considering DM training in Koh Tao

[Aum]

Hi folks,

Been a loooong time since I posted at Scubaboard and I'm still a relative newbie here so I guess firstly....hello again is in order. My name is Arch, an Australian currently living and working in Tokyo. I've been more of a voyuer here just reading and trying to soak up some of the info on these boards rather than posting for the last number of months.

A little info first....

I'm thinking of going back to Koh Tao to do my DM training now that I have almost enough cash to support myself. I should have enough for about 6 months or more, this includes my course fees, monthly rent, daily food and so on and also extra aside for emergencies (just in case).

I would like to get some advice and opinions on a few things if I can please.

I've read some threads that were kinda bashing the reputation of ppl getting their DM certification from Thailand, and Koh Tao in general and this has me a little concerned. Is this still an issue or as I tend to think is is it more subjective than this? Obviously dependant on school, instructor/mentor quality and how well I'm able & want to learn?

Also, the school I am planning on doing this through is PlanetScuba. I've done a little searching and this school seems to have what I want. Concerning credentials its the only school that has a 5 star CDC qualification on the island and having been in contact with them a fair bit they offer unlimited diving and a more "job-oriented" approach (among other things) which is what I'm looking for. Time also seems to be flexible which is also important for me. Does anyone have any direct experience with this school or any opinions from others who do?

Or does anyone have an alternate recommendation for a school to suggest? I'm interested in a more career/job-oriented approach (including the training itself of course) to this course and working with students, assisting the instructors and learning as much as I can about the business as a whole. If anyone has some more info about other schools I would welcome hearing them.



Additionally, can anyone recommend any other options as to countries and schools where the DM courses are considered to be of a high quality? Keeping in mind expenses to cover roughly 6 months of living there and so on. Preferably within and around South-East Asia as flying from either Japan or Australia would help at least to keep this particular cost to a minimum. Plus the obvious benefit of exchange rate.

I have other questions but for the life of me can't think of them at the moment. Hoping some of you can help me here with some advice and look forward to hearing it.

Thanks in advance,

Arch

 

[DORSETBOY]

Hi Arch, most of any knocking of operator quality for dmt training you'll have heard will have been generated mainly by Australian operators, I remember the rubbish I heard some 'experts' in Cairns come out with about Koh Tao, funnily enouh very few, if any had even been there! It's all about competition mate, Thailand and Oz are major choices of dive destinations for people looking to do long term dive holidays and either of them ill tend to bad mouth the other, in reality both Australian and Thai dive operations are excellent as a rule.

Planet Scuba are a fantastic shop, I did not dive with them but did my dmt and then instructor course / msdt with Asia Divers just down the road. I knew many dm's and instrcutors though at Planet Scuba and they were extremely knoledgeable, very likeable people. In fact I'd say the 2 schools I'd prob recommend would be Planet Scuba or Asia Divers.

Another misconception going round is that Koh Tao's dive sites are poor quality. This is incorrect. Both Chumpon and Southwest Pinnacle's are both extremely good dives, ther former where you are guaranteed to see sharks every dive there around the fish traps at the end of the barracuda rock section of that dive site.

Green rock is a great dive for yellow margined and titan triggerfish, the are every where and very beautiful, also loads of swim throughs. I also found a huge number of nudibranchs on this site, esp n the swim throughs.

On a night dive, white rock has loads of large barracuda and often has turtles at night.

Red rock has 3 great swim throughs, in fact a total of 5 if you also look to the southern end of this dive site which noone seems to do!! The end of the dive is great cos you can do your safety stop swimming around a massive pinnacle, again covered in nudibranchs ans surrounded by a host of different shoals of fish.

shark island is the only site that wories me a little, there's a really nasty triggerfish here that tends to wait at the bottom of the buoy line for divers, seriously!!

Twins is a nice little site, nothing too exciting but good fun, again triggers, butterflyfish and a lovely family of clownfish here.

Laem Thien, is a lovely site on the east coast, big boulders, swim throughs, triggers, a very large stag coral that's grown into a table coral shape. there's also a white tip shark here that seems to live permanently on this site around the 'table coral'.

Oh, forgot to mention Sail Rock, the best dive site here in the gulf of thailand by far!

pm me if you need anything further.

 

[Aum]

Thanks for the response Dorsetboy. Vaguely remember seeing Asia Divers in Koh Tao on my last trip there. Good to know that there's a couple of quality dive training centres there. Which is really what I wanted to hear I guess. Just some confirmation that my choice was going to provide me with the best training I could get for myself. I'll keep Asia Divers in mind and do a lil searching on the net.

You mentioned in another thread about the high regard that some instructors/owners? from Asia Divers were held in which made finding a job on the island a lil easier for you. Do you know if the same holds true for the reputation of those working at PlanetScuba? Just curious, because that's a focus of mine with my DM course. Employability once the course is finished.

As to the diving around Koh Tao....it is great and I love it. Unfortunately when I was there last we had some pretty bad weather for most of my stay. We mainly did Japanese Gardens and Twins and Aow Leuk/Hin Leuk. But the last few days the weather cleared and out came Chumpon Pinnacle. Man that's a puuuurty dive. Sail Rock I remember doing as part of my open water dives for my OW course. Awesome place. Day we did it we had near perfect vis and especially as my first introduction to diving in the ocean....it'll always stay in memory.

Anyway, talk to you later,

Arch

 

[DORSETBOY]

no worries Arch. yep, I'm pretty sure that the Planet Scuba management team will also be held in high regard, I always thought their outfit too was very professional.

As for dive sites, I've heard from a mate recently back who said that there's been a bg improvement this year in species numbers and diversity, even o the inshore sites which is reat news.

I'm jealous mind about sail rock, never went there myself!

Greg Jenkins

 

[Aum]

Heya Greg,

Just remembered some other questions I had. You're gonna get inundated now.

As far as visas are concerned. Do most ppl doing their DM training and IDC/IE for that matter just go over on the 3 month tourist visa or go to the effort of getting actual student/training visas? Personally I think I'll just go over on a tourist for the initial 3 months while I get my DM course out of the way.

But then once the course is finished and I have work (positive thinking here) I'm thinking its safer to get on a work visa. Once you were certified though, did you bother to go to a work visa or stay on tourist and keep your fingers crossed? Some of the schools I've spoken with have said that they are starting to prefer their staff legal. Fair enough on the school's part and ours but to do that the schools have to provide letters of employment and company registration and all that jazz. *Do* the schools actually do that for their employees? I know it seems silly to ask but just wanted to make sure that the schools actually do their part too.

Also, and I hope you don't mind me asking. (If you'd rather you can pm me the details) Just curious baht-wise what your monthly budget was like? I've got the money set aside for the courses already and allowing 4-5000 baht for monthly rent (around 6 months worth or so), enough to get myself a beat up piece-of-**** scooter and thinking around 500 baht or so for daily food. Plus a lil extra for emergencies. What do you think based upon your own experiences, Greg?


Anyway, enough for now...I may have some more later. Hope you don't mind. ;p

Arch

 

[DORSETBOY]

hey no worries arch.

visa wise, I turned up in thailand with the intent of staying 4 weeks so I had the 1 month tourist visa available on landing, every month I extended it by sending it off with a travel agency, the school you work at will know the best contacts to do this. I never had any prob's although Ive been told that from time to time they do a sweep of different areas checking things like this. you cant miss it though when they do this, if you stay on koh tao for example they do samoi then phang ngan first and then turn up mob handed, everyone knows they're on the way 7 days before they turn up anywhere. Be carefull if you have a bike, even rented as most bikes seem to have been stolen or imported illegally and they get confiscated, again the same as with the visas you know when the're on the way and have plenty of time to put the bike out of view!

Budget wise... I lived on the following, which varied a bit but is a good guide...

accom (per night) 150 baht (long term rent)
food / water (per day) less than 200 baht - Buy stuff at the cheap roadside cafes rather than the restaurants to save your budget, the food is really good.
booze - prob a 1/3 litre bottle of Samsong whisky, nice, think it costs about 150 baht.

I used to drink mainly in a bar called ku de ta in chalok ban kao afte diving, the owner Paul was a good guy and lets you by a bottle of booze there nad stick it behind the bar for when you want! Also did bar tas but that prob wont help you budget!

I used to walk around all the time, even from parties late at night, good way of saving cash as the taxis can be expensive, alternatively if you want to take a bike around long term rentals I think are about 100 baht per day.

Greg Jenkins

 

[Aum]

Thanks for the extra info, Greg. Just got back pretty much the same confirmation form the guys at Planet Scuba regards the tourist visa while training and all that. Was pretty much the same route I was going to take anyway.

Pretty sure I have enough cash for around 6 months living but I've just remembered that I should 'probably' get my credit card paid off first before leaving. Don't want to come back (if I do) and find that gruesome 22% working on that capital while I'm away. *sigh* I just want to leave and go NOW!

regards,

Arch

 

[catbrown]

Back to the point about reputations of dive master and instructors trained in Koh Tao...I may be Australian but I live and Work IN Mexico , I run a dive resort there and consequently see many dm's and instructors coming thru looking for work. If someone tells me they got their DM n Thailand or Honduras, they immediately step backin the queue..why? None of them seem to have the expereince or a the skills required to be a good resort dive master. I have never watched a dive master course in progress in Thailand and as I am going tonight I have that on my list to work out why that is. But you should know resort operators definintely have thisopinion, planning to work in Thailand that should be fine, elsewhere not necessarily.
Why not do your DM in Australia or Japan?
cat

 

[Aum]

Back to the point about reputations of dive master and instructors trained in Koh Tao...I may be Australian but I live and Work IN Mexico , I run a dive resort there and consequently see many dm's and instructors coming thru looking for work. If someone tells me they got their DM n Thailand or Honduras, they immediately step backin the queue..why? None of them seem to have the expereince or a the skills required to be a good resort dive master. I have never watched a dive master course in progress in Thailand and as I am going tonight I have that on my list to work out why that is. But you should know resort operators definintely have thisopinion, planning to work in Thailand that should be fine, elsewhere not necessarily.
Why not do your DM in Australia or Japan?
cat

Hiya Cat,

As to judging people and their skills based on where they did their DM course....I can understand that, up to a point. I know that some schools and some countries would have a certain reputation that would make itself known through the industry over time. Some better, some worse than others'.

But just "painting *everyone* with the same brush" because they did their training in country A or B is kinda taking things too far isn't it? Surely it has to be more subjective than that? I'd hate to think that people would blanket stereotype so indiscriminately like that? It would be impossible to state that every single one of those potential employees must be bad just because of where they trained. Wouldn't it and couldn't it be more of a case by case basis?

I don't ask from trying to be augumentative but as I am considering Thailand I would really like to know and understand why this is so? Especially from someone who is in the resort industry as you are. And moreso because I may end up as one of "those" DM's.

As to doing my training in Japan. Couple of reasons why not. I've been here around 5 years or so teaching and quite frankly I've had enough of the place. Relationship and culture wise I need a break. I may return, I'm allowing for that possiblity but that's a different issue. Moreover, the cost of doing my training here will be much, much more expensive and no guarantees about rep either. Combine the two and I haven't really given it a serious thought.

As to going back home to Australia, to be honest never really thought about it. I know going back and setting myself up in an apartment/house again and all the associated costs will end up costing me a fair bit. I've thought in "yen" for so long now that I know the exchange back to aussie $ hurts a lot more too. Plus again, general living costs plus diving costs would be higher.

You've raised a good point about doing it in another country. Seriously though, Japan isn't an option for me at the moment. I'll think on Oz a lil longer. Not sure if I'm really ready to return home just yet but it does have certain merits as it is my home country.

Anyway, I look forward to hearing a little more about this.

regards,

Arch

 

[DORSETBOY]

Back to the point about reputations of dive master and instructors trained in Koh Tao...I may be Australian but I live and Work IN Mexico cat

thanks Cat, you made my original point so well lol lol lol.

If I were a petty man (I try not to be!) I might point out that to my knowledge we always got our guys back on the boat post-dive.. a great idea they're trying to introduce to Aussie trained dive pro's. :11ztongue

Seriously though, any operator who thinks he / she can judge a dive pro on the basis of which country they were trained in sadly knows very little about the industry. Going back to a point I made before, centres in one country like to ***** about standards in another country as they seem to think that petty comments without a basis of truth will encourage people to go diving with them instead.