hi,
we returned from bankok this morning an heres what we found out about diving in the gulf of siam:
as above mentioned, koh tao is the best place for diving and staying there because the dive centres in samui and phangan go there anyway. we only stayed 2 nights there but it is really beautiful! a great resort i can really recommend is the "sensi paradise" just about 300 metres south of the ferry pier with about 10 diveshops in walking distance. we took a tour with asia divers and that was really nice. the rest of the two weeks we stayed on samui, there diving is a bit different than i knew it from the red sea and mexico: because around samui there are no reefs you have to take a speed boattour to koh tao, sail rock or the pinnacles. those speedboattrips are kind of bumpy, loud and the kind of suck if you have to take them every day. at the divesite you dive from those boatswich is sometimes chaotic because there so small. a dive shop i can NOT recommend is all scuba adventures at the boat house in samui. the management is bad the equipment worn out an the spedboats are so small that ther always is chaos. also not recommedable is easy divers, the biggest dive school in thailand, because they put 30 divers on a boat and drop them into the water at the divesite so its more some masstourism. the equipment is fine however and management and organisation are good, but 30 divers on a site isnt that much fun.
a dive center i can really recommend is discovery at chaweng beach(
http://www.discoverydivers.com ) they have not only a large speedboat and small groups, but also good equipment and friendly instructors/divemasters with a great sense of humor!
so if someone should go to samui, they are first choice!!
about the divesites:
i didnt dive at shark island so i can´t say anything about that. i think in koh tao grenn rock is a great site. there are some little caves and swimthroughs and many fish and corals.
chumporn pinnacles is the best site at all there, there are really really many fish, more than at any point we saw in the red sea! also sailrock is a great site to dive!
for more information, dont hesitate to ask!
philipp