Id recommend against it for a few reasons. One is that liveabords often go to more challenging sites with more current, deeper features etc. You are not ready for that until several more dives. If you dont have buoyancy down and good air consumption you will struggle. If you do decide the liveaboard get a private dive guide. You will get the attention you need and not piss off your dive buddy when you surface from a cool Manta dive inn 20 min! Thats not a good way to make dive friends!
New Diver Considering Liveaboard Trip
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After my wife and I got certified, a liveaboard was our first time diving salt water. We had a few local quarry dives under our weightbelts by then, but hadn't been in the ocean. No regrets at all about jumping right into the liveaboard.
Being embedded with the crew for the week meant that they got to know us, as well as the rest of the passengers, so they picked sites that worked for the group as a whole. We didn't come away feeling that any of them were too advanced for us. Keep in mind that while there might be others on the boat who technically have more dives in their logbooks, they may not have been in the water recently, and IMO that's possibly more of a challenge than someone fresh out of OW class. You still have all of the things you learned fresh in your mind, while they're trying to remember how to assemble their gear after not having been in the water in a year or more.
Biggest challenge for us I think was in figuring out weighting, being the first time in salt water, but that's why a good liveaboard starts the trip with a site that's appropriate for doing a checkout and getting weighting correct. Once we got that squared away, the rest of the week was a piece of cake.
As other mentioned, don't be afraid to sit out a dive. There will be more where that came from.
Most liveaboards seem to have instructors on-board - taking a class while on the trip gets you the class, and also means that you're going to have at least a couple of dives with the instructor to get comfortable. Most that I've met really enjoy doing classes for customers and appreciate the excuse to dive.
I've done one liveaboard 'solo', and ended up buddying up with my assigned roomate most of the week, but readily found other buddies when he (or I) sat out a dive. That in itself is great experience, especially if you normally have a regular dive buddy. Roomie was one of those one-a-year divers...
Being embedded with the crew for the week meant that they got to know us, as well as the rest of the passengers, so they picked sites that worked for the group as a whole. We didn't come away feeling that any of them were too advanced for us. Keep in mind that while there might be others on the boat who technically have more dives in their logbooks, they may not have been in the water recently, and IMO that's possibly more of a challenge than someone fresh out of OW class. You still have all of the things you learned fresh in your mind, while they're trying to remember how to assemble their gear after not having been in the water in a year or more.
Biggest challenge for us I think was in figuring out weighting, being the first time in salt water, but that's why a good liveaboard starts the trip with a site that's appropriate for doing a checkout and getting weighting correct. Once we got that squared away, the rest of the week was a piece of cake.
As other mentioned, don't be afraid to sit out a dive. There will be more where that came from.
Most liveaboards seem to have instructors on-board - taking a class while on the trip gets you the class, and also means that you're going to have at least a couple of dives with the instructor to get comfortable. Most that I've met really enjoy doing classes for customers and appreciate the excuse to dive.
I've done one liveaboard 'solo', and ended up buddying up with my assigned roomate most of the week, but readily found other buddies when he (or I) sat out a dive. That in itself is great experience, especially if you normally have a regular dive buddy. Roomie was one of those one-a-year divers...
nippurmagnum
Contributor
A camera is a HUGE distraction for someone who is just starting out in diving. It's to your credit that you are asking whether a liveaboard would be too challenging for someone just starting out -- and on that front, I would say that it's essential to dive as much as possible, as soon after your OW course as possible, so that you really cement your basic dive skills. But a camera will just get in the way of that. Underwater photography requires a whole bunch of new skills that require a lot of competence with diving generally -- and I'd say you should probably not event think of picking up a camera until you've had at least 100 dives, if you want to be safe and to get good pictures. And absolutely, I've found that most divers are happy to share their pictures -- particularly pictures of YOU -- if you ask nicely. Some photography pros with $15,000 rigs will sometimes ask that you pay for high-resolution images of particularly great shots, but usually it's a very reasonable price, and it's for images that you never would have gotten yourself anyway -- especially in you are in the image, because underwater selfies are virtually impossible to pull off. For example, a photographer took a perfectly composed and lit shot of my daughter and me as a lemon shark passed between us; he shared a low-res image suitable for social media for free, and charged us something like $10 for the high res image. Considering that his rig was worth more than my car, that was a ridiculously good bargain.
If youre worried about pics maybe do your courses and diving before taking a trip away. Then you will have had time to work on basic skills and good bounanacy control before worrying about taking pictures.
To be honest good bounanacy is important anyways before you get the really good pics.
Scoo
Registered
I'd recommend against a live aboard right away. Not because it would be a disaster or anything. But, I think you'll have more fun on the liveaboard if you have more experience and some of the basics down first. If you want to dive a lot, consider a place like Bonaire and do a lot of shore dives. Keep it to some of the easier entry sites first, or get a guide for some of the more challenging ones. I think this would be a lot of fun for a diver wanting to build up experience because you can go a little bit more at your own pace.
Griffo
Contributor
My 2c would be to follow your original plan and go to Koh Tao. There's more than enough dive sites to keep you interested for several weeks. Go to a smaller school like Master Divers where they'll keep numbers low at all times. You'll have plenty of basic through to challenging dives sites chosen to match your skill level. As a new diver you'll see more than enough to keep you interested, you can do your OW, Nitrox plus maybe your AOW and even a photography course for dirt cheap.
Liveaboards can vary quite a bit with respect to skill level and the sites you visit. If you plan on doing it, do some research on the itinerary and dive conditions as well as the skill level that is recommended. My advice is a get a few more dives in, it will help to build your confidence and skills so that when you do eventually do a liveabaord it will be more enjoyable and I think you'll get much more out of it.
outofofficebrb
HARRO HUNNAYYY
I applaud you for considering a liveaboard so early on. It is definitely intimidating for some and a significant commitment. I suggest doing some day boat dives and land based diving doing 3-4 tanks a day for multiple days in a row first to see how you like the schedule and feeling of doing so many dives a day. A liveaboard is not only a large time commitment but significant amount of $ and knowing that you are really into that schedule and have a seaworthy stomach and legs (even with the help of motion sickness pills) before going is super helpful. It’s a long time to be on the boat and even longer if you aren’t well. As a new diver, my buoyancy wasn’t great and I don’t think I would have been able to really appreciate the diving that a liveaboard has to offer because I would have been so focused on my buoyancy and other things like air consumption, weighting, general comfort instead of enjoying the beautiful coral and life that is usually not seen on land based excursions.
Many boats in Thailand allow OW certifications on liveaboards.
Many people who seek liveaboards pay a decent amount to be there and commit a lot of time to be there because they are really into diving. It is not meant to be harsh to make you feel bad, but pure honesty - most if not all divers would prefer to have an experienced partner at or above their experience because they don’t want to be surfacing early due to their buddy being low or out of air or not being able to dive a particular site due to currents or depth because of their experience level. (Most people reduce their weights needed and/or improve air consumption as time goes on.) It’s usually better and easier if the diving is set up so that each buddy group surfaces on their own but not so much when the whole group has to come up. Conditions of the diving and the operator will often determine whether this is the case.
With that said....If you’ve decided you like the idea of a liveaboard, I suggest hiring a private guide. The Similans is a pretty inexpensive place to do a liveaboard (rivaled only by the Red Sea in pricing) so the additional cost of a private guide and budgeting for the entire liveaboard is very attainable and affordable. That way you can relax and concentrate on your diving while not worrying about your impact on others. You will probably get some good advice and tips from the DM and even get your own critter spotting.
Liveaboards are a great way to improve your diving in a short amount of time because you’re diving so often in such a short amount of time. You can take feedback or experiences from one dive and apply it to the next. Dining and hotel are right there - no getting back and forth to the shop or pier. More time to reflect and relax. Should you choose this route, I highly suggest getting your own gear. It’s so much easier when things fit properly and you are familiar with them. It’s one less thing to worry or think about. The next time you get back in the water in the same gear, you’ll know how much weight you need rather than extrapolating from the last set of rentals you used because it’s always different.I love liveaboards and can tell you that they’re a lot of fun. I’ve met a lot of amazing people on them and have even traveled with them on new trips afterwards. Let us know what you decide!
I have dived on the MV Oktavia twice in the Anderma Sea (including the Similans). I recommend them. I saw them train a young guy doing his open water course and they did a good job. I personally would try and get my AOW first, but if you could not, I think you would still enjoy doing it on the boat. On these trips I pay for a private guide, because it is quite economical in Thailand and you avoid having to worry about a mismatched insta buddy. The season will be over now. Trips start again in late October.
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