February in Koh Tao

Celebrating at Sairee Cottage Diving

Here at Sairee Cottage Diving, we celebrated the Leap Year with pizzazz!! The sun is blazing hot in Koh Tao during February, so we have definitely been using our air condition in the dive shop and in our new classrooms. With High Season in full gear, heaps of travelers have visited Koh Tao, which means that our dive shop has been very lively and full of smiling faces because diving was so great during the whole month!

Our team of diving instructors was super busy teaching PADI and SSI diving courses (Open Water, Advanced, Deep and Nitrox Specialty courses, EFR/Stress and Rescue courses and new divemaster courses)! More importantly, we met some wickedly cool people from all over the world who came to Koh Tao to learn how to dive. We had guests from Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, and Serbia. Onca again, it was really cool to see how scuba diving unites people from all over the world.

New Divemasters in Koh Tao

This month, we added two more divemasters to the crew: Nikki and Victor. We are very excited to welcome them to the world of professional diving. And a huge congratulations goes out to Kirsten, or Shep, as we affectionately call her. She finished her PADI divemaster course this month and passed her ‘bucket’ test with flair! Stefan, Peter, and Ingrid have started teaching German to the rest of us non-German speakers; we, of course, have learned only the most important phases, e.g. I would like to order an alcoholic beverage and Let’s go diving!

Diving in Koh Tao

Diving around Koh Tao (or the Rock as we like to call it) is improving immensely. Rachel and her group of fun divers came across a GIGANTIC Great Barracuda in Buoyancy World at Twins. It literally was half the size of Rachel’s body, although every time she tells the story, the barracuda seems to get larger and larger! The Green Rock drop-off dive was stunning the last time Barry and Matt, his Advanced student, dove it.

[Sidenote: For all you nay-sayers, many grammatical experts accept that the word, ‘dove’, is a legitimate form for the past tense of the verb, ‘dive’. It is more commonly used in North America than by the British Commonwealth.]

…ANYWHO, Barry said that a school of Golden Trevallies took at least 8 minutes to swim by them; that’s a LOT of fish. The water was crystal clear with a deep blue tinge. Absolutely stunning! More recently, Paddy and his group of fun divers were ecstatic to see the Hawksbill Turtle at Red Rock while Sarah and her students saw some rare Nudy branches at the shipwreck, Sattakut 742.

Check out our Facebook page for the latest news and gossip about our dive sites and our dive team. We look forward to any comments y’all have! So feel free to send us some love!

January 2012 – Koh Tao Diving News

January News Koh Tao

Sairee Cottage Diving definitely started off this year with a bang! We met so many fantastic people this month. The weather even started to cooperate: the temperature is warming up, and you can see the beach in front of the restaurant in the afternoons! Ahh, life on a tropical island is wonderful!

Danny, Bear, Neil, Barry, Chris, and Laura taught so many great and enthusiastic divers! They completed loads of Open Water and Advanced courses as well as EFR/Stress & Rescue and Nitrox courses.

Our wonderful freelancers (Greg, Sarah, Nacho, and Gordon) also played a tremendous role this month and gained valuable teaching experience. Over the last two months, we ‘graduated’ 2 divemasters; Sam and Paddy. Although Sam went back to England, Paddy has decided to stay in Koh Tao. Congrats to them both! Moreover, we added 3 new team members to the shop: Stefan, an instructor, adds a new dimension as a native German speaker, and Peter, Ingrid, and Andy, are our 3 new divemasters. We are very excited to have them join our team!

We also want to wish Trevor, the dive shop owner, and Laura (or Yeah Mate, as we affectionately call her) a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! – Don’t worry though, we celebrated their days of birth with the appropriate amount of Koh Tao gusto!

Diving in Koh Tao just keeps getting better and better! The visibility is now consistently 10+ meters. The seas are flat, and the wind has died down, allowing us to visit dive sites on the other side of the island, such as Southwest Pinnacle and Hin Wong. Our divemasters are excited about the new Liver-Colored Moray Eel, which is hiding under a rock on the west side of the middle pinnacle at Twins and the Remora or Sharksucker, which is hanging out with the school of Chevron Barracuda in between the deep and middle pinnacle at Twins. Chumphon is blooming with sea life – Barracudas galore, massive schools of Fusiliers, Batfish, and giant Malabar Groupers. MOST IMPORTANTLY, Chris discovered a Moorish Idol (think Finding Nemo) on the coastline between Green Rock and Twins. Wicked!

The Sairee Cottage Restaurant is open (yeah!), and the pizza oven is getting plenty of use! Our staff has enjoyed many an evening sitting around the dive shop and enjoying the sunset. We hope to share our little slice of heaven with y’all sometime soon. For more up-to-date information about our dives and life at Sairee Cottage Diving, please visit our Facebook page. See y’all in February!

Some of our Divers in January

December at Sairee Cottage Diving Koh Tao

Dive Shop News

Goodbye 2011! And hello 2012! The last year has definitely been very kind to us over here at Sairee Cottage Diving in Koh Tao. We had such fun teaching our students, diving with our fun divers, and working with our try-divers! While we experienced a mild monsoon season in November, the weather in December turned out to be a bit unexpected. It was quite unpredictable – very windy and wavy and at times, the visibility was less than 5 meters while the water temperature hovered between 26 degrees C (brrrr!) and 27 degrees C. However, conditions like these are what make us more experienced divers!

This month, we completed quite a number of diving courses; Danny, Neil, Bear, Chris, and Barry finished several Open Water, Advanced, and Stress and Rescue courses. We definitely had some awesome groups of students – a lot of great characters, all of which made for some great videos and nights out! Feel free to visit our Facebook page and check out our December 2011 photos! Our freelancers (Nacho, Gordon, Sarah, and Greg) stepped in and helped around the dive shop as well. Moreover, we had two more divemaster trainees join our team this year – Kirsten and Jon. Along with Sam and Paddy, we now have four DMTs!

Rest assured, the dive shop celebrated the holidays in style. The girls (Sarah, Laura, and Rachel) scoured the island for holiday decorations, and with Nanni’s help, they made the dive shop feel incredibly festive. Laura went home to Australia for the holidays, and we can’t wait for her to return! We also had several Irish friends visit Trevor; they kept us well entertained with their antics. Chris prepared an amazing Christmas dinner for us – turkey, ham, delicious vegetables, and a mouth-watering gravy. Needless to say, we didn’t leave too many leftovers!

Koh Tao Diving in December

While the visibility wasn’t spectacular, we still had some wonderful dives! We ventured to Tao Tong, which is a shallow little bay on the south end of the island. Within the first two times of diving there, we saw a Hawksbill turtle, White-eyed Moray eels, loads of Unicorn and Rabbit fish, and Fusiliers. We also stayed close to home and visited the ever faithful dive sites, White Rock and Twins. These spots never fail to surprise us with sea life: Harry Hotlips, Sixbar Angelfish, Teira and Orbicular Batfish, Dancing Shrimp, and loads of different types of Snappers and Monocle Breams.

Sairee Cottage Dive Shop News

While our restaurant is still under construction, we are looking forward to it opening in January 2012. The restaurant is starting to look very jazzy; we will have new furniture, new lighting and big comfy cushions – all of which you will be able to enjoy with stunning tropical sunsets and a delicious cocktail or two. Most importantly, we are all very EXCITED about the new pizza ovens, which should be in use by the beginning of February. All in all, 2011 has been a FABULOUS year, and we look forward to sharing our home with y’all in the new year! We here at Sairee Cottage Diving Koh Tao wish you all a

Happy New Year 2012!

Koh Tao Diving – October News

The End of a Diving Season

The end of another diving season has arrived and what an amazing season it’s been! We’ve really enjoyed all the customers we’ve had at Sairee Cottage Diving in Koh Tao. No matter whether we were bringing people out for their first open water dives, or continuing on their diving education with Advanced, Rescue and Divemaster courses, we always enjoy diving with our guests. And now with Neil qualified as an SSI Instructor trainer we’re introducing new diving instructors into the dive industry. We want to give a big shout out to all our students and fun divers who have made this season an unforgettable one.

Underwater in October

We’ve had lots of spectacular dives this season. We were lucky enough to dive with a Whale Shark on a couple of occasions this year at Chumphon Pinnacle and South West Pinnacle . Even without the Whale Sharks both dive sites have been teaming with life this year with the huge Marbled Groupers, Schools of Chevron Barracuda, Bat Fish, Travellies as well as the sighting of King Mackerel hunting. We’ve loved diving at Lham Tien, the Red Rock Drop off and Green Rock for the amazing swim-throughs and turtle sightings. We’ve had a huge amount of turtle sights this year on dive sites such a Twins and White Rock. Diving with a turtle is always a lovely way to finish off an open water diving course. Our students and our fun divers have loved it.

News from the Dive School

Our new Dive School is up and running now. We’re going to be moving into the new reception during November and our instructors are already teaching in the new classrooms. It’s lovely to be in the new buildings. We hope you have all enjoyed diving with us this season and hopefully we’ll see you again soon. As always, the dive center remains open during the low season and we will be happy to accommodate you at Sairee Cottage Diving. Keep up to date with all our latest news and photos on our Facebook page.

Resources

View a selection of hand selected web resources regarding scuba diving, Koh Tao, Thailand and more.

Scuba Directory – A Directory of Scuba Diving Sites (Eng)
Diving Thailand – Information about Scuba Diving in Thailand (Eng)
Diving Finder – Find your Special Spot for Scuba Diving (Eng)
Thailand Dive Guide – Scuba Diving Live aboard, Dive Sites in Thailand (Eng)
Under Water Asia – Information about the Underwater World in Asia (Eng)
Dive Guide Thailand – Scuba Diving Information in Thailand (Eng)
Good Dive – A large Scuba Diving Directory with lots of infos (Eng)

Videos

Over time we collected some quite nice videos from and around Sairee Cottage Resort and Diving in Koh Tao. On this page we will show you some of theses videos plus some of our favorites. If you made a video about Koh Tao or/and Sairee Cottage, please send us a link where we can find the video (YouTube, Vimeo etc). If you would like to leave a comment about Sairee cottage Resort or about your diving course with us, please sign our Guestbook.

Sairee Cottage Videos:

Some of our Favorite Videos:

Pictures

Here are some pictures of and from Sairee Cottage Diving in Koh Tao. There will be more pictures uploaded soon. For now, you can also find more albums and pictures on our facebook page. Many of the pictures have been taken during our diving courses, maybe you can find a picture of yourself here. If YOU have shot some cool pics on Koh Tao, no matter if underwater or on land; send them to us and we will be happy to publish them here with credit to you. If you would like to leave a comment about Sairee Cottage Diving Koh Tao, please sign our Guestbook, enjoy the pictures (click on the “View in Piclens” link to get a larger picture).

[View with PicLens]

Guestbook

Sign our guest book below and let others know how you liked Sairee Cottage Diving in Koh Tao!

Dive Trip – Sail Rock & Lham Tian

On the 5th of Sept Sairee Cottage Diving Koh Tao had a full day trip to Sail Rock on the program! The conditions for this diving adventure were perfect, the sea was flat and the sun was out. We set off at 7am ready to get some good diving in for the day. Chris was teaching an Open Water Diver and an Advanced Diver course with Rachel’s assistance. Tamara was leading fun divers while Alina, Barry and Laura got the chance to do some fun dives for a change. Trevor, Bear and Sarah got the opportunity to do some deco dives. The best tanning spots were soon nabbed on the journey out and everyone took the task of tanning very seriously!

The first dive at Sail Rock was brilliant. For those of you who don’t know Sail Rock yet; it’s simply one the very best dive sites in the Gulf of Thailand! Whale Sharks, Leopard Sharks and Reef Sharks are regular visitors here. There was a slight current but loads of underwater life. There were huge schools of Jacks, Chevron Barracuda, Spangled Emperor Fish and even some huge King Mackerel. We found the big Moray Ells and the Banded Coral Shrimp and even the Clown Anemone Shrimp.

As the current was picking up in the afternoon we decided to change our plans and head back to Lham Tian for our second dive so it was back to tanning on the top deck for most of us. The second dive at Lham Tian was amazing. We were the only dive boat there and we saw no other divers under the water which such a nice change. Everyone enjoyed squeezing in through the swim throughs, finding cool Nudi Branches and seeing lots of Angelfish, Banner Fish and Unicorn Fish. The visibility was amazing and there was absolutely no current which was a nice change from the first dive.

After chilling out on the boat for a bit, eating lunch and taking cheesy photos of us jumping off the boat we did our third dive at Ao Mao. Here we continued exploring the swim throughs along the coast line. On this dive most of the divers came across a group of Hump Head Parrot Fish which everyone was really excited about. Our boat boy found a turtle caught up in rope and fishing line and managed to free it. It only had a small scratch on its fin so we’re sure it’ll be fine. On the way back to Sairee we all chilled out together, compared sun burns (maybe the coconut tanning oil wasn’t the best idea!) and watched the sun set. It was the perfect end to an awesome full day diving trip. We can’t wait for the next one!

Koh Tao Diving – September 2011

August has come and gone and what an awesome month it was! The weather was superb and we were able to dive on the east coast of the island and explore some of the less dived dive sites of Koh Tao like Hin Wong, Lham Tian, Ao Mao and Light House Bay. We were really busy with Open Water Diving Courses as well as Advanced Diver and Rescue Diver courses this month. Laura, or as we like to call her, “Yeah Mate” joined our full time staff so we’ve added another girl to the team which we’re all delighted about.

We had so many Irish and English divers during August it was like living back in Europe! Lots of family members and friends have been out to visit and it’s been awesome to have familiar faces around. Bear, Neil, Danny and Laura have been kept busy with Open Water Diver and Advanced Diver Courses while Chris has been teaching and leading fun divers while Sarah has been busy with lots of Fun Divers and Try Dives (DSD). We’ve had lots of families diving with us this month and we’ve even taught some Junior Open Waters. We also want to say a huge congrats to Rachel and Tamara who completed their SSI Dive Con Course at the beginning of September. Well done girls!!

Barry taught a BSAC Deep Diving Course with Eva and Sarah at the end of the month. After two days of training dives at Twins and the Sattakut wreck they managed to get to 38m at the Trident! The Dive sites on Koh Tao have been teemed with life this month. The huge School of Bat Fish and Chevron Barracuda are still around Chumphon Pinnacle and we were even lucky enough to dive with a Whale Shark there during the middle of the month.

Both Greg’s group of Open Water students and Sarah’s Fun Divers were delighted to be able to dive with it. It stuck around for the entire 45min dive. The turtle was hanging out on Hin Wong a lot along with the Razor Fish and Yellow Box Fish which made it one of our favorite dive sites this month. Light House Bay was flooded with life with a Jenkins Ray hanging out, Blue Spotted Rays, Moray Eels and Trigger Fish galore ready to fight to keep our Dive Masters on their toes.

We had a superb dive on Green Rock at the start of the month watching a Golden Trevally hunting a school of Yellow Tail Barracudas. Green Rock is a fantastic dive site if the current isn’t too strong. The site is often visited by Whale Sharks during a plankton bloom. It was breath taking and we even managed to get some photos. Talking about photos; the Sattakut wreck has really taken off with life after it was moved last month. There’s huge schools of Scad and Fusilier surrounding it, a huge Puffer Fish, Baby Banner Fish, a Jenkins Ray and a new school of baby Yellow Tail Barracuda all living in the wreck already. Check out the photos they’re all up on our Facebook page.