Diving on Koh Tao - Koh Tao : Thailand.

Koh Tao | Koh Nangyuan | Koh Phangan | Koh Samui

...Diving on Koh Tao

About Us

Marie (Canada) and Bas (Holland) live on this island and are both dive instructors on Koh Tao with many years of experience on Koh Tao and in Egypt.

They offer the best service they can, "Diving on Koh Tao" is not only booking, but they are also 2 dive hosts who can give you a lot of information about diving and all the activities around the Island. Both are diving instructors and speaking together 4 different languages!

Diving on Koh Tao - Koh Tao : Thailand.

Bas
Sebastiaan Van Riemsdijk, aka “Bas”, is originally from Holland.
He has lot of experience as a diving instructor and has been spending a lot of time in Egypt, on the Red Sea.
Now on Koh Tao, he’s the permanent Dutch Instructor in one of the well known dive centres on the island.
He’s also been diving in places such as The Caribbean, Spain, Greece, South Africa and of course around the Gulf of Thailand.
Bas speaks Dutch and English.

Diving on Koh Tao - Koh Tao : Thailand.

Marie
Marie-Lise Roux, aka “Marie”, is from Canada, Montreal.
She’s started her diving career on the Red Sea also.
Her first language his French, but she’s also fluent in English and Arabic. Similar to Bas, she joined him on the trip to Thailand and also felt in love with the place. She’s since then working as a PADI diving Instructor in Koh Tao. She’s been accumulating over 3500 dives in the last couple of years and the underwater world is simply her second home.

Diving

Diving on Koh Tao - Koh Tao : Thailand.

Fun Diving
If you are already certified or just got sign off as an open water diver or a higher level, than it’s time for a couple a fun dives! Who knows, maybe you’ll get the chance to have a whale shark visiting you or why not a bull shark passing by and looking at you with his curious eyes?!

Join the group of qualified divers, go down and explore with them some of the best dives sites around the island of Koh Tao. Discover the beauty of “Chumphon Pinnacle”, the coral and the macro life of “twins” or the diversity of “White Rock”, doesn’t matter which site you’ll reach, there is more than 15 dives sites around the Island and they all have their particularity. From small creature like seahorses and charming little sea slugs, to big marble groupers, rays and sharks cruising around, there is something for all taste!

There is dive site for each level; beginner to more experience and it is easy to stay shallow for open water divers or to get deeper for the divers with a higher level. It usually takes maximum 30 to 40 minutes to reach some of the sites and even less for most of them. One exception, we often organise trips to Sail Rock, located on the way to Koh Phangan, for which it takes about 2:30 hours to get there.

Depending on you, there are two possible trips everyday day, morning and afternoon, and each trip includes 2 dives. Of course, you’ll be guided by an experienced Dive Master or Instructor that we’ll not only show you all the little secret and best spot of each site, but also look after your safety and enjoyment. They never take more than 6 people with them, making sure that each of their customers will get the attention necessary and, of course, the space and the freedom needed.

Between the dives, the people relax on the boat, eat fresh fruits that the crew prepared for them, make pictures of the Island and just enjoy the moment before getting ready for another brilliant dive!

By the way, you’ll not find your self on a long tail, but on a proper diving boat with a diving area on the first floor and chilling area on the upper deck. There is also a dry zone for bags and belongings and more than enough space for everybody!

Open Water

Take a simple 4 days of your time and learn how to do dive, how to get confidence and control underwater and receive a certification valid for the rest of your life, all around the globe.

The “Open Water Course”, considered as the 1st level of PADI, is perfectly built for who ever wants to know what all the basic of scuba diving are.

Step by step, you’ll get to know and understand why so many of us did felt in love with it and made it a career. Some theory, some preparation in the pool, just to get use to it, and a lot of time in open sea, that’s what it is.

During a minimum of 4 dives, your instructor will show you, teach you and tell you all about diving. By the time he’ll be signing your certification, you’ll be ready to join the big world of divers, crazy people, same we are, travelling, working and simply waking up in the morning just to jump back in and get back to this unbelievable aquatic life.

As Open Water diver, you depth limit will be 18 meters, valid everywhere around the world and good for the rest of your life.

Material, all included in the course, is available in multiple languages. Personal advice, if English is not your 1st language but you are still comfortable with it, get everything done in English. If you do fall in love with it…on your future dives, English will always be the one you’ll find on any diving destination.

The course is not only based on theory or skills, some of your dives will be simply swimming around, looking at things and breathing underwater. Probably the best feeling…like being in the space, but underwater!

Felt in love with it, what’s next?

Advanced Open Water

Second level, done with the Open Water and time to get more into details, into practical stuff, into different techniques…well then it’s time for the advanced course.

Within 2 days, or more, complete 5 adventures dives and get certified. The mane reason why people get to do the “advanced” is to be aloud to dive up to 30m meters deep, which is very good reason, but that’s not it, the course offers also plenty of other options and advantages.

The advanced course includes 16 different options of dives from which you will have to choose five. Considering your location, some of the option can differ from those offered in cold countries and warm countries. One thing for sure, 2 of the 5 dives are mandatory: the Deep and the Navigation dives.

On the deep dive, your instructor will be taking you to a depth of 30 meters and test you regarding the “nitrogen narcosis” effect on your brain. Some people get knocked; some people start acting foolish and others pretend (!!) not to feel anything. This dive will certainly be a good laugh and of course will aloud you to reach such depth on any further dives.

During the Navigation dive, you’ll be learning more about underwater orientation. Using both natural reference and compass, your instructor might ask you to find back the boat for him…hum…let’s see if you’ll manage! There will be also some distance calculation using both fin kick and time. Same as the deep…it usually ends up in a good laugh!

For the other 3 dives, you’ll have the chance to choose in between all the options. What we usually recommend our students is to take the “Peak Performance Buoyancy” dive, which consists in breathing skills, different fin kick and hovering exercise. Many people also go for the “Night Dive”, experiencing the aquatic life in dark, using a torch to light on the rabbit fish getting hypnotise and attack by the giant Barracuda hanging around you! You’ll get to choose either the “Underwater Photography”, the “Multi-Level and Computer diving”, the “fish Identification” or the Naturalist dive (not diving naked…but all about ecosystem and symbioses!).

Almost like fun diving, over a minimum of 2 days, you can get your certification and be now ready for any diving location. As long as you will have complete 5 of the dives, including the “deep” and the “navigation”. Being an Open Water Diver brings you the diving world, but being an Advanced diver open now all the possible doors!

If any of you plan to go diving in the Similan Islands or in Sipadan Islands for example, the “advanced” level will be required for most of the dive site. Keep this in mind and get it done!

EFR

The E.F.R. course is the PADI version of what many learned in school, at work or by interest.

The Primary care and secondary care in case of emergency or accident. Someone chocking, unconscious, in shock, injured with a serious bleeding or simply unresponsive, do you remember what to do in such situation?

Not necessarily related to diving, the EFR course is a prerequisite before enrolling into the Rescue Course. If you did a course similar and from a recognized association in past year, as long as you have a proof, you’ll be able to start your rescue diver level straight away. But if not, an EFR course will be necessary.

And you know what? Why not?! Such formation does not only have something to do with diving incident, but can also be useful in your daily life.

Do you remember or do you know what to do with someone with a heart attack, someone in a stroke or with a severe airway obstruction? What about if you have to do chest compression, did you know that it’s now 30 compression to 2 rescue breath for both kids and adult? What about if you find your friend with a very rapid pulse and clammy skin, do you remember what it could be?

The emergency first responder course will cover all that. Some of you will only need to refresh their skill and other we’ll practice it for the 1st time, doesn’t matter, as long as you realize how important those knowledge can be.

One day in the classroom with your instructor, talking, demonstrating, practicing and responding to different scenario and here you are, certified as an Emergency First Responder.

Your certification will be valid for 2 years before having to simply refresh the notions.

If you did such course during last year and plan to come and do your “Rescue Course”, please bring a proof or your card.

Rescue

During any diving course and recreational, “safety” is probably a word that will come back very often during your briefing. Being responsible, safe and clever diver means a lot. Becoming a rescue diver is learning what safety really is, how to react in a rescue situation, both at the surface and underwater. Giving you such a confidence underwater, the “rescue course” will make you a safe diver, no doubt.

Conduct over 2 to 3 days, here comes the time to realise how good it can be to know how to handle a diver in panic at the surface, missing, unconscious at 9 meters deep or simply tired at the surface asking for help to get back to the boat or the shore.

Practice, academic presentation including emergency procedures, oxygen use and all the other aspect and example of accident or diving injury, open water session and many scenarios are part on this intense course. Everybody that went through that course said the same; it is probably the most exiting and serious course of all. It will make you a better diver controlling yourself enough to be able to control another diver in need of help.

Strange to think those 2 to 3 days will give you such confidence, but it does! No better way to understand safety, going for the rescue course is adding a big point on your experience.

Remember that in certain places of the world, people will let you dive on your own with your buddy. How do you think it feel to know that you know exactly what to do in case of emergency? I guess it probably feels very good!

Dive Master

Oh…thinking of becoming a Dive Master might means you are thinking of a dive career! Being a Dive Master means you can start working as a professional, start leading people and basically earning money for doing what you like. Sounds brilliant does it!

Some of the things you will be able to do as a PADI Dive Master:

• Work in a dive centre, a live-aboard
• Assist an Instructor during his course
• Lead certified divers on their fun dives
• Conduct a scuba review for a certified diver that has not been diving for a while

Take a bit of time off and join us for a couple of weeks on Koh Tao…couple of weeks which will probably turn up to be couple of months, as most of those which came to do their training never left and went even further in their career!

The Dive Master training is about 2 to 3 weeks. Unless you decide to do an Internship program, which can stretch your formation up to 6 to 8 weeks. Not only you’ll have unlimited diving during the time of your course, but you’ll also get the chance to get involve in the diving industry.

Considered as the first “pro level”, we’ll teach you this inside as well as the outside of the diving world. How things work in a dive centre, how to lead dives with certified divers, how to assist an instructor on courses and how to take action in the daily activities of a dive shop.

The course is split in 2 segments: theory and practice. The theory is based on 8 exams; PADI Dive Master conducted Programs, Supervising Student Divers in training, Supervising Activities for Certified Divers, Physics, Physiology, Equipment, Decompression Theory and the RDP and Skills and Environment.

For the practical part, you’ll have to assist on courses, on guided dives with certified divers, you’ll have to work on an emergency assistance plan, on the map of a dive site and on your underwater skills.

During your training you will receive lectures from instructor and Course director to help you out with the “knowledge development” section. The theory is actually very interesting and it will give you a totally different view of what divers goes through and learn during their courses or career.

Not only a course, you’ll find out that our DMTs are also quit active and you’ll get to share a lot of time with them during our famous DMT BBQ and all those night out which they have together with the rest of the team from the Dive shop.

Basically, it’s not just a training, but it’s a great opportunity to meet a lot of other people that felt in love with the diving community and it’s also loads of fun, 100% guarantee!

Dive Instructor

Ok, now we’re really talking serious! Here’s a major step into the diving world; becoming an instructor, teaching your students what you’ve learned, what you’ve experienced, what to do to be a good diver…and than signing them off, proud of what you’ve done, proud that you made them brilliant divers!

This is what diving instructors do every day, sharing their passion and transmitting it to the others. They offer their knowledge, sit by the sea the time of a drink, talking about what went right, what could be better, what should their student change and what they did good! With an active status of Instructor, you’ll be able to teach all courses from open water up to Dive Master.

Here is a kind of career that make people jealous, but he…we all make our choice, do we!? There is an IDC starting every month. To begin your “IDC”, you need to be already certified as a Dive Master (or the equivalent), have at least 60 log dives and be 18 years old. Also very important, you must have been certified as a diver (open water or equivalent) for at least 6 months.

Our 2 courses directors, Mark and Darius, both “platinum course directors” will take you on a 14 days adventure, during which they will prepare you for the big day, the Instructor Examination. With many years of experience behind them, they probably stopped counting the certification. Lectures and presentation are just natural for them, normal when you’ve been teaching IDCs since 1997!

First 4 days will be more sort of a preparation for the course. The Course director will go through some theory and confined skills with the candidate and figure out what you are good at or what they will have to work on and focus more with you during the following days.

Than the real IDC starts, another 10 days of hard work. Academic presentations, PADI general standards and procedures exams, theory exams, Open Water Presentation for each level (open water, advanced, rescue and dive master), confined presentation, just to name some of the stuff which will need to be done. Everybody agree on how intense the course is, but everybody also agree on how good those 2 course director prepare their candidate for the big day. Well, let’s just be honest, none of their students ever failed!

The way you’ll get prepare, is the way the Examiner will need to see you on the official last 3 days of evaluation: a professional instructor which deserve to get the best score on each presentation!

If you think of becoming an Instructor, keep in mind that another good way to prepare yourself for an IDC is to assist on many different course before starting the training. The best for you is come a month earlier to be able to assist, for free, different instructors. Also, during this month, you’ll be able to join on fun diving, also for free!

You need to get your own material (diving encyclopaedia, instructor manual, slates, etc.) by simply getting the “IDC pack”, everything you’ll need is in it. This is something that you can sort out once you get here, much better than carrying it all the way to the Island…save you kilos for clothes, because you might end up by getting a job and staying here much longer than you though!

I.E

I.E - Instructor ExaminationThe big day, the last 3 days during which a PADI examiner will come on the Island and evaluate your skills, your presentation and your ability to teach.

After 14 days of getting trained, evaluated and prepared by your 2 course directors, on the 1st day of the I.E., your course directors will take you to the examiner, like parents would bring their kids to the first day of school, ready to let you go in the big world!!

From that moment, you’ll be in the hands of a PADI examiner that travelled to Koh Tao especially for you, to see what you’ve learned, to see if really, you are ready to instruct.

Don’t get us wrong, the examiners are not big and scary (!!), but just normal people which want to make sure that, yes, the way you’ve been prepared is how PADI wants to be represented through people like you in their future diving career.

The I.E. will go on for 3 days, involving more academic presentation, skills demonstration, open water presentation as well as written exam on the first day. If your course director bring you to the IE, it’s because he already knows that YOU are ready…so no need for any stress!!

The 3 days will fly and without even realising it, you’ll be already done, sitting in a bar with all the candidate, celebrating your victory, you new status of a PADI diving instructor.

Liveaboard

After discovering it our self, DivingOnKohTao decided to expand a bit from our Island to give you the opportunity to discover the west part of Thailand.

Diving addict, this might be very interesting for you. Let the daily trip on the side and get on a liveaboard, which will take you along the Similan Islands, Richelieu Rocks and plenty of other well-known sites such as Koh Bon and Koh Tachai.

The trip includes 4 days, 4 nights on a beautiful boat big enough to welcome up to 20 people. The basic of this liveaboard is the same as all the others you probably heard about before: sleep, dive, eat, sleep, eat, dive and sleep again! Over those 4 days, you’ll the chance to add 14 dives to your diving experience, including 2 night dives.

Enjoy the crystal clear water, snorkel between the dives on the shallower spot where the boat stop for lunch time and keep on eye on the horizon and the amazing scenery of the world know Similan Islands.

Many hours of cruising on the Andaman Sea, you cannot only go on the sun deck and relax, but also eat, non-stop or even go for a power nap in your air condition cabin, getting rested before your next dive. It is a great experience, a proper diving destination where you will be able to compare your dives done over there with the best one you’ve been doing around the world. The national marine park is packed with a diversity of fish. Fans of macro such a ghost pipefish, frogfish or adept of big stuff like mantas and shark, everybody should be pleased.

We definitely recommend being an advanced diver before joining the trip to have access to the beautiful deep dive the trip has to offer. If you are not, keep in mind that you could simply become one during the liveaboard.

The trip leaves from Khao Lak, beautiful city located on the west coats of Thailand. You’ll meet the crew and the rest of the people ready to get on board at around 6pm to later on move to the jetty. On the last day of the trip, you should be back to Khao Lak at around 4pm. The opinions about Khao Lak are completely different from person to person. Personally, we had a brilliant time over there. Good people, beautiful hotels, good food and massive beaches…which is probably what normal people need when comes the time to relax!

For info on how to get there or accommodation in Khao Lak, please contact us. Also, prices and date of trips are available upon request.

Activities

Muay Thai Internship

The national sport of Thailand, Muay Thai is also known as Thai Boxing. It is not an Olympic sport but give it a try and you’ll see how intense and demanding a one hour session can be!

Muay Thai referred to the “Art of Eight Limbs” because it combines the use of punches, kicks, elbows and knee strikes, using 8 “point of contact”, compare to 2 points in the western boxing and 4 points in the martial arts. It basically makes you using almost everything you have and also discovering muscle which you probably never even felt before!

Beginner or not, it is for all level. If it will be your first time, don’t think your trainer will put you in the ring and tell you: ok, go, fight!! No, instead, he will show you each step starting by the feet position, the techniques and a couple of punch and kicks. Nice and slowly, more training session you will have joined, he will then combine each move you’ve learned into a “fight simulation”. He shows you the pad, you punch it, kick it, and give it an elbow the way he wants you to do it. Starting with 5 rounds of 3 minutes, more you’ll train, less breaks you’ll get!

The trainers are absolute legends, having in their background plenty of fight and training experience. On a “1 to 1” basic style, he will show you that your cardio wasn’t sleeping, but it just needed to be more awake and alert!

The people training at Island Muay Thai are not all there to eventually find them self in the ring for a real fight. Many of them of simply training for the pleasure of it, for keeping them self in good shape, things that Thai Boxing will give you for sure!

Also, 2 to 3 times a month, fight are organised by the club. Thai, foreigners as well as kids are fighting under the eyes of the audience. A lot of ambiance and noise from a crowd pretty excited for the event.

For the training sessions, the place is open from 7am til 10am and 4pm til 7pm, 7 days a week, except on the days of fight where the place is close for training in the night.

Be ready for a proper warm up and to get in a surprisingly very good shape!!

Freediving

Freediving is a technique used with various aquatic activities. While in general all aquatic activities that include breath-hold diving might be classified as a part of freediving, some sports are more accepted than others. Examples of recognized freediving activities are (non-) competitive freediving, (non-) competitive spearfishing, freediving photography and mermaid shows. Less recognized examples of freediving include, but are not limited to, synchronised swimming, underwater rugby, underwater hockey, underwater hunting other than spearfishing, and snorkeling. The discussion remains whether freediving is only a synonym for breath-hold diving or whether it describes a specific group of underwater activities. Freediving is often strongly associated with competitive breath-hold diving or Competitive Apnea.

Videography

Meet your diving instructors and hosts Bas and Marie on our beautifull Island Koh Tao and join the group during the diving sessions and stay on the Island via 1 minute Video trailers.

Diving on Koh Tao