Any good dive clubs in Thailand?

[daveyravey]

As a keen diver i would like to join a club or meet with like minded people to explore the reef and wrecks of Thailand.

Does anyone have suggestions of clubs i can join like BSAC in the Uk so i can keep the costs lower than

using diveshops.

[PhuketFarang]

Most "dive clubs" you will find are actually dive centers and using a "club" as a marketing tool. So watch out for that.

What area are you in? Here's one in Phuket: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiveDogs

The problem I have found is that Thailand is a dive destination so most of the people who are here are vacation divers. Most of the divers who live here are instructors so they go out for work. Not many people here regularly dive recreationally​. I know that where I came from in my past life, Southern California, you can just post on one of dive club pages there saying you'll be diving a certain dive site and you'll have 10-15 divers join you. Especially during lobster season.

​

[Basil B]

As pointed out there are many dive centres around resorts which do diver training as well, but you will find yourself diving the same sites, if based in or near Bangkok I believe there are a number of independent clubs who arrange trips all over Thailand, probably go down to Pattaya most weekends but will probably do other places less frequently, but again be careful they are not fronts for resort based shops.

Not that I am saying there is anything wrong with many of the dive shops because they can be like clubs and good discounts for regular divers particularly if you have your own gear.

[peter267]

Try here http://www.meetup.com/Siam-sub-aqua-club/ . Meet up is a sort of informal forum to put different groups together. I just jumped into this last weekend trying to get a sailing group together in Ban Phe http://www.meetup.com/Ban-Phe-Day-Sailing-Group-Local-trips-and-adventures/ if anyone was interested. Check out the site quite a few things being organised.

[ozyjon]

Don't get left behind

take a packed lunch

just in case

[wrazoru]

I was a member of a club in Vancouver Canada too. Part of the way we kept cost down was having our own club compressor as well most of us had our own tanks and could dive locally, with plenty of shore dives or else members with boats or skifs.

Over here, it's not common practice

You could try this link though:

http://www.meetup.com/BangkokScubaDivingTravelClub/about/

[daveyravey]

Thanks for the info.

The http://www.meetup.co...-sub-aqua-club/ is exactly the type of dive club in thailand that i'm looking for. I contacted both these clubs mentioned but the other one was the same price as diveshops. This siam sub aqua club one is nearly half the price and seems well run. I am diving with them tomorrow. Will let you know how it turns out.

Thanks Peter267 for the link.

[h90]

Thanks for the info.

The http://www.meetup.co...-sub-aqua-club/ is exactly the type of dive club in thailand that i'm looking for. I contacted both these clubs mentioned but the other one was the same price as diveshops. This siam sub aqua club one is nearly half the price and seems well run. I am diving with them tomorrow. Will let you know how it turns out.

Thanks Peter267 for the link.

please post your experiences

[daveyravey]

Ok trip report as promised after diving with Siam sub aqua club yesterday. Turns out the club was started by a few foreigners who want to offer different diving experiences for members at low prices. They are not profits based and usually just share costs of a trip a bit like some clubs in the UK. The two main guys are both Padi instructors and have the diving bug. they even have some spare gear for members who don't have all the kit.

On sunday we went for a 2 dive day to the far islands off Pattaya. We dived on the Kram wreck which was an amazing dive with visibility around 7 to 10 metres it was better than i expected. On the dive we saw a turtle, a box fish, rays, giant puffer fish, barracuda's(big), schools of snapper, sweetlips, and lots of beautiful corals. Our second dive was on Koh Krok which is well known for turtles but only one turtle was seen. The boat the club uses is well run and the owner of the boat even did a bbq for the divers.

Overall i am very impressed with this club and i will be diving with them again. They have a trip going to Koh Chang to dive the wreck there end of January and the price is stupidly low and includes hotel and diving and food.

The club also has a FB page https://www.facebook.com/SiamSubAquaClub

The club is quite new and is looking for new members to make more trips viable. In my opinion it is a winner.