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

Diving the Linn of Dee, Royal Deeside

Linn of Dee, Near Breamar

When I first started working in the diving industry in Aberdeen in 2009, I'd always heard people talk about the Linn of Dee salmon dive.  I'd always wanted to try the dive but never been a massive fan of cold water diving.  With this years summer being so good I decided to get back into cold water diving, as there is so many good dive sites on my door step.

On the edge of the Linn of Dee before the dive

The recent weather had been pretty good with no rain which makes the conditions for Linn of Dee perfect.  I spoke to a lot of people to get the overview of the dive site and what are generally the main points of entry and exit.  I knew the area anyway but not as a dive site.  I therefor went up the night before to check out the area and all the points I'd been told about made absolute sense once I was standing on the edge of the river.

We half kitted up at the car and carried the rest of the kit down to the riverside near the entry point.  Buddy checks done and plans discussed.

The water wasn't too bad but gloves and hoods were required but sadly we only had one hood.  I had to give up my hood for my friend to continue the dive.  We swam up the narrow gorge against the mild current exploring the little inlets and the rock formation was quite amazing.  It was quite gloomy and dark at just a few metres down and we could have definitely have done with a torch.  After about 5 minutes into the dive we came to the "V" which everybody had talked about.  I put my face in front of the current and it just wanted to take my mask off.  I knew this was going to be interesting getting through as it wasn't very wide and there was a strong current.  We tried to fin through several times but each time we just got thrown back by the current.

Eventually we realised fining through the "V" wasn't going to work.  Plan B was to pull ourselves through and fining down once half way through to get out of the current.  This eventually worked but was hard work!  Once in the last pool the currents got a lot stronger and if you ascended just half a metre you could be thrown back out through the "V" in just seconds.  This happened to us the first time so we had to pull ourselves back through.  This time we stayed on the bottom and explored the last pool, once we had explored the majorly of it we ascended a little and let the current take us back down the river like a massive drift dive.

We spent about 10 minutes working the way up the river and exploring the different pools and the current took us down in no time at all.  We then explored down the river and all the various different pools until it was too shallow and we beached.  I really enjoyed the dive.  The Linn of Dee dive isn't really about diving to see the fish etc it's more of a playground in the currents which was really good fun.  I'd highly recommend giving the Linn of Dee dive ago.  We can arrange trips to the Linn of Dee along with accommodation, so if anyone is interested just drop us an email at dive@scubadubadive.com

Diving in the North Sea again

After just over three years of not diving locally I finally dived again last night in the North Sea with North East Dive.  I'd been meaning to go diving with them for a couple of weeks but was concerned it was going to be too cold as I was mainly used to warm water diving.

Prepared for the worse I wore a 5mm full wetsuit and a 5mm shorty with hood, on the way out to the dive site on the rib I was talking to the other dives who said on Friday the water was 16 degrees.  At that I didn't think I would need my gloves after having been in 20 degree water in Malta a month before without a hood or gloves.  The moment I rolled back off the rib and hit the water I knew it wasn't 16 degrees and regretted not wearing my gloves.  However I continued without and descended down for the dive.

The visibility was around 10 metres and it was a shallow dive along the coast.  After spending the first few minutes getting used to my kit and the conditions again we started the dive.  There was lots of little swim throughs and getting thrown around by the current near the coast was a new experience which made me feel sea sick, so had to quickly descend again to get away from the waves.  The marine life was pretty good, lots of little spider crabs around the kelp and a lots of big edible crabs in the fisherman's pots.  Navigating in and out of the coast line never really exceeding 12metres we managed a 42 minute dive.  I was starting to feel the cold without any gloves on as the actual bottom temperature was only 9 degrees! 

North East Dive's Boat- Picture from Facebook

I will defiantly be back for more dives and next time will be wearing a pair of gloves!  I urge anyone who is a qualified diver and has diving on their doorstep to give cold water diving a try.  Yes, you have to wear a lot more equipment than warm water diving but cold water diving just lets you keep up your diving experience and that next time you go on holiday diving you don't spend the first days diving to refresher courses!