Address of dive shop in Koh Tao

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

nicolas

Registered
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
Can anybody recommend a serious and professional dive shop offering a Divemaster course on Koh Tao ? I want to avoid diving shops cutting corners of the course. Thanks.
 
Originally posted by nicolas
Can anybody recommend a serious and professional dive shop offering a Divemaster course on Koh Tao ? I want to avoid diving shops cutting corners of the course. Thanks.
:)
I have been to Koh Tao once, for a week, i vent diving with big blue diving! But trawelling around (Thailand+indonesia) i meet a lot of people who recommended Budda view! Seems to be a god place to check out...

Best of luck

sommer
 
nicolas,
with all due respect to any/all koh tao operators, but koh tai is a dive factory, pumping out 1% of all PADI certs worldwide. it is the biggest certification producer in south east asia. pretty good for an island 7km x 3km big. there are more dive shops on the island than dive sites! also i wouldnt rate the diving in koh tao as being great at all. the water is so warm that most of the coral has been bleached. the only reason to dive there is to dive with the whale sharks around chumporn pinnacle.
some of the major companies are Buddha View, Bans, planet scuba etc. but i have heard from guys who do their DMs that they are in at 8am and out at 5pm, and you are nothing but another punk-ass backpacker going in the revolving door as an OW diver and out as a divemaster/instructor.
i dont want to knock koh tao because it is really beautiful and i had a great time there. i would go for one of the smaller, more personal, dive shops rather than the big ones. i liked New Heaven Dive Shop very much and run by a bloke from England called Devrim. he married a local girl there. they are a good laugh and you can stay at the best bungalows (in koh tao IMHO) called .... New Heaven bungalows at a better rate. NH bungalows is in sai-dang beach right by shark island and NH diveshop is in the bay next door.
but for a better experience why not try perhentian islands in malaysia for your DM. it has better diving than koh tao too.
please remember that this is just my opinion and dont mean to offend any KT loyals.
although if yure looking for a huge piss-up while doing your DM, then KT would be your best bet.
i hope i have helped insome small way.
James
 
James I could not agree more with you but see Koh Tao seemed a good option to get certified and move on (by the way I already dived in Perenthian islands). I also never planned to dive with the big shops. However, I'd very much like to discuss the indonesian option in more details as I am seriously reconsidering going to Koa Tao, a destination I was never thrilled about. I have many question about your other post to me, so would you mind giving me your email address at nicolas_leden@yahoo.com? It will be easier to communicate that way. Thanks in advance. Nicolas
 
If you insist on going Koh Tao, I recommend Scuba Junction for their safe and professional systems.

However, I highly rcommend you avoiding Koh Tao unless you want to see divers everyday instead of fishes.

Most divers are OW or AOW divers, the rest are DM or IDC students. DM or IDC students are not much better than the AOW or OW students there because many of those go from snorkelers to DMs in 30 days.

Scuba Juction only allows 16 divers on boat. But other shops have 40-50 on boats. Since they are all students, they all go to the same sites everyday.

There are over 30 shops on Koh Tao. In any diven day, you will have 300-500 divers on one site.

Good luck! Have fun with the 500 divers!
 
Hi Nicolas, I hope this post doesn't come too late for you to make your plans in Koh Tao... I've been there a couple of times and personally recommend Sunshine Divers... its away from the main beach area so its a lot more quiet and serene... however, they're affiliated to Ban's Dive Resort which has the biggest boats on the island and have the largest operations there... so you more or less get the best of both worlds...

I do agree however that the diving there ain't fantastic as it is more for OW and AOW divers... but it is a real fun place to go to if you intend to get your DM and make some great friends along the way! There are quite a couple of really seasoned divers who go back there 2-3 times a year just for the whale sharks...

have fun there!
 
If you want to consider Phuket as an alternative then look up Phuket Scuba Club on Kata Beach South. That is very professionally run. Koh Tao is a dive factory and they had some trouble back in Jan/feb when the owner of the largest dive shop on the island was gunned down. I would not want to go there.
 
Here is a report from Bangkok Post early this year:

TAO chief killed by masked man

Shot in daylight, talking to friends


A local administrative organisation chief and business tycoon was shot
dead by a masked gunman on Tao island early yesterday morning.

Virat Asavachin, 42, chairman of Tambon Koh Tao Administrative
Association, was shot while talking with three friends near Ree beach.

A lone gunman, his face covered with a woollen mask, walked up to the
group and fired six shots at Mr Virat, police said.

One of the bullets entered his left ear.

The gunman then walked calmly away towards the main road, witnesses told
police.

The dead man's wife, Ramluek, 29, and tambon organisation officials were
questioned yesterday as police investigators looked for a motive.

The investigators suspected the attack arose from either a business
conflict or a dispute over work in the tambon.

The victim owned Ban's Diving, a 100-million-baht diving business and
the largest dive shop on the resort island.

He recently began a ferry boat business serving the Chumphon-Koh Tao route.
 
Based on your very useful advice, I have decided not to go to Koh Tao for my DM and IDC courses. Thanks a lot.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom