Diving in Phuket

Diving in Phuket

My first day’s diving in Phuket was in November 1999. I had come here from Utila (Honduras) looking for work, having been teaching scuba diving there for a little under a year, and decided I had better do a couple of dives to test the local waters. Marine life in SE Asia is very different to the Caribbean, and in particular I was hoping to see a lionfish and a clown anemone fish. Not asking too much, I thought. I booked a day trip with 2 dives – the King Cruiser wreck, and Shark Point. That dive site name had me hoping to see sharks too, as I had seen but a few nurse sharks in Utila, oh and a few whalesharks!

First dive – King Cruiser Wreck. Quite a descent down the line to 15m on top of the wreck. My buddy was a little slow coming down. When I looked up there must have been 15 divers coming down the line at the same time, lots of bubbles! At the bottom of the mooring, close to an old winch, the DM pointed at…about 7 lionfish! So, dive objective complete! I dived with my buddy and let the DM fin off at great speed…I prefer to go slow. You see more that way. The King Cruiser is not an easy beginners dive. The maximum depth is 30m, the average visibility is 10m, and you can get some strong currents, but I always like it and you will always find lionfish and scorpionfish. Be very careful if you need to put your hand down..very careful.

Dive 2 – Shark Point. No sharks. Having been here for 6 years now, I am very aware of the fact that sharks are not all that common there, and are more often seen in the low season months of May-October, almost always leopard sharks. But, the site is lovely, lots of colourful soft corals, a good variety of fish, I saw my first clownfish... This is still my favourite local dive site.

The rest is history, I am still here living and diving in Phuket. Well, not diving much actually these days, though I have logged about 1,000 dives in this area. It was actually the Similan Islands that kept me here. Once I had dived there, I was totally hooked on diving in Phuket...

• More about the Dive Sites of Phuket - click here



More Information:

• Diving in Phuket and the Similan Islands - Sunrise Divers