So you’ve found this little island, and like half the people who show up, you’re looking to go scuba diving in Koh Tao. Or, even more likely, you have absolutely no idea how to dive, so you want to go to school. Well, you definitely came to the right place. Koh Tao is one of the cheapest places in the world to get Open Water Certified, with a solid reputation for calm waters and good visibility.
Usually with cheap prices would come some less than comforting safety standards, but Koh Tao manages to break this stereotype. A few years ago Koh Tao’s dive shops agreed that Open Water & Advanced course prices would be even across the island, to ward off any price cutting and sketchy situations. As of 2020, it’s 11,100 baht for Open Water Certification + diver’s insurance (diving in Koh Tao requires divers insurance).
P.S The cost for fun diving in Koh Tao are pretty standard across the board as well!
Koh Tao is surrounded by dive sites, with beautiful coral and a penchant for calm and clear waters. It’s the perfect combo for a newbie diver. Realistically, you can complete your Open Water and your Advanced certification, and not visit the same dive site twice. That’s one of the main reasons that people end up doing so much diving in Koh Tao, there’s so much to see once you’re certified!
There are different SCUBA certifying bodies represented across Koh Tao, with the main ones being PADI and SSI. However, all SCUBA diving agencies must train their students to the same ISO standards. Each agency can use different techniques to educate their students, but the ISO standards guarantee that all dive certifications are interchangeable between all diving agencies.
There are pros and cons to the different schools and certifying bodies, so you need to do your research to find one that fits you. Luckily price isn’t an issue, but some of the Koh Tao diving schools include basic accommodation when taking a course with them if that sweetens the deal.
After speaking to a few different shops on Koh Tao, we decided to go with Roctopus. The pioneer shop for RAID on the island, Roctopus is less known than some of the bigger shops.
One of the main things that differentiates RAID, is with Open Water the certification is up to 20 metres, vs. 18 metres of the other certifying bodies. One of the main things I was looking for was a small group size. Luckily with Roctopus, the groups max out at 4 students. With my ridiculous fears of actually diving, the thought of being in a large group made it that much worse. I was SO relieved when we found out we were in a reassuringly small group of 3.
Open Water Certification takes 2 1/2 – 3 days to complete. Since you have to cover the same skills and points across the board, I assume the schedule is basically the same no matter which school you go with.
The evening before the first full day consisted of an hour orientation to get everything filled out and ready, and chapters of homework. After a couple hours of reading the coursework, I felt appropriately like I was going to drown. There were a lot of new terms being thrown around, which seemed fairly overwhelming to be thinking about while simultaneously trying not to drown.
Our first morning we met up bright and early and went over the more technical and did the first few hours of classwork. On top of learning about air compression and depth pressures, my instructor assured me numerous times that I was an idiot for my fear of being eaten by a shark.
The afternoon we got hands on. We set up our tanks for the first time, figured out how a BCD works, and went over the pre-dive safety checks.
Logically, it was the pool next to use the gear we spent the last 2 hours figuring out. Woah. Weirdly this might of been the scariest part? Even though I was kneeling down in the shallow end of a pool, it was terrifying to take that firsth breath. I mean, not taking a breath underwater is the first rule in, ‘Surviving Underwater 101’. From here I learned all the ins and outs of retrieving lost respirators, partner breathing, removing and replacing you mask, and what to do if you run out of air, which I was reassured numerous times, doesn’t happen.
The next day was the open water portion of the class. Meaning, we were heading into the ocean. Our first dive was to 9m, and I seriously can’t describe the feeling of dropping down through the water for the first time. Part terrifying and part absolutely amazing. The first and second dive we went over the skills we did the day before, and worked on buoyancy.
No one tells you how… floaty humans are. I always thought that sinking would be more of an issue when diving. I didn’t realize that floating up would be more of the issue. So with buoyancy you basically just try to figure out how to breathe properly so you don’t float around like a balloon. Much harder than it sounds.
But, wow. Coming from someone who was extremely on the fence about getting certified, I 1000% recommend doing it. There really is nothing comparable to the feeling of being in the water, and the diving in Koh Tao was beautiful for a first-timer. It’s so serene, and I’m not even taking into account how cool everything around you is. After the second dive, I was hooked. I had entirely forgotten about the whole being eaten by sharks thing that seemed to take up most of my thought processes beforehand.
I really don’t think I would of been as comfortable diving in Koh Tao if I had gone through a different school or had a different instructor. I mean, maybe, but I felt entirely calm the second dive and I feel that has everything to do with how great my instruction was.
Once we surfaced and got the confirmation that we had all officially been certified, it was time to celebrate!
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