Phuket Operator Recommendations

[scubashooter]

Albion
Diving in Japan is a whole other discussion. Whose ops did you use in Yonaguni? I've used Aratake's ops as well as the Yonaguni Dive Services on the other side of the island. Their boat is much bigger than Aratake's. YDS also didn't round me up as often as Aratake's group.
Speaking of violent reactions, one american instructor who was in the Aratake portion of my trip was scurried twice while checking out something. She flipped him the bird the 1st time, 2nd time she flat out pulled his hand off and pushed him away. I almost drowned laughing so hard. She then got in his face on the boat. Of course the japanese guy didn't face her off, that's just not the way things are done there.
The group diving thing is a cultural difference that takes A LOT of getting use to. Which is probably why you see so many ops that cater to Japanese only in places like Palau and Bali. I did notice in Japan that if you have a camera, they don't bug you as much. Another cultural difference which is something I appreciate much less is the touching thing. Damn they touched everything that was nice looking... nudibranchs, coral etc. No wonder the dive sites in Japan are so barren.

 

[Albion]

Cant remember which operator it was now, it was organised through Rich 'wanna get wet' in okinawa, it was him that threathened to lay out the local guy. He spoke to one of the japanese girls and asked her to translate his threat, making sure she didnt japanese it and make it all polite. Shop we used had a big boat (shoto or something like that) moored in the harbour which we geared up on, and were then ferried out in a little boat. They took two groups out at one time, one group waited while the other dived, quite bizarre. The worst part was that it was colder out of the water than in, so if you dived first you froze to death waiting for the other group. highlight of cultural differences was on the last day we were having our VERY Japanese breakfast at the ryokan, which of course had raw eggs. finally on eof the westerners confronted the mama-san and asked her to boil it, she looked horified and asked if anyone else wanted theres boiled too, at which point all 15 westerners all stand up and hand over there egg's.

Had a singaporean girl here last weekend picking up a pair of nudibranchs, we told her not to do it again which she was cool about, then when we told her they were actually mating in her hand, i thought she was going to puke!! Definitely not going to do it again methinks.

 

[scubashooter]

LOL Rich and Aya, I know them! You used aratake's ops. The YDS boat is bigger and more powerful. We used it to go out when all the other ops couldn't go because of the rough seas. I still chortle when I think of the backroll countdown for the group entry and the sheepdog DMs. Almost as good as the hammers(yes they are there, just not big schools and pretty deep too) and the Monument.
Funny about japanese food, I had my first (and last) taste of marlin heart... raw! Dude that is not something you wanna try. The owner of YDS ryokan must've had no gaijins staying ever because he made me eat the heart first, fresh out of the sea! Fear Factor is easy now for me. I did find this bohemian reggae bar that serves Japanese veggie curry which quickly became my restaurant.

 

[Paulus Magnus]

Does anybody else have a sunburst diving speciality?

Cheers

I've got a feeling I'm walking into a setup here but ... what's a sunburst diving speciality?

 

[Zippsy]

At a preset time or signal, every dive buddy group goes in a different direction (like a star or sunburst) to escape a divemaster from hell. This manouver is best used by experienced divers but is also more appropriately used in direct correlation with how bad the DM is. For example, when the DM's briefing is "I'm not going to tell you the expected depth or time, just follow me and keep up or else" then listen for a diver saying something like "SB @ 1" just before they start the descent (Starburst at one minute).

 

[jarllie fich]

Hahahaha... that's a very good SB Speciality brief write-up! hahahahhaa

 

[Paulus Magnus]

Thank you, I'm sure my creative buddy can dream up a signal for it as well to go with her many others. The only problem is that I'll have to buy a full face mask at some point so I don't down myself laughing.