PADI Dive Courses on Thailand liveaboards

Virtually all Thailand liveaboards have PADI Instructors on board to teach PADI dive courses. Most boats do not teach beginner divers as it's considered too disruptive to the schedule. (Some will teach the PADI Open Water Course and will even take non divers on Discover Scuba Dives. I'll post about these boats later).

The most common courses taught on the liveaboards are the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course and the PADI Enriched Air Nitrox Specialty. Both these courses can be integrated easily into the regular dive schedule. Both courses are very worthwhile taking for several reasons.

• The courses are cheaper when integrated with the liveaboard.
• If you are joining the liveaboard with limited experience of diving below 18 metres or if you haven't dived for a while you can gain confidence under instructor supervision.
• Many liveaboards around the World require PADI Advanced cert as a minimum to join the trips.
• Joining a boat with an Advanced cert card means you are buddied with other more experienced divers, not with the novices who could suck their air down quickly and shorten your dive time.
• Being Nitrox certified allows you to stay down longer at greater depths.
• Or diving your normal profile with nitrox adds an extra margin of safety. This is especially beneficial on multiple day dive trips or in remote areas where re-compression chambers are not with in easy reach. Older divers should also consider the safety benefits of absorbing less nitrogen.
• Many divers find diving with nitrox less fatiguing than diving with air.
• A Nitrox cert can lead on to more technical dive training.

Advanced and nitrox are not the only courses available on liveaboards in Thailand. Other popular courses are the PADI underwater digital photography specialty and the  PADI Deep Diver specialty. These and other specialty courses should be booked in advance to assure that a qualified instructor is aboard with all the necessary materials.

Please ask us about on board dive courses when you book your Thailand Liveaboard

Free Nitrox on Pawara. And free WI-FI

Last season Pawara became the first boat to offer free WI-FI to it's guests, it's still one of the few boats that does.

This season it will also be offering free nitrox to certified divers.

If you are not nitrox certified you can do the PADI Nitrox specialty onboard.

Pawara is excellent value in the upper mid price range category. Cabins filled up fast last season.

To book please contact us

Free Nitrox on day trips

Our favourite Phuket day trip dive boat is MV Chocksomporn. Why?

• Small Groups: Max 20 divers. Lots of room on the dive deck. Space for everyone to sit onboard. Small dive groups based on experience level
• Experienced supervisors and guides: Full boat, safety and dive briefings. All dives guided by PADI divemasters
• Safety: All divers carry an SMB, full fiest aid kit on board plus emergency DAN O2, life jackets, fire extinguishers and all other legally required safety features.
• Service: Don't want to set up your gear, we'll do it for you.
• AC saloon: There is a big shaded upper deck plus plenty of room to sun bake but if you like to stay cool there is an AC saloon.
• Great food: and ots of it.
• Free soft drinks: Plus drinking water, tea, coffee, milo and snacks.
• Good transfers: By AC luxury minifans from your hotel to the boat. Fewer passengers means quicker transfers.
• Longer dives: Normally 60 minute dives but you can stay longer if your air allows. You won't be limited to 50 minutes like on the other boats.
• FREE Nitrox!!!: Nitrox 32 free to all certified divers. (If you are not certified you can take the PADI Nitrox specialty).

Free Nitrox on Deep Andaman Queen

Book a dive cruise with Deep Andaman Queen liveaboard 3 months or more in advance and get free Nitrox.

(Normally 250 baht per cylinder).

Special Richelieu Rock only liveaboard

There is one cabin still available on Nautica's special 4 day 4 night liveaboard to Richelieu Rock.

Nautica

Trip dates are 8-12 January 2013, start and finish is in Thap Lamu. Nautica will cruise directly to Richelieu and spend all 3 full days there doing 12 dives. On the final day there will be two wreck dives at the Premchai Wreck and the Boonsung Wreck on the way back to Khao Lak.

This is a great trip for divers who want to spend extended time on Thailand's number one dive site. These type of trips are popular with serious underwater photographers, we often get requests from documentary firm crews to dive in just one place. 

Richelieu Rock is the best place in Thailand to dive with whale sharks.

Nitrox is available so you can extend your bottom time. Want to bring your own rebreather? Nautica can accommodate that.

If you are interested please contact us.

Nitrox on Diva Andaman

Diva Andaman has just installed a Nitrox membrane system. Next season enriched air will be available for just 200 baht per tank. A great addition to the best boat.

Diva Andaman

Other Thailand liveaboard news:

• Nautica has raised prices by 9% for next season.
• Hallelujah has also raised prices for next season by 9%. They were cheap last season so this price rise brings them in to line with other mid budget boats. A twin cabin for 4 days is now 29,700 baht.
• Pawara have reduced their prices by 13%! This looks to be the value boat for next season with a twin cabin for a 4 day trip at 27,700 baht.
• The old Queen Scuba is back in Thailand, now called Deep Andaman Queen. This is a welcome return, more on this boat in a future post.
• Mariner One has been sold and at this time we are not sure if the new owners will be operating her next season.
• Colona VI was sold at the end of last season and is now enjoying a new life in Pattaya.
• Oriental Siren, a Thailand liveaboard that we don't promote, had to evacuate all guests to Layang Layang island after the boat started taking on water last week.

The Junk now has Nitrox

The Junk has always been one of the most popular liveaboards for hard core divers. It has the best dive guides and they let you dive how you want to dive. No arbitrary dive time limitations, dive as many times per day as you safely can, dive independently and so on.

The only thing that used to be missing was the option to dive with enriched air. But with the addition of a nitrox membrane system The Junk can now offer nitrox to all divers.

The Junk under sail

SaiMai now has Nitrox. Similans Latest. New Year Availability

MV SaiMai has added a Nitrox blending system for the benefit of it's divers. A good boat just got better.

MV SaiMai

Updates from the Similan Islands.
Slightly cooler waters than normal seem to have increased sightings of reef sharks in the Similans with lots of white tips and black tips being spotted as well as Leopard sharks. Manta Rays are still at Koh Bon and last week divers on the junk got to swim with dolphins, a very rare event here.

White Tip Reef Shark

See in the new year underwater.
Most boats are fully booked now until after new year. If anyone is looking to get on a boat at the last minute we still have space on Colona VI 29 Dec - 4 Jan.

Colona VI Liveaboard

Price changes and more from MV Nautica

MV Nautica Dive Deck

MV Nautica is currently having it's annual refurbishments so that come the start of the Similan Islands and Mergui Archipelago dive season it will be all shiny and new.

The Nitrox system is being improved. The new membrane system will be able to produce unlimited Nitrox up to EAN38.

Also being added is a large HD display for viewing and editing your underwater images.

Nautica will also be raising liveaboard prices on 1 October 2011. Any trips booked before 1 October will still be at the old price. Also, any trips paid for in full before 1 October will receive a 10% early booking discount.

To see the Nautica schedule click here.