately 25 volunteers, are being brought to the big boat that takes us to Hin Wong Bay. Big Blue and Mojo Divers make their boats available for this special mission. We are very grateful to them for that!

Once in Hin Wong Bay, everything from the boat was brought down with liftbags, by divers. Underwater the hands were put together and the foundations were covered with stones.

I thought it was a fantastic experience to be able to be part of this enormously important work for nature and the coral! Many other types of artificial reefs will have to be placed to restore the coral reefs. But at the same time, I see how many people volunteer for this good cause and are willing to spend days and sometimes weeks. That is also very encouraging for Veran and Frank to continue with their good work.

We still hope for the efforts of many volunteers, but also for many donations to continue this work for many years in different places around the world.

Donate for materials through CoralGardening.org.
Make sure Veran and Frank can continue their work through Patreon.com/frankvera

Photos: Carla August, Lee Jellyman and Frank van Klaveren

The post Dream becomes reality appeared first on CoralGardening.

This year in July I went back to finish the project.
Constructing the giant steel hands wasn’t always easy. Working with very limited resources, in temperatures well above 30 degrees and mother nature who made welding impossible with heavy rain.

Photo’s Carla August

But when we, with the help of many people, finally had the hands in place on the bottom and during my safety stop with Frank back to the surface, I looking down to see those giant hands standing in the CoralGarden, the reward couldn’t be any greater!

Photo Lee Jellyman

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Unlike the actual gesture you make with your hands to greet or thank someone, these hands are a bit open so divers can practise their bouyancy skills by swimming through. This weekend the Hands are going down in the water!

Over the last 1,5 year, during the periods we were on Koh Tao, we have created an artificial reef called the CoralGarden. The reef was made during workshops together with many volunteers, from DMT’s from various dive schools, tourists to school kids and local / long staying people on Koh Tao. Also we gave presentations at EcoDay’s, for diveschools, tourists, kids etc. about coral reefs, the ocean and possible solutions to make less negative, or even a positive impact on them.

We have opened the hearts of different people and hope to have inspired many to care more about the world in which we live. Our work doesn’t stop here, but with finishing the Thai Wai Hands we would like to thank all who contributed to realising the CoralGarden.

Photos made by Carla August Photography
Carla thank you very much for the beautiful pictures.

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Opposite the main bar, there was a water station where you could get free water refill. The Get Involved booth was located next to the water station so you could buy a stainless steel Trash Hero bottle if you didn’t have a refillable bottle yet. All profits made from the sale of the bottles were donated to the local action group “Save Koh Tao” for future sustainable solutions on Koh Tao.

We organised two CoralGardening workshops. Create your own artificial reef with selfmade play dough and draw marine life on our wavy walls of sheets. Here is a short photo impression of the festival.

Thanks to everyone who helped to make the Save Koh Tao festival a success!

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Nothing is more fun to notice that it actually exists. On Koh Tao there is a so-called co-workspace, the Tao Hub where digital nomads come together and can work. It is an office, including large outdoor terrace to work. It is more than a workplace. There are cozy couches for chilling, friendly faces and some pets to de-stress. In the afternoon lunch is served and you can eat together good homemade Thai delicacies, and if there is something to celebrate, the barbeque is taken from the shed or wraps are being made. The manager, Moe, knows how to make a party every time.

It is the ideal place to meet people who travel the world and work at the same time. It is not only programmers who do this, but also trainers. We meet Ryan and Kim from CodingNomads. They organize a Coding Bootcamp where people in 2 months time will be trained from “nitwits” to become programmers. In a third month they work together on a project to convert the learned experience into practice. Check their website and read about their experience with the Tao Hub.

As said, it is the place to meet people. We are happy that non-divers are also interested in the story about coral reefs. We give the programmers a lecture about the importance of coral reefs and the work of CoralGardening. They are very inspired and a number of young programmers and their trainers come to the workshop on their day off, to roll up their sleeves.

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The local action group Get Involved Koh Tao every month organizes an EcoDay and is active to persuade bars to stop using plastic straws and plastic cups. On EcoDay many divers, freedivers and tourists from different diveschools come together to get a morning full of education with presentations and documentaries. In the afternoon the group is split up to do a beach clean-up, a reef clean-up and join building or assembling the new artificial reef under water.

We know the drill of building a flower underwater with divers, but freediving is quiet a bit different. Bringing parts of structures down with freedivers has been done before. And now is the next challenge, assembling the flower. A pair of two freedivers take a deep breath, go down and assemble a piece of the flower. When you “run out of air”, you go up and do your recovery breath. On the surface your buddy keeps an eye out for your safety. Then the next pair goes down and assembles the next leaf, etcetera. Sometimes it takes longer to put a piece in the flower, so when you can’t hold your breath any longer you have to leave it for the next team. It is great fun to work on the flower as a team. Great for the team spirit as well!

All the freedivers had to go down many times. When they came back on the boat, they were really exhausted. But I will never forget the smiles on their faces!

Thanks to Blue Immersion for their involvement creating a few flowers on our workplace and assembling the flower under water. Big thanks to Ocean Candy for the beautiful video!

Thank you for all (divers and freedivers) who participated in this amazing achievement! It was great to have one big boat full of dive enthusiasts sharing this experience with different dive methods. Wonderful to see we all share the same passion!

And of course thanks to our local partners on Koh Tao and the sponsors and donators from all over the world. Thank you to all who make this possible!

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see the video of planting the flower.

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On June 30, there was the monthly EcoDay on Koh Tao and CoralGardening took this opportunity to put two new statues down underwater, with the volunteers who made it. There were two groups for the two statues, one with scuba divers led by Charlotte and Emiel and one with freedivers led by Vera. Me myself had taken the job of supplying the materials from the boat to the divers. Fortunately, I could just take part in assembling under water, by filling the flower with the ballast and placing the top on one of the flowers. The assembling of a flower by the freedivers was a new experience for me and many of us. Also because it is the first time an artificial reef has been created, put down and assembled by freedivers.

During their presence on Koh Tao, Frank and Vera are experimenting with materials. In addition to the concrete mache developed by CoralGardening in 2015, we have also made flowers consisting of metal and sisal. In my opinion the concrete-mache flowers are more beautiful to see, but they are also harder to plant coral on, an important thing. With the ropes, it is easier to open the rope and place the coral between the fibers and then close the rope so that it holds the coral. They also experiment with a full metal flower. This new flower has the great advantage that these are much easier to connect to Bob’s Coral Aid.

After this successful placement, we organized a “CoralGardening only” construction morning. With the five of us (me, Frank, Vera, Emiel and Charlotte) we made various leafs, with Charlotte learning to weld. This was a very charming face. Later during my holiday we did this again, by that time Charlotte was already back in the Netherlands. I was able to discover my own welding qualities and was not dissatisfied with the result, and even the critical Vera could live with the final product.

Charlotte gets a lecture from Emiel.

I also learned to weld.

And yes, now you have flowers underwater so then you need some coral on it. One week after the placement we went to the CoralGarden by longtail, twice in one week with the CoralGardening crew. We collect broken pieces of coral from the sandy bottom, that are still alive and place it on the flowers. Half of the corals we put on the rope flower and the rest on the concrete flowers. It proved to be true that correct coral placement is a skill. It is important that the coral is firmly connected so that it can attach itself to the substrate, the flowers in this case.

Finally, the building of the flowers and planting coral on it, is great fun to do. But it must also be maintained and of course it has to be monitored if it is growing well. We returned with the longtail and we strengthened the foundations of one of the flowers and we cleaned the concrete mache leaf from the algae that growth on it. We also did a baseline measurement of the size of the coral and the degree of bleaching. Now I’m curious about the results in a half year. And oh yes, I have learned something new: diving slates FLOAT. When you are at eleven meters and you are focussed on measuring, and when you look up to see your notes floating to the surface. My reaction was not something recommended by dive instructors, but I could finish my notes at least.

Summarizing, it was a great and productive holiday and it gave me a good feeling about the project.

Arjan Blaauw

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In the afternoon I joined them at a flower building workshop. I was feeling kid again for a few hours. Bending metal, sculpting with chicken wire and “paper mache’ing” with concrete and cloths.

After the workshop Frank an I started chatting. I wanted to know more about coral and artificial reefs. I just had no clue yet what I could offer the project. Time passed by. Frank and Vera went back to Holland to raise money for the project. I started doing my instructor course and we kind of lost touch. Till in early February Frank and Vera came back to the island and I bumped into them again during another Eco Day. I joined another workshop and I guess I had some smart ideas how to improve the project. That’s when things started to roll.

Since then I started to become more and more part of CoralGardening. I have a background in Engineering and Frank and Vera on regular basis throw constructional problems at me what is fun for me to solve. We have hours long brainstorm sessions about how we can improve the project and what we can change. At the same time Frank and Vera educate me more about coral and building artificial reefs.

But not just that. Frank and Vera inspired people to think further. Building an artificial reef is cool and fun to do, but it is very small scale. In my opinion this is not the only solution to solve bigger issues like coral bleaching and climate change. Inspired by the flower building project, I started thinking about what I can do to improve our ocean. Personally I think that awareness, educating people about what is happening to our ocean and our world is important. Based on that thought I’m now working on setting up a presentation for Thai school kids to educate them what is happening with our ocean. And hopefully soon I will be giving this presentation throughout different cities in Thailand!

What inspires you? What can you do to improve our ocean? Think about it for 5 min. Talk about it with your friends. It doesn’t have to be big, every little bit helps!!

Thanks Frank and Vera for all the fun and inspiration so far. Hopefully much more to come!!

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1. Reduce the use of energy, water and raw materials. Choose for renewable energy sources. Climate change accelerates both the rise of the ocean water temperature as ocean acidification. Both are bad for corals.
   The Footprint Challenge
   Sustainable Lifestyle
2. Reduce and recycle waste: In the Netherlands, plastic is only partially recycled. Most of it gets burned or landfilled. Street waste eventually ends up in the ocean. Choose sustainable products.
   The Majestic Plastic Bag (Mockumentary: how litter ends up in the ocean)
   Zero Waste Home
   GreenBiz – What makes a sustainable product?
3. Get rid of your car. Go hiking, take the bicycle or public transport. If it’s impossible to get rid of your car, choose an electric car.
   Sustainable Mobility
4. Learn more about the ocean, for example by watching documentaries, reading books, discussing with family, friends or organizing a theme evening at your local association.
   Movies for action
   Ocean Documentaries
5. With spending your money you vote for what matters to you, every time you do so. But what does your bank do with the money on your account? Switch to a sustainable bank.
   Global Alliance for Banking on Values
6. Support an organization that protects the ocean (donate money or time) and sign petitions that contribute to a clean and healthy ocean.
   Overview different organizations
7. Do not eat fish: there is no sustainable fishing, we are emptying our ocean. Fish is necessary for the natural balance of our seas. They eat fast-growing algae that are in conflict with coral.
   Overfishing
   National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – Overfishing
   If you want to eat fish, know which fish is critical endangerd with extinction!
   By-catch

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