learning in thailand in late july

[Oceanlovers]

Finally escaped the office and was one of the "lucky fish" to spot Manta on Friday - have to agree with Ringo I really enjoy diving during our May - October.
There is a certain quality and choice of operations with great day diving not to mention the Professionals onboard who stay throughout the season.
A $ a night accomodation well here is my plan - sign up for a dive course and check in to the $150 a night room for a buck.Being not the most comfortable student it might take me lets say over a month to clear my mask, which will probably have them paying me to leave the hotel - gotta like that :devil_smi

 

[DrJenn86]

Thanks to everyone who's replied for all your advice! I've finally decided to go with the Perhentian Islands. I'd love to dive Thailand some time but since I'm new I'm going to play it safe and go for a place where the conditions and weather will be more predictable at this time of year.

I'm now looking at Coral Sky, Spice Divers and Turtle Bay on Pulau Perhentian. They're all charge the same prices and all are located on long beach so I don't really know how to choose between them. Might just email them all and pick whoever is nicest to me.

If anyone else has any advice on which dive school to pick it would be much appreciated

 

[penti]

Well, I can tell you that Coralsky divers ARE very good :
- the instructors are very good, very nice and take a maximum of 4 students per instructor (that's a maximum, but as I passed the Advanced OW I did 3 of 5 dives with only me and the instructor).
- maximum 8 divers per boat
- good equipment. boats with 2 engines, oxygen and medikit , all diving equipment is in perfect condition.
- all are very friendly, patient, and I'd say you quite feel at home compared to some "diving industries" I've dived with. Every day you dive you'll watch a video of the first dive in the morning (you can buy the DVD) and have a good debriefing watching in the books all the stuff you've seen (well, this is if you want, you don't have to), drinking tea or coffee and eating home-made cake. After 2 days every one there (instructors, boat drivers) will know you by your name, they're all a dive centre should be : professional, centered on safety, and very friendly.
On the other hand, they told me that Turtle bay are as good as them (they recommended them to me one day I wanted to go to a special site) and that most dive ops are good on the Perhentians, so...
I don't think you need to book in advance, just get there and have a chat with 2 or 3 dive ops if you want ( questions to ask first : How many divers per instructor ? How many divers on the boat ? How long have the instructors been teaching here ? What if I have problems and can't finish the course, shall I have to pay for the package anyway ? -some people really can't equalize their ears-, etc...) and make your choice then.

 

[Jenniferous]

Hey this is the original poster here, I cleverly forgot my password.

Just wanted to say thanks for all the advice, it was very much appreciated cause I really didn’t have a clue where to start. I ended up going to the Perhentian islands and had a great time on long beach with Coral Sky Divers. I did my PADI open water and advanced and decided I like diving so much I'm going to join the sub aqua club when I start university next week and have a go at diving in some nasty freezing cold quarries here in England