biscaynenative
New
Hi all,
I'm going to be traveling to Koh Phangan with my girlfriend and her family in early July. Both she and I are avid divers, but her family isn't certified, so this trip to Thailand isn't built around diving. Having said this I realize that Koh Phangan's proximity to Koh Tao may present some problems, but we simply must get wet regardless.
My questions is this...does anyone know of a reputable operator that focuses on smaller groups and actual diving versus catering to the OW certification crowd? Having done some diving around Asia, I've noticed that a fair amount of operations find most of their clientele through hordes of backpackers wanting to add diving to their list of exploits in Asia. Being stuck on a large boat filled with inexperienced, cowboy types isn't particularly relaxing.
Part of our solution is to stick to the deeper dive sites, thus negating the presence of large classes kicking and muddying up things. Even so, however, deeper sites can still be full of packs of 10+ divers flailing around trying to manage cameras and very expensive but never before used gear. We recently had the opportunity to dive Malapascua in the Philippines and even there, it was a bit disgusting at times seeing kitted out, apparently certified divers thrashing, essentially walking on the bottom, and in one instance one even stuck on her back after apparently forgetting how to swim. I even had a man, who I could only identify through a beer belly and Atomic split fins, hanging on to my tank at a safety stop because he let go of the buoy line and couldn't swim back. This humanoid walrus of doom kicked my mask off twice, on different days, and he wasn't even from our boat. And at 25 meters no less!
We were lucky enough to dive through a smaller, high quality outfit (Evolution Diving, truly awesome experience) and never had to suffer through surfacing early because of air hogs, etc. I did hear multiple complaints from other divers about 55min dives becoming 20min. dives because someone in their 8 person group chugged air.
I'm trying to avoid getting stuck with a large, machine-like diver operator and instead find a smaller (boutique?) operation on Koh Phangan, but am having a little trouble sourcing it out. If anyone has any input, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance.
I'm going to be traveling to Koh Phangan with my girlfriend and her family in early July. Both she and I are avid divers, but her family isn't certified, so this trip to Thailand isn't built around diving. Having said this I realize that Koh Phangan's proximity to Koh Tao may present some problems, but we simply must get wet regardless.
My questions is this...does anyone know of a reputable operator that focuses on smaller groups and actual diving versus catering to the OW certification crowd? Having done some diving around Asia, I've noticed that a fair amount of operations find most of their clientele through hordes of backpackers wanting to add diving to their list of exploits in Asia. Being stuck on a large boat filled with inexperienced, cowboy types isn't particularly relaxing.
Part of our solution is to stick to the deeper dive sites, thus negating the presence of large classes kicking and muddying up things. Even so, however, deeper sites can still be full of packs of 10+ divers flailing around trying to manage cameras and very expensive but never before used gear. We recently had the opportunity to dive Malapascua in the Philippines and even there, it was a bit disgusting at times seeing kitted out, apparently certified divers thrashing, essentially walking on the bottom, and in one instance one even stuck on her back after apparently forgetting how to swim. I even had a man, who I could only identify through a beer belly and Atomic split fins, hanging on to my tank at a safety stop because he let go of the buoy line and couldn't swim back. This humanoid walrus of doom kicked my mask off twice, on different days, and he wasn't even from our boat. And at 25 meters no less!
We were lucky enough to dive through a smaller, high quality outfit (Evolution Diving, truly awesome experience) and never had to suffer through surfacing early because of air hogs, etc. I did hear multiple complaints from other divers about 55min dives becoming 20min. dives because someone in their 8 person group chugged air.
I'm trying to avoid getting stuck with a large, machine-like diver operator and instead find a smaller (boutique?) operation on Koh Phangan, but am having a little trouble sourcing it out. If anyone has any input, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance.
