Koh Tao and Khao Lanta. July- onwards.

[Arcticnick]

Hi there,
I am seriously into doing some freedive courses, over a period of several months, and am looking for a buddy for the training period and afterwards, both in Koh Tao, and Khao Lanta, from July onwards.

I might be interested in hiring a (long tail) boat, occassionally, and setting up some boat diving, too, with a group of us.

If you are going to be in Southern Thailand then give us a shout.

Nick

 

[Anders]

Hopefully I'll be back in Koh Lanta in about a year for my honeymoon, and I'd love to do a day or two of recreational freediving if you're still around then..

 

[Arcticnick]

Hej Anders,
Good to hear from you...and so soon after posting my 'buddy' message.
I hope that I still might be in Thailand, in one year. Let's try and keep in contact and see if our itineraries match up nearer the time.


-Do you have much experience with freediving? Damn! If that is you with that gigantic speared Halibut, then I guess the answer is...yes! I shall have to get training.


I have to say, this forum rocks!! I am brand new here and there are so many excellent resources.


Good luck with your wedding plans. I hope your wife supports your diving, it's not exactly golf!


Thanks for getting in contact.


All the best.


Nick

 

[Anders]

I've been freediving/spearfishing for about 15 years, mostly only in the summers. The last couple of years I've been getting a bit more active with the spearfishing and it's great to be out year round, even in Norway.. The halibut was great fun to shoot in deed!
Koh Lanta is a truly great place (was there last summer) with a really nice atmosphere. I'm sure you'll have a good time. It also has quite a few good dive spots a boatride away. I visited koh Haa together with some scuba divers, and had a great time freediving. Other places like Hin Daeng/Muang (underwater pinnacles off the west coast of Koh Lanta) have whale sharks and manta rays come by fairly often it seems, and it should be possible to freedive there, at least I'd like to try when I come back..

 

[Arcticnick]

I've been freediving/spearfishing for about 15 years, mostly only in the summers. The last couple of years I've been getting a bit more active with the spearfishing and it's great to be out year round, even in Norway.. The halibut was great fun to shoot in deed!
Koh Lanta is a truly great place (was there last summer) with a really nice atmosphere. I'm sure you'll have a good time. It also has quite a few good dive spots a boatride away. I visited koh Haa together with some scuba divers, and had a great time freediving. Other places like Hin Daeng/Muang (underwater pinnacles off the west coast of Koh Lanta) have whale sharks and manta rays come by fairly often it seems, and it should be possible to freedive there, at least I'd like to try when I come back..

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Hej Anders,

Diving in Norway, in the winter! Sounds challenging.

You certainly make Koh Lanta sound like a good place to train. I liked it a lot when I was there recently, for a few days. I think it could be just the place for me to study. Maybe do my AIDA courses there, and non cert courses with 'Apnea Total', in Kho Tao.

When you come back to Thailand, in the summer, I will not have had much time to gain experience. I will have loads of enthusiasm, though, and if that makes up for my inexperience, and will not hold you down too much, I would love us to meet up and dive together.

I have to confess that it has been many years since I did my Red Cross CPR certification but hopefully I will have time to retake the course prior to meeting up.

By the way. Koh Haa, and Hin Daeng/Muang look like fabulous spots, on the web. My only freediving experience was on a liveaboard boat for 3 days, off the Similan Islands. We dived with several Manta.
Thanks for all your tips.

Please keep in touch. I plan to take a net-book with me on my travels so will be able to stay in contact on the forum, here.

Cheers.

Nick

[/FONT]

 

[shoutatthesky]

Hi

I hope to be in Thailand from August. I would love to meet up with some other divers if you'll still be there then. Let me know.

What is the best way to get to Koh Lanta from Bangkok?

 

[Arcticnick]

Hi there,
Thanks for your interest.
I am unlikely to be in Kho Lanta for quite a while, and certainly not as soon as August.
I am based in Khao Lak on the west coast, 100 km north of Phuket. We are in the monsoon season here, at the moment.
I am thinking I will have to delay the free diving course I have been planning, on Khao Tao until the timing is better.
Therefore, I am afraid this leaves me very inexperienced as a free diver and not much of a dive buddy.
All the best.
Nick

PS. As far as advice on how to get to Koh Lanta from Bangkok...I am no more help. Sorry! Good luck!

 

[Anders]

Hi

I hope to be in Thailand from August. I would love to meet up with some other divers if you'll still be there then. Let me know.

What is the best way to get to Koh Lanta from Bangkok?

When we were there in July last year we flew from Bangkok to Krabi with Air Asia. It's a short flight that you can get quite cheap. Then it's about a 2-hour drive (maybe more) to Koh Lanta. If you are staying at a resort most of them will have pick-up options from Krabi airport.

 

[shoutatthesky]

Thanks for that Anders. I was thinking about finding a nice villa by the beach. I don't have much intention of being on the move for the duration of my stay. I think it would be better to have a base for the trip and maybe take a few side trips from there - such as Khao Sok National Park.
I hear that it is possible to get rides with some of the scuba boats to dive sights but I suppose if there were a few of us we could charter a boat specifically for freedivers?
So many ideas but if all I end up doing is lying on the beach, reading, and getting a tan then I will still be happy. OH! and eating lots of yummy Thai food too!

 

[Anders]

I went out on a boat with SCUBA divers when I was there in July, we visited Koh Haa I think it was.. No problem to go out with them, i think I paid about THB 2200. But you won't have a buddy and they don't have any freediving equipment, e.g. long fins, so make sure you bring that if you feel you need them (I didn't bring mine and regretted). Koh Lanta was very quiet when we were there in July, and there were not many dive trips organized. We saw no other boats when we were on our dive trip, compared to the high season when the dive sites are packed with dive boats. This also means that if you'd like a bit of nightlife or social activities you may want to rent a villa somewhere on Klong Dao beach or other places close to Saladan, or one of the other villages maybe.
If you want it quiet I can recommend the Lalaanta Hideaway resort. Awesome place, and they reduce their villa rates during low season quite substantially.
You should be able to charter a boat, especially a small long tail or something like that, I think there are plenty of people that do those types of trips, weather permitting.
Thai food is fantastic! If you want a cooking class, we enjoyed ours at Time for Lime tremendously. If you stay a night in Krabi, make sure you check out the night market for a great meal at a super cheap price. Can you tell I had a good time? I'll be back in half a year!
Enjoy your stay!

 

[shoutatthesky]

Thanks for that Anders. The resort you recommended sound good but a little too expensive. The cheapest rooms are still a relatively expensive 1200THB per night. I would like to find something a little more secluded where I can get a deal for a month or two.
Chartering a long boat sounds like a good idea but I would feel a lot more comfortable with a buddy to come along for the obvious safety benefits.
I want to take my long fins but I also want to take a good range of photography kit too so I don't know whether I will be able to take both.
And then there is the wetsuit issue - I don't think my 5mm Elios will be suitable so maybe I should talk to Kieran Hibbs about one of those flash new Blueseventy suit he is always raving on about?:wave (Kieran let me know if you want to give me a good compatriot deal on a new suit - I'll be sure to tell any one who asks that they NEED to buy one (or two)

 

[kevtron]

I'll be around Thailand for 2-3 weeks towards the mid-end of Jan next year. I plan to do some serious training in that time. At this point I'm thinking Phuket, as Sanso said they've got a good school there. But that doesn't mean I wont be able to pop to another awesome island if I know of some cool divers to chill with after that ^^

 

[Arcticnick]

I'll be around Thailand for 2-3 weeks towards the mid-end of Jan next year. I plan to do some serious training in that time. At this point I'm thinking Phuket, as Sanso said they've got a good school there. But that doesn't mean I wont be able to pop to another awesome island if I know of some cool divers to chill with after that ^^

Good to hear from you.
Sorry, though, but my plans have recently changed and I am not any longer in the area.
Thanks for getting in contact.
Good luck finding a buddy.
Have a great trip.

 

[sanso]

Guys,

we will be cycling from Malaysia to Phuket this October to set up camp and dive and teach. We'll be staying there for some time (at least until 2012, is my guess). So when you're in the area, make sure you give us a shout! :wave

 

[Arcticnick]

Kind offer.
Thanks

 

[Anders]

I'll be on Koh Lanta in late January/early February 2011 with my wife on our honeymoon. I'm hoping to get out a few times for some recreational freediving or (even better) spearfishing if possible.
Does anyone know what the conditions are like for freediving at the submerged pinnacles Hin Daeng/Muang?

 

[sanso]

... Does anyone know what the conditions are like for freediving at the submerged pinnacles Hin Daeng/Muang?

Conditions there are changing, ranging from badass howling currents and 2m vis to millpond and 40+m vis. I've been teaching there and some days it was absolutely beautiful, other days the scubies sent me in for a current/vis-check that left us just hiding in the sheltered bit behind Hin Daeng. (only Hin Muang is submerged, the top of the rock is at about -10m)

For spearfishing (in my opinion one of the most honest ways of getting one's fish) the Andaman Sea isn't the best place, as it is being ravaged every single day by bottom trawlers killing everything in their wake in order to feed all the tourists that want to have fish for dinner. You can count those pairs of trawlers on every trip out to the dive sites.

The decline in the fish population is very noticeable and I don't have fish when I'm in Thailand for that exact reason.

 

[Anders]

Thanks for some good advice!
I would really like to try diving at Hin Daeng and/or Hin Muang, so I guess I'll try and get on one of the scuba boats to get out there. Good to know there are sheltered areas, that means I'm at least likely to get in the water and do some dives even if the current is bad in some places
Is the chance of seeing manta rays or whale sharks at these sites as good as the dive charters claim? I know something like that is never a sure thing, but it is part of why I'd like to go there, to at least have a shot at seeing one..

 

[sanso]

If you're going to see mantas and/or whale sharks, Hin Daeng/Muang is your best bet still. Otherwise you might get lucky on the outside (South/West of Koh Haa).

The best time for them is usually towards the end of the season, that would be around February and March, but there as well, the population is on the decline and last year there weren't as many sightings as in the years before.

If/when you go to Koh Haa, don't miss out on freediving the caves, which is an extremely cool experience, especially in the time around high tide, when you can see and hear the dragon's breath. - Very, very cool, but you want to be very comfortable doing a 15m dynamic swim at -10m into the dark rock! Make sure you have an experienced buddy with you - ideally someone who knows the place and has freedived there before.

 

[Anders]

Well, my dates are set so I guess I'll just have to rely on my luck when it comes to seeing the mantas or whale sharks

I was at Koh Haa last summer, but never knew there was a cave where I could freedive then. I spent most of my time snorkeling but still had good fun. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll have a reliable buddy with me, and then the cave diving (no matter how hard or easy) will be stretching it I think (is it the place they call The Cathedral?). If I find a buddy I might try to get at the cave, I guess I'll just have to wait and see..