The PADI Divemaster and PADI IDC in Thailand… would you like to be able to work in Thailand? Do you want the opportunity to work in tropical destinations around the world and have the deep blue ocean as your office? Well then, you might want you think about becoming a scuba diving professional and go pro in Phuket. The professional ladder begins with the PADI Divemaster course, which you can take here in Thailand with Super Divers, then you move on to the PADI Instructor Development Course IDC with a partner IDC centre in Phuket. Read more »

For some of the best scuba diving locations in Thailand you should look no further than Phuket. Phuket scuba diving trips can be single day trips or multiple day Similan liveaboard trips. It is possible to enjoy Phuket Diving Day Trips all year round, and at certain times of the year, Similan liveaboards, or Hin Daeng liveaboards and even Burma liveaboards. But then comes the obvious question… “Which dive trip is best for me when I am there?”
Super Divers PADI dive centre can offer Phuket diving day trips to the closer islands of Racha Yai and Racha Noi, the deeper sites of Shark Point, Anemone Reef and Koh Dok Mai, and dive sites in the Phi Phi archipelago such as Bida Nok and Bida Nai. There is also the wreck of the car ferry, the King Cruiser, which lies on the ocean floor near Anemone reef. Read more »

When you take PADI scuba diving courses in Phuket, or scuba dive with Super Divers in Phuket, Thailand, in many cases you can earn credit to towards a further dive certification. This can be particularly useful if you do not have much time on vacation and would like your dives to count for as much as possible while you are in diving in Thailand. Read more »

PADI eLearning Phuket Thailand is another option Super Divers offer to you for completing your PADI Open Water course or any other PADI course that is supported by PADI e learning. PADI eLearning is an online program that enables you to complete your PADI course theory sections via the Internet. This can be a great way for you to get your teeth into your dive course before you reach your holiday destination. With E – Learning Phuket dive courses are made more convenient for you, although they do come at an extra cost! Read more »

When you enroll in any Super Divers PADI course Phuket Island will be your base for scuba diving in Thailand. From this beautiful tropical paradise you will visit many local Phuket dive sites to complete your Phuket PADI training dives. During any diving courses Phuket will feel like the ideal location. There are a good variety of excellent Phuket dive sites offering a myriad of aquatic life are just a short boat ride away. As well as being a great place to take your PADI course, Phuket has many other attractions and all the amenities you would expect from a modern holiday island. Read more »

If you’re planning on scuba diving Kamala there are a couple of things to think about. For a start the diving around Kamala is only available during the high season months between November and April.  Even then, the dive sites are very limited and simply don’t compare with what’s on offer off the south coast of Phuket at sites like Racha Noi, Shark Point, and the dive sites around Koh Phi Phi. If Diving Kamala Phuket is on your scuba diving Phuket agenda, then bear in mind that all of the other Phuket dive sites are also available to you, and not just during high season, but all year round. Read more »

If you want to go diving with Whale Sharks, you’re going to need some degree of luck. Just let us point out, that at Whale Shark hotspots like Ningaloo Reef in Australia, and Donsol in the Philippines, it’s only permitted to snorkel with Whale Sharks, and not dive with Whale Sharks. Whale Shark diving in Thailand has always been a hit or miss affair, but after seeing a massive decline in the number of Whale Shark sightings in Thailand, we are extremely happy to report that sightings are increasing every year. Read more »

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the low season diving in Phuket isn’t as good as the high season diving in Phuket. It’s a fact though, that during the monsoon season we often get the best visibility and diving conditions. Quite simply, from June to October Phuket diving rocks! During the monsoon season the wind blows in from the Indian Ocean, but very rarely is it so strong that the boats cannot leave the port. Because the wind blows from the west, all the dive sites on the eastern coasts of Racha Yai and Racha Noi are protected and usually as flat as glass. The eastern dive sites are generally accepted as being superior to the dive sites on the west coasts of these islands, with more corals, and a higher abundance of marine life. Read more »

Our Super Divers t-shirts don’t cost us much, and most scuba divers love a nice dive t-shirt. This is why we’re giving away free dive t-shirts with Super Divers for every student. As well as being good customer service, which is something Super Divers are always striving to be the best at in Phuket, it also works for us as it’s free advertising when happy Super Divers customers don our super cool t-shirts.
 

We have a variety of colors to choose from, including black, which is our most popular color, white, Superman blue, red, and pink in small and extra small for the ladies or kids.
Free dive t-shirts is just the tip of the iceberg of why you should choose Super Divers. We also give out students extra dives for free, not just the training dives scheduled as part of their course, we provide complimentary taxis to and from our dive centre on day one of the PADI open water course, free soft drinks during classroom sessions, free WIFI internet, and most importantly, we keep groups small with professional and personal instruction. All out instructors are highly qualified and experienced, and we only employ the best instructors who we feel have exemplary customer service skills and patience. Read more »

Thankfully, dive accidents in Thailand are a rare occurrence. Scuba diving in Thailand is extremely safe, especially if you look at how many people scuba dive, and then look at how many accidents there are. In fact, diving is one of the safest sports around, and you’d be more likely to have an accident playing football or baseball. That said, of course from time to time there are dive accidents in Thailand. If you’re planning to do some scuba diving in Thailand there are a few things to think about to ensure that your dive experience here will be accident free, as well as enjoyable and fun. Here we’ll outline a couple of dive accidents that have occurred in Thailand, as well as ways to prevent these accidents from happening. Read more »

So we thought we’d list some good reasons to take your PADI open water course with Super Divers. There are several reasons why you should choose Super divers. There are so many PADI dive centres in Phuket all offering exactly the same courses at pretty much the same prices. So how do you choose, it’s a bit of a lottery right? It’s important when choosing a dive centre for your PADI open water course you choose the right one. If you pick the wrong one, with the wrong staff, the experience could leave you never wanting to dive again. So, some reasons to take your PADI open water course with Super Divers… Read more »

Super Divers recently joined Trip Advisor, so our prospective guests can read Trip Advisor reports for Super Divers, or satisfied guests can leave some comments about Super Divers on Trip Advisor. Trip Advisor is a valuable tool which helps divers make their decision about which PADI dive centre in Phuket to choose. At Super Divers we always go that extra mile when it comes to customer service and providing our guests with just that little bit more than other dive centers. Super Divers isn’t just about making money. We’re about providing a service that will make our guests come back again and again make them recommend us to their friends and family. Read more »

Super Divers Phuket spent several months looking for some Super Divers staff. After several interviews, and some recommendations from friends and colleagues, we found Jane, recommended by one of Patongs expats, “John the Sausage”. Although Jane had no experience in the scuba diving industry, after a few phone calls for references, we were assured that Jane would be perfect, and we should grab her with both hands, metaphorically speaking. Jane had been working with English people for years so would get our peculiar British sense of humor, and not be offended by our sarcasm and kidding around.  Anyone who has operated a business in Thailand, which requires Thai staff, will know it’s very hard to find reliable, honest, and hard working staff. Read more »

Check any dive centre website anywhere and the chances are that all of them will proclaim to be the cheapest and best dive centre around. Super Divers Phuket is a relatively new PADI dive centre in Phuket, but why should you choose us? Read on for a few good reasons to choose Super Divers PADI Dive Centre. Read more »

It’s been a while since I’ve made it out for some scuba diving at Shark Point Phuket and Anemone Reef, two dive sites close to Phuket in Thailand. These two Thailand dive sites offer some of the best scuba diving around Phuket, and seem to be almost completely unaffected by the coral bleaching in Thailand. The limited coral bleaching at some dive sites in the tropics, was attributed to overly warm sea temperatures during April and May in 2010. Some dives, particularly those with shallow reefs were affected, with Stag Horn Corals affected the most.

Anemone Reef was the first dive of the day, and upon dumping the air from my BCD, I descended onto the Anemone carpeted reef. Read more »

Liveaboard diving is probably one of the best scuba diving experiences any diver can have, and an excellent way to visit the best dive sites in Thailand.  If you’re thinking about some liveaboard diving, it’s definitely worth having at look at some Phuket liveaboards, which operate in Thai and Burmese waters. What could be better than being pampered with five star service on a Thailand liveaboard, being fed scrumptious mouth watering food until you almost burst, and enjoying some of the best scuba diving in Thailand? Read more »

Want to learn to dive? Then why not learn to dive in Thailand. Make Phuket your next holiday destination and you’ll find that in Phuket diving courses are available everyday. All courses, mostly PADI courses, are taught to a high standard ensuring enjoyment and safety is paramount.

From the absolute beginner level of Discover Scuba Diving right up to the professional level of Divemaster and beyond, you will find that here in Phuket diving courses are fully catered for. With a fantastic year round climate and crystal clear temperate waters, Thailand and Phuket in particular, become the perfect place to take a vacation, as well as learning to scuba dive, or advancing your current scuba diving qualification. Learn to dive in Thailand and it will only take you three days to gain your PADI Open Water certificate, valid for a lifetime and internationally recognized. Read more »

A new Facebook group has been created to assist with Manta identification in Thailand. Called “Manta Conservation Thailand – Identification”, the group has been set up so divers in Thailand, particularly dive professionals working in in the scuba diving industry, can add their Manta Ray photos and videos to the group.
The Manta Ray photos and Manta videos posted on the group, could be helpful in charting the movements of individual Manta Rays in Thai waters, and even further away. Similar groups have also been created as a knock on to this group, in different parts of the world like Indonesia, Ecuador, and the Galapagos. This is only the start, hopefully. Read more »

You love scuba diving, and you love Thailand. Why not become a PADI pro in Thailand. It’s not as hard as you might think, and the dive industry in Thailand is always looking for good reliable dive staff in Thailand. To become a PADI Instructor in Thailand you’ll need to take several PADI courses leading up to the course that will certify you as a PADI Instructor, the PADI Instructor Development Course, otherwise known as the PADI IDC.  Read more »

Diving in Phuket offers some of the best diving in Thailand, and is an ideal location for scuba diving day trips. It is also a great place to learn to dive in Thailand. If you type PADI Courses Phuket into any search engine you’ll come up with hundreds of hits. How do you choose the right dive centre and right PADI open water course in Phuket for you? If you’re going to take a PADI course in Phuket you won’t be disappointed. The scuba diving in the Andaman Sea around Phuket is much more varied, vibrant, and interesting than the scuba diving in the Gulf of Thailand, at dive spots like Koh Tao. Read more »

If you’re thinking of trying scuba diving for the first time, then why not experience PADI Discover Scuba Diving in Phuket. Phuket is one of the best places in the world to learn to dive, as the following experience proves. When diving in Phuket you can even have encounters with a Whale Shark!
The PADI Discover Scuba Diving program (DSD) is an introduction to scuba diving which can begin in a pool or in the sea. Normally comprising of two dives from a daytrip boat, the Discover Scuba Diving course can be completed in just one day. The clear warm waters around Phuket are ideal for learning to dive, particularly around Racha Yai which is a short boat trip away from the Phuket. Read more »

In this article, we’ll discuss a whole range of underwater videography tips and tricks for the wannabe professional underwater videographer including how to choose the best underwater housing set-up for your own personal requirements, how to shoot video underwater, and some basic editing principles and programs. This is a definitive guide to underwater videography.
There are dozens of video camera / housing combinations available in today’s market. Camera models and their technology is constantly changing. It’s for this reason I won’t list video camera models in the article. The best way to find an underwater video set-up suitable for your needs, is to search the Internet and see what’s about. If you know a video pro, seek their advice. Work out your budget and try and stick to it. Read more »

There are literally oodles of Similan liveaboards to choose from, offering vastly different levels of comfort, itineraries, and prices. Here we’ll discuss how about how to go about choosing the best Thailand liveaboards for you, and outline a few of our top Thailand liveaboard choices. Similan liveaboards offer the best diving in Thailand and once you factor into the equation that you’ll save money on hotel accommodation and eating out, you can pick up some real bargains. Of course, if you’re after luxury Similan liveaboards there’re also lots of exiting options to choose from.

Read more »

Leopard Sharks in Thailand are relatively easy to find if you know where to look. Here we’ll talk about the best places to dive with Leopard Sharks in Thailand as well as serve up some interesting facts about these creatures. Also known as Zebra Sharks (Stegostoma fasciatum), Leopard Sharks can grow up to three and a half meters in length, although these days it’s uncommon to encounter specimens this large. Most encounters are with sharks no more than two meters in length. Completely harmless to humans, Leopard Sharks are extremely popular with scuba divers as they often get a chance to get really close to these beautiful animals. There has never been a recorded attack on a human. Read more »

Here’re a couple of Phuket wreck diving videos showcasing the four wrecks at Racha Yai Phuket. When scuba divers talk about wreck diving around Phuket, the King Cruiser immediately springs to mind, but there are also four very accessible wrecks in the shallows off the east coast of Racha Yai. Wreck diving at Racha Yai offers all levels of scuba diver something different to the normal Phuket reef dives. Although smaller than the King Cruiser, the Racha Yai wrecks are still pretty cool and are attracting more and more marine life. Racha Yai is about 90 minutes south of Phuket by dive boat and dive trips run daily throughout the year. All four Racha Yai wrecks are were deliberately scuttled on the east coast, which is where the best diving is. Read more »

If you fancy doing a bit of cave diving in Thailand, the spectacular limestone uprisings bejeweling the Andaman Sea have plenty to offer. Check out the cave diving video we shot below. Koh Phi Phi is home to what we think is probably the best cave dive in Thailand. The Phi Phi Islands are actually a group of seven islands all within spitting distance of each other. The islands are home to several prehistoric cave systems of varying size, depth, beauty, and penetrable length, much like Taipan in Patong. Read more »

South Tip Pinnacle Racha Noi Phuket is one of Phukets best dive sites for Manta Rays. It takes around two hours from Phuket by dive boat, but the awesome scuba diving we experienced when we got there made the long trip well worth it.  because of its location Racha Noi South Tip Pinnacle is subject to mercilessly strong currents. To attempt the dive around full moon would be extremely challenging for all but the most hardcore scuba divers. We dived the south tip pinnacle six days before the full moon and the currents were barely noticeable, a rare luxury for this dive. Read more »

We’ve all been worried about the latest coral bleaching in Thailand. All parts of Thailand have been affected including the Similan Islands, Phuket, Phi Phi, and the Gulf of Thailand. Coral bleaching at Racha Yai and Racha Noi has been happening for several weeks now. I’m no marine biologist but today, but with cautious optimism I can report that the corals at the dive sites we visited today seemed to be doing better than only two days ago. Read more »

The veteran Similans Islands liveaboard MV Scubacat operated a private Similans charter in April 2010. I went along as a personal underwater videographer to make a Similans dive video for the guests. The MV Scubacat is without doubt the most spacious Similans liveaboards cruising the islands. The dive deck is huge and there’s enough room for more than 20 divers to gear up at the same time. The downstairs layout of the boat is well planned with both an inside lounge and dining area, as well as an outside dining and social area with enough room to swing several cats. Evenings are usually spent sitting outside chatting over a few cold beers. Read more »

Coral bleaching in Thailand isn’t a new phenomenon but this year we’re seeing some of the most severe coral bleaching around Phuket for more than 20 years. For dive industry workers in Phuket it’s horrifying to see such a drastic change in the corals in such a short space of time. Since mid April the water temperature around Phuket has been fluctuating between 31 and 33 Celsius. On a daily basis divers notice more and more coral bleaching. The water is just far too warm.
Read more »

Scuba divers excitedly salivate into their regulators at the prospect of diving Richelieu Rock Thailand. It is usually accepted without question as the best dive site in Thailand. We’re going to ask why so many divers get wood over this one tiny dive site, and try to establish why Richelieu Rock Thailand is purportedly the highlight of any Similan Islands liveaboard.
Richelieu Rock History and Location
Richelieu Rock is actually part of the Surin National Marine Park and is a good 20km east of the Surin Islands as the crow flies. Richelieu Rock is around 200km north of Phuket and about 75km north of Khao Lak. The rock received its name after Captain Richelieu of the US Navy, ran his destroyer into it during the Second World War. Read more »

Wreck diving in Phuket has several enticing options that can grab most scuba divers interest. The King Cruiser wreck is the premier Phuket wreck diving destination and measures a cool 85 metres from bow to stern. The King Cruiser sunk on 4th May 1997 after the captain somehow managed to crash into the only shallow submerged reef between Phuket and Koh Phi Phi, Anemone Reef. Anemone reef is clearly marked on ships navigational charts and it’s still a matter of debate in the Phuket scuba diving community how this accident happened. There are several rumours of how and why it happened. Was it an insurance job? Could it have been pilot error? Did the captain fall asleep? Read more »

If you Google liveaboard diving Thailand, you’ll come up with thousands of different search results. There are two distinct choices when it comes to liveaboard diving in Thailand, Similan Island liveaboards or Hin Daeng liveaboards. Both the Similan Islands and Hin Daeng and Hin Muang are located in the Andaman Sea and geographically aren’t too far apart, but they offer two extremely different marine eco systems and a vast array of jaw dropping colorful marine life. Here we’ll outline the two main Thailand liveaboard destinations to help you make the choice easy of where to book your liveaboard diving holiday in Thailand. Read more »

Here’s the lowdown on scuba diving at Racha Yai Island, Thailand. Located just a short boat ride from Phuket, Racha Yai is teeming with marine life and aquatic gems that are difficult to find anywhere else in Thailand. There are several wreck dives at Racha Yai sunk there to create artificial reefs to attract and encourage marine life. Racha Yai scuba diving offers some of the best scuba diving around Phuket. The best scuba diving at Racha Yai is on the east coast of the island. Fact. The east coat is accessible all year round but there are many occasions during the first half of the high season (November to February) when the easterly wind blows so hard it makes diving conditions on the east coast uncomfortable and sometimes inaccessible. Read more »

Ten top tips for traveling in Thailand. It might make you laugh but here’s some important travel information for Thailand compiled by a few expats.

When you cross a one-way street anywhere in Thailand be sure to check at least five different directions before you step out from the kerb.
Don’t look up when your walking on a pavement in Thailand or you will fall down a hole. The exception to this rule is in Pattaya, where you must look up as well as down, so you can also avoid being squashed foreigners jumping out of tall buildings. Read more »

Am I bent, isn’t questioning male machismo sexuality and no, we’re not discussing fantasies about drunken man on man hot cock love action, although I wonder what visitors those few choice keywords will bring us. Am I bent, translates to do I have the bends? Have you as a scuba diver ever asked yourself the question do I have decompression sickness? If you have, read on. Read more »

If you need a Similan Islands map for your website or brochures, a map of Phuket dive sites, a Thailand dive sites map, or a free map of Thailand, you can save and use our original maps we designed for our website free of charge.

We made this decision as we keep coming across our illegally ripped maps on other websitesand office media, and the problem is snowballing. We really don’t mind others using our maps but please credit and link to us.

All we ask please is that you DO NOT remove our embossed web address from the maps if you use them, and it would be kind if you could credit the maps to our website and provide a link from your site or wherever you use the maps, to our main website http://www.scubadivingphuket.net

They are free for any use whatsoever but we ask again, please credit and link to our website.

If you need the maps in a higher resolution for poster size etc, please contact us and will be happy to send them to you Read more »

It was reported in the media as a Moray Eel Attack or Moray Eel Attacks Scuba Diver! This was incorrect. The headline Moray bites diver was closer to the truth. But what about scuba divers feeding Moray Eels? Giant Moray Eels look sinister and menacing. They are the gangsters of the reef. Two meters of solid muscle with alien like jaws at the sharp end, lined with razor sharp teeth that are built for gratuitous violence. There’s no question that every diver has at one time wondered if they are dangerous and can bite. Moray Eels are ferocious hunters, and are one of the Kings of the reef. Giant Morays have few predators, apart from larger Morays, large Groupers, and man.

Warning: This article contains some graphic photos and video that some people might disturbing. Read more »

Of course, all levels of scuba diver salivate excitedly into their regulators at the prospect of spotting Manta Rays and Whalesharks in Thailand. Some divers are born lucky enough to have an experience with a Whalesharks and Manta Rays in Thailand on their first ever discover scuba dive, while for others it can take thousands of dives and many years of frustration always being just a few minutes too late or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Read more »

Hin Daeng and Hin Muang translate to red rock and purple rock and are arguably the best place to see Whalesharks in Thailand along with Richelieu Rock. They and are located about 100km southeast of Phuket and around 60km south of the Phi Phi Islands. The red rock and purple rock refer to the fact that Hin Daeng is carpeted with red soft corals, and Hin Muang likewise with purple soft corals.

These two dive sites are underwater fish magnets, and are an oasis in a barren desert. They attract an incredible amount of marine life. Jutting up grandly from the seabed at around 80m, they are bathed in rich nutrients that well up in currents with colder water from the deep ocean floor. Everything seems bigger here. Read more »

So you’re wondering when to visit Phuket? The rainy season in Thailand has many different names. They include the green season, the low season, the monsoon season, and the summer season. Let’s be honest in this article and trim away any cunning marketing labels and call it what it is, the wet season. It’s also correctly called the low season because of fewer tourist arrivals due to the monsoon rains. Like almost anywhere in the world the seasonal weather patterns vary from year to year, with some bringing more, or less rain than the last. Some monsoon seasons are especially dry with weeks and weeks of sunshine interspersed with a few heavy showers. Some years it can be the complete opposite with weeks of rain and grey skies peppered with a sprinkling of sunny days. Some years it rains so little that Phukets reservoirs struggle to cope with high demand for water during the peak season.

So when to come to Thailand? There are three distinct seasons for travel to Thailand. The high season, the hot season, and the wet season. Read more »

Is it possible to mix new tattoos and scuba diving? Can you dive with a new tattoo? Many people say that you need to stay out of the sea for a couple of weeks to let the tattoo heal properly or the color can fade, scabs can form, infections can happen, or more. All tattoos have some risk associated with the previously mentioned.

Phuket tattooists are everywhere you look and some of them are world class. On the whole their tattoo designs are original and the hygiene is excellent. Dirty needles are a thing of the past in Thailand, thankfully. The prices for tattoos in Thailand are usually a lot cheaper that you can find in your home countries, expect to pay around B18000 for a full sleeve, or slightly more for a full back tattoo. There are some bamboo tattooists in Phuket, and many more on Koh Phi Phi. With a bamboo tattoo it’s acceptable to go into the sea straight away with your new tattoo unprotected. However, the lines on the tattoo won’t be as high quality as a machined tattoo. Bamboo tattoos also tend to fade more quickly. Read more »

So now you’re a dive professional you want to work in Phuket. You can now start looking for scuba diving jobs in Phuket and Thailand. Here are some insider tips for how to go about finding dive jobs in Thailand, and how to cut through all the red tape to work in Phuket legally. Read more »

Here at Scuba Diving Phuket we’re asked a lot of questions about which are some of the cheapest airlines that fly to Thailand and how to find cheap international airline tickets. Here we cover a few important points to consider when searching for flights and good deals that will help with Flying to Thailand cheaply. If you’re booking a budget Similans liveaboard diving trip you probably don’t want top break the bank to get here.

Here are some good tips for finding cheap flights…

Booking early always helps. Fact. If a flight has three hundred seats on it, as the seats are sold, the prices rise. If you can plan well ahead and book your flights 10 months in advance, it’s far more likely you’ll get the cheapest deals.

More people want to travel to Thailand (and many other destinations) over the holidays, especially Christmas and the New Year. If you want to book flights to travel over holiday (Especially Christmas) periods, it’s vitally important to book as early as possible. Read more »