Just came off a photography workshop on The Smiling Seahorse; we did Richelieu Rock for ten dives straight (check dive at Yellow Rock at Surin, then transitioned to Richelieu Rock, three dives there, four more the next day, three more the day after that, and then we headed off to Koh Tachai for blackwater). Thanks to COVID in general and Omicron in particular, very few boats are running now - half the time, we had the whole site completely to ourselves, and the boat was only half-full to boot, so there were barely a dozen people in the water.
The site truly is amazing, few places offer such a combination of wide-open reef scenics, schooling fish, macro opportunities, and occasional visits by large pelagics (none of the latter on this trip, alas, but whale sharks are not unknown there).
Notably, The Smiling Seahorse is the only operator in Thailand that I know of who regularly run blackwater dives. Each trip includes at least one, more if there's customer interest and sufficient opportunity. I wasn't very lucky with blackwater on this trip, but I did get a few shots.
The site truly is amazing, few places offer such a combination of wide-open reef scenics, schooling fish, macro opportunities, and occasional visits by large pelagics (none of the latter on this trip, alas, but whale sharks are not unknown there).
Notably, The Smiling Seahorse is the only operator in Thailand that I know of who regularly run blackwater dives. Each trip includes at least one, more if there's customer interest and sufficient opportunity. I wasn't very lucky with blackwater on this trip, but I did get a few shots.
