Khao Lak Scuba Advanture Similan Island liveaboard on Manta Queen II

[eelnoraa]

Friends of mine signed all of us up for this live aboard in Jan. This will be my first time to Thailand, first real warm water diving, and first liveaboard. So I want to ask for some advices and recommandations here, such as what to bring, what NOT to bring, the do's and don'ts.

So dive equipements. I have these in mind. bp/w, reg, mask, snorkel, boots (6mm), gloves (5mm), fins, gauges, light, smb/spool. My questions are these:
1. how warm exactly is Similan island? in terms of wetsuit thickness, am I looking at 3mm, 5mm or 7mm? We will be doing 4 dives a day, one will be night dive.
2. 6mm boots and 5mm gloves, are they suitable for this location
3. I have a older 7mm pinnacle suit, probably compressed a bit, say a new 5mm equivalent, should I bring it or just use rental? is it even suitable.
4. will I need a hood
5. the light I am thinking bringing is Hollis LED5, my normal backup light. is this sufficient? or should I bring 21W HID canister, I kind of want to avoid it due to weight limitation.
6. if I skip the canister light, I will need a backup light, what would be a good backup light for this location?
7. will a jacket for surface interval be needed?

Any other tips on what to bring and what not to bring, do's and don'ts?

I will be making a few stops before going to Phuket. All dive gears will travel with me to all the locations, so I am trying to bring useful gears and avoid bringing things that I will end up not using. Any comments and advices will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Quero]

Friends of mine signed all of us up for this live aboard in Jan. This will be my first time to Thailand, first real warm water diving, and first liveaboard. So I want to ask for some advices and recommandations here, such as what to bring, what NOT to bring, the do's and don'ts.

So dive equipements. I have these in mind. bp/w, reg, mask, snorkel, boots (6mm), gloves (5mm), fins, gauges, light, smb/spool. My questions are these:

First of all, leave the gloves at home. The water is so warm you don't need any gloves at all, and I personally think they should be banned from our waters altogether to discourage divers from grabbing on to the reef (not that you do this, but if one person is allowed to wear gloves for no good reason, then everybody has to be allowed to wear gloves, and the outcome is seeing people grabbing the reef).

1. how warm exactly is Similan island? in terms of wetsuit thickness, am I looking at 3mm, 5mm or 7mm? We will be doing 4 dives a day, one will be night dive.

3mm shorty. The water tends to be in the 80's.

2. 6mm boots and 5mm gloves, are they suitable for this location

Not the gloves, certainly. The booties... well, it may depend on your fins. If you are bringing your own heavy fins, and these are the booties that work best with them, then yeah, bring 'em. If you are using the boat's rental fins, then leave them at home. Our rental fins here are overwhelmingly full-foot fins, and you can't wear booties with them anyway. In that case, bring dive socks instead (to prevent blisters).

3. I have a older 7mm pinnacle suit, probably compressed a bit, say a new 5mm equivalent, should I bring it or just use rental? is it even suitable.

Do you get cold easily? I do, and I was wearing my 3mm up at Richelieu Rock last week and felt chilled. Not cold, but a little chilled, and if it had been 4-dive days, I'm certain I would have wanted a warmer wetsuit by the end of the day. But one of my divers was toasty in his .5 mm skin suit. So it all depends....

4. will I need a hood

No.

5. the light I am thinking bringing is Hollis LED5, my normal backup light. is this sufficient? or should I bring 21W HID canister, I kind of want to avoid it due to weight limitation.

6. if I skip the canister light, I will need a backup light, what would be a good backup light for this location?

Your Hollis should be fine. If you want, you can keep it as your backup and just use the dive lights the boat will provide to all divers on the boat.

7. will a jacket for surface interval be needed?

Not for surface intervals, probably (unless it's pouring rain or something), but I like a light hoodie for evenings.

Any other tips on what to bring and what not to bring, do's and don'ts?

There's a recent SB thread on this question.

I will be making a few stops before going to Phuket. All dive gears will travel with me to all the locations, so I am trying to bring useful gears and avoid bringing things that I will end up not using. Any comments and advices will be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like you're getting excited! I would add that it's important to have spare parts for your personal stuff--I always have fin and mask straps, mouthpiece, cable ties, duct tape, o-rings for my dive light, camera, and strobe, spare batteries, etc. Things like tools they'll have on the boat.

 

[Buadhai]

Never mind.

 

[Quero]

Never mind.

 

[Buadhai]

^Our posts overlapped. Yours made mine look rather feeble.

 

[Quero]

^Our posts overlapped. Yours made mine look rather feeble.

I saw your post... it came through in the notifications email, and it wasn't feeble in the least. A lot shorter than mine, yeah, but your personal perspective is always valuable. I still have it, if you want to stick it in here (hint, hint) and maybe I should be more brief (!).

 

[eelnoraa]

Guero and Buadhai, thank you for the reply with extensive details. It is so nice to have such kind of support from SB. I am getting very exciting. With all the efforts put in for training in 50F water in Monterey, I finally get a chance to taste the tropics.

Looks like I will leave the gloves, hood, 7mm and canister. This sure saves lots of space and weight. As for fin, my lightest weight fins are OMS slipstream. I think I will try to bring them with me, but all depends on weight and spaces. And good call on spare parts, looks like I iwll need to order some.

Nitrox, do most people on live board use nitrox? do the dive site even make sense for nitrox (MOD limit)? most importantly, my nitrox card is from GUE. Will it be accepted?

 

[Quero]

Your nitrox card should be accepted. I think it's nuts to do these dives and not dive nitrox if you can.

 

[ligersandtions]

I haven't dived Thailand yet, but am in the process of planning a trip there...

I have, on the other hand, dived warm water -- coming from a relatively cold water location, so my input might have some merit. I dived Hawaii (high 70's / low 80's) in a 7mm and was too cold doing 4+ hours a day to enjoy it....when we went to Cozumel earlier this year (low- to mid-80's), we dived dry and were very comfortable with very light undergarments. If you run relatively warm, a wetsuit should be sufficient....if you run cold, like I do, I found a drysuit to be way more comfortable.

I do agree with the no gloves sentiment....it was kind of nice to not have to wear gloves! As for a hood, I found it was not necessary (when diving wet), except for the fact that my hair was driving me nuts! I ended up buying a lycra hood (i.e. no thermal protection) to keep the hair out of my face -- it will accompany me on all future warm water diving!

I did dive with my can light....it was nice for the extra weight that I didn't have to include on a belt and for bringing back the color on deeper dives. But I imagine a back-up light would be sufficient if you're looking to cut the packed weight.

Not specific to Thailand....but coming from CA diving to tropical locations, I hope it might be helpful

 

[Buadhai]

On the last liveaboard I was on, I was the only customer using Nitrox. On my previous trip (earlier this year), less than a third used Nitrox. I have no idea why. The expense? Lack of certification? As Quero says, it's crazy not to use Nitrox on trips like this.

BTW, in the post I deleted I simply said that I have lived and dived in the tropics (Hawaii, Saipan, Thailand) for 35 years and have never used a wetsuit except on a few night dives. I sometimes wear a wetsuit on night dives not because the water is cold, but because of the wind chill factor on a fast moving dingy. But, I'm the sort of person who rarely feels cold in any conditions. (I used to surf Steamer's Lane in Santa Cruz without a wetsuit.)