Fun Diving on Koh Tao

Fire Dancing, Koh Tao

I contacted Scuba Duba Dive looking to organise a weeks worth of fun diving on the idyllic island of Koh Tao off the coast of Thailand.  Mungo was very quick to get back to me with a quote and rough itinerary which I could adjust to my needs.  Transfers to and from Bangkok were also arranged and both journeys went remarkably smoothly (something rarely guaranteed in the case of Thai buses!)

Dive Boat, Koh Tao

On arrival to Koh Tao, I was greeted by a rep who showed me to the reception desk.  The dive instructors in office were incredibly helpful and friendly, making sure I had all the required qualifications before showing me to my room.  The room itself was one of the beachside bungalows, simple and basic but good value for such a good price.  Unfortunately during a particularly heavy rainstorm the ceiling did drip a little.

Whatever shortcoming the accommodation had this was made u

p for in the quality of the dive instructors.  I dived with Brad and Rob, both of whom were very professional when it came down to our safety but also make diving a lot of fun!  During my week there I saw variety of different reefs, even when the weather conditions weren't favourable and the ships captions were relunctant to visit reefs too far away.  One of my favourite dives was where we visited a wreck, absolutely incredible to see and a memory I will keep for a long time.

I would definitely organise another diving trip through Scuba Duba Dive, they made it so easy for me, especially as a lone, first time traveller.  I would also highly recommend them to anyone looking for a reliable company to dive with, weather its for fun diving or attaining higher PADI qualifications.

Charlotte Cutler, 18, UK

Olly's time on Koh Tao learning how to dive

Olly has recently returned from a trip learning how to dive with us on Koh Tao.  Below is a review of what he had to say about his time on the island.

"I contacted Mungo at Scuba Duba Dive about 2 months prior to the planned holiday, our tailor made package was quickly organised and confirmed. It is comforting to know that all of the money I invested into a holiday is protected through both the TTA and ATOL.

On arrival at Koh Samui Airport the transfers were waiting and were prepared to take us to the Lomprayah Ferry. The transfer to Koh Tao was quick, pleasant and easy using the Lomrayah Fast Cats.

On arrival at the pier staff from the hotel were ready to pick us up. Koh Tao Regal Hotel is an odd place, long dark corridors, and questionable interior design in the lobby but looking out to a fantastic looking pool and bar area. The concerns were quickly alleviated when we got to our rooms which were quite frankly fantastic. Okay they weren’t spotlessly clean and a few maintenance issues but the room was huge, with an ensuite that included a Jacuzzi. But overall the view was special, looking out over the beach and across the bay. The balcony was a lovely place both to refresh yourself in the cool morning air and a perfect vantage point to watch the sunset over Thailand in the evening.

On arrival at the Dive Resort the company were expecting us and were ready with the paper work so we could enlist upon the course. All the instructors were extremely friendly and knowledgeable, they would happily assign different instructors to different abilities so that no one was leftwaiting. I did my PADI Open Water, PADI Advanced Open Water and PADI Wreck Speciality. Throughout the courses I never had more than 6 in the group with 3 instructors but I mostly had 2 instructors to myself throughout the week.

Another bonus of the resort was that they could find instructors that speak various assortments of languages. We had a Russian trio in our group, who were given a Russian speaking Dive Master for translation.

During my time in Koh Tao I dived at Mango Bay, Twins, White Rock, Sail Rock and HMTS Sattakut, the latter using that for my wreck spec. The coral and sea life is abundantly colourful and diverse at all sites. Diving on and inside HMTS Sattakut was an experience I’ll never forget. With visibility varying between 5 meters and 30 meters on different dives, I truly got a sense that the same boat was an entirely different wreck.

Koh Tao is a place that I will miss, and I wish to go back sometime. Although it is an isolated little island the society is not at all closed and tight knit. The varying array of restaurants from all corners of the world were fantastic. I do not think I had a bad meal the whole time I was there. Everyone is friendly and helpful and the internet provisions are fantastic. The climate was exceptionally comfortable, around 30-35 with a constant sea breeze ridding the island of the expected humidity. Also if there are any problems Koh Tao has a good medical centre and everyone was more than happy to go out of their way to help you.

One of the more unexpected highlights was Koh Samui airport. The departure lounge is basically an outdoor shopping street, with various brands and restaurants. The architecture was quaint and well thought out. Spending a few hours at Koh Samui Airport was a pleasant way of ending our holiday."

Interested in learning how to dive?  Get in touch with us here

View from Koh Tao Regal Swimming Pool

Graham and Koh Tao

Graham recently finished his PADI Open Water Diver and PADI Advanced Open Water Diver with us in Koh Tao.  Read what he had to say below;

"What do you do with week of free time in Thailand?

Having finished my work related business in Bangkok, I had booked some annual leave and was determined to get out of the city. Having heard my friends go on and on about diving had got me interested, and after looking around I gave scubadubadive a call. They arranged everything for me - transfers from Bangkok to Koh Tao,  all my accommodation, as well as two diving courses. 

As a novice diver I really didn't know what to expect, but my big, friendly Mexican instructor Manuel was easy going and a very reassuring presence as he took us through the theory on the first (classroom based) day, before moving into the pool to teach us important basic skills like buoyancy, breathing technique, and mask removal. 

On the third day of our open water course we were finally heading into the sea and the excitement was easy to feel! To me there has always been something inherently uncomfortable about the concept of diving - essentially you are relying on a tiny tank of compressed air to keep you alive while the enormous weight of the water above you steadily squeezes more nitrogen into your blood - but as soon as we started to descend all these fears vanished as the freedom and relaxation involved in literally being part of the ocean life swept over you. 

As the wek progressed and I moved from the Open Water to the advanced open water course, I experienced more and more of my underwater surroundings as I became steadily more at ease during my dives. Huge highlights included a brief glimpse of a black-tipped reef shark, and an amazing night dive. Here our skills were really put to the test by the strong currents, as well as the opportunity to dive on a wreck in deeper water. 

Evenings were spent relaxing at the bar and enjoying the local food at any of the nearby restaurants, as well as fighting off the attention of the local mosquitoes! I also got the chance to explore the island as my holiday had a built in day off from diving to go and use as we wanted. It was a really worthwhile experience and ap ps all group of myself and three Canadians joined forces to ride mopeds to each end of the island and really experience all that was on offer. 

Koh Tao was brilliant and the customer service from scubadubadive was really good - I got quick replies to the one small problem I had and it was sorted the same day. "

Many thanks for the review Graham and we looking forward to seeing you back for more diving!

Talking with Ian about his first diving experience in Thailand

Diving is not a very common sport but is becoming more and more popular with it being ranked as the do-to sport in 2013.  We're going to be spending the next couple of days talking with some divers about there first time experiences underwater.  Here's what Ian Roberts had to say;

First learnt to dive in June 2010 on Koh Tao, Thailand aged 21

"I went travelling around Southeast Asia with some friends in 2010 who were all aiming to do some scuba diving as part of the adventure.  Initially I wasn't sure what I thought about the idea of diving, looking at all the equipment required it seemed very obvious to me that humans are very much not designed to go underwater, making the whole idea of it seem very unnatural.

With some convincing from my friends, and not wanting to miss out, I signed myself up but still had my reservations.  After an introduction in the swimming pool under controlled conditions I got used to the idea of breathing underwater, became comfortable with all the diving gear and more confident that I was in good hands.

Feeling more at ease after the pool session I signed up to do my PADI Open Water course on Koh Tao which was an absolutely fantastic experience.  Koh Tao is an interesting, somewhat crazy, place which offered awesome diving facilities.  Completing the Open Water turned out to be the most memorable few days of the entire trip which, if it wasn't for my persistent friends, I would have missed out on.  I enjoyed the diving so much I also completed two adventure dives which count towards my PADI Advanced Open Water qualification, including a night dive which added a totally different dynamic to the experience, which I aim to complete in the future.  Gaining my PADI Open Water Qualification allowed me to easily undertake fun dives when I visited Nah Trang in Vietnam as we continued on our travels.

I urge anybody who finds themselves in my situation, with the opportunity to go scuba diving, to say yes.  Ask friends or family who have been diving before for their opinion, I guarantee it will be a positive one.  You will not regret it!"

Many thanks for your time Ian and hopefully we will see you underwater again very soon!

The Importance of Having Dive Travel Insurance

Today we're going to talk about the importance of having dive insurance while partaking in any scuba diving adventure.  We've teamed up with Westfield Sub Aqua Insurance, who are offering all our customers a discount when booking any holiday or training course with us.  We all think that terrible accident isn't going to happen to us and some of us travel without any travel insurance.  The costs of specialist dive travel insurance in the Red Sea starts of at just £43.91 per person, a very small cost to pay if indeed you need to use a decompression chamber or any other sort of medical attention.

Many people think they can get a cheaper travel insurance policy elsewhere.  Yes, that maybe the case but have you read the small print in terms of what scuba diving cover it provides.  Here is a couple of points from Westfield's website regarding non-related dive insurance travel polices.

• Depth Restriction (as low as 6 metres)
• No Cover for Sea Rescue (this is a bit like selling skiing cover without mountain rescue)
• No hyperbaric chamber treatment cover
• Cover is excluded if the holiday was primarily booked as a diving holiday ( i.e. they're not covering diving holidays)
• Cover for medical cost of a diving accident can be very low
• No cover for Dive Kit, or loss of diving days due to illness
• No Shark Diving, No Wreck Diving, No Night Diving

Westfield have excluded the above points all they ask for is that you're within the current safety recommendations of BSAC &/or SSAC &/or PADI &/or CFT &/or TDI &/or IANTD.

To find out more about what Westfield offer Scuba Duba Dive visit our Dive Insurance page.

The Website is Live

Well if you are reading this blog you're probably aware that the official Scuba Duba Dive website has finally come off the a test server and gone to the live domain, scubadubadive.com. We've launched with just a range of dive training holidays which will be expanded over the coming weeks.  We'll also be launching some exciting dive holidays for those of you who are lucky enough to already be qualified divers.  We'll be running holidays in Australia, Turkey, Egypt, Thailand with the views to expanding to other countires as the Scuba Duba Dive network grows.

The next stages in the growth of Scuba Duba Dive will be launching various press release articles around the dive community and implementing a marketing and social media strategy with the main objectives being to get you the customers to interact with us over Facebook and Twitter.  We are launching an exciting competition to win a weeks diving somewhere and will be putting the Scuba Duba Dive clothing designs to social media for a public vote.  The equipment packages will also be finalised as we're currently researching what is the best equipment around at the moment which is most suited for our programs.  So lots of exciting things happening and we will keep you updated with the progress but for now;

Remember..... Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter and Join us in the sea!

Why Young People Should Use Travel Agents?

Always wondering what the benefits of booking all your own travel arrangements versus booking via a travel operator.  We all think that doing it ourselves will save money but in this day and age we need to think about what fiancial protection you have while booking all the holiday elements by yourself.  The benefits of booking with a travel operator is that they have the in-country support 24hours and UK support 24 hours.  All Scuba Duba Dive's holidays are 100% financially protected and we have in-country and UK based reps who are available to help in case of an emergency 24 hours a day.  For further information I recommend reading this interesting article in the Huffington Post about why you should use a travel agent.  Click here to view the article

If you'd like to know more about what Scuba Duba Dive can offer you in terms of diving holidays and training give us a call or email and we'd be more than happy talk to you about are mission and ethos when it comes to providing you with that perfect diving holiday and training experience.  As in the end all the team have been there and done it themselves.

Web: www.scubadubadive.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ScubaDubaDive
Twitter: www.twitter.com/ScubaDubaDive
Telephone: +441224-900640