Overall the best time of the year to dive on Thailands west coast is between November to April. The weather conditions are most stable during this time of the year and all dive sites are open. However, as this is the main tourist season prices tend to be higher and the dive sites more frequented. More information you find on scuba diving in Phuket.

Please find the cancellation policy in terms and conditions

Yes, of course. However, please note that not all diving day trips are suitable for swimming and snorkeling.

As there is such a large variety of hotels and guest houses in Phuket and every guest has different requirements and price budgets it is hard to give a general recommendation. We have 3 modern and clean rooms in our Dive which we rent to our divers.
We love the area of Rawai, therefore we have some hotel recommendations on the Phuket Diving Resort page.

No, you can try scuba diving with the one day activity called the SSI Try Scuba Diving.

No – We only accept Thai Baht for payments

Yes, we do. If you have any special dietary requirements it would be best to let us know in advance so that our cooks can plan ahead accordingly.

All tanks either INT valves or DIN valves. For Sidemount Divers we have the appropriate tanks available.

Of course dive gear like your regulator will need a regular service (most manufacturers recommend every 100 dives or every 2 years, whichever comes first) which can be done by us or any registered service center, but to prevent high costs of replacement of certain parts it’s important to clean all your gear after every day of diving.

Cleaning Dive Gear

Regulator

When we clean and check our returned rental regulators, we follow 10 steps.

Often people make remarks on how good our rental gear looks. More important on the maintenance and cost side, the yearly servicing of our regs is an easy job with no corrosion to soak and scrub off. Below are the most important steps of our regulator cleaning routine.
During your dive week you can just rinse your gear in the rinse tank at the end of a dive, but it is well worth the time and effort after the last dive to do the full clean before storing your gear.
Check that the dust cap has no salt water in it, if yes, wash it out while keeping your thumb on the opening of the first stage so water doesn’t go in. Dry the dust cap by blowing it out with a tank, then put it back on the first stage and close to seal tightly.
Pull the hose protectors away from where the hoses connect to the first and second stages. Let the tap water run through the holes in the first stage, you must see the water running out of the holes (not all regulators have holes in the first stage by the way, for these sealed first stages you can omit this step).
Let the tap water run through the two mouthpieces and exhausts of the second stages. Do not press the purge button while doing this! If you do happen to press the purge button, make sure that you put the reg back on a tank and purge the second stages a number of times to get all water out.
Do check the bite tabs on the mouthpieces and inspect around the tie wrap for small holes. For hygienic purposes at this point we generously sponge soapy antibacterial dish liquid thoroughly around the mouth piece.
With your still soapy sponge, wipe over the second stage covers and all metal parts – this helps to remove salt and chemical residue. At this point you can also check your hoses for any wear and tear.
Finally, submerge the regulator (except the 1st stage) in a rinse tank of fresh water and soak for at least 5 minutes. Put the reg on a tank and purge the 2nd stages to remove any water left in the system. Take the 1st stage off the tank and seal it with the dust cap.
Hang the reg up to dry (if outside keep out of the sun). Make sure the hose protectors are not covering the metal parts.
Once dry, use Silicone Spray to spray the thread of 1st stage knob while screwing it in and out to ensure even distribution of the silicone over all the threads. Spray in and around the BCD quick disconnect while pulling it backwards and releasing it a few times. Spray the metal parts on the hoses close to the 1st and 2nd stages with Silicone Spray and push back the hose protectors.
What to do if you flooded your first stage regulator by not closing the dust cap while rinsing?

Firstly, it’s not that bad if you flood it with fresh water. If your regulator is flooded with salt water, rinse with fresh water immediately, to avoid corrosion. The main thing that you want to avoid is pressurizing the regulator while there is water inside and a computer or SPG attached. This could potentially damage your instruments downstream. Do not attempt this yourself – as soon as you can take your regulator to a regulator service technician – he/ she will do the following:

Immediately remove hoses and gauges, leaving only the second stage regulators attached to the low pressure portion of your 1st stage.
Rinse the first stage with fresh water if necessary (i.e., if you suspect that you have salt water or other contaminants inside the first stage).
Attach the first stage to a tank and slowly turn on the air. The service tech will be flushing all water out the high pressure ports. He will then slowly purge the second stages so that any water in the hoses will also be pushed out of the system. Warning: don’t ever pressurize a 1st stage regulator on a tank without a way to depressurize, such as having a second stage attached or a port open. If you do, good luck ever getting that thing off!
Last, if in a reasonably non-humid environment, the tech should let the whole thing sit out with ports out for a few hours to let any moisture evaporate before reassembling the regulator. While the regulator tech is working on your regulator, take your computer/ SPG and hold it at the gauge end and give it a good twirling to get any residual moisture or liquid out of the hose. It is very unlikely that you got any water through the pinprick-sized hole if you didn’t pressurize the system wet, but this is just for good measure (and a little bit of fun). Be sure you don’t accidentally his anyone with the hose or drop your gauges.

What is described here is just an immediate remedy to avoid and/ or mitigate the damage done by flooding, most of which is corrosion. Please take into consideration that your situation may vary depending on what type of water you got into your regulator and the type of regulator you have. Whatever you do immediately after flooding your regulator, you should definitely have it fully serviced as soon as possible. Regulators are expensive and sophisticated pieces of gear that our lives depend on, so it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Dive Computer

Be sure to soak your dive computer in fresh water after every dive. While submerged, depress all of the buttons a few times to get all the salt water out of them. Be sure to dry out of direct sunlight.

If your dive computer Floods!

If it is a user replaceable battery type, immediately remove the back cover and remove and discard the battery. Use compressed air to blow all water out of the battery compartment. Once completely dry insert a new battery and test. Make sure to use a battery replacement kit from the manufacturer of your dive computer – these usually come with new o’rings and back plate. It is important to replace these as they are the most likely culprits for the flooding. Check also for other damage to the computer that may have been the cause of the flooding. Non-user replaceable battery types will need to be sent to a service center or back to the manufacturer for repair.

BCD

The most important part of cleaning a BCD is to rinse away any salt water from the inside of the bladder, the dump valves and the inflator/deflator unit and hose. To prevent corrosion in your inflator unit, clean it by flushing the inside with fresh water. With the inflator unit mouthpiece held tight to the faucet of running tap water alternately push the inflator and deflator buttons. You should see the water coming out of the nipple, and water should be going into the BCD. The tap needs to be quite far open as you need good water pressure to flush the valve. Watch out – you might get wet!

Fill the BCD with some more fresh water. To do this you can remove a dump valve (be sure not to loose the gasket and be sure not to cross-thread when replacing); however the best (although not the easiest) is to do as in above, pressing the deflate button. Make sure the BCD is empty of air and below the incoming water. Slosh the water around to rinse every corner of the bladder.

Inflate the bladder (either by mouth or by regulator attached to a tank), make one of the dump valves the lowest point, and in 1 fluid movement squeeze the BCD and dump at the same time to force water through the dump valve. Fill and repeat to flush the rest of the dump valves. Once all the valves are flushed, empty the BCD of all water. Fully inflate the BCD and hang out of sunlight to dry. The reason to fully inflate the BCD is to check it’s air holding integrity – if the BCD is deflated when it is dry there is likely a leak somewhere in the system. If drying space is at a premium, just inflate with a little air and after drying fill with air to do the integrity test.

Wetsuit

To clean your wetsuit you can use a little bit of dishwashing liquid in a basin full of fresh water. Soak well with a bit of movement to wash the wetsuit inside out before hanging it up to dry. If outside, make sure you hang the wetsuit out of direct sunlight. Aloha Ocean Adventures sells “Sink the Stink”, a soapy solution to get the smell out of your wetsuit if you have not kept up with a proper cleaning routine before ?

Unfortunately we can’t offer Enriched Air Nitrox for free. We ask for a surcharge of Baht 200,-per tank. We can offer you a Nitrox course for free when purchasing a diving computer through us.

The weather in low season is pretty good most of the time, although the humidity is much higher than normal. We have the occasional rain shower during the day, but this usually lasts only for a short time. The visibility and current under water is not much different compared to the rest of the year. Many people prefer to dive in low season, because there are not as many boats and divers at the varies dive spots. Due to the location of our Phuket dive sites are we able to offer day trips year round from our Island.

You can find more information about diving in the low season here.

Safety is the highest priority at Aloha Diving and therefore the surface interval is a minimum of 90 minutes.

We plan all our dives for a duration of one hour minimum. We do not have a dive time limitation. Therefore you can stay as long your air last (30 bar / 500 psi minimum pressure).

With our boat we offer two dives a day to extend each dive to the maximum with minimum 90 min surface interval. Phukets big boats offer three dives on a tight schedule. On the liveaboards there are usually 3 day dives and 1 night dive per day.

A correct scuba diving mask fitting is potentially one of the most important things for having a good time and relaxed scuba diving. If it leaks or is uncomfortable it can be miserable.

Learn below how to choose the correct size and type of mask for your face shape, and how to test to see if it is the perfect fit, before you buy or rent it.
What you are looking for is an airtight seal around your face, without having the mask too tight.

Scuba Diving Mask Fitting First Step

Measure Your Face

First, take a good look at your face. Is it narrow or wide? Are your eyes close together or wide apart? We have a wide range of Masks in our Diving Center in Phuket.

Is your nose bigger or smaller? Do you have much space under your nose above your lip? So with these things in mind, try to pick a mask that looks like it will fit your face instead of how many windows it has or how cool you think it looks.

Fitting Hint For Men – Don’t forget to shave before you go to do your snorkel mask fitting. It is hard to test a seal with a lot of stubble. A view Masks have the”Advanced Fit Technology” uses textured bands of silicone around the skirt to form a superior seal against the face and minimizes water entry.

Scuba Diving Mask Fitting – Second Step

Select A Mask To Test

Now test it on your face. Pull the straps over the top of the mask and try the mask on your face, without putting the strap around your head. You must look in a mirror and notice where the skirt foot lies. Is it too narrow around the sides of your eyes? What about your nose, does it have plenty of room? You should not be pulling the nose pocket up against the underside of your nose. How about the bridge of your nose? Does the hard frame or glass rest on your nose anywhere? How about when you push the mask in a little bit? Because when you are snorkeling, water pressure will press the mask onto your face a bit.

Scuba Diving Fitting – Third Step

Do The Suction Test

Now, with the strap still over the top (not over your head yet), put the mask to your face, press slightly, inhale a small amount through your nose to suction it to your face, and release your hands. The mask should stay on your face without continuing to inhale.
You should be able to move around a bit without it falling off. Try moving your face muscles a bit. Does that break the seal? Try smiling. That will often break a seal on even a good fitting mask. But see what it does. (Sometimes we try to get each other to laugh when snorkeling to cause each other’s face mask to flood).

Scuba Diving Mask Fitting – Fourth Step

Put It On Fully

Good so far? Notice that a good fitting mask will stay on with just a little suction. Now try it with the mask strap on your head. You should get an airtight fit with very light strap pressure.
The strap should sit high on the back of your head, not resting on your ears. If it rests on your ears it will get painful.
If you have to pull the straps tight to get a fit, or if you have big red marks when it comes off, you have it too tight. A leaky mask is more often a case of straps too tight than too loose.
Also, make sure with the mask fully on that you can easily pinch your nose so that you can clear your ears while descending.

Scuba Diving Mask Fitting – Fifth Step

Found A Fit?

This step is easy. If you have found a mask that fits you perfectly, try it before you buy it! At Aloha Diving you can try your favourite Mask while Scuba Diving. We believe this is the only way to find out which mask fit’s you best. And of course is is available for sale.
We are dealer for Aqualung, Mares, Scubapro, Cressi, IST and Deep Blue.

Equipment is not included on liveaboard or day trips, unless it is a special package, or the Open Water Diver course was completed with Aloha Diving. For beginner dive courses and try scuba diving the equipment is included.

Sunblock, towel, swimwear, in low season it’s a good idea to bring rain wear and a warm jacket. Most things are included in our trip price. Soft drinks and beers are the only items you need to pay for. There is a limited supply and selection on the dive boats so please feel free to bring your own and store it in the icebox onboard.

A liveaboard boat is like a floating hotel that you can scuba dive off. They have cabins to sleep in, on board lounges, kitchens, however and tiolets. Some even have onboard luxuries like a Masseuse. In Phuket they range from over night trips up to 8-9 day adventures. You will need to be a certified diver to scuba dive from them however non divers can come on for the ride. Have a look at our liveaboard Phuket page to find out more.

We from Aloha Diving guarantee highly experienced guides with excellent local knowledge.

The maximum depth is 30m but, with the appropriate qualification can be to 40m.

The depth limit for training dives are:

• 12 Meter for Try Scuba Diving
• 18 Meter for Open Water Divers
• 30 Meter for Advanced Adventurer
• 40 Meter for Deep Diving Specialty Courses

3mm shorty is normally sufficient and is our standard rental suit. If you plan on diving on the liveaboard you might want to consider bringing a long 3mm suit.

Food is a mixture of Thai and Western (more Thai). Our boat can cater for vegetarian. Please let us know if you have any dietary requirements and we will do our best to provide you with meals to your liking.

There are several exchange counter close to our dive center in Phuket.

Sometimes where it is possible but never guaranteed as we plan the destination daily according to sea and weather conditions. If you are looking for a customized boat experience the Phuket Boat Charter might be interesting for you.