Similans in March

[Aucan]

Hi, people!

I'm an Argentinian traveling with my wife and another couple to Thailand in march. We dove before to dive but the couple traveling with us will have their first experience there (They'll certify in Argentina before traveling). We dove before a couple of times, in Australia, Fiji and Brazil, not much, about 30 immersions.

The thing is that I want to get on a Live-aboard, my dream is to find whale sharks (I know is a matter of luck anyway) and I know that Richelieu Rock is an awesome place and the one with most possibilities to find them. The problem is that I heard that the diving difficulty is intermediate and I'm not sure if is a good idea to take my friends on their first experience there. Maybe is better to just go to the similans (Which will be an incredible experience anyway). Our idea is to get on a 3 days live-aboard, so maybe it's too difficult to do both.

What do you think?

Thanks so much!

 

[Prabang]

Hi, people!

I'm an Argentinian traveling with my wife and another couple to Thailand in march. We dove before to dive but the couple traveling with us will have their first experience there (They'll certify in Argentina before traveling). We dove before a couple of times, in Australia, Fiji and Brazil, not much, about 30 immersions.

The thing is that I want to get on a Live-aboard, my dream is to find whale sharks (I know is a matter of luck anyway) and I know that Richelieu Rock is an awesome place and the one with most possibilities to find them. The problem is that I heard that the diving difficulty is intermediate and I'm not sure if is a good idea to take my friends on their first experience there. Maybe is better to just go to the similans (Which will be an incredible experience anyway). Our idea is to get on a 3 days live-aboard, so maybe it's too difficult to do both.

What do you think?

Thanks so much!

Aucan,
Read my thread just below yours. They are the same topic essentially and will give you some sound (albeit mixed) advice.

Prabang

 

[Aucan]

Thanks, Prabang.

Yes, I checked your post, I wanted to speak specifically about the Richelieu rock, but as I understand from the people who wrote, their opinion is that the whole area of the similans is better for intermediate or advanced divers. Anyway I'm thinking of taking a liveaboard there, don't want to miss those places being so close.

Thanks.

 

[jefffalcone]

You can do a Livaboard in similans that goes to richelieu.

 

[jefffalcone]

I recommend similan safaris. great opperation

 

[Quero]

Aucan, Richelieu tends to be a deep dive site, and there may be current (this depends a lot of the phase of the moon and the time of day you visit--sometimes it poses very little difficulty). These factors can cause considerable anxiety to newer divers, and IMO, from an instructor's perspective, I feel that it's important that divers not learn to dive by being thrown in at the proverbial "deep end" and told to "sink or swim" with possible traumatic consequences. I prefer for my newer divers to work up to greater challenges gradually.

Having said that, it's also my opinion that if you've got a group of four, it's less problematic to take inexperienced divers to (the shallow areas of) deep sites than it is when there are just one or two divers (as in the case of Prabang) since everybody in the group will accommodate to the needs of their less experienced dive buddies by staying shallow rather than pushing them to keep up with the more experienced ones in the group and dive down deeper than they should. (More experienced divers who are strangers to the less experienced ones that they find themselves grouped with can find it irritating to be limited by the air consumption and dive abilities of new divers.)

In addition, most boats visit Richelieu rather late in the trip, so your friends could get some experience on other more benign dive sites first. At Richelieu, you could all just dive shallower rather than going all the way down to the sand at the bottom of the rock. The entire dive site is gorgeous, and the top part is the most colorful. Keep in mind, too, that if your friends blow through their air as fast as most brand-new divers do, and you are buddied up with them in a group, everybody's dive will be short if you go deep, so shallower is good in this case as you'll get a longer dive which is a real plus at a dive site like Richelieu. Because currents may be a factor, if possible plan to dive at Richelieu during a quarter moon rather than during a full moon or a new moon so that the strength of the current is less.