Boat Ride Time to Dive Sites Phuket area

[Ringo]

Also between November to early May there are shore entry dives off Kata, Karon and Kata Noi beaches as well as local boat dives to sites within 10 minutes of these beaches. These sites are not indicative of the best diving that Thailand has but they have a lot to offer.

For example this week off the Karon House Reef at about a meters depth are 2 juvenile blacktips: one about a 1/2 meter and the baby about 30 cm's in length. Not common to see sharks there but certainly a welcome surprise. They were there this time last year as well.

Will post a video made of the 1 juvenile today as soon as I can trouble shoot my poor computer skills. Nothing will upload today (

 

[Quero]

Good point, Ringo! While the shore dives we've got right off Phuket don't offer the depth, clarity of water, or color that dive sites visited as daytrips from boats do, I've seen lots of interesting things there. Recently on training dives I've seen:
a pair of robust ghost pipefish
a sarong shrimp
a huge sponge crab (on a night dive)
numerous pharaoh cuttlefish
a pair of leopard blennies
pipefish
maldives snails
a big marble ray
eggshell shrimp
and lots of other stuff, if you just take the time to look!

 

[Bowmouth]

maldives snails

Coriocella hibyae?

 

[Quero]

Coriocella hibyae?

Precisely.

 

[Bowmouth]

Precisely.

COOL!!! And so close to shore!

 

[Quero]

COOL!!! And so close to shore!

If you want to look for them sometime while you're on the island, enter at the shore at Ao Sane and swim north. That's where I found them. (I also see them at Bungalow Bay/Racha Yai, and of course at Koh Bon bay.)

 

[Bowmouth]

If you want to look for them sometime while you're on the island, enter at the shore at Ao Sane and swim north. That's where I found them.

Thanks for the tip!
I must say though that although I DO like these little snails I would not just do a dive to go and look for them. My camera and housing are busted too so I wouldn't even be able to take a couple of pics..

Better get off this thread now before LK starts screaming I'm HIJACKING this thread...

The poor bloke doesn't seem to know the difference between a hijacker and a handsome pirate...

:hijackedthread:

 

[Sloeber]

Thanks for the insight into the shore diving. Why is it only done for a few months each year?

 

[Bowmouth]

Thanks for the insight into the shore diving. Why is it only done for a few months each year?

Because of the South-West monsoon between May-September which brings in swells (surf, waves) and makes shore diving during these months more difficult or sometimes outright dangerous.
A common misconception is that monsoon refers to rain, but in fact monsoon refers to the wind.

 

[Quero]

Bowmouth has provided the fundamental reason, but there's a little more, Henry. Our surf and waves don't appear especially big, and they really aren't when compared to ones in, for example, California, where divers routinely enter through surf for shore dives. Ours, however, create rip currents, and that is one major risk factor to shore diving when the surf is up. Additionally, the visibility near Phuket isn't typically as good as at the outlying islands, and during the monsoon season when the water is more agitated, it gets even more degraded, so the enjoyment of the dives is also diminished.