Griffo
Contributor
I wanted to write a review of the time I had with Master Divers in Koh Tao, Thailand, simply because of the amount of fun I had, and the how impressed I was with their operation. Ive been unsure where exactly on SB I should post this, whether it should be in the Thailand forum, or maybe Basic Scuba, so I will leave it up to the Mod overlords to move it at their will.
Ill start by posting my diving history, as the obviously shapes my opinion. Ive only been diving for 9 months, but in that time have dived in Melbourne temperate (I say cold) water diving, Vanuatu on the SS President Coolidge wreck WAY beyond rec limits, Thailand in Koh Lipe previously, and Fiji.
I also only had 50 dives under my belt before this trip, but had done my SSI OW, NAV, Nitrox, and most difficult of all, my GUE Fundies cert. Although I did Fundies with a Rec pass, I still consider that pass mark my highest honour if you will.
I had decided / needed to take a break from work, and was encouraged to go back to Thailand for a couple of weeks of easy diving. I had 7 weeks of leave accrued at work, so decided to take 3 weeks away. The time of year that is easiest for me is late June, so after much back and forth, I decided to spend the time in the diving centric island of Koh Tao. Id like to thank Quero for providing an honest opinion of where to dive in Thailand at that time, despite being based elsewhere.
I then researched different diving shops, and with something like 60 on Koh Tao, theres a lot to choose from. I was especially impressed however with Ayesha Cantrells constant replies to my queries via email I think I sent her like 30 different emails, and Ayesha responded to every single one without a single sales pitch at all. This, together with the fact that at no point did ever feel pressured into committing to anything, that I knew that Master Divers would have my business at least at day 1.
Long story short, I arrived in Koh Tao, and on the first day, rocked up to Master Divers. I asked for Ayesha, however she was away on holidays. It didnt matter, Charlotte (the office manager?) immediately treated me with the utmost respect, helped organise my gear into a crate etc, and booked me onto a dive that night. As a fulltime sales manager, I hate being sold to. So while Charlotte was appropriately commercial, I never felt sold to, but rather felt like a fellow diver was trying to help me out.
I then spent the next 3 glorious weeks diving with MD at a number of different sites off Koh Tao, doing a number of courses. These included SSI Stress and Rescue, Deep and Wreck, Night and Limited Vis, and EFR.
Through these I had a number of different instructors. Sim was my EFR, then Deep and Wreck instructor. Without a doubt, Sim was the most thorough instructor across any course I have ever met, and extremely thorough in imparting knowledge. I dont care how much experience you have, I think you would walk away from one of Sims dive briefings impressed and more informed. I not only learnt heaps, but literally owe my life to Sim. I only regret that I didnt get to say good-bye properly. I hope Ayesha passes on my massive thanks.
Donny was my instructor for Night and Lmt Vis. I really like Donny and his teaching style. We had fun underwater, but he pushed me hard to see make sure I was learning which buoy are we on donny? / Sorry I dunno, you need to figure that out underwater
Then I had Mark for Rescue. I saw an evil glint in his eye when I started to explain my BP/W and long hose setup to him. I didnt at the time realise what that meant, but learnt during the stress dives. I wont say exactly what he did, I told a fellow GUE diver and he thought that Mark was ant- DIR. Far from it, Mark seemed highly interested and keen to understand the system, but he saw it as way to invent new ways to screw with a student underwater. Just to be clear, I have never laughed so hard underwater, never had so much fun, and never (with the exception of GUE Fundies) been pushed so hard underwater. I believe Mark understood the way I ticked and changed the level to match that. He is a true champion of an instructor.
Wilco I wasnt instructed by Wilco, but got to do a dive off plantation with him as we took a compass bearing and went hunting for stuff away from the main dive site. Without doubt, this is one of my most favourite dives . We saw some amazing stff, and I felt I learnt via osmosis from diving with someone with thousands of dives under his belt.
Tommo I only got to dive with Tommo twice, and both times with an instabuddy with the worst SAC known to man. Despite that, I learnt that Tommo was a very calm soul underwater, cared like hell for marine life, and was a good laugh. He might give the DMs hell, but does so to improve them as divers. I wish Id got to dive with him more.
The DMs. - Kaz, Dan, Vereena, Tracy, Matt, Dave. I could write a whole story on my dives with each of them, but the end point is that I had a ball with all of them (for various reasons). Most importantly, as I was on an island by myself, they were kind enough to adopt me and invite me to their own little personal world for my short time there. I had dinner and beers with them most nights, and cant repay their kindness enough. I think I had my longest ever dive with Vereena, one of my most relaxed with Kaz, my most stressful with Matt, and my funniest with Dave. Thanks guys in a way I cant express in words.
Im disappointed that I didnt get to dive with Ayesha directly, but in the 35 dives I did, there never seemed to be time!
What I can say however is that MD were at all times very organised, which in my limited experience, is rare in tropical dive locations. They were also flexible (e.g my ears were sore after Resuce course, I also had a couple of days of Thai Belly) with no hassles, they treated me more as a fellow diver than a customer than I am used to, I never felt pressured in any way, and I had a friggen ball.
Oh, and they are all mad keen divers who really care about the environment and doing everything possible to save the environment they dive in every day. The only time I saw anyone angry / upset was when some other dive op was doing something to destroy the reefs we were diving.
During the time I was there I say them replacing compressor filters, cleaning regs, servicing kit, sending tanks for vis etc. My CO monitor read 0.1 or less on every tank I dived, so they are also very vigilant in keeping their gear top notch.
If you are going to Koh Tao, and want to dive with a highly organised group of keen divers, then I cant recommend MD any higher. If you are 18, want to party, and want to hook up with a bunch of randoms, then maybe Crystal or Big Blue with their boatloads of 80 divers would be more your style, but for the average SB poster, I think this is your place.
Ill start by posting my diving history, as the obviously shapes my opinion. Ive only been diving for 9 months, but in that time have dived in Melbourne temperate (I say cold) water diving, Vanuatu on the SS President Coolidge wreck WAY beyond rec limits, Thailand in Koh Lipe previously, and Fiji.
I also only had 50 dives under my belt before this trip, but had done my SSI OW, NAV, Nitrox, and most difficult of all, my GUE Fundies cert. Although I did Fundies with a Rec pass, I still consider that pass mark my highest honour if you will.
I had decided / needed to take a break from work, and was encouraged to go back to Thailand for a couple of weeks of easy diving. I had 7 weeks of leave accrued at work, so decided to take 3 weeks away. The time of year that is easiest for me is late June, so after much back and forth, I decided to spend the time in the diving centric island of Koh Tao. Id like to thank Quero for providing an honest opinion of where to dive in Thailand at that time, despite being based elsewhere.
I then researched different diving shops, and with something like 60 on Koh Tao, theres a lot to choose from. I was especially impressed however with Ayesha Cantrells constant replies to my queries via email I think I sent her like 30 different emails, and Ayesha responded to every single one without a single sales pitch at all. This, together with the fact that at no point did ever feel pressured into committing to anything, that I knew that Master Divers would have my business at least at day 1.
Long story short, I arrived in Koh Tao, and on the first day, rocked up to Master Divers. I asked for Ayesha, however she was away on holidays. It didnt matter, Charlotte (the office manager?) immediately treated me with the utmost respect, helped organise my gear into a crate etc, and booked me onto a dive that night. As a fulltime sales manager, I hate being sold to. So while Charlotte was appropriately commercial, I never felt sold to, but rather felt like a fellow diver was trying to help me out.
I then spent the next 3 glorious weeks diving with MD at a number of different sites off Koh Tao, doing a number of courses. These included SSI Stress and Rescue, Deep and Wreck, Night and Limited Vis, and EFR.
Through these I had a number of different instructors. Sim was my EFR, then Deep and Wreck instructor. Without a doubt, Sim was the most thorough instructor across any course I have ever met, and extremely thorough in imparting knowledge. I dont care how much experience you have, I think you would walk away from one of Sims dive briefings impressed and more informed. I not only learnt heaps, but literally owe my life to Sim. I only regret that I didnt get to say good-bye properly. I hope Ayesha passes on my massive thanks.
Donny was my instructor for Night and Lmt Vis. I really like Donny and his teaching style. We had fun underwater, but he pushed me hard to see make sure I was learning which buoy are we on donny? / Sorry I dunno, you need to figure that out underwater
Then I had Mark for Rescue. I saw an evil glint in his eye when I started to explain my BP/W and long hose setup to him. I didnt at the time realise what that meant, but learnt during the stress dives. I wont say exactly what he did, I told a fellow GUE diver and he thought that Mark was ant- DIR. Far from it, Mark seemed highly interested and keen to understand the system, but he saw it as way to invent new ways to screw with a student underwater. Just to be clear, I have never laughed so hard underwater, never had so much fun, and never (with the exception of GUE Fundies) been pushed so hard underwater. I believe Mark understood the way I ticked and changed the level to match that. He is a true champion of an instructor.
Wilco I wasnt instructed by Wilco, but got to do a dive off plantation with him as we took a compass bearing and went hunting for stuff away from the main dive site. Without doubt, this is one of my most favourite dives . We saw some amazing stff, and I felt I learnt via osmosis from diving with someone with thousands of dives under his belt.
Tommo I only got to dive with Tommo twice, and both times with an instabuddy with the worst SAC known to man. Despite that, I learnt that Tommo was a very calm soul underwater, cared like hell for marine life, and was a good laugh. He might give the DMs hell, but does so to improve them as divers. I wish Id got to dive with him more.
The DMs. - Kaz, Dan, Vereena, Tracy, Matt, Dave. I could write a whole story on my dives with each of them, but the end point is that I had a ball with all of them (for various reasons). Most importantly, as I was on an island by myself, they were kind enough to adopt me and invite me to their own little personal world for my short time there. I had dinner and beers with them most nights, and cant repay their kindness enough. I think I had my longest ever dive with Vereena, one of my most relaxed with Kaz, my most stressful with Matt, and my funniest with Dave. Thanks guys in a way I cant express in words.
Im disappointed that I didnt get to dive with Ayesha directly, but in the 35 dives I did, there never seemed to be time!
What I can say however is that MD were at all times very organised, which in my limited experience, is rare in tropical dive locations. They were also flexible (e.g my ears were sore after Resuce course, I also had a couple of days of Thai Belly) with no hassles, they treated me more as a fellow diver than a customer than I am used to, I never felt pressured in any way, and I had a friggen ball.
Oh, and they are all mad keen divers who really care about the environment and doing everything possible to save the environment they dive in every day. The only time I saw anyone angry / upset was when some other dive op was doing something to destroy the reefs we were diving.
During the time I was there I say them replacing compressor filters, cleaning regs, servicing kit, sending tanks for vis etc. My CO monitor read 0.1 or less on every tank I dived, so they are also very vigilant in keeping their gear top notch.
If you are going to Koh Tao, and want to dive with a highly organised group of keen divers, then I cant recommend MD any higher. If you are 18, want to party, and want to hook up with a bunch of randoms, then maybe Crystal or Big Blue with their boatloads of 80 divers would be more your style, but for the average SB poster, I think this is your place.
