Instructors in Koh Tao

[dsteding]

Greetings,

I have a friend that is going to be heading up to Koh Tao in a few days. If anyone has recommendations on instructors, places to go to or places to avoid, please let me know. If appropriate, a PM is fine.

Also, what is the going rate these days for OW?

Thanks in advance,

-Doug

 

[bubblemonkey]

go with a smaller company that will give you time and have a more one to one approach as opposed to diver factorys like planet scuba.

 

[Bubble Junky]

Check out Ban's. Good instructors, most of which have been teaching there for a number of years and know the area very well. Usually 6-8 in the classes, but lots of fun and very well run, pretty much always with at least one DMT too.

 

[wedivebc]

I had a very good time with Coral Grand. Spent 3 days at their resort and 3 boat trips for a very reasonable price.
Have fun, I really enjoyed it there

 

[Diver_City Boys]

I did my OW course one-one for my class, pool and boat dives (Sail Rock) in 4 days total with Scuba Planet in samui, i don't know about their operation in Kou Tao

Samui planet scuba are part of Samui international diving school, and i believe SPS is better than SIDS because one-one possibility

 

[jiveturkey]

I'd avoid dive factories like Bans and Buddha View. They may have good instructors but when Bans goes diving, they send out 2 boats to the dive site, each with a capacity of something in the range of 40-50 divers. Not the way to learn to dive IMHO.

 

[dsteding]

I'd avoid dive factories like Bans and Buddha View. They may have good instructors but when Bans goes diving, they send out 2 boats to the dive site, each with a capacity of something in the range of 40-50 divers. Not the way to learn to dive IMHO.

Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to respond so far, I appreciate the input.

Jiveturkey, I'd agree with you here. With that in mind, does anyone have specifics, i.e., people they know out there, or shops they'd work with? Specifically smaller shops that are NAUI or SSI? I actually got certified in Thailand last year at Koh Tao, but my instructor has moved on from there.

I'm not dissing PADI here (I was PADI OW in Koh Tao) but I've learned to like NAUI better, and my bet is that the NAUI/SSI outfits on Koh Tao probably have smaller class sizes and are a bit off the beaten path in terms of being dive factories.

 

[OnTheSpot]

#5 you mean Planet Scuba..www.planet-scuba.net. You can talk to Jim Hutchinson there, though I am not sure if he teaches any Open Water courses these days, as he's a course director and they have instructor courses every month.

 

[Island Hoppa]

there are a couple of shops that offer naui. i prefer padi because it is more widely accepted. i did my dm course with coral grand about a year and a half ago. best time of my life by far, enjoy thailand to the fullest. dont forget to take atleast a week or two to dive the similian islands, and head to phi phi to dive muang and daeng. have a blast!

 

[Diver_City Boys]

Yes, that's typo. Look at this package at Kou Tao
http://www.planet-scuba.net/kohtao/godive/index.html
Premium 12 Dive Pack (6 nights Divers Lodge Accommodation) 9360 THB
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If you take their accomodation rate as 500 Bhat per day, still you end up paying 6360 for 12 dives, unbelievable rate, am i missing somthing here?



Without doubt Tao is cheaper and better for diving than samui, but for me living in place like that isn't an option, who lived in bangkok for considerable time. There are many smallers DCs owning speed boats who can take you to kou Tao for extra 500-1000 bhat daily.

Btw, Samui international diving school (planet-scuba) isn't very crowded, they had around 25-30 divers each day, while Easydivers which works with many small DCs in samui had around 45-50 divers i saw, you hardly could drop needle or walk around on the boat