Tec Diving Hits the Coolidge

Dive Log, July 2005 by Jennifer Spry

The SS President Coolidge. If you haven’t dived it already,then it’s probably on your wish list. As one of the top wreck dives in the world, it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before - starting in 20 meters of warm, calm, tropical waters and extending down a slope 200 metres to its maximum depth of 70 meters.

“The Coolidge has got to be the ultimate tec diving wreck. Choose your depth and you can just about penetrate her anywhere”

Most divers who have explored the Coolidge have travelled the beaten path. The very impressive Promenade Deck, which introduces you to the unbelievable size of this magnificent wreck. The Lady, a stunning painted ceramic statue that greets divers after full penetration at 40 metres. The Engine Room, fully intact at 50 metres, where you can still read the telegraphs and the captain’s final command before the ship sank. But few divers have really explored the technical diving opportunities available on the SS President Coolidge…until now.

As more and more divers take the next step in their dive training and enter the realm of technical diving, they are often left with the question, “where can I use all of my new skills and qualifications?” The wreck of the SS President Coolidge is the obvious answer. When it comes to tec diving, it’s hard to imagine a better place or a better training ground than the Coolidge. And there is no better dive operator for tec diving on the Coolidge than Aquamarine.

Aquamarine divers agree. Neil Bennett, a photo-journalist with Seven Seas Explorer, travelled all the way from the UK just for the chance to tec dive on the Coolidge. “The Coolidge has got to be the ultimate tec diving wreck. Choose your depth and you can just about penetrate her anywhere” he said. “It is very rare to find a wreck still full of artifacts and covered in such vivid marine life that few reefs can better.”

Neil obviously found what he was looking for on the Coolidge. He is returning next year when he will be leading a team of 15 tec divers from the UK to explore all the Coolidge has to offer. A group of tec divers traveling half-way around the globe is a testament to the SS President Coolidge as a tec diving destination and to Aquamarine as a tec diving facility. “When undertaking this sort of diving, it is essential that you are backed up by a professional technical operation. Aquamarine fits this job description perfectly,” Neil said.

Aquamarine is the only shop in Vanuatu set up to cater to tec divers with a range of services and courses to satisfy any tec diving enthusiast.

As for tec training, it really doesn’t get any better than the Coolidge. The tropical conditions of Espirtu Santo and the accessibility of the Coolidge make it an ideal site for training. The Coolidge itself is located just 15 minutes from local accommodations and is easily accessible by either boat or shore. It’s also one of the few places in the world where divers have access to depth, warmth, and wreck all year round. Water temperatures range from a toasty 29c in the summer to a refreshing 26c in the winter. These calm tropical waters make it possible for Aquamarine to dive the Coolidge every single day, 365 days a year.

Earlier this year, Snorkel Inn Dive Centre in Sydney took advantage of the opportunity to train on the Coolidge. To complement the standard Coolidge trip, they also offered their divers the chance to do some tec training with Aquamarine. Out of a group of 15 divers, 5 of them opted to use 4 of their booked dives to successfully complete their TDI Decompression Procedures course. “The course we took with Aquamarine was a great success,” said John and Robyn Bambury, owners of Snorkel Inn Dive Centre. “What a magnificent place to undertake a course. And what a professional crew to do it with.”

For over 17 years, Aquamarine has been diving and guiding on the Coolidge and they have built a reputation based on fun, professional and safe diving services. Aquamarine has single-handedly developed tec diving on the Coolidge and many of their guides are trained in Decompression Procedures, Advanced Nitrox and Extended Range. They have extensive knowledge of the wreck and their guides have logged over 30,000 combined dives on the Coolidge alone.

Aquamarine is the only shop in Vanuatu set up to cater to tec divers with a range of services and courses to satisfy any tec diving enthusiast. Aquamarine began offering tec diving and tec training over 7 years ago and this year, they have further expanded their tec offerings to include Trimix and Trimix training. They have a full time TDI Instructor Trainer as well as TDI Instructors on staff and they are set up to take full advantage of all the Coolidge has to offer. In addition to a full range of PADI, SSI and SDI recreational courses Aquamarine now offers TDI Decompression Procedures, TDI Advanced Nitrox, TDI Extended Range, both TDI Entry Level and Advanced Trimix as well as a selection of Tec Instructor Courses.

While Aquamarine runs a wide range of courses themselves, they also encourage other dive shops to run their courses in Vanuatu and use Aquamarine as their overseas location. Last year, Dive Dive Dive in Queensland ran a Trimix course using Aquamarine’s facility. And already this year, 4 dive shops have booked tec courses on the Coolidge as part of their dive trips with Aquamarine.

“Barry Holland has become an invaluable partner in my quest to explore and photograph the stern area of the Coolidge. His knowledge of the ship is unsurpassed and his passion for technical diving makes Aquamarine the logical choice of dive operator for any visitor to Santo”

“When a dive shop uses Aquamarine’s facility to run a course, divers get the amazing opportunity to train on the Coolidge,” says Barry Holland, Managing Director of Aquamarine and a TDI Instructor Trainer. “Having dived all around the world, I can’t imagine a better training site for tec diving than the Coolidge and, in my opinion, the more divers who get that experience, the better.”

In a similar vain, TDI Instructor Trainer Jason Blackwell from Dive Dive Dive is running the first ever rebreather “ONLY” trip to the SS President Coolidge in November. Earlier this year, Jason explored the Coolidge on his KISS “Sport” Rebreather and he agrees that the Coolidge is a whole new wreck when tec diving. “I have run about a dozen trips to dive the Coolidge with Aquamarine and the last few times I have taken one of my rebreathers,” he says. “The Coolidge is an ideal site for tech diving and with the "Rebreather World Trip" in November of this year, I’m hoping to help CCR divers make the most of their chosen units. I can’t think of a better place than the Coolidge to take advantage of the longer bottom times and shorter decompression that CCR and tec diving offer.”

But you don’t need to travel with a dive shop to take tec diving courses with Aquamarine. Courses are available throughout the year and individual and private instruction can also be arranged.

For divers who already have tec qualifications, Aquamarine’s services for tec divers are a welcome change. In the past, even tec divers had to follow the traditional route of working their way down the wreck, gradually getting deeper each day and finally hitting the more challenging stuff just as they were finishing their holiday. But Aquamarine asks tec divers to make just one or two dives to 30-40 metres to sort out their gear and then welcomes them on tec tours of the Coolidge as early as the second day of their holiday.

Dr. Richard “Harry” Harris, originally from Adelaide, is now living in Port Vila, Vanuatu’s capital, where he works as the Doctor of Anaesthesia and Diving Medicine at Vila Hospital. He is thrilled by the opportunity to get tec on the Coolidge and travels to Santo regularly to dive with Aquamarine. “Barry Holland has become an invaluable partner in my quest to explore and photograph the stern area of the Coolidge. His knowledge of the ship is unsurpassed and his passion for technical diving makes Aquamarine the logical choice of dive operator for any visitor to Santo,” he says.

Perhaps the experience of tec diving on the Coolidge is best captured by Trevor Jackson. “The wreck of the President Coolidge is set to become an icon for technical divers, both in terms of training and actual diving. Where else in the world, can you walk straight off the beach and do a 70 metre dive on a WWII wreck jam packed with military hardware?” he says.

“Barry and the team at Aquamarine can guide and train you through this colossal wreck from open water right though to Trimix diver level. Aquamarine’s knowledge and experience teamed with the enormity and depth of the SS President Coolidge makes an unbeatable combination; and technical diving is the winner.”

Thanks, Trevor. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.