Looking for decent diving in Taiwan

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discokat

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I am looking to get my girlfriend her open water certification.

I wanted to find a decent dive shop that is available this weekend for open water certification course. I also hope they can certify for nitrox since that is my preference for diving.

Ideally I am looking to dive Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Location is not a major issue.

Let me know if you have any good ideas on dive shops and location.

Thanks!
 
I have dived with DivePro in Kenting. Really nice, good operation, flexible, helpful. Rental equipment seemed nice when I was there, which is not always the case in Taiwan from what I have been told. And they have free nitrox for everyone certified :wink: Oh, and almost everyone there speaks English, if you need that.
 
likely won't happen this weekend, looks like typhoon lan is going to mess things up island wide. curious where are you located? if looking for nice diving best to get down south or one of the islands, if the focus is the certification for her you could end up doing it up north (assuming your here)
 
If you stay up north you could try FunDiversTw or the Scuba Shop Taipei or the Scubar. Possibly Dennis from fun divers could do a sat/sun/mon/tue course, very likely nigel from scubar could organize suitable timing at short notice. As it is your gf you might also reach out to Carina

If you do head down to Kenting, look up Andy he works out of DivePro mentioned above, and he could likely get you out on a boat or organize some shore dives while your gf is getting certified. If he is busy try Carrie & Tony they get a lot of positive feedback..

Another location to look at, and one of my recent favorites is XiaoLiuQiu, best thing there is you are guaranteed to see turtles, lots of them so it makes for a memorable experience. It is also slightly easier than KT/GI, and really gives you that island feeling. Rather than one of the big shops, reach out to Mark at aya dive hostel, he runs a small hostel and is a certified PADI instructor, he spent a couple years in Australia. Someone was also lucky enough to see a manta this weekend too.. but that is very very rare.

Green Island is great for diving, not so much english language certification though.. so i would save that for after she is certified.

Anyway, hope this helps.

Hsin
 
If you stay up north you could try FunDiversTw or the Scuba Shop Taipei or the Scubar. Possibly Dennis from fun divers could do a sat/sun/mon/tue course, very likely nigel from scubar could organize suitable timing at short notice. As it is your gf you might also reach out to Carina

If you do head down to Kenting, look up Andy he works out of DivePro mentioned above, and he could likely get you out on a boat or organize some shore dives while your gf is getting certified. If he is busy try Carrie & Tony they get a lot of positive feedback..

Another location to look at, and one of my recent favorites is XiaoLiuQiu, best thing there is you are guaranteed to see turtles, lots of them so it makes for a memorable experience. It is also slightly easier than KT/GI, and really gives you that island feeling. Rather than one of the big shops, reach out to Mark at aya dive hostel, he runs a small hostel and is a certified PADI instructor, he spent a couple years in Australia. Someone was also lucky enough to see a manta this weekend too.. but that is very very rare.

Green Island is great for diving, not so much english language certification though.. so i would save that for after she is certified.

Anyway, hope this helps.

Hsin

Thanks for the heads up! Looks like LAN will miss us.

I am located in Taipei. Looking for English language certification for her so she has more options if we decide to travel.

I am going to look into the Taipei ones suggested. I am just a little concerned about the quality of the rental equipment. I am fully equipped but she has nothing.

After she is certified I will look into the south and Islands. I heard Green Island was a little difficult so I wanted to make sure she could handle it first. XiaoLiuQiu is nice. I been there but didn't dive. I might head out there on the weekend for a couple of days diving after she is certified. I haven't seen turtles in a while, manta either but I don't expect to get lucky enough to catch one of those.

Thanks again!
 
Oh. I did have one additional question. What is the average surface temperature this time of year in the Taipei area? I would guess it is significantly higher than in Kaohsiung or Kenting.
 
discokat, I haven't been diving for a few weeks but by late October it is usually getting cold up north near Taipei. As in maybe 20 C or colder, which means a chilly dive in a 3mm wetsuit (often that is all that's available for rent). It will get down a few degrees colder before long, too. I won't dive up north in the winter without a drysuit, although others do, in thick wetsuits.

Another issue is that when the season changes, prevailing winds come out of the northeast, which means big waves are common on the NE coast. There will be some days in the winter with flat seas, but you can't necessarily count on them happening on weekends, nor for the whole weekend. Big waves also mean poor visibility near shore, and boat diving isn't really an option for an O/W course on the North Coast this late in the year.

Putting those factors together, I'd say that your girlfriend is a lot more likely to enjoy the O/W training down south at this time of year than on the NE coast. Being cold and not seeing much and then getting bashed against the rocks upon exit can sort of take the fun out of it.

However, if you're really that intent upon keeping it local, PM me and I'll pass on contact info for a couple very good instructors who are abroad now but will be back in Taipei soon.

I can recommend instructors in Kenting also. That's easily doable on a weekend if you take the high speed rail to Zuoying (Kaohsiung) then share the taxi or minibus to Kenting from there. I go there at least a few times each winter.

You're right to be concerned about equipment. Some instructors/shops, whom I won't name here, use stuff that is falling apart and hasn't been serviced in ages. Check the gear out yourself before you let your girlfriend use it in her O/W course.
 
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"Makhno, post: 8127168, member: 83632"]discokat, I haven't been diving for a few weeks but by late October it is usually getting cold up north near Taipei. As in maybe 20 C or colder, which means a chilly dive in a 3mm wetsuit (often that is all that's available for rent). It will get down a few degrees colder before long, too. I won't dive up north in the winter without a drysuit, although others do, in thick wetsuits.

Another issue is that when the season changes, prevailing winds come out of the northeast, which means big waves are common on the NE coast. There will be some days in the winter with flat seas, but you can't necessarily count on them happening on weekends, nor for the whole weekend. Big waves also mean poor visibility near shore, and boat diving isn't really an option for an O/W course on the North Coast this late in the year.

So I guess diving around Taipei at the end of November is not recommended? I will be back there for meetings at that period and was wondering if it would be the occasion to discover how the diving was in the area was. I suppose going back to Kenting would be a better idea.
 
So I guess diving around Taipei at the end of November is not recommended? I will be back there for meetings at that period and was wondering if it would be the occasion to discover how the diving was in the area was. I suppose going back to Kenting would be a better idea.

Well, it is possible to enjoy diving the northeast coast in late November, but I wouldn't count on it. Even if you can tolerate water temperatures around 18 C, by late November the big waves out of the NE are a lot more common than flat seas. So you might get lucky with the weather, but probably won't.

Kenting, on the other hand, is in my opinion a lot nicer in the winter than it is in the summer, and is pretty much a sure thing unless a big storm is passing through.
 
Please do not attempt to take training at NE Coast during off season. Water is already cold for most people and having waves is the norm as we approach winter, though you will be able to find people/shops who will convince you otherwise ("it's okay la....dont worry la...". Please do not challenge the risk, especially when you're talking about OW training.

There's a live web cam in the NE area:
view_tvss
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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