Similan Liveaboard - Trip Report December 14

(sorry all - bit late - but we still had a great time!!!!)


9th December – Departing Tab Lamu Pier

There’s no rest for the Wicked! The mariner is off again for another three-day trip around the Similan Islands.

With our favourite Irish trip leader Colin heading up the staff for this trip, which includes Brett – crazy Australian dude who will be teaching Advanced course on the trip, Deaw – our loveable thai teddy bear who is guiding fun divers, Chrissy – our fun an out-going chick from USA, Jacob – our newly qualified Divemaster from NZ and finally myself – Krystal – For this trip I am finishing an Open Water course and am also responsible for writing this fun filled blog!

This trip we have a good mix of people from around the world, including UK, USA, Poland, Canada, India, Sweden so it will make for interesting surface interval conversations.
Some of the guests have already been on the boat for three days and are booked in for another three, and the rest are arriving on the Mariner for their first time.

We welcome them onto the boat with fresh coconuts, a boat briefing and our regular letting off of fire crackers to shun all the bad spirits away and make for safe crossing on the seas.

After making everyone comfortable in their cabins we are all delighted to hear the ringing of the ‘dinner bell’. Hungry and anxious to taste our famous food courtesy of our amazing kitchen cook P’Da we are all in line to serve up our thai cuisine for the evening. Ead is our new kitchen assistant on the boat, so we welcome her also.

With dinner out the way, its straight to business and we set up our equipment ready for the early morning dive.

An early night is in order for most, and as the Mariner makes it’s way towards the Similan islands, across the calm seas, under the beautiful night stars, we are all gently rocked to sleep in our cabins, ready for the adventure that awaits…

10th December – Anitas Reef, West of Eden & Stonehenge

Up early this morning and ready to go. It’s another beautiful morning in the SImilan Islands and I am first up with a nice cup of tea and my coco pops to watch as guests wearily start to appear from their cabins. Its nice to see that people are up earlier then Deaw's wake up call….. perhaps they preferred to wake up to a gentler sound.
Blurry eyed and weary the guests sit through our standard safety briefing by Brett and our dive site briefing by Chrissy we chuck the guests in the water and what a way to wake up!
Anita’s Reef is our first dive of the day, and it is beautiful today – visability is a good 20metres, nice white sand and clear waters.
I am taking my diver for her Open Water Dive 3 for this dive, which involves quite a few skills which she blasts through and we are on our way to explore around the reef.
Lots of colourful soft corals, clownfish and clouds of glassfish. After we finish the dive I harass to the others to find out they find lots of interesting things too…Deaw tells me he saw lots of garden eels and a lovey blue spotted ray to keep his divers entertained. Chrissy sounds like she had a good dive, finding an octopus and watching on as three crazy triggerfish chase each other around.

Everyone comes back from the dive and heads up stairs as the scent of freshly cooked bacon wafts through the boat….. Breakfast time!

Just time for breakfast and a little snooze before its briefing time again!
This time the guests get an interesting eco briefing before the next dive briefing and its time to jump again!
The second dive of the day is in beautiful West of Eden, where the divers are treated to lots of mantis shrimp, scorpionfish, octopus, sweetlips, giant moray, great barracuda, harlequin shrimp, giant pufferfish with trumpetfish following and also three mating sea slugs….Awesome!

I finish dive 4 of Open Water with my student Saira and her boyfriend Simson, Whoop Whoop! We cheer as we reach the surface…. Another certified open water diver is born!

Back on the boat and its that time again…. Time to eat! Lunch is served and we all take a break, swapping dive stories and looking forward to some well deserved hammock time!

We take a rest as the Mariner heads towards the next dive site which is Stonehenge – a dive site which surprises you with big granite boulders smothered in gorgonian sea fans, soft corals and sometimes we get the ‘green monster’ as we like to call it – a thermocline, which drifts in, the temperature drops a couple of degrees and visibility drops – but alas this is not all bad – it brings in food for the bigger fish so the hope of seeing something bigger out in the blue is always there!
We jump in and a gentle current takes us round to the end of the point and we are tucking ourselves into the rocks to make it round and not get pushed out by the current. We make it around and find pufferfish, clown triggerfish, some clown anemone fish and some cool unicorn fish.
We make our way up to the surface to find Crissy and her group coming up too. They saw the biggest EVER pufferfish and a huge ray they tell us as they grin from ear to ear!

Snack time on the boat, its time for fruit and cookies, a little snooze and then its off to the beach to explore!

Brett leads the way and the guests follow off to Honeymoon Bay, I send Jacob and Chrissy off with the camera to get some good photos of the guests having fun.
They take a nice stroll over to Princess Bay and Jacob tells me they say nicobar pidgeons, flying foxes and they went to the lookout , which was beautiful. Up some crazy steps, through a wonderous cave, which lead them up to a giant boulder at the top with an amazing view out over the whole bay. Sounds perfect!

Meanwhile, back on the boat P-da and her kitchen staff are cooking up a storm! Dinner time comes around and once again we are treated to lovely thai delicacies.
Everyone seems hyper and excited after the days activity and so there is a lot of dive talk going on and general good vibe.
Saira, my diver makes the decision to go on and do her advanced course as well, which is exciting, so I sit her down with some nice homework to do for the evening!!
Just as I am sitting at the table, Saira comes up and asks for a torch, apparently theres something in the water! Its dark by this point, so I grab a torch to investigate….. ‘Shark! Shark! Shark’ people cheer… or is it???
There is a big fish floating around the boat, around and around, its not a shark, the tail gives it away, but what is it?
After a while of wondering, I decide to get a closer look…. Fins on, mask on, torch in hand, I slip into the water quietly and approach this big fish… OK maybe this wasn’t such a good idea! Im less than a metre away from it, it is big and looking pretty mean! Its swimming with its head down and its tail right up at the surface, I wonder what is wrong with it before it disappears into the night. Unidentified as of yet, but a very strange and exciting occurrence non the less!!!
Back to my coco pops to discover that last nugget of excitement was the final straw and all are retiring to their cabins to dream of whalesharks, turtles and other mystical underwater creatures!

11th December – Elephant Head Rock, The Bombies, Three Trees, North Point Bay

Another early start today, and what a beautiful way to start the day… with a beautiful sunrise over beautiful tropical islands.
So, today we have lots of activity’s to get through, I am taking Sairas advanced course, Brett is also taking an advanced course with his guest Praveen, as well as nitrox diving with Byron and Andrew.
Not to mention its Eriks birthday today! Happy Birthday Erik – we hope you have a great day!
Bleary eyed guests start to appear on the middle deck in anticipation for the briefing for our first dive site of the day – Elephant Head Rock.

It’s a shock to the system, the fresh water first thing, but it does good things for the soul I believe, and so we make our descent!
Current is present on the outside of the rocks and so we weave inbetween the large granite boulders and make our way through awesome swim throughs. We see mantis shrimps, triggerfish, travellis – Definitely not a bad way to start the day!
As we all jump back on the boat, Colins group is excited by a flatworm they saw and Bretts group are happy to have their ‘deep dive’ complete towards their advanced course, followed by Deaws fun divers who talk happily about the scorpionfish they saw.
Time to eat again and we all sit down for breakfast.
Discussions lean towards the ‘unidentified’ fish we saw last night, but unfortunately my child like scribblings and ‘basic’ descriptions leave me with guesses not far fetched from unicorns and mermaids! Will I ever get to the bottom of the mysterious fish??

After breakfast we have a little time to relax before its that time again….. Brieeeeefing time!
Dive 2 of the day is at ‘Bombies’, I jump in for the regular current check and then Crissy takes the briefing before we are on our way again into the deep blue!
This dive is really awesome – lots of bombies covered in beautiful soft corals, all different colours, and seafans everwhere. It does not fail to disappoint even more when we see big spotted grouper, a boxfish, an octopus and at the end a lovely hawksbill turtle who seems friendly and sticks close by.

We make our way back onto the boat, where we see a green turtle who is hanging around the back deck, unfortunately expecting some food. We don’t feed marine life here, it breaks the cycle of their food chain and causes them to become to dependant on food from boats and not hunting from themselves.

We have a nice surface interval, eating lunch, catching some sun and for some, brushing up on navigation skills ready for the dive ahead.


The next dive site we go to is 3 Trees, which is a lovely relaxing site. Sloping reef, which has seems to have become inhabited by quite a few titan triggerfish it seems. As I am getting my student Saira to lead the dive for her navigation skills , I feel someone/something tugging on my fin…. Hmmm my divers are in front of me, who could it be? No other then a yellow margin triggerfish who seems to want to go a round or two under the water, he is biting my fins as I defend myself with them and swim backwards and away. I get a narrow escape with some teeth marks in my fins and continue the dive.

We come up and have a nice long surface interval before the night dive, which is spent mostly relaxing in hammocks and catching some rays. Relaxing for some, apart from Bretts students, who fill their time watching Nitrox videos and taking exams.
We start assigning out the torches as it starts to get dark, and I am once again hoping to see my ‘mystery fish’ again tonight. I’ve resigned myself to thinking it was a freak barracuda, it had a barracuda like face (very scary close up in the water at night), but the tail was a lot thicker and it didn’t have the same dorsal fins. Also, it seemed more brown colour then usual silver.

We will see if it makes an appearance tonight!
Brett heads up the night dive briefing, telling everyone not to get lost, not to shine the light in our faces and not to kick the crap out of the reef. Good to go then!
We jump in and off we go. It’s a relaxing dive the night dive, and very personal too because everyone is focused on their own little bubble of light.
We see lots on this dive, sleeping lionfish, lots of lobsters, a sleeping turtle, a cute little octopus, sleeping parrotfish and surgeonfish and not to mention the fun of blocking our lights off and waving our arms around to see the bioluminescence glow.
No mystery fish tonight, but its out there in the blue somewhere…..

We are treated to a feast of a dinner tonight, and not only that, P-da has cooked up an awesome pancake birthday cake for Erik! We all sing Happy Birthday to him and he blows out the candle after he has made his wish… I wonder which big fish he is wishing for!

Everyone is shattered after another awesome long day and retire early.

Thursday 12th December – Christmas Point & Koh Bon

Its 6.30am wake up call today, the earliest yet and the guests are up and ready for their two final last dives of the trip.
Our first dive of the day is at Christmas Point and it is really awesome. Not much current, so lots of fun swimming in and out of the big granite boulders and through swim throughs. We manage to spot scorpionfish, a grouper being cleaned by some little cleaner wrasse, two big napoleon wrasse and some cool red fire gobies.

Back on the boat and its time for our last big breakfast, before getting ready for our last dive of the trip, on the infamous Koh Bon.
We have our briefing and all rub our nipples as the calling sign for the manta rays before we jump in and off we go!
A few of our groups hang around on the ridge waiting patiently staring into the blue before deciding to carry on. We head past the ridge and over the rest of the dive site, again this place is buzzing with life – octopus, travelli, clouds of glass fish, blue dragon nudibranches. We are even blessed with a huge 6ft eagle ray, a big leopard shark and turtle playing with one of our groups on their safety stop.

Buzzing from the last few days, we all head up for lunch, to finish our log books and any other paperwork before its chill time (and tidy up time for the staff!)

It’s a beautiful day as we sail back into Khao Lak and the guests look happily tired out!

Congratulations to Saira our new PADI Advanced Open Water Diver, Praveen – our new SSI Advanced Open Water Diver and also to Byron and Andrew for completing their SSI EANX Diver certifications! We wish you all the best in all your future diving endeavours!
Thanks to everyone for an awesome trip – Simon, Sally, Praveen, David, Dina, Chris, Casey, Juanna, Jennie, Erik, Eva, Andrew, Susan, Avanti, Pawel, Eva.E Philip, Byron, Simson and Saira.


-Wicked Diving Thailand

Donald Duck Bay - Similan Islands

We get to visit some amazing places in our travels. In Thailand, we always try to stop by Donald Duck Bay. With it's white beach and great viewpoint, it's always a hit with our guests. While it may be of some discussion whether the rocks more resemble Woody Woodpecker....it's all fun!

From the Viewpoint we see all of the bay, Similan Island #9 and on the very clearest of days you can just make out the mainland around Khao Lak.
This bay is also a common mooring stop for Similan Liveaboards and day trip excursions from Phuket can make it crowded during lunch time. But we do our best to avoid those times....

Enjoy the Video...and if you want to join us one of our Similan Liveaboards please feel free :)

Wicked Diving - Reef Guradians

On 21st and 22nd of Dec, Diego Ballesteros, one of our instructors, together with staff of other two dive centers that operate in the area, attended to a training program in the Similan island 4, organized by the Similans National Park Headquarters, the Surins National Park Headquarters and SAMPAN (Strenghtening Andaman Marine Protected Areas Network), to become a "Reef Guardian".

This pilot program intend to take advantage of the skills of dive/snorkel guides that work everyday in either of the National Parks (NP) to survey selected reefs once a month during this season, to collect relevant data that will help to evaluate their health status. The technique used for the survey is an adaptation of the "Reef Check", but is much more flexible, which allows a guide on duty to perform it.

It consists on the following, the guide leads his group on a normal tour (dive), takes the "Reef Guardian Slate" and tries to follow the same route that last month for roughly the same length/time and on the way counts individuals of some target species of fish, invertebrates and records signs of reef threats, being as accurate as possible but at the same time allowing to control his group and giving them an enjoyable experience. The results of the survey are sent to SAMPAN, that, together with researchers in the Prince of Songkhla University-Phuket, will analyze the data to determine the reefs status.

The Wicked Diving staff will be surveying Anita's Reef and West of Eden every month for the next 4 months and will send this information to help out in the research developed on the reefs of the Similan Islands.

To be continued...


-Similan Dive Center

Wicked Diving, Thailand Supports the protection of our local reefs

Following some potentially misleading media coverage on the recent dive site closures in Thailand - Wicked Diving, Khao Lak would like to state the following:

The recent global weather patterns that are responsible for the recent flooding in Australia and Sri Lanka have created higher than normal sea water temperatures in 2010 which has affected some reefs in our region. Coral bleaching has occurred at a limited number of dive sites throughout Thailand and beyond. The government of Thailand has taken some steps to reduce the possible impact of SCUBA diving and snorkeling on the areas where bleaching has occurred.

Thailand is home to more than two dozen Marine Parks and has some of the most highly rated dive sites in the world. Of these Marine parks, 7 have dive sites that will be closing. Of these 7 parks, a total of 16 dive sites will close. In the most famous of all these marine parks - The Similan Islands - only two dive sites are closed. In an are covering 140 sq. Km and having dozens of named dive sites - this has had very little impact on visitors.

We as a dive operator are passionate about the environment in which we live and work. Therefore we are deeply concerned about the condition of the reef. It is proven that there is virtually no connection between diving and coral bleaching, but we strongly support the decision to limit any potential stress to the coral as it recovers.

Ourselves, and a majority of dive operators in this region, fully support the National Parks decision and will continue to enforce our strict philosophy of "no impact diving". We do not allow contact with the reefs, harassment of any marine life or the feeding of any marine species. Further, our operation will continue to use phosphate free cleaning agents, biodegradable shampoos and conditioners as standard practice.

Khao Lak, Thailand, January 23rd, 2011

Wicked Diving is a small, boutique center focused on safety, service and responsible tourism in the diving industry. We cater to guests seeking a sense of adventure and wishing to experience the ecosystems we visit while assisting those communities we interact with.

Similan Islands - Not Closed!!!!

Local resorts, dive operators shocked to read false reports of park closures - costing jobs and affecting a local economy that is only just starting to recover from the Boxing Day tsunami and the recent global downturn.


Khao Lak, Thailand.

Some National Marine Parks of Thailand have been affected by the recent El Nina weather pattern but nowhere near as badly as Australia, Brazil or Sri Lanka. However - false media reports about the parks being closed has had a much more severe impact on local businesses. Misleading articles stating that several Marine Parks are closed in Thailand are based upon false information. The truth being that small areas within 7 of Thailand's 21 Marine Parks have been closed to recreational activities - these dive sites make up only a fraction of each parks total area (similar to closing a camp site within a park, rather than the whole park). The already precarious tourism industry in the region is fearing that these articles will cause a rash of cancellations, triggering closures and job loss in a region only just recovered from the devastating tsunami of 2004.

Often referred to as the Crown Jewel's of Thailand's National Park system - the uninhabited Similan Islands are home to the most famous diving and snorkeling in the country with many tours departing from nearby Khao Lak and Phuket. With many thousands of jobs dependent on tourism, employers and staff alike are very sensitive to rumors - like the recent prediction from a popular fortune teller of a second tsunami over Christmas which caused a 10% drop in bookings, but nor tsunami.

Many potential and current visitors have expressed concern over the rumor of park closures and are considering changing their vacation plans, reports co-owner of one local dive center - Koen De Wit. "With the tour operators cheering such decisive actions by the National Park Service such as closing these dive sites, we are very frustrated by the misinformation that is being passed along as factual. The Marine Parks of Thailand are vast - the Similan Islands Marine Park is more then 140 square kilometers and home to dozens of dive sites. To say an entire marine park is closed when it's only a single dive site is like saying the Grand Canyon is closed when, in fact, only a single campground is."

One local association - Khao Lak Dive Operators Forum - has offered support for strict policies of sustainable tourism and are offering assistance to the National Park with enforcing these standards. The Similan and Surin National Parks close every year from May 1st until October 31st and it is hoped that this year the no-fishing policy will be vigorously enforced to encourage further development of healthy reefs.


Media Contact:
Paul Landgraver
Wicked Diving, Khao Lak
pland@wickeddiving.com
+66 (0) 84 333 1522
http://wickeddiving.com

The Similan Islands are NOT closing to divers - part 2

please read this article...

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/217417/18-dive-sites-closed-to-save-coral-reefs


This is the truth of the matter - 18 dive sites in Thailand have been closed. That's great. Wicked strongly approves of this action. That is 18 dives sites in 7 different marine parks in Thailand. That is 1 (one) dive site in the Similan National Park - an area of 140 square kilometers. There are more than 30 named dive sites and many more besides.

We strongly approve of the site that they chose to close too! It has been affected by the bleaching
and is in need of some time away.

The Similan Islands will be closed from May 1st until November 1st. That happens EVERY year for many years now. All dive operators close down during those months and is part the recovery cycle of the marine park.

Please do not let the drama of the media be contagious. The head of the parks has said they will not close the parks. There is no reason to. To close some dive sites is actually more than we would have hoped - it may actually do something! We strongly approve.

This is directly from the head of the marine parks of Thailand.

We will keep you all updated as things progress. As it stands, we continue to do what we do best - offer a great experience for our guests.


That is all...



-Similan Diving

The Similan Islands are NOT closing to divers!!!!

Some very poor journalism has created a huge misunderstanding and a great many bloggers and people without knowledge on the matter are stoking the fires of falsehood!

The Similan and Surin National Parks are open and will remain open. Details are here.


The following is a highlight of the article form the Director General of Thailand's National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department...

"Closing the marine national parks will not help the coral reefs recover from bleaching," the Department's director general Sunant Arunnopparat said.

Sunant said he had instructed officials to survey the bleached areas and report the findings to him. He will today call on all marine national park heads to meet with University academics and other experts to find out answers to the coral reef bleaching situation.

"I think there is no need to close the marine national parks to relieve the damaged coral. This measure would not help too much at this time," Sunant said.

Wicked Diving has spent a great deal of time, effort and money over the past years to reduce our impact on the coral reefs of the region. We have trained members of the national park to dive, performed dozens of beach cleanups and much more. We have been loudly advocating the closure of dive sites, limiting the number of boats and divers allowed in the park as a way to achieve sustainability of these precious resources.

As a first, and profound step towards positive action - we strongly urge the strict enforcement of the already existing rules regarding fishing, tour operator standards and park closure dates. This will make great strides towards the recovery of these reefs.

While the storm of misinformation has already passed through - it may take some time to pass along the facts. We hope to post regular updates to clarify matters should they arise.

-Similan Diving

Mantas, Turtles and diving santa's....Wicked Diving Christmas Liveaboard!

Christmas Diving

Christmas is always a special time whether you spend it back home with friends and family or on a Liveaboard on the beautiful Similan Islands. Our special 4 day Xmas trip on Angel Parinee was not an exception.

Santa and his weird friend showed up and gave Pavel Jr a good laugh.
Our awesome cook “ “ prepared a lovely Xmas dinner in the evening much appreciated by everyone.


Day 2 started off with the dive site “Mysterious Point”. The guests got 3 different briefings and had to guess the dive site after coming up from the dive, then we draw a winner and the lucky person was Monika who won a Wicked t-shirt.

The dive site was North Point and it was a beautiful dive where everyone got to see Hawksbill Turtles feeding algees on the coral.


Other diving highlights of the trip was as usual Richelieu Rock where we found Tigertail seahorses, Big school of Barracudas and an unexpected visit of 4 meter wide Manta.


Other special sightings was a Ribbon Eel, Blacktip Reef Sharks, Leopard Shark, biggest Banded Seasnake ever and a big school of Dolphins on the way back to Koh Bon. Also of course people diving with Santa hats.


There were a lot of games going on on the boat. The usual Werewolf of course were Monika were werewolf twice with her defense speech “I don’t really understand this game…”. We had a failed attempt of snowmen competition on the Surin beach, JP was the winner and only competitor while Christine misunderstood the game and made a “snow” turtle instead, Pavel Jr were entertaining everyone with his Jojo.

Pavel Sr took out his toothbrush and finished everyone off real quick in the toothbrush game. Len, Sze Lyn, Ishan and Hamza did the second briefing on Koh Bon. Ishan won the prize for most professional while Len got the entertaining award.
The trip ended after a beautiful dive on the local wreck Boonsung and everyone was satisfied and no one really missed Xmas at home.

Happy Holidays and enjoy your new year!


-Similan Diving

Similan Islands with Wicked Diving - Seahorse filmed while diving

Here is a great little scene from a recent trip on our Similan Islands Liveaboard. Kristian - our In-house videographer - captured this footage.

Similan Islands Seahorse from Wicked Diving

Should you wish to join one of our trips to see this, and many other amazing creatures, simply contact us!


-Similan Islands Diving

Video - Turtle while Diving on the Similan Islands

We recently had the pleasure of diving with this turtle while on our Similan Liveaboard. You never know what you will see on the Similans! Join us!



-Similan Diving

Video of our Similan Liveaboard

Wicked Diving is proud to share more footage from our schooner, the Jaya. Without a question - she is one of the most beautiful boats in Similan Islands :) A traditional Phinisi Schooner, handbuilt in Indonesia and now serving the Similan Islands, Thailand

Jaya - Similan Islands Liveaboard from Wicked Diving from Wicked Diving on Vimeo.

If you are interested in learning more about trips aboard this boat we offer 5 day Similan Liveaboard trips.


-Similan Diving

Wicked Diving Liveaboard - Cuttlefish on Similan Islands

Our Videographer - Kristian took this footage of a friendly Cuttlefish on the Similan Islands while on our Liveaboard.


Should you wish to join us for the one of these trips - simply drop by the website...

-Similan Diving
d

Similan Liveaboard - November 19th-21st with Wicked Diving

Another day, another liveaboard! With Captain Kaew at the helm, P’Toon and P’Nuk helping out to make sure we get to and from the Similans safely, and 13 excited guests aboard the Angel Parinee we headed out to the Similan Islands for 3 days of beautiful diving & delicious food!

Karin and Nina dove with Peter, Jui, Martijn, Elles and Unto, ably assisted by Dive Control Specialist Trainees Mads and Maria who were on their final liveaboard of the DCT course. Invaluable on the trip, they helped out with giving dive site briefings, guided guests round the dive sites of the Similans, and we also tested them on their rescue abilities with a practice rescue situation on the liveaboard.

Tuk was diving with Gian and Paulo from Italy, and they started off the second day nicely with a sighting of a leopard shark at north point. North Point was unanimously voted the best dive of the trip, with something funky for everyone to see, different sharks and mantis shrimps, turtles up in the shallow reef, and the stunning topography of the huge boulders down in the deeper parts of the dive site. Rick took Artsi, Birgit, Colby and Trisha out for their Adventure Deep dive, and then later that day for an Adventure Night, and they all got to experience diving at depths greater than the 18metres they were used to – always new things to learn and experience on the Parinee!

Natalia and Dirk were snorkelling on this trip – the Similans has plenty to see from below the water but also fro a birds eye view! Snorkelling the Similan Islands is a fantastic way to see the colourful reef life, especially on the gorgeously sunny days we had on the trip! Green turtles swimming along blissfully unaware that you’re watching them from above, plentiful reef fish, and a blacktip reef shark at Koh Bon – a successful snorkelling trip for sure!

Hawksbill turtles for the divers at East and West of Eden, and plenty of the cephalopods on this trip too, lots of octopus and cuttlefish sightings – these animals are wonderful to watch, they’re so interactive, and many’s the time you find yourself just hovering for 15 minutes of the dive watching them play!

Tuk and Mads were having a good time on the Parinee for sure, as they entertained the guests to a bit of dancing on the dive platform throughout the trip – werewolf also managed to keep everyone very busy for an evening as everyone tried to work out who the real werewolves were – you guys are getting too good at this game!

Some incredible sunrises on this trip – another fab thing about liveaboard diving is experiencing life from the boat – no daily transfers, you get to wake up with the sun over the islands, listen to the waves against the boat during breakfast as you head to the next divesite, it’s all about the relaxed pace on the boat – remember you’re on holiday!

Khao Lak Diving

10 things you can do to reduce your environmental impact while in Thailand - Part 2

The Second part on our series on how to reduce your impact on Thailand during your stay!

Here at Wicked Diving, we do all we can to reduce our impact on the environment. As a dive shop, we know the choices we make can have a big impact. We use a lot of cleaning supplies, so using natural products makes a big difference. It takes a lot of fuel to run our trips, so by using bio-fuels, we make a big impact. But you as a tourist can also make an impact. You might not realize how many things you can do as a tourist in Thailand, but here's just a few.

6) Take your old batteries home with you. Thailand does not have a good battery recycling program. There used to be one in Phuket, but it's since been shut down. At Wicked Diving we're keeping all our old batteries until there is a new program, but that may be another couple of years. So please don't throw your batteries out, pack them away and take them back to your own country where they'll be properly recycled.

7) Rent a bicycle rather than a motorcycle. Most cities and towns now have somewhere to rent bikes. Its good exercise, you'll see more on a bike, and its safer than speeding along on a moped. All while doing a little bit for the planet.



8) Support local restaurants. Most local restaurants buy their food locally, which means it doesn't have to travel so far. Chains like fast food restaurants have their food and packagings delivered amazing distances. So try some local dishes, even if you're not sure what you're ordering. You might find some new favorite dishes and make some new friends in the process.

9) Choose a fan room over an air-con room. Air conditioning is one of the biggest users of electricity. Many visitors find the heat of Thailand overwhelming, but a well-ventilated room with a fan can be quite comfortable and the open windows will allow you to experience the night-time song of the geckos.

10) Refuse the plastic bag. No matter where you shop in Thailand, and no matter what you buy, the clerk will want to give you a plastic bag - even for one item. Just say no. "May sai toong", means "don't put it in a bag". Carry an extra plastic bag in your pocket or purse in case you do need one, and if its just for one item, just refuse one. 7-11 is one place that will try to bag everything. Just politely say no, and say "Save earth". Its the slogan for the Thai environmental programs, and most Thai people understand it in English. By refusing the bag and saying "Save earth" we can all remember why we're not taking that bag.


So there's just 10 things you can do as a tourist to help make Thailand just that much greener.


-Similan Islands Diving

Similan Liveaboard - November 15th-17th with Wicked Diving

(15^th-17^th November 2010)

Jealousy emanating from all those staying in the shop; Karin, Amanda, Suzanne and Kristian headed out to the Similan Islands for a 3 day 2 night liveaboard on board the MV Parinee!

With our trusty Captain Kaew in charge of the boat, we cruised out to the Similans in glorious weather, to start our diving at Hideaway Bay, a nice shallow dive site perfect for a check dive.

Greeted by a turtle, always a good start to the trip, Suzanne (ably assisted by our soon-to-be-signed-off DCTs Scott and Joa) took Jim off for dive number 3 of his SSI Open Water Course whilst everyone else went for a nice relaxing dive along the reef, with plenty of lionfish, an octopus and loads of colourful reef fish.

We headed next to Anita’s Reef (on the other side of islands 5 and 6) – a gorgeous divesite full of life. Amanda and Team Spain found a huge spearing mantis shrimp, and there were Kuhls stingrays and garden eels galore to be found in the white sandy bottom of the dive site.

A bit of a diversion from diving the first night, we all went and laid out on the sundeck to watch the Leonid meteor shower – no light pollution in the Similans so we were treated to a stunning show.

The second day took us to islands 7, 8 and 9 of

the Similans, where Paul and Monica were shown the sights by Kristian – giant morays, a big green turtle at Waterfall Bay and lots of scorpionfish hiding out. Chilling out around Island number nine that afternoon Scott was about to brief for the night dive, and a turtle came to visit the boat! Upstaged by a turtle, the briefing was put on hold whilst we all went to watch the graceful turtle swimming laps round the boat. We night dived at Bangu Bay, so so much to be found, baby spotfin lionfish, moray eels out hunting, spiny painted lobsters out looking for food.

Day 3 we headed north, Karin was taking Nalle on his second Wicked trip around the Similans, joined by Alisa from the States out on her first liveaboard, and they were lucky enough to spot a big turtle at North Pont and another at Three Trees. They also spotted another weird fish...that only turned out to be Joa in a bikini celebrating his 100th dive - congrats Joa!

More games on the boat, Monica showed herself to be a bit of a hustler at Rummikub, whilst Kristian got tangled up

trying to guess who he was (Santa Claus – real or fictional, dead or alive?!) in the name game!

We tried out a

fish name game afterwards, and it turns out that mermaids are real fish, and Nalle didn’t know what a batfish was – we promised to find him one before the trip was over!

The trip ended fantastically with an incredible dive at Koh Bon – many guests got to experience diving with a manta ray, one of the most beautiful marine creatures the Similans has to offer. It’s very early in the season to see them, so we were unsuspecting and most pleased to be greeted by not one but two manta rays - one bigger one on the northern cleaning station, and a smaller ray on the ridge – cue excited manta ray dancing underwater!

Want to explore Koh Bon with us and see if you’re lucky enough to see the mantas? Sign up for one of our Similan Liveaboards, then think lucky manta thoughts til you get here!

(Thankyou to Juan and Soledad for the beautiful photographs!)

Similan Islands Diving

Schneckenartenund auch die einzigartige Netzmuraene

3 Tage / 2 Naechte Liveaboard Similan Island Nationalpark und Richelieu Rock

Mit an Board dieses Abenteuerausfluges zur Eroberung der aufbäumenden See waren (neben der Divecrew Diego, Roland und Karin) die perfekten Buddies Tara und Kathrin, Seegras Expertin Siti und angehende Advanced Taucherin Aisha aus Singapur, ihre Mitstreiter um die Erwerbung der nächsten Taucherlizenz Matthew und Susan und Chelsea und Dave, denen auch kältere Gewässer nichts anhaben können, aber dann doch ganz froh um die wärmeren Temperaturen waren.

Ein Mantarochen-Unterwassertänzchen während des ersten Tauchganges in Koh Bon liess bei jedem die Lust auf mehr verspüren und so gins zu einem sehr entspannten Oktopus-gewidmeten Drift an der Nordküste der Insel Koh Tachai, die auch Schutz für die erste Nacht bot. Dachten alle… jedoch hatten sich hinterlistige Werwölfe aus dem kleinen verschlafenen Örtchen Smash-in head-buffalo-jumps (? – ja das gibt es wirklich!) an Board unserer Angel Parinee eingefunden. Der erste Abend nahm so einige überraschende Wendungen

Früh am nächsten Morgen rief dann der sagenumwobene Richelieu Rock zur Betauchung auf und einmal die wellenaufbäumende See durchbrochen, fanden sich bald alle in einer Unterwasserwunderwelt wieder: Barrakudas, Seepferdchen, Sepien, Muränen, verschiedenste Fischschwärme und vieles vieles mehr erweckten den Fels zum Leben und brachten die Augen so zum Leuchten, dass alle mit einem 2. Tauchgang mehr als einverstanden waren. Ein Ausflug zum isolierten Strand von Koh Tachai und ein Nachttauchgang in der Koh Tachai Bay mit einem sich in Szene setztenden Giant Squid war dann der perfekte Abschluss für diesen traumhaften Tag.

Um Rolands Advanced-Adventurer-Diver-Anwärtern richtig was bieten zu koennen, startete am
letzten Tag das wunderschöne Koh Tachai Pinnacle seine berüchtigten Unterwasserspiele, womit auch gleichzeitig die Drift-Dive-Specialty verdient sein dürfte. Nachdem sich alle am reichaltigen Fruehstück gestärkt hatten, wartete ein weiterer Tauchgang in Koh Bon (wunderschöne Schnecken und Wasserschlangen) und auf dem Rückweg Richtung Tap Lamu das auch für Tagesausflüge
interessante Boonsung Wrack – ein ganz besonderer Ort mit unzähligen Rotfeuerfischen, Kugelfischen, verschiedensten Schneckenarten, Steinfischen, Sepien, Oktopussen, unterschiedlichsten Schneckenarten und auch der einzigartigen Netzmuräne.

Während das Boot dann wieder in den Hafen einlief waren sich alle einig – wieso nicht gleich wieder los?

Ach ja und um eines nicht zu vergessen – Glückwünsche natürlich an unsere Divecontrol-Specialist bzw. Divemaster Trainees an Board – Katy, Prue und Frank – die mit jeder Menge Begeisterung alle Aufgaben meisterten (wie zum Beispiel blind die Ausrüstung zusammenzubauen) und Katy liess sich sogar von uns für ihren 100. Tauchgang zur Superwoman machen.


-Similan Diving

Similan Diving - Wicked wins another Award for our environmental and community Projects!

Wicked diving is humbly honored to receive this award. There is so much more to be done too!

Remember, when you dive with Wicked - you make a difference. 10% of our profits go to local NGO's.

-Similan Diving

Wicked Diving - Award winning ecological projects!

Wicked Diving is proud to announce that we have been awarded the following award for our ongoing efforts. This just reinforces the idea that our hard work is starting to have an affect on our community. We hope that our future projects will also raise awareness and create change.

Wicked Diving has been awarded the SSI Commitment to the Environment and Community Award!

The award is given to Wicked Diving in recognition of their ongoing efforts to provide an ecologically sound service to their customers , whether it’s the bio fuel they run their vessels on or the biodegradable soaps they use on board Wicked Diving have set a good example. Their staff regularly conduct reef and beach clean-ups and spend their own time educating both Wicked Guests and the local community on important issues and diving practices that affect the marine realm.

Wicked Diving, Khao Lak also broke new ground with a tailored Whale Shark trip designed to educate the customers on the plight of these magnificent creatures!

Finally Wicked Diving also run ongoing community projects that they make no fuss or noise about, these projects are funded directly by Wicked Diving. When asked why they choose to do this Paul Landgraver partner of Wicked Diving simply said, “For us it’s the right thing to do ! ”

SSI Thailand is proud to have Wicked Diving as one of its partners and looks forward to what they bring to both the community and Environment in 2010

Gary Hawkes

Director SSI Thailand.

-Similan Diving

Main Deck of our Similan Liveaboard

The new boat offers plenty of space. With the main deck, pictured here, plus the "Tanning" deck as well as the shaded "sun deck" (not really a sun deck if it's shaded is it?) the boat feels more spacious than ones twice as large.


With our unique schedule and no hassle ethos, you'll find this to be one of the best boats possible to truly enjoy the Similan and Surin Islands - above and below the water.

-Similan Liveaboard

Snorkeling on the Similan Islands - Turtle Video

Snorkeling on the Similan Islands brings you face to face with some seriously incredible marine life.

Here is a turtle getting up close and personal. Listen for the laughter as the turtle just about kisses the camera!


-Similan Islands Diving