Diving in Thailand

[Efka76]

Me and my wife just returned from our diving trip in Koh Tao, Thailand, and wanted to share our impressions. Both of us are beginner divers (received PADI OWD certifications in November 2017). We planned a trip to Thailand in order to get much more experience in diving as well as some certifications, which would increase our experience level as well as expand our diving limits.

After making thorough research we choose Koh Tao, which is a paradise for diver trainees. In Koh Tao, prices are much lower compared to other places around the world (including Thailand). We are coming from Lithuania where Baltic sea is pretty cold (appr. 18 C degrees). Accordingly, we especially liked sea temperature in Thailand which was amazingly warm for us (28 C degrees). Our chosen diving center was 5 star PADI center and offered free accommodation in bungalow near the sea. Also, they offered 10% discount for all subsequent courses. We liked that diving center due to following reasons:

1) Very experienced diving instructors;
2) Free accomodatrion
3) Everything is very near: diving center, living place, restaurant, pier.
4) Diving center uses relatively good and well maintained equipment; all regulators are balanced.

Initially we opted for PADI Advanced OWD + Nitrox course and after 2 days we became proud certified Advanced OWD and received Nitrox specialty (2 out of 5 dives were with Nitrox).

Then we enrolled into Deep, Wreck, Underwater Naturalist, Night specialties' courses. My impression about them:

Deep: very interesting and useful course. Deep dive certification expanded our diving limits to 40 m, which is recreational diving maximum limit. I was surprised a bit that at 40 m. depth I did not feel any gas narcosis effect and solved mathematical questions even faster than on surface. Other course members felt gas narcosis effect.

Wreck dive: it was a very interesting experience (especially a last dive when we penetrated a wreck. However, during all dives visibility in wreck dive site was quite limited (appr. 3-4 m) and I understood that diving in good visibility sites which are rich of fishes is a more interesting to me comparing to wreck site This certification helped us to expand our horizon about potential risks and hazards related to wreck diving.

Night diving: it was pretty interesting experience as we saw squid and other fishes that we could not see during day dives. Also, night diving was initially a bit scary to me, however, after 3 night dives we got some experience in this area and lost this initial fear.

Underwater Naturalist: these dives were the most interesting to me as we saw a very big variety of sea creatures, found a lot of interesting information about classification of fauna & flora.

After one very busy diving week we got Advanced OWD certification and 5 above mentioned PADI specialties each. We were very happy with our diving vacation in Koh Tao and definitely recommend it to other beginner divers. Now we have a plan to go to liveabord in Red sea (Egypt) somewhere at the end of summer and get more diving experience as well as reach our dive number to magical number 50 Plan for the next year is to get PADI Rescue diver certifications as well as Master Scuba Diver Certifications. Then fully enjoy diving in different parts of the world.

 

[alanadives]

Hi!
Wow, sounds like you've got a productive week! I'm actually glad that I randomly found your post as I was going to make a new topic and ask about the different certifications and were I should get them done. Now I know it's possible to do a few in a week, which is exactly what I needed!

I will admit tho that I was not considering Thailand for two reasons. First, cause I,ve been there, and second because I'm reading all over the place how over crowded with tourist it got over the years, and that apparently all year. How was that on Koh Tao ? Cause, on the other hand, as I read here Best Diving sites in Thailand – Scuba dive reviews by Divezone it is still one of the great and cheap place to do certifications. I will consider it, but I was initially thinking maybe the Philippines... Any thoughts on that ? They have wrecks, beautiful corals I'm sure, and deeper dives... .but not sure if there's any special night dive spots... probably!

Anyways, thank you for your great review! I will discuss Koh Tao with the man and see how he likes the idea! Thinking out loud I would say that once there... the Philippines will be ours to explore!

Ciao

 

[divinh]

For my AOW, I was told that when we drop down to 30m, I might feel a bit drunk... but since I've never had alcohol, I had no reference point. I felt no different at 30m than at the surface... so either I had no nitrogen narcosis or I'm naturally drunk all the time...

I heard that you could get the affect by dropping down and then going up fast and you don't have to be going down to 30+m to have it. Easy ascents is the way to go.

 

[drbill]

I dove Koh Tao (and other Thai dive sites) back in 2001. While I enjoyed the diving itself and a number of people I met there, I found the rental equipment very substandard and some instructors not very knowledgeable. The first BCD I was given was so shredded I had trouble finding the arm holes. A reg I was given failed on a deep dive at Chumphon Pinnacle. Things were much better at other sites like Koh Phi Phi.

 

[Efka76]

Drbill, I guess everything depends on diving school and timing. As you said you were diving in 2001... I was diving recently. Regulators were really good quality, Mares Rover if I am not mistaken. I was using many different regulators and all of them were working perfectly. No issues at 30-40 m. depth. Also regulators were equipped with good manometers and Mares Puck diving computers.

Fins were also ok, BCD I got brand new one. Wetsuits quality was not very good as they are used every day and were really worn. My wife was not very happy with her wetsuit quality.

Also, comparing to Boracay, Phillippines, there were more creatures (I guess plankton) which were stinging. we were using shorty 3 mm wetsuits. After all the dives I notices many small dots on my exposed skin. However, these stings definitely were not painful but not very pleasant.

Alandives, yes it was possible to get all these specialties and AOW as our AOW dives were: deep, navigation, wreck, night, UW naturalist. Also, AOW was combined with Nitrox. In this case we did not need to do separate NItrox dives (actually it is possible to get Nitrox specialty without dives, however, in my opinion theory + actual Nitrox dives is much better). Due to this we needed additional 3 dives for Deep, 3 dives for Wreck, 1 diver for UW naturalist and 2 dives for Night specialties. We also got few additional fun dives. We were planning our 7 day stay in Koh tao in order to get that certifications.

Regarding diving sites: in Boracay water was a bit more transparent in Thailand visibility was a bit less. In Wreck diving visibility was poor, however in other sites it was really ok. I was comparing various certification prices in different parts of the world. Some people were saying that Egypt is cheaper, however, when I specifically compared everything I saw that nothing can beat Crystal Dive Center in Koh Tao.

Regarding instructors: I can compare my PADI OWD instructor in Boracay and instructors in Thailand. All of them were really good professionals with at least 3 years daily diving experience as instructors. Of course, I am still newbie and can not make a very thorough comparison, however, at least for me I felt that instructors were competent, there was a personal approach as number of course participants was small (e.g. deep and wreck - 2 Intructors, 3 students; night - 1 instructor, 2 students; UW naturalist - 1 instructor, 2 students; AOW was less personal as there was 1 instructor and 6-7 participants... but in addition were 2 instructor assisstants.

 

[soggybadger]

Thanks for the post as I am off to koh phangan in September. Glad you had a great time.

 

[HantsDiver]

Which company did you dive with? I know Koh Tao pretty well, and have worked for a number of the schools there.

It's not a bad place. And a lot of the negativity is born out of jealousy of it's success. The diving isn't world class (whatever that means) but it's better than most places you will dive in the world.

As a side note - when you did your deep dives did they make you do a little test? Most people don't feel drunk with narcosis - but your ability to problem solve slows down.