Scuba diving Koh Tao will leave you with special memories - we can guarantee you will always remember your first taste of the underwater world.
Experience a whole new kind of safari – where the wildlife is in abundance, all around you. Imagine… the beady eyes of a barracuda on you, whilst you float amongst the school. Hovering above a tiny damsel fish and watching it stand its ground. A butterflyfish darting around, playing with its life-long mate.
These are some of the many wonderful encounters you’ll have diving in Koh Tao. Forget the aquariums and documentaries… experience it for yourself!
“A change is as good as a holiday”. When you learn to dive, you’re doing something new and exciting, so you’ll return home refreshed and invigorated.
Diving is easy and fun – find out for yourself and give it a go!
You have to be an Olympic swimmer to dive
Not at all – all you have to do is a short swim and show us you can float. It’s not timed, and it’s not a race. If you really can’t swim, you are allowed to use fins, mask and snorkel.
Diving will make my ears hurt
Not if you equalize. Pinch your nose and gently blow against your nostrils – or wiggle your jaw and swallow. You’ll feel a slight change in pressure in your ears. That’s all that equalizing involves – and if you can do it in an airplane, then you can do it underwater.
Learning to dive is too expensive
You don’t get out much, do you? Our Open Water course (three and a half days of entertainment) costs about what you’d pay in any European city for a meal out for two with a few drinks and a taxi home. Scuba diving Koh Tao is the cheapest diving you’ll get in the world.
You have to buy a ton of equipment
Our Open Water course includes ALL equipment hire. Of course, we encourage you to buy your own mask and snorkel, and possibly fins – they’re just very personal pieces of equipment that you can easily pack whenever you go on holiday. But that’s your choice.
Things attack you underwater
Sharks, barracuda, moray eels – they’ve all been accused of savage unprovoked attacks against humans. Please come and visit us on Ko Tao. Given the number of divers in these unpredictable, dangerous waters, it’s surprising many of us instructors still have all of our arms and legs and are not disfigured by huge teeth wounds in our torsos.
Learning to dive is too classroom intensive
When you learn scuba diving on Koh Tao, you watch a short DVD, do two hours of classroom work one morning, two hours the following morning and then do a final exam the next day which takes about an hour. And the rest of the time you’re diving!
Diving is not female friendly
Well, it depends what you mean. If you mean that just after diving you have truly ridiculously looking hair, and that getting into a wetsuit results in rather unflattering yanking action on the hips, then yes, diving is not female friendly. If you can get past that, then there really is nothing that favors men over women in this sport. Yes the equipment is heavy, but just think about those thigh muscles getting a good workout. And actually women have a great advantage – because we’ve got smaller lungs, our air lasts longer, so we get to do longer dives!
Diving is for young daredevils
It can be. Exploring underwater can be compared with exploring the mountains. You can go for a tranquil stroll amongst the beautiful landscapes, or you can experience either environment as an extreme, adrenaline fuelled sport. But everyone has to start somewhere – with the Open Water course, that will teach you everything you need to know to enjoy your diving safely.
Diving is dangerous
During the PADI Open Water course, you’re taught many ways to stay safe, so it is almost impossible to have an accident. Of course, if you have no respect for the environment you’re in and continuously flout the rules, then diving can be dangerous. We’ve found in our experience people just don’t do that.
Diving isn’t exciting
It all depends on what you want to get out of it. If you want to be dropped off in the middle of the sea, go down to 30m and hang out there just waiting for hammerheads to appear out of the blue, you can. If you fancy a current pulling you along a reef wall at 5 knots, that can be pretty exciting too. So too can cave diving, wreck diving, ice diving, cage diving with great whites, and many other activities underwater. It’s your choice – you can also just spend your time scuba diving on Koh Tao, cruising around in calm tropical waters, gazing at all the underwater life, feeling nice and relaxed. But there will always be exciting moments – like when a whale shark turns up unexpectedly on a dive site.
I can’t dive. I have (insert name of medical condition here).
Are you sure? Doctors are a very conservative lot, and most of them have absolutely no knowledge of diving medicine. Many conditions, such as diabetes and asthma, that used to be on the “No” list, are now on the “Maybe” list, as long as the conditions are well managed and you’re in good shape. The best thing to do is to get medical clearance in your country, before you arrive at our resort.
You can also go to the Divers Alert Network for advice on specific medical conditions in relation to diving.
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