Scuba diving on Koh Tao Island is one of the biggest drawcards to this gem of Southeast Asia. But not all diving school in Koh Tao are created equal, here’s what to expect when looking to become PADI certified on Koh Tao, Thailand.

Diving has always a “bucket list” item for me. It was, however, a combination of cost, time or life that always stood in the way. With my Koh Tao scuba diving course completed by my 30^th birthday, it was a great feeling to finally tick it off! Why I waited so long is beyond me.

Koh Tao diving sites are amazing and the water is pristine. It is also one of the cheapest places to complete both Open Water PADI and Open Water Advanced courses in the world. Being cheap isn’t a reflection of quality and safety though, I never felt unsafe during any of my nine dives for my Koh Tao scuba diving Courses.

I want to explain, in as much detail as possible, how to go about booking, and what to expect from both the Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses. It’s super easy so you can jump right in – literally!

If you’re looking to swim on Koh Tao, but not looking to dive, snorkel tours on Koh Tao are also available. But lets get into the dives!

 

 

What are the best Koh Tao Diving Schools?

Koh Tao scuba diving schools, from my research, seem to be divided into size. Large companies being well-known outfits, such as Big Blue Diving more boats, more stuff, but also more customers. While most dive shops guarantee small dive groups, my mates and I wanted a more personalized experience.

Small companies sometimes had a disclosure that stated they needed a certain amount of divers to complete specific dives. My group (three of us in total) opted to go for a small-medium sized outfit, New Way Diving, and we were not disappointed.

Through New Way Diving, just up the road from Sairee Haad Beach, a deposit for $90 USD per person is required for the PADI Open Water course. This booking was done only one week in advance, but I would suggest booking much earlier in peak season. An extra 5,500 Baht ($182 USD) was the remaining fee, per person, once we arrived.

A small discount for accommodation was also given, but the major pro to this situation is that our hotel room and New Way Diving are right beside each other. This was amazing as 5 am starts were needed for our full-day lessons of diving. The price was 1000 Baht ($33 USD), per night, for a three-person room.

We began our Koh Tao diving course the day we arrived, getting a jump start straight into the theory. PADI Open Water consists of a few classroom videos and quizzes, which as long as you pay attention to the information, should be a breeze to pass. To be fair, the video was slightly dated, but the information was all relevant and was very effective in beginning our knowledge of diving.

 

PADI Open Water Diving Course in Thailand – Koh Tao Diving

PADI Open Water certificate also sees you complete five separate dives, at different depths practicing various skills. My first Koh Tao diving site was the “Japanese Gardens” where we practiced basic skills on the surface or only a couple of meters deep. This reinforces the absolute basics of the video. Taking your first breath underwater can be a nerve-wracking, yet exhilarating experience.

Defying regular, day to day life, human abilities isn’t usually done without some form of anxiety! Relax and breathe. Holding your breath, especially during an ascent, is a big no-no in diving, as oxygen expands as you rise. Not good for the lungs! Breaking that mental barrier just to breathe normally under the surface of the water was challenging for the first few seconds.

A couple of the skills, such as mask removal, are repeated quite a few times at different depths. Note for all who wear contacts, warn your instructor and they will give you instructions on how to perform this and clearing the mask of water without losing a lens. None of the skills are particularly hard, just a little practice is all that is needed.

Removal of a weight belt (extra weights are added onto a belt to counter the oxygen in your tank trying to surface) and scuba gear removal and replacement are also valuable skills that are honed in on this and the next four dives.

For my first couple of dives, I struggled with breath control, buoyancy and just overall awareness of surroundings, signals and air consumption. By the third dive though I was able to soak in more of this foreign, underwater world and just how different it is down there.

Open Water PADI certificate allows you to dive to a max depth of 18m. It soon became obvious to us that not only were we all wanting to progress our skills, but a lot of dive sites lie at Advanced Open Water course max depth of 18-30m deep. This includes the famous Koh Tao scuba dive site of the HTMS Sattakut. We booked the advanced course on the spot after our third dive, and this slightly impulsive decision wasn’t regretted by any of us!

 

What are some of Koh Tao’s best diving sites?

Due to bad weather, Koh Tao diving site, ‘Sail Rock’ was canceled. I’m still a little gutted as I was looking forward to this so much. It is one of Koh Tao’s most renowned dive sites. However, I’d rather be safe, and I’ll take their word for it that safety was a legitimate issue – the storm hitting us was ferocious! I still do have my favorite Koh Tao dive sites, which I will highlight below.

 

 

Koh Tao Diving Site #1 – Chumphon Pinnacles

My personal favorite was 45minutes from Koh Tao’s main port. Chumphon Pinnacle is buried beneath the water surface, without any landmass sticking up as an indication we had arrived. Because it is so far out, it is a little less affected by storms stirring up sediment on the sandy sea floor. This was my final dive for the beginner Open Water dive course, at a maximum depth of 18m, and the amount of marine life here was staggering! I missed out on seeing a whale shark by around 20-50 meters. Our group nearly exhausted all of our air in search but came up empty-handed. Just knowing one of these majestic creatures was in the area was exciting!

 

Koh Tao Diving Site #2 – Twins

During my Koh Tao diving courses, I dived a site called ‘Twins’ twice. Once in the day and once at night, and seeing the comparison between the two is outstanding. It is the exact same world, geographically speaking, yet completely different. Night diving is an activity I knew very little of and is an incredible sensation. As the light-emitting from your torch (and your buddies/instructors), your eyes are focused 100% on what is illuminated right in front of you. Different marine life is active than during the day, and a lot of fish float around dormant. However, they are easily startled by your light. Jumping into a sea of complete black definitely made my nerves flutter, but I highly recommend diving at night. Night diving is only available at or after the advanced open water course stage.

 

Koh Tao Diving Site #3 – Shipwreck HTMS Sattakut

A storm lashed the island of Koh Tao, creating reduced visibility on the Koh Tao dive site of HTMS Sattakut. There became an eerie shroud around our tiny group of four as we jumped into the murky waters. We descended into nothingness until suddenly, the wreck appeared in front of us like a magic trick! This ship was purposely sunk on June 18^th, 2011 for the purpose of diving. The bridge, or “Captain’s Cabin” sits at 18m deep, while the ship’s stern sits around 30-31m deep on the sandy ocean bed. Once again, this was a new feeling. Swimming around such a large, sculptured chunk of steel, as all species of fish go about their day, it felt out of this world.

 

What is the cost of scuba diving in Koh Tao?

I highly recommend a Koh Tao diving course to get certified with PADI. Diving is extremely affordable here – meaning diving more to gain experience won’t set you back much at all. At New Way Diving, two fun dives will cost 800 Baht ($33 AUD) per person for each dive trip.

The cost of your Koh Tao diving course through New Way will depend if you want attached accommodation, and if so, what type (dorm, fan or A/C). My total came to $350 AUD for each the Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses – including sharing an A/C room with two other people. While cheap, I never felt unsafe or that any corners were being cut.

 

Scuba diving Koh Tao course tips

This post is not intended to be a tutorial for dive courses, but there are a few points I found particularly helpful while I was learning.

As you surface, oxygen expands. If you’re holding your breath, that will expand in your lungs. This can lead to lung perforations. Always be inhaling or exhaling. Even if it’s just a little trickle of bubbles as you breathe out. Surfacing too fast can also cause bubbles, or pockets of air within your lungs, a symptom of decompression sickness, and while this shouldn’t be taken lightly if you follow all instructions and use what you learned, the risk is reduced significantly.

A safety stop is required on almost all dives and is a must at deeper water dives. At five meters below the surface, you hover in a vertical position, for three minutes. This allows your body to dispense much of the nitrogen inhaled from the tank while underwater.

You paid good money for these dives, so naturally, you want it to last as long as possible, right? The major factor in your dive times is how long your tank of air lasts. Streamline swimming helps so much with oxygen consumption. Swimming horizontal is more efficient. It also becomes easier to control buoyancy and better for propulsion through the water, preserving oxygen for longer. This will often feel like your head is pointing down a little, a strange feeling!

Please note: Some links below are affiliate links. I earn a small amount through certain purchases you make, this does not increase the cost for you and helps support this site.

You can contact a dive school on Koh Tao I mentioned above, or compare a huge range of scuba diving trips and courses.

I learned from continuing my diving resume on Phi Phi Island, that reducing the amount of weight you carry on your belt significantly increases dive time, as you have less weight to propel through the water. As you get more comfortable, shedding weights is a great way to dive longer! Getting more efficient and not wasting valuable air flailing about comes with practice. By my 15^th dive on Phi Phi Island, I had doubled my dive time to just less than one hour! (58 minutes was my longest dive).

I would recommend being comfortable with 18m before jumping in the deeper end of the pool. At 30m, oxygen becomes four times more dense, severely cutting into the time your air supply will last. A max depth of 30m also brings a few more risks but put the tutorial video’s and your instructor’s knowledge into practice and there’s no problem. Regularly checking your air gauge (SPG) at these depths is a great habit to get into as your air supply exhausts quicker.

One last point, and I think the most important point, is to relax and above all else, stay calm. Freaking out will only deplete oxygen faster and possibly get yourself in a worse position than you were originally. During my first deepwater diving, at around 22meters deep, I had a low-pressure hose burst.

Everything was peaceful, and then all of a sudden a loud pop was heard and I was immersed in a constant stream of bubbles. I floated there losing oxygen quite quickly but didn’t panic. My instructor gave me his secondary regulator and we surfaced without issue. I guarantee if I began to stress out, that situation could have become a lot worse. Whatever happens, stay calm and breathe. Enjoy the amazing and foreign world beneath the surface of the ocean!

If diving interests you, but would rather “try before you buy”, some companies offer a diving experience without a certification. Keep your eye out for great experiences such as this one if you just want to get your feet wet without investing days into a certification course (you can look into those by clicking the scuba diving trips and courses in Koh Tao link above.

Another great alternative is a multiple-day excursions diving in Thailand – This is a perfect way to immerse yourself (quite literally) in diving, hone your skills and see plenty of unforgettable underwater sights on these multiple-day excursions.

Looking for a great hostel on Koh Tao while you complete your dives? Or a hotel for a little more privacy and good nights of sleep.

 

Koh Tao Diving Course Highlights

My first breath underwater was liberating, as was floating around effortlessly. Fish are at peace and are more intrigued than scared of you.

Both the HTMS Suttakat and Chumphon Pinnacles were amazing dive sites. So much marine life!

Night diving is an experience I knew relatively little about. Experiencing the same Koh Tao diving site in the daytime than at night is an amazing contrast between life!

From Koh Tao I traveled to and scuba dived Phi Phi Island in Thailand – it was the location of my favorite dives!

Dived Koh Tao? What was your fondest memory? If you’re thinking about it, I would suggest to just do it! Leave me a comment or a question below! 🙂

 

What else is there to do on Koh Tao Island?

If you’re looking for other activites to do on Koh Tao Island, you can explore the island on foot. Take the back roads to Koh Tao Lighthouse – one of the islands best and most unknown hike!

 

Thanks for reading,

Happy and safe travels!

Ben – Horizon Unknown