Fun Divers in Koh Tao..Who Want's 'Em

[Stout]

Hi all

I've been to Koh Tao a couple of times in the past 2002, 2003 and as I'm pretty much done with courses I'm looking to do some fun diving. What I'm wondering, are there any outfits on the island that actually appear to want fun divers on their boats ?

The reason I'm posting is the last times I went, Koh Tao seemed to be all about selling courses and fun divers seemed more like ballast than customers with the boats going to dive sites that the instructors needed/wanted to take their students to.

I'm planning on taking one of these 5 day/10 tank deals, maybe double that if conditions are reasonable and I like the outfit I'm diving with before heading off south and "diving it all"

I'd prefer a smaller outfit, yet one with a proper dive boat that has shade ( ie, no longtails ) as I'm going to be all pasty white and needing to hide from the tropical sun lest I end up like so many other fresh off the plane tourists I've seen before, all red and itchy, hiding in their bungalows like vampires.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and I'll be arriving on Koh Tao in mid January.

 

[limbo]

All schools will sell fun dives, but as you mentioned, the majority will go to dive sites that will cater to their students. Some (bigger) shops have more than just one boat and might be able to cater to your wishes better. I know that there are plenty of fun divers on KT so ask around when you get there and see hoiw they react to your enquiry or hopefully somebody here will be able to get you a couple of names.

 

[mase]

Take a look at Taa Toh Lagoon, very few students on the boat if any. It's located on the south end of the Island in Chalok baan kow
Scuba Diving Koh Tao Thailand | Taa Toh Divers: daily courses and trips around Koh Tao.

 

[vdonick]

I worked as a videographer for crystal dive, one of the bigger resorts and in the busier periods, jan being one of those times, they have loads of fun divers, enough to fill a boat with just them and maybe a few doing the advanced course, so 1 boat would have the open water students on it and go to say white rock/twins and the fun dive boat would go off to the deeper sites of say chumpon/white rock or southwest/shark island etc......they also do fun dive trips to sail rock etc if the conditions are good, aswell as maybe dusk dive at chumpon/night dive at white rock trips too.

So even the bigger schools arnt all about courses, remember they make alot of the money from fun dives and always plenty of DMT's fun diving to fill the boats up. I was back there in the summer fun diving almost every day for 6-7 weeks and there was always plenty of fun divers on the boat.

I think most other resorts are the same if they have multiple boats and its busy.

 

[vdonick]

or head down to goodtime adventures Good Time Adventures - Koh Tao - Home awesome bunch of guys down there, they do tailor made dive packages, to whatever sites you request, in a nice little speedy boat and small groups, like 6 max (on the boat) so might be the sort of thing your after, and they tend to go to the sites at different times to all the resorts so alot of the time you'll be the only boat on the site.....cant go wrong there eh!!

 

[lord khram]

Also beware of shops that will promise you one thing and when they have your money, give you something completely different, this has happened to me numerous times over the years.
Even after booking and being promissed specific dive sites it is always good policy to check with the boat staff before departure that they are actually going where you think you are going to.
Simply my advice would be to look around, talk to people, and dont commit yourself to too much with one shop before being sure you are happy with them.
There are loads of shops on koh tao to pick from, many catering to different customers requirements. Simply take a little time and effort to ensure you find one that can fulfill your needs and I am sure you will enjoy the diving.

 

[Stout]

mase..thanks for the link, the price of the resort looks right and it's in the area of the island I prefer to stay in.

Cheers vdonick...Good Time Adventures was just the type of outfit I was looking for. I will make sure to ask how they work re different boats for OW students and fun/advanced divers. I hadn't thought of that.

lord khram..thanks for the input. I don plan to shop around for a day or so. Last couple of times i went with a large outfit and this time I'm going to seek out the smaller operators in hopes of avoiding scenarios like you just outlined.