Rainy Season Diving Koh Tao

[appleseed024]

Sorry if there is already another thread like this on the forum, but I just wanted to know, will it really matter if I go diving in october on Koh Tao?
I've been contacting lots of dive shops there and each of them keep reminding me or advising me to perhaps come at a different time.
I know conditions may not be ideal during that period of time, but I don't really care!
I just want to get underwater and blow bubbles and gain as much experience as possible.
And though Koh Tao gets lots of diving traffic throughout the year, I figure during October (maybe I'm wrong?) there may be less people traveling to the island for diving. Also I may be able to get some good deals on diving since it's considered the low season.
Any advice would be much appreciated!
cheers!
appleseed

 

[ayeshacantrell]

Monsoon hits here in Novemeber and thats the time to really avoid. Conditions are choppy, the rain incessant and the viz awful.

I live here and certainly have enjoyed some lovely diving in October with great vis but this is not a guarantee. We tend to get whalesharks back again at this time too. If you dont mind, as you seem to imply, some surface chop and the possibility of poor vis - which is good for buildng up your experience then no problem.

There will be less visitors but as diving here is already some of the cheapest in the world then its not likely to be discounted further.

Are you planning to fun dive or do some training?

 

[appleseed024]

I'm planning on doing mostly fun diving. Ideally 10-20 fun dives before I start any more training. But I think since I'll already be on Koh Tao, I might as well do the advanced open water course as well, and a few other specialty dives.

 

[willabonger]

I was there during low season. Was great. Good group sizes. Plenty of accomodation. Poor via sometimes fir weeks. But. Good times

 

[appleseed024]

I was there during low season. Was great. Good group sizes. Plenty of accomodation. Poor via sometimes fir weeks. But. Good times

excellent!

 

[ayeshacantrell]

Personally I would advise doing your advanced course first then some fun dives....for 2 reasons... your fun dives will be cheaper after taking a course.....in our shop discounted from 1000b to 700b after a course....which is pretty standard everywhere.....and secondly you will have just learnt some more about diving, some different activities and extended your depth limit which will mean you will be able to put this into practice.....eg ...learning more about navigation on your advanced course will mean that on your fun dives you will be able to practice these navigation techniques and consolidate them....ok you will have a DM guiding you but now you will more accurately be able to follow the dive with a greater understanding of where you are in relation to the mooring and boat .....all good practice......

 

[appleseed024]

that would make sense to do the AOW course first if i get further discounted fun dives. I'm looking to do as much diving as I possibly can in 2 weeks.
thanks for the advice!

 

[willabonger]

Oh yeah. Don't do your dm in ok Tao. You get no love from dive shops anywhere. No work. Kt is a joke to dive pros. Just high customer volume. Fun dive. "going pro" is just a money grab. They want you to put another dollar in. They'll gas you up saying there soooo much opportunity in it. Then when you finish you are ****ed. There are exceptions of course. Fun diving is the ****, resorts want you to take courses becuaae they cost like 7-25 000. , whereas just striaght diving would be less expensive.p

 

[ayeshacantrell]

Cleary you had a bad experience - but as you probably had this bad experience at only one of the 40 or so dive centres here on Koh Tao - please do not assume all dive centres are made equal ....

 

[mgmonk]

Cleary you had a bad experience - but as you probably had this bad experience at only one of the 40 or so dive centres here on Koh Tao - please do not assume all dive centres are made equal ....

Couldn't agree more. For every disappointed/dissatisfied KT DMT, I've known loads more that couldn't have been happier. It's a big (small) island, and, like everywhere else, it's about who you meet and where you go.

I think the biggest proof is that people just keep coming back, year after year. Every month I run into someone who I met here years ago. That's gotta mean something?