Phuket Operator Recommendations

[scubashooter]

As for Calypso, I've been using Calypso for many years (since 95 or the year Steffen & Stefan started, whichever it is) and most times their crew have been excellent. There were a few hiccups over the years, such as when they had an american girl as DM and she made comments about old men and young thai girls a little too loudly in front of one older gentleman, who didn't take too kindly to being inferred to as lecherous LOL. That Phi Phi resort they use is usually very efficient except when they do the night dive. Arriving past 8 pm seems to unsettle the hotel staff. also the walk to the resort after 4 dives can be tiring. However, travel hiccups are to be expected on any trip.
Paulus, about your comment on the Thai culture, was your DM thai? Or was your companion? I would assume you are referring to the fact that he would talk to you about your female buddy even if she were there. It's a deferrence to the "guy is in charge" mentality you get quite a bit on boats with couples around the world, unless she stands up for herself. Shouldn't be necessary but occurs occasionally.
My girlfriend had terrible times with our thai driver when I was not around. He doesn't turn up on time etc. When I'm around, he behaves. He simply doesn't like western women telling him what to do in not so subtle ways. Cultural differences are what make different countries unique and wonderful to visit (esp if you're a guy! ;-)
Hey John, keep pasquale and joe out of trouble until I get back to Phuket. I agree Thai hospitality is genuine and enthusiastic,but my travels have found most places to have one thing in common, many hardworking people and a few really lazy and indifferent bums who can ruin someone's holiday.

 

[Paulus Magnus]

Apologies to John for missing out his 'h' but nice to see you in here.

I'm not sure if the guide was Thai but he was dark skinned so from somewhere nearby. We didn't really chat, as I think he thought we were the inexperienced divers out of his four divers, which wasn't helped by my dive buddys first two dives where she sucked down her air in no time. She had new Quattros and had only used full foot fins before and had an hour of sleep. However, by dive 3 she was back to normal and wasn't the worst performing air consumer for the rest of the trip. I also didn't want his name going in my dive log so I specifically avoided asking him to sign the pages and become friendly.

However, we were never asked by our guide what our experience levels were or even our PADI certification level. It was just assumed but incorrectly, particularly as my buddy was female and American. She isn't as safe as me, she's a new AOW and 40 dives whereas I've got 50+ dives but I also have 8 specialities so I've spent a lot longer doing training activities. I didn't appreciate being towed by my fin on the night dive (I was trying to re-attach a broken reg holder to a clip on my buddy for her alternate) and then he waved his torch for my attention to show me bio-luminescence!!! I did my Night Dive speciality so I'd already seen it, this was my 7th night dive so didn't appreciate that moment and gestured appropriately underwater.

She was my buddy, not my wife or girlfriend but often people will assume we're a couple, including John when he booked the double bed for us. We used to be a couple, so we have that comfortable look about us. This hotel booking meant a few trips up and down the hill because the hotel staff told me I had to speak to the tour leader, he then told me I could have the room next to theirs, the hotel staff then said it would cost more money, so it needed Rich to intervene and finally resolve everything. It took about an hour of walking up and down the hill, passing messages between everybody before we finally got settled into the room.

 

[Albion]

I'm not sure if the guide was Thai but he was dark skinned so from somewhere nearby. We didn't really chat, as I think he thought we were the inexperienced divers out of his four divers, which wasn't helped by my dive buddys first two dives where she sucked down her air in no time. She had new Quattros and had only used full foot fins before and had an hour of sleep. However, by dive 3 she was back to normal and wasn't the worst performing air consumer for the rest of the trip. I also didn't want his name going in my dive log so I specifically avoided asking him to sign the pages and become friendly.

However, we were never asked by our guide what our experience levels were or even our PADI certification level. It was just assumed but incorrectly, particularly as my buddy was female and American. She isn't as safe as me, she's a new AOW and 40 dives whereas I've got 50+ dives but I also have 8 specialities so I've spent a lot longer doing training activities. I didn't appreciate being towed by my fin on the night dive (I was trying to re-attach a broken reg holder to a clip on my buddy for her alternate) and then he waved his torch for my attention to show me bio-luminescence!!! I did my Night Dive speciality so I'd already seen it, this was my 7th night dive so didn't appreciate that moment and gestured appropriately underwater.
.

Would sound like he was thai and what scuba shooter says is probably correct, they were dealing with the MAN.

The fact that she sucked her air down would have me a bit spooked as well if i were then taking you on a deeper dive, better to have someone ask, even if inappropriately.

In my years diving in asia only once has my log book been checked and despite a few occasions where my certification level was asked for, only twice have they asked to see the cards (then promptly ignored my experince and treated me like a newb) - Welcome to Aisa.

It should'nt be this way but you learn to be prepared to look after yourself out this way, and when they do give you a good service its a bonus.

Ok your air wasnt checked during the dive, but you are AOW divers with 40-50 dives do you need someone checking on you all the time? If I am leading a group i tend to spend the first dive or two checking their air (even glancing at their guages while they are looking at other things) From this i can Guage within 10-20 bar where they are going to be relative to my pressure. You said that you had 60/70 Bar when you started the ascent, so dont see the issue here.

 

[Paulus Magnus]

I was saying that the guide wasn't checking the other divers air properly. When a guide does an air check I usually watch everybody's air so I can adjust my own consumption, if need be. On one dive I'd voluntarily told him I was on 70 bar so as to say "if I'm on 70, you should be checking these other guys that are worse than me".

On the last dive where we ran over the dive time limit and I hit 70, it was obvious to me that they'd run out of air as I was already 30 bar ahead at halfway. I don't need checking as I've already had to plan and lead my own dives as part of my speciality training. I was just pointing out that this was something else that the guide wasn't doing properly. Otherwise we wouldn't have had to spend 2 minutes hovering in a boring area of reef waiting for divers to show up when they'd already tucked into the banana pancakes back on the boat.

 

[Scuba John]

Well, this board has certainly become fancy with the software. Gosh.

These things drive me crazy since I rarely know who I'm talking to since you don't use real names and I guess everyone wants to stay incognito. Oh well, I'll get back into the swing of things. Where's teh spll cheker?

Paulus Magnus: Sorry for ASSuming about your better half. You'd think I would learn by now. I can't imagine that we all don't have stories about horrible dive guides. Just for the record, Calypso was well aware of your level of experience. Most of my biz comes from the web and that is a standard question we ask (cert, # of dives, date of last dive), and that was passed on to Calypso. You were a walk-in, so we didn't email, but I asked you and told them. Personally, I never understood why the office staff needs to know this (although I'm sure that many of you will tell me reasons), but when I ran my own boats, my divemasters were told to ask by themselves when they met the guests! That was how DMs used to be trained, and STILL are according to my nice Course Director partner. I guess this guy missed that lecture. When I guide, I never ASSuME that the office gives me correct information anyway...

I hate it when things like this happen to me as well, and the reason that I solo dive whenever possible, but that's another topic (don't get me started), but there are no 'rules' that say that certified divers must dive with a guide. It's supposed to be a 'service'. When I worked in Australia, the Carib, and in the US, we never had DM in the water for people. Thailand, until recently, was pretty unique that way and I always thought it was a nice idea. Until they turn out to be jerks, of course. I had a moron DM in Cozumel in 1983 that insisted on grabbing my SPG continuously on a night dive, even though I had 3,000 dives at that time, and he had about 20. I almost slugged the guy. He finally ran out of air and I took him to the surface on my octopus and continued the dive by myself. I felt much safer with him out of the water. Who was in charge of whom?

Scubashooter who are you? As you probably know, P and J will keep me deep in trouble whether I like it or not. And, Spicy Man... well, it just keeps getting better! I'm looking forward to meeting Roger. If he's anything like the other two, I'm in big trouble. But, so is he.

Paulus Magnus, don't worry about the missing "h". I always wished I was Jonathan. I'm still angry at my mother about that. Where's Doc when I need him? Paulus Magnus, it was a pleasure to meet you, and at least you got me motivated to contribute again.

Anyway, nice new look to the forum. This IS the same as the previous Diver2Diver, right? I've been out of touch too long.

Cheers,

John Williams (I don't like being incognito...)

 

[scubashooter]

Paulus, not to be picky but shouldn't the divers who run out of air TELL the dive guide they are going up or even low on air? Especially at Koh Doc Mai where the viz is crap at times, those divers who went awol should've been closer. To be fair, in 5m viz a dive guide is also responsible for trying to keep the group tight. The guide also has to find you stuff to look at, terrible job if you ask me. You do know that you are allowed to request that you and your buddy go it alone. Especially at a site like Koh Doc Mai where you either look at rock or look at the blue, drift to the cover of the southern point and then do your safety stop. I suppose it comes down to talking to the tour leader who will deem you fit or not.
The advent of dive guides being responsible is more a legal than moral obligation. It sucks to be one, especially a sucky one. IMHO, divers should be responsible for themselves up to a point, including out of air situations and staying close to the guide. A guide should just concentrate on finding you stuff to look at and to guide you around the site.
John, Roger is nothing like P & J.

 

[Paulus Magnus]

I agree scubashooter, they should have said but as the other two divers were a Divemaster and friend, they probably assumed it was below them.

We did ask our guide if we could do our own thing because that's what we were used to. We'd even been loaned a SMB on the Rhapsody so that we could run our dives to the limits. However, our guide on this trip wouldn't allow it. We were told the Calypso rules say we have to ascend and descend together as a group. As my buddy's bad air consumption was the cause of the first short dive, she buddied off my tank on the second dive to try and eek the dive out more.

If I'd had my own SMB I would have insisted on doing our own thing but all the ones I'd seen in Thailand were the cheap ones. However, I will get one before I do my next trip. I don't mind doing one chaperoned check dive to prove we're safe and capable but after that we want to push the dive to the limits as we don't like aborting early.

I learnt a lot from this little two day trip. I even talked to my buddy when we got to Phi Phi about chartering a speedboat and making our own way back to Phuket so we didn't have to be so frustrated. In the end, we just decided to bear with it and just do more of our own thing and ignore his tank banging, finger pointing. Maybe thats what the other two divers were doing when they went AWOL.

BTW I hate tank bangers too.

 

[Albion]

Dive trip from Hell
When I was living in Japan we went to visit Yonaguni, its a tiny island, the southernmost of all japan, almost in taiwan, famous for hammerheads (apparently) and the underwater monument (kind of an Atlantis) We had a big group mixed between foreigners and japanese. amoungst our group was a DM who had organised the trip. we all filled out a liabilty, which included cert level and number of dives, this was promptly ignored. amoungst the goings on i saw were;
- a very competant rescue certified diver being pulled down, she had an equalisation problem and was descending slowly when the dive guide grabbed her fin and pulled her down nearly blowing her eardrum
- guides grabbing guages to read the pressure, language may be a problem above water but!!!!
- i was trying to get back on boat reg out of mouth trying to pull my fin off only to find i was being pulled underwater by a guide trying to get my other fin off, i had to hit him to make him let go so i could get a breath.
- the DM in our group had to threaten violence on the guides so they wouldnt touch him again
- Dive guides calling the dive as it was over, when there was still time on the plan, i suspected he was low on air as he was trying to hide his guage, so before he could close his tank valve i pressed the inflator button on his BC which gave a small pfft, he just smiled.
- They insisted we all dove as one group, nearly 20 of us, trying keeping that lot together

That was the last time i allowed myself to be at the mercy of the dive guides. Paulus I hope you learnt a few tips from the experience and glad the first part of your trip was a success

 

[The Hamburger]

Does anybody else have a sunburst diving speciality?

Cheers

 

[whitehead]

I was thinking the same thing - the sunburst/starburst, hated by "dive masters" everywhere but extremely effective if you have a strong buddy pair and a sunburst plan.

Once you get really proficient at it you can arrange it by signal.