Thursday 8 August 2013

Learn to dive in the Similan Islands

Learn to dive in the Similan Islands
Learning to dive
In previous posts I've talked about the availability of continuing education courses on Thailand liveaboards, both PADI and SSI courses but I noted that most boats do not offer dive certification courses on board. It is more common for people to first learn to dive and then join a liveaboard as a certified diver. However if you want to do the PADI Open Water certification on a liveaboard we do have some boats that can teach you. 

You can do the full PADI Open Water course in the Similan Islands or you can do your theory and pool training at your local dive centre first, then complete the open water dives at the Similan Islands (this is called an Open Water referral).

Usually an Open Water course consists of training in a swimming pool first. But as there is no swimming pool in the Similan Islands you will instead do confined water training in a shallow bay in "swimming pool like conditions." The beauty of this is you have more space to practice and you'll even see fish on your confined water sessions.

Liveaboards that offer the PADI Open Water course in the Similan Islands are:

You can do the PADI Open Water course on Oktavia for just 10,000 baht on one of their 4 day or 5 day trips.

Not sure if you want to do the full dive certification? You can join Oktavia as a snorkeler and do a Discover Scuba Dive for 1,500 baht. A Discover Scuba Dive (DSD) is not a certification course, it's just a fun experience under PADI instructor supervision. If you enjoy it you can go on and get certified. Or you can just do more DSD's at 1,000 baht each. 

If you want to learn to dive in the Similan Islands but don't fancy a liveaboard you can do the PADI Open Water course in Khao Lak with day trip diving to the Similans.

Need more info? Please ask us