Going to Koh Tao to become a divemaster

[DevonDiver]

...while the diving is superior, I doubt very much that's true at the beginner OW sites. DevonDiver, you'll know the teaching site, whereas I was a paying diver. Please advise

When I used to OW teach on Mabul, the student would stop for lunch. I'd jump back in with my camera....go to find the Mandarin fish, turtles, hairy frogfish, ornate ghost pipefish, blue spotted octo, flambouyant cuttlefish..... Every dive on Mabul was a fish-spotters/photographers delight.... in fact, every 10 minutes on every dive revealed a new treasure. It didn't really matter wherever you jumped in around the island... the marine life was incredible..

To be honest, the worst dive on Mabul would easily eclipse the most epic dive possible on Koh Tao.

Koh Tao has the 'top-side' vibe... the cool bars, the nice restaurants, the chill out ambiance, the crazy parties, the beautiful and crazy people. It's great for those reasons.... but don't, for a second, think that it's a world-class diving destination.

Mabul is diving heaven. But it's a basic sort of place with a very limited apres-dive scene. Dive-eat-sleep. But oh... the DIVING!

For a newly minted open water diver, Koh Tao is probably a nice enough experience. You don't know what you don't know - and you don't miss what you've never had before. At that stage of your diving, it's cool enough to log seeing some parrot fish and a 'nemo'. Heck... I learned to dive in a UK quarry. I thought seeing a crayfish and a fleeting glimpse of a pike was mind-blowing at that time...

 

[Salt]

I just got back from backpacking around Thailand. (I'll do a write-up in a different thread.) I did stop in Koh Tao for about 5 days and dove for three of them. I will confirm the general sense of this thread that topside life is great (especially if you are 20-40) while the diving is just okay. Beautiful little island. Lots of young people around. If you want to hang out, have a good time, and get your DM -with an emphasis on the social side of things and not dive quality- Koh Tao will work wonderfully!

Ko Phi Phi off the West coast is another possibility. The island is not as pretty, less dive-centric, and there is more of a hard-core party scene there, but I thought the diving was better.

 

[Lemuzzon]

For a newly minted open water diver, Koh Tao is probably a nice enough experience. You don't know what you don't know - and you don't miss what you've never had before. At that stage of your diving, it's cool enough to log seeing some parrot fish and a 'nemo'. Heck... I learned to dive in a UK quarry. I thought seeing a crayfish and a fleeting glimpse of a pike was mind-blowing at that time...

This to a "T". I got certified there and thought it was awesome. I saw lots of cool stuff that I've never seen before. To be honest, now that I've dove many better places I still feel that it's a little underrated there.

Out of everywhere I've been in the world Koh Tao is still numero uno on my list of favourite overall places.

 

[wiltol]

Hi guys, thanks for all of your posts and sorry i've been away for so long. I did go to Koh Tao in the end for my dmt, started off at one of the party schools, had a blast but in the end I decided I didn't want to fritter away my money going out everynight and assisting courses where the sole aim was to make the customers happy and to get them to do their advanced straight after. I moved schools and moved to Sairee cottage which anyone who has been to Koh tao before will probably agree is one of the most well run, organised and professional schools on the island.

Having now qualified as a divemaster my aim is to head to indonesia - again like before, I only have until July but I just want to dive! I did really enjoy every aspect of the DM programme and ended up assisting 7 OW's, 4 Adv and 2 rescues, aswell as a load of reviews and DSD's.

Another huge favour to ask to those who have been diving in indonesia before - I am looking for the same sort of thing, a good mixture of great diving and a social scene. I have been recommended by a friend that Raja Ampat, Komodo and Pulau Weh are all great, but was wondering if anyone could give me any more advice. I'm planning to head off at the beginning of next week so I'm sure i'll find out alot of information on the way over but any info at all would be greatly appreciated!!!!!