PADI Specialties

PADI Enriched Air Diver

The PADI Nitrox/ Enriched Air Diver course is PADI’s most popular specialty scuba diving course, and it’s easy to see why.

Scuba Phuket Diving with enriched air nitrox gives you more no decompression dive time. This means more time underwater to discover Phukets scuba diving sites, especially on repetitive scuba dives.

Enriched Air-also called NITROX can be thought of as air that has been enriched so that it has more than 21 % oxygen.

The benefit is that you are exposed to less nitrogen that air. There are number of ways to control your bottom time on your enriched air dives.

You can dive using Enriched Air table for the mix you are breathing, such as one of the Enriched Air Rdp’s or a dive computer. This will give you all the extra time underwater or shorter surface intervals that enriched air entitles you to.

Just keep in mind that there is a new factor to consider when planning your scuba dives now, and that is that oxygen will sometimes impose limits on your diving. With Enriched Air you have a new variable in your dive planning, and one that you can use to your advantage.

Instead of breathing the same gas as everyone else on every dive, you will be able to make individual choices concerning the best gas for a scuba dive. You will really get an advantage if you are making a lot of dives in a day or on a more extended trip like a Thailand Liveaboard cruise to the Similan Islands.

What You Learn during your dive course:

• Techniques for getting more dive time by using enriched air nitrox
• Enriched air scuba diving equipment considerations
• Enriched air considerations, including managing oxygen exposure, how to tell what’s in your scuba tank and how to set your dive computer

Prerequisites To enroll in the PADI Nitrox course, you must:

• Be 15 years or older
• Have a PADI Open Water Diver certification (or have a qualifying certification from another organization)

PADI Deep Diver

Phuket has great dive sites for Deep Diving. So after your first few dives, you soon want to explore a bit deeper waters. There’s something exciting and mysterious about the depth that attracts every diver.

Phuket Dive site which are offering good conditions for deep diving are Raya Noi Island and some dive sites in the Similan islands. Check out our Day trip Diving Schedule for more details where we go and when.

The PADI Deep Divers Specialty course emphasizes diving. You will do at least 4 deep dives in open water with your expirienced PADI dive Instructor on board our day trip boat. You will have a lot fun on these dives while developing and refining your dive skills you need for deep diving in Thailand elswhere.

The fun part about this scuba diving course is the opportunity to explore the deep. It’s exhilarating. You make a deep dive to see, to do or to experience something that you can’t on a shallower dive. Being certified as a PADI Deep Diver gives you access to new dive sites and activities all around the globe.

However, unlike shallow scuba dives around Phuket, deep dives tend to be short. You don’t have time to do much because you have short no-decompression limits and you use your air more rapidly. So proper planing is needed to have an enjoyable dive.

Therefore, you need to decide what your objective is before you go. Where you like to go? When you like to go? Are the tides okay to do a deep dive? A lot of stuff you need to consider before actually getting wet.

When you completed the course, you will have earned the PADI Deep Diver certification, which qualifies you to deep dive in conditions comparable or better than those in which you have experience and training. Make sure you contact your local dive center in case you like to do a dive in an area or in conditions you not familiar with.

Prerequisites To enroll in the PADI Deep Diver course, you must:

• Be 15 years or older
• Have a PADI Adventure Diver certification (or have a qualifying certification from another organization)

PADI Underwater Photography

Digital Underwater Photography is one of the most popular Phuket Scuba Diving Specialties, and the rise of digital underwater photography has made it easier and more fun. Now every one can take pictures underwater.

This is the reason why there are actually two PADI underwater photography courses. The PADI Digital Underwater Photography course gets you going quickly with todays modern digital equipment, whether you use your point-and-shoot snap camera or a sophisticated D SLR like a pros.

The PADI Underwater Photographer course is a more traditional photography course designed for conventional film equipment.

PADI Wreck Diver

The Wrecks around Phuket Island, Thailand are a great place for Diving Thailand adventures. There are wrecks that were sunk on purpose as an artificial reef or the result of mishap.

And all wrecks with in the recreational depth limt are suitable for beginners to expirienced divers.

Wrecks open fascinating windows to the past and most scuba divers find wrecked ships, airplanes and even automobiles nearly irresistible because they’re intriguing to explore, exciting avenues of discovery, and usually teeming with aquatic life.

Sometimes, only the trained experienced scuba diver eye recognizes that a small hole or open door likely caused the vessel’s demise.

The Wreck Diver course teaches you the ins and outs of rewarding, responsible wreck diving. The fun part of the Wreck Diver course is visiting the wrecks around Phuket such as the King Cruiser Wreck, unlocking mysteries and starting to gain the knowledge and experience that allows you to see things that others overlook. Wrecks are also great opportiunities for Multi level dives.

What You will learn:

• Techniques for diving exploring shipwrecks, and how to avoid common hazards
• How to research and learn the background of your favorite wrecks
• Wreck scuba diving equipment considerations
• Considerations and techniques for entering intact wrecks
• Experience in planning, organizing and making at least four wreck dives under the supervision of your PADI Instructor

Prerequisites To enroll in the PADI Wreck Diver course, you must:

• Be 15 years or older
• Have a PADI Adventure Diver certification (or have a qualifying certification from another organization)

PADI Night Diver

Night Diving is a a different style of Diving Phuket and some scuba divers either love it or they hate it. If you have never been on a night dive, than you might say “why should I?” The answer is easy… Yes, you should! … as many underwater creatures, which you not see during a day dive come out to feed at night and you can easily spotted them in your torch beam.

Many of these species you only see at the back of holes or under rocks, but by night they can be found in open spaces. The vis underwater is obviously restricted by the darkness, however this situation should not be mixed-up with low or bad visibility, which are usually caused by particles suspended in the water.

Our house reefs at Kata Noi and Karon Noi are perfect places for your first night dive. Also our Phi Phi Overnight & Raya Noi Overnight are a good opportunity for a night dive.

At a night dive you concentrate on what you see in your torch beam and you realize that a dive site you dive at night often have a lot more life than during a day dive. Which is actually not true, but during the day your horizon is wider and you may not see all that is there.

Please note that a night dive is seldom totally dark and if switch off your torch, you will be supervised at the amount of light there is. Reflected sunlight from the moon & starlight are the main sources, however once your eyes have become accustomed to the darkness you may see the water glowing, and when you start moving the disturbance causes a display of phosphorescence, which is caused by phosphorescent plankton giving off a glow when they are disturbed.

The use of a torch allows you to see easily under the water and, because the light source you see instead of the usual blue green look during daylight, the bright colours that actually exist. Plants & animals that look black during the day are suddenly coloured in scarlet’s and purples. Notably, Under Water Photography benefit from night dives.

Night diving can provide a great experience, however it has to be done safely and has to be properly organized. You need to stick to the standard rules of scuba diving and must apply in addition to several other things that must be in place before you can start.

What You will learn:

• Night dive planning, organization, procedures, techniques and potential problems
• How to control your buoyancy at night
• Entries, exits and underwater navigation at night
• Nocturnal aquatic life, since many of the plants and animals you’ll see are different

Prerequisites To enroll in the PADI Night Diver course, you must:

• Be 15 years or older
• Have a PADI Adventure Diver certification (or have a qualifying certification from another organization)

PADI Drift Diver

Drift Diving is a popular form of diving in Phuket and is not defined by dive equipment or techniques, but by diving location & water currents. In normal situations the diver is moving by swimming and kicking the fins.

While drift diving you descend into the waters around Phuket with a known current and after obtaining the correct buoyancy you let the current carry you along. Drift diving is without question the most relaxing and pleasant scuba diving experience, because you not exerting yourself by swimming so you have more air and can stay longer underwater.

Many popular drift diving reefs in Phuket have the current running parallel to the reef. So once you descended you can relax and watch the scenery float by. You only use a minimal effort to stay neutral and navigate around reef formations and rocks.

The whole point of Drift Diving Phuket is to “go with the flow” and not to swim against it. The movement is often so gentle that you don’t realize how powerful the current is; but you soon realize its force when trying to swim against it!

Being in a group of scuba divers swimming against the current, the differences in strength & fitness quickly become apparent since some divers swim easily upstream while others struggle to keep up. Going along with the current in a large group of divers you can stay together very easily.

Drift dives in Phuket is almost always done from a dive boat. You jump in and the boat follows.Once you begin your dive you will be carried away from your drop off point and sometimes quicker than you realize. It is very important for the boat captain and dive master on board to know which way the current is charring you in order to follow you from above. In calm water the boat captain can see your bubbles and simply follow them. It is a must to have a signal flag or inflatable marker tube on a reel or long line. You send it up as soon as you begin your ascend so the dive boat will see you and can approach safely to pick you and your dive buddies up.

During your your course you learn more about:

• Planning, organization, procedures, techniques, problems and hazards of drift diving
• An introduction to drift diving equipment: floats, lines, reels
• Buoyancy-control, navigation and communication for drift diving
• Site selection and overview of aquatic currents – causes and effects
• Techniques for staying close to a buddy or together as a dive group

PADI Computer Diver

For the first 30 years or so, for recreational PADI divers the maximum possible dive time underwater was the no decompression limit of the deepest depth reached during your dive.

Now, multilevel diving allows us to obtain more no decompression time by ascending to shallower depths where the nitrogen absorption is slower. Thanks to multilevel diving, in most environments you can stay underwater as long as you have air and warmth, this breakthrough springs from modern dive computers, the Wheel version of the Recreational Dive Planner and other advances in decompression theory. Most of the Phuket’s dive sites offer opportunities for multilevel diving.

For any dive site here in Phuket only other place, where you can dive on a sloping reef, a wall or other topography that allows you to start deep and ascend to shallower depths, you can plan a multilevel dive with your computer, the wheel or the eRDPML. Even many wreck dives will allow multilevel dives in which you start on the deeper parts of the wreck, and gradually ascend to the wreck’s upper part. Multilevel Diving Phuket is the ticket to more of what you first got into diving for-time under water.

It’s your dive computer that really makes multilevel dives simple and practical. While The Wheel makes it possible without a computer, the primary advantage of using a computer for multilevel diving is that it calculates your exact dive profile for maximum allowable no stop time. (More Fun underwater) The Wheel helps you understand how a computer calculates, and it’s your best option for resuming diving if your computer crashes (it happens), but 99 percent of the time, you’ll probably want to use your computer for the convenience and the precision it offers.

However, as wondrous as your computer is, it’s important that you make computer-assisted, not computer controlled dives. Computers appear almost magical to some divers; but they’re just highly sophisticated calculators that read the depth and time and then apply the same type decompression model your dive tables, and the same guidelines apply to computer diving as to table diving. No wonder that more and more divers consider a computer as essential as their masks & regulator.

The PADI multilevel and computer diving teaches you:

• The planning, organization, procedures, techniques, problems and hazards of multilevel diving
• Definition and advantages of multilevel diving.Methods of calculating multilevel dives (eRDPML and/or dive computers)
• Review of decompression sickness theory.Review of emergency decompression procedures
• Review of PADI’s S.A.F.E. campaign
• Procedures for flying after diving
• Guidelines, rules and procedures for multilevel diving with the eRDPML and/or diving computers
• Care and maintenance of dive computers

Prerequisites To enroll in the PADI Multi Level Diver course, you must:

• Be 12 years or older
• Have a PADI Open Water Diver certification (or have a qualifying certification from another organization)

PADI Search And Recovery

Have you ever dropped something in the water? Are you looking for lost “treasure”? The PADI Search and Recovery Diver Specialty course will teach you effective ways to find lost objects underwater and bring them back to the surface.

Small, large or just awkward, there is a way to bring them up. This is surely one of the most requested specialties, and perfect for those looking for a challenge! The course combines advanced navigation search patterns for long distance and low visibility conditions, tying knots underwater, and rigging and lifting objects with the aid of lift bags! It’s fun to use the lift bag.

These skills are not only fun, but very practical and ultimately useful because eventually, you’ll lose something in the water. As a Search and Recovery Diver, you’ll know how to search for and recover it.

This Specialty course consist of 4 dives that will be conducted during 2 diving days. It is recommended but not necessary that the open water training will be conducted between 9 – 18 meters (30 – 60 feet). Many of the Phuket dive sites offer opportunities to practice this course.

With the PADI Search and Recovery specialty course a diver learns:

• Search and recovery dive planning, organization, procedures, techniques and how to deal with potential problems
• How to locate large and small objects using search patterns
• How to use a lift bag and other recovery methods
• Limited visibility search techniques

To enroll in the PADI Search and Recovery course, you must:

• Be 12 years or older
• Be a (Jr.) Advanced Open Water Diver (or have a qualifying certification from another organization ) or a (Jr.) Open Water Diver plus Underwater Navigator Specialty or have a qualifying certification from another scuba diving organization