Scuba Diving in koh tao
Among the one of the earliest known scuba destinations in Southeast Asia is Ko Tao / Koh Tao, a small bean shaped island located in the Gulf of Thailand.
The island spans just 7 x 3 sq.km area and is mostly a basalt rock hills spouting out of the ocean. Adhering to the ocean bed depth of the gulf of Thailand, the waters around Koh Tao are also relatively shallow, averaging around 45 to 50 meters.
Koh Tao, which literally means Turtle Island, was earlier known to have lot of turtle nesting on its internal belly beach of the bean shape – now known as Sairee beach. Apart from that, the rock formation peeking out on its southern-west side resembles a turtle’s head.
Koh Tao is among the three islands of the Surat Thani region, viz. Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. Koh Samui being the biggest and Koh Tao being the smallest.
Koh Samui is relatively nearer to mainland Thailand and was the first one to welcome settlements and tourists on it. Once the Koh Samui started to develop, people started to look for more places nearby and thus coming to Koh Tao. Due to its separation from crowd and much of boat traffic in its earlier days, Koh Tao had pristine waters and optimum conditions for one to enjoy a peaceful dive. And thus, Koh Tao started to become a destination for diving since late 1980s.
Today, with the rise in tourist footfall, Koh Tao too has seen a lot of development and boosts of lot more resorts and amenities. But it still is primarily known for its wonderful calm dive sites.
Tourists visiting, spend much of their time on Koh Samui and Koh Phangan (read monthly full moon parties) and then head to Koh Tao for calm peaceful dives.
Climate on Koh Tao sticks to Gulf of Thailand pattern of governed by Southwest and Northeast Monsoons. Southwest monsoons during the months of May to July try to enter from Andaman Sea but are blocked by the mountains on the mainland. When the winds turn, during Mid-October, November-December, the island receives its maximum rainfall. Owing to this weather pattern, the February to May and August to Mid-October are the best times of diving around the island. But, being a small island, and its bean like shape stretching North to South, one can dive anytime of the year based on the wind flowing and the hills located on the island blocking it on the other side. Hence at any time, if it is rough and choppy on one side, the other side of the island is calm and flat. One can take the boats around the island to the dive sites or just enter the water from the other side of the island from land resorts or beaches. You might just have to choose your dive shop of your preference.
Due to the shallow depth of the seabed, there are only mild to moderate currents in the waters. Very few times one can experience very strong currents there. So, your most of the dives are going to be relaxed dives.
Island is suitably placed in the tropical climate region, between Tropic of Cancer and the equator. Temperatures on land during March to May are the highest, reaching even 40 degrees Celsius in last couple of years. Water temperatures are mostly between 27-29 degrees Celsius, but last year’s heat wave got it rising to 30-31 degrees as well (resulting mass coral bleaching is some reefs around the island). Island experiences a little drop in the temperature in months of November and December giving sometimes pleasant conditions to sip your coffee at the viewpoints on the hills during surface interval due to rains. November – December, the rains make the lowest season for diving in Koh Tao. Rains increase the water flow and silt into ocean and, hence affecting the visibility.
With this almost ideal climate and ocean conditions Koh Tao has gained popularity among divers for an ultimate dive holiday. Dive sites around the island give ample opportunity for all types of divers to learn scuba diving, enjoy some fun dives and also practice their deco procedures for tech divers.
Dive sites are mostly near and around the island with most of them reachable by 5 to 10 mins of boat ride, based on which side of the island you are on. For some resorts and shops, dive sites can also be accessed from shores giving advantage of shore entry dives.
Some of the popular dive sites near the island include,
- White Rock,
- Twins,
- Japanese Gardens,
- Mango Bay,
- Hing Wong Bay,
- Shark Bay, etc.
Couple of famous dive sites away from the island, around 20 mins boat ride give divers opportunity to dive deeper and have clear waters at almost all the times. These are,
- “Chumphon Pinnacle” on the North-East side and
- “Southwest Pinnacle” on the of course southwest of the island.
These are rock pinnacle jutting out of the sea bed, creating a wonderful reef around them for ample amount of fish life shelter.
Koh Tao also boasts of 3 very good wreck sites. These are 3 Royal Thai Navy war ships sunken on purpose around the island for attracting divers for wreck diving. All 3 are approximately 50 meters long ships, giving divers to explore the wrecks with its optimum structure. There are multiple entry points for advanced divers to penetrate the wrecks and train themselves for overhead environment diving. Names of 3 Wrecks are as follows:
- HTMS Sattakrut – sunken in 2011, straight in front of the Sairee beach, giving diving depth from 14m to 30m.
- HTMS Supharin 313 – sunken in 2023, few meters away from “No Name Pinnacle” and “Twins” dive site, with similar depth of HTMS Sattakrut.
- HTMS Hanhak Sattru 312 – sunken near the “Ao Mao” dive site on the east side of the island.
Another very famous dive site, and among the top ones world-wide is “Sail Rock”. Located in between the islands of Koh Phangan and Koh Tao, it is one of the most frequented dive sites from all 3 islands from the gulf. From Koh Tao, it is situated at a distance of approximately 22km southeast. With the huge dive boats usually used in Koh Tao, it takes around 1 hour 45 minutes to reach the dive site. Due to the long travel time, most of the dive centers make it day trip there with 2 dives combining with another 1 dive at Shark Bay or Southwest pinnacle.
As of 2024, Koh Tao has become one of the dive capitals in South East Asia. You will find one the cheapest dive costs around the entire region owing to the competition among dive centres located on the island. Post covid there has been a surge of new dive centres coming up on the island. Island has dive centres associated with almost all the known dive agencies viz. PADI, SSI, RAID, etc. Divers are spoilt for choice with the number of dive centers and dive resort on the island.
Reaching Koh Tao is very convenient. Being an island, the last from anywhere here is water transport by Ferry or speed boats. You can get the frequently available ferries from nearby islands or mainland cities of Surat Thani or Chumphon. One can fly into Koh Samui Domestic airport and take a boat to Koh Tao then.
Alternatively, the divers can take bus or cabs to Chumphon or Surat Thani and then hope onto ferries to the island. Surat Thani is also connected to by train from major cities in Thailand, further connecting Koh Tao with ferries.
So, what are you waiting for!! Pack your bags and let’s go diving…
Stay Salty.