Diving in Phuket - Kata Area

[Clifty]

Hey,

I am now considering Diving in Phuket, and looking to Dive in the Kata area.. and was wondering if anyone out there had actually done any diving in this area - if so could you please recommend a decent company to do my Open Water Cert.. in addition to letting me know about some decent accommodation below 800 baht a night..

I am looking at the Calypso Divers and Oceanic Dive Centre at the moment - anyone know of these companies?

Many thanks for your help and advice

Cheers.

 

[The_blue]

http://www.marinadivers.com/

Qualified with these just before the surfing got good.

 

[mark99]

I did my DM earlier this year with Calypso Divers and have done quite a bit of diving both at Kata beach and on the local boat trips. Calypso is a great dive shop and has a number of good instructors. They also have their own boat and run dive trips 7 days a week. I also think Kata Beach is a good choice as a place to stay, everything is pretty much in walking distance, and doesn't suffer from some of the distractions that Patong is famous for.

As far as diving Kata Beach itself, it is mostly sand, except at the north and south ends, which have some rocks and reef. It is a good training area, you can do your exercises over the sand and then do the tour part of the dives along the reef. You'll likely only do one training day at the beach (at the most), the other will be on the boat at a local site like Racha Yai.

If you have other specific Q you can send me a PM. Hope that helps.

Mark