Learning to Dive on a budget – Thailand is perfect!

Thailand has so much to offer visitors of all types. From the hustle, bustle and culture rich streets of Bangkok to the tranquil waters and picturesque beaches of the Similan Islands, Thailand is a fabulous holiday destination. What most people might not have known is that it is also one of the best scuba diving locations in the world – especially for those on a tight budget.

The recent political unrest has had an understandable impact on Thailand’s tourism numbers and the knock-on effect of this has meant cheaper flights and hotels for travelers who are willing to make the trip to Thailand’s exotic shores. The combination of cheaper holidays and a strengthening Euro/Dollar has meant that there isn’t a better time than now to visit Thailand and get yourself PADI or SSI certified while you are there.

With crystal clear, warm waters and an abundance of exotic marine life, including whale sharks, turtles and beautiful coral reefs, Thailand is a scuba diver’s paradise. You can often pay up to 500 Euros ($700) for the Open Water Diver course in Europe or America, which runs for about four days and is the most popular dive course in the world. In Thailand this same course can cost be as little as 180 Euros ($250) and with average sea temperatures of about 28c (80degrees)

Once you have your Open Water certification, you can go for more advanced qualifications or just go scuba diving for fun. Again, Thailand has some of the cheapest fun diving and liveaboards in the world. You can find fun dives around the island of Koh Tao for as little as 15 Euro per tank – but this is the most exploited diving in Thailand – so only good for a day or two. You can always check to see where the Best Diving In Thailand is.

Liveaboards can be found for all budgets and can last from two days to two weeks. Staying on a boat and diving each day is definitely a good way to expand your diving skills and get a wide variety of dives in during your holiday. A typical three day Similan liveabord trip in Thailand starts at around 300 Euros and will often include multiple destination dives, accommodation and diving equipment.

There are many different dive locations around mainland Thailand and its islands, such as Phuket, Koh Samui and Phi Phi. One of the most recognized is the Similan Islands National Park Diving, a group of small islands in the Phang Nga Province of southern Thailand – just offshore from Khao Lak. There are plenty of spectacular dive sites in this region, with sightings of whale sharks not uncommon. Visibility is around 30 to 40 meters in good weather conditions and the sheer abundance of marine life makes diving there something very special.

Holidays in Thailand are usually associated with relaxing on a beach or hunting a bargain in a busy Bangkok market, but learning to dive in Thailand is something that will make you holiday even more memorable. Scuba diving is a fun experience and will give you skills and memories that will last a lifetime and have a huge impact on where you will want to spend your holidays in the future.

Similan Islands Liveaboard – Open Water Course

There are many different ways to learn to scuba dive. An instructor teaches someone in a pool. Others jump off a speedboat and some are lucky enough to do their course on a liveaboard. In Thailand the best bang for you Baht is on a liveaboard – more dives and more experience while cruising through paradise.

The Similan Islands are home to Thailand’s most famous dive sites and are often listed as among the 10 best dive sites in the world. Conveniently located to Khao Lak and the nearby Phuket airport – the diving is very accessible. With the option of Speedboats or liveaboards – many beginning divers chose to do their Similan Liveaboard Open Water course on a 3 day journey through the uninhabited islands. These trips offer the guests their own cabins, meals and many different dive sites.

The calm clear waters, the relaxed atmosphere and the skilled instructors will all contribute to the success of the experience. This is important as SCUBA diving is a lifetime passion – not just a whim.

The courses are easy to take and only require a bit of your time. Much of the academic work can now be completed online (and for free) before you even arrive in Thailand. You can spend your vacation time in the water or on the beaches – no the classroom.

The first day is spent in the pool or on the beach simply getting used to the new equipment and incredible sensation of floating weightless! It’s fun and thrilling to realize that gravity no longer exists – it also takes a bit of practice. Diving also requires a few new skills that you are unlikely to have learned before. Your Instructor will go through all the basic skills that will be demonstrated and practiced in the pool. Then you have the opportunity to practice them too!

In the pool or off the beach – the instructor will settle down in front of the student so that they can see all that she is demonstrating. After some breathing exercises and regulator recovery at the surface the instructor will get all the divers to kneel on the bottom of the pool breathing and getting used to being underwater. The instructor, followed by the student will complete each of the skills. The students need to complete mask clearing, regulator recovery and some basic buoyancy control skills. These basic skills are required to ensure the safety of the divers, as well as giving them confidence to truly enjoy the open water. The instructor and student will then swim around at the bottom of the pool getting comfortable with the equipment and used to the feeling of weightlessness and breathing underwater.

Once these basic skills are done and everyone feels comfortable – it’s time to head off on an amazing journey through the Similan Islands. The student has the opportunity to do 9 dives with their instructor – gaining more confidence and feeling more and more at ease under the sea.

After the first couple of dives the underwater world will really open up. Passing turtles make the reefs an incredible opportunity to slow down and enjoy the marine life. That shadow over the students head? A Manta Ray – something that brings chills to even the most experienced diver. The chance to glide over the rainbow colored corals and the hundreds of species of reef fish make this a memory of a lifetime.

After the student has completed their first open water scuba dive – they surface with big smiles on their faces. The instructor will debrief them and explain how they may improve their diving knowledge and skills by doing a full certification open water scuba diver course. Only 8 more dives to go!

This is by far the best way to learn to scuba dive.

If you would like to make this story come true…simply join our Similan Liveaboard Open Water course

Safely join an Open Water course: Small groups and good staff

The maximum group size for a diving course.

When you are looking for diving courses around Thailand, you see that prices differ from place to place and sometimes even in the same place. This has to do with many factors, travel time to the dive sites, quality of equipment, service, safety equipment, park fees, operation costs, quality of staff etc. One of the most important factors in this is the group size of the course. Why waste your vacation to Similan Islands diving in the middle of a huge crowd?

There are places in Thailand where you can get a very good deal on courses, but you might end up in a big group of students, spending most of the time watching your buddies doing skills under water. The maximum number of students per instructor that the dive organizations allow during underwater training is 8. It is possible to increase that number to 10 or even 12 when 1 or 2 divemasters assist on the course. Big groups of course means low prices, but these “factory dive schools” often pump out as many students as possible in a very short time. This has a few disadvantages:
First of all, when you take a dive course, you want plenty of time to practice new exercises until you are comfortable with them. In big groups, you often end up doing an exercise once and that’s it. As there are 7 more people to do the skill there is no time for repetition. In the worst case, the instructor might even skip certain skills to speed up the course. This is completely against the standards set by the diving industry.
Second, you wont get too much attention from your instructor, as he/she is not an octopus and has to keep an eye on a lot of people. This is fine if you don’t have any problems, but it can get a bit messy, or even unsafe, if you and some other people need help from the instructor.
Also, with big groups you often end up spending a lot of time on the skill part of the dive, which leaves only a bit of time left for the actual dive. And that’s actually the best part of the course!
With big groups, there is not much time to spend with students who take a bit longer or need a bit more time to get comfortable under water. This leads to people being stressed. They might even drop out of the course, when with a bit more time and a calmer pace, they might have been able to get more comfortable and finish the course.

All in all at Wicked Diving we think that the maximum group size for a course is 4 people. This way the students get plenty of attention from the instructor and a lot of time under water to enjoy the beauty of the Similan Islands. We like a relaxed pace and if we need to spend some more time in the pool, classroom or in the sea, we just schedule an session. This leaves the instructors in control and guarantees a safe and relaxed course in which you will have plenty of time to ask questions, repeat and practice your skills and get maximum time diving some the best dive sites in Thailand.