Scandinavian Scuuba Doo Phuket

Frequently Asked Questions	Turtle preening for photographer in the Andaman Sea © Haissam Mourad
Transport, Accommodation, Payments
Do you pick us up for free from our hotels? What if we are not staying in Kata, Karon or Patong? What about airport transfers to our hotel? Do you arrange hotel accommodation? Do you accept credit or debit cards? Do you accept American Express or Diners Club? Do you accept US dollars, euro or British pounds? Can we pay you in advance by bank transfer?
Insurance & Safety
What about dive insurance? What about Scandinavian Scuuba Doo's insurance policies? Can you recommend or sell any dive insurance policies for us? Are there any recompression chambers in Phuket? Are your staff trained in First Aid? Do you carry oxygen onboard? Do you carry Automatic External Defibrillators (AED's)?
Courses	Diets, Allergies, Equipment Sales, Restaurants, Bars etc
Can I start with the Advanced course and bypass Open Water? Can I do the Open Water course in two days? Any difference between PADI Scuba Diver and SSI Scuba Diver? Any difference between PADI Open Water and SSI Open Water? Why are SSI courses cheaper than the equivalent PADI courses? Why do you sell the PADI manuals instead of lending them to us? Do I have to have the Advanced level to dive to 30 metres? What if I forget my dive certification? Can I dive anyway? When do I get my certification? Why does the DM/DCS course vary so much in its time scale? Why is there so much theory in the PADI DM/SSI DCS course? I just want to be a dive guide, can't I do less theory? Why are PADI fees not included in the PADI DM course price? I have extensive Try Dive experience. Can I dive with other divers? Can I use an underwater camera during my course? Can I switch between organisations?	I am a vegetarian. Do you cater for me? I have a food allergy. Do you cater for me? What is your policy on sexual, ethnic or religious minorities? Can we drink alcohol before or between dives? We want to buy particular dive equipment. Do you have it? Do you rent out digital underwater cameras? How do the Andaman Sea dive sites compare to ...? Is the coral bleaching in Thailand very bad? Can you recommend any good restaurants or bars in Phuket?


Transport, Accommodation, Payments
Do you pick us up for free from our hotels? We do, provided that you are staying in Kata, Karon or Patong. And we drop you off back at your hotel, too. This applies both to daily diving and to courses. What if we are not staying in Kata, Karon or Patong? This is handled on a case-by-case basis. We do not promise that we pick you up outside these catchment areas for free, but sometimes it is possible. It depends on group size, if it's a course or fun diving and other factors. It is usually easy for us to arrange free pickups from Chalong or Rawai. Sometimes even from Phuket Town. Kamala pickups can usually be arranged for a small fee. From Bang Tao, the Airport or Ao Po, you'll almost certainly have to pay for your own taxi. What about airport transfers to our hotel? We can arrange a transfer for you, and we will try our best to get you the best possible price, but Phuket airport is quite expensive transfer-wise. Usually it is cheaper to get a taxi at the airport than to arrange a pickup. There is a good Airport Bus service to Central Festival and Phuket Town if you really want to cut costs. Do you arrange hotel accommodation? We do not currently arrange hotel accommodation, that is, you cannot book hotels through us and pay us for this. But we are very happy to recommend hotels in different price ranges for you. And we highly recommend you to use this link to find and book good hotels at a great price throughout Phuket! Do you accept credit or debit cards? Yes, provided they are issued by either VISA or MasterCard. And we charge no extra for paying by VISA or MasterCard either.We carry the cost of the credit card fees as a courtesy to our guests. Do you accept American Express or Diners Club? No, and we don't know of very many dive centers anywhere who do, to be honest. This is not a reflection on the card issuers but merely the situation as it is on the ground. Do you accept US dollars, euros or British pounds? The currency we accept is the Thai baht, which is a strong currency easily traded around the world. There are plenty of ATM's all around Phuket and Thailand and it is easy to withdraw baht on a foreign card or to trade from your own currency. There are also five or six currency exchange booths, open every day and found as close as 20 metres of our shop where you can shop around for a good rate. The baht is a "proper" currency. Can we pay you in advance by bank transfer? Absolutely. E-mail us and we'll pass you our company bank details. This is incidentally the way to pay for your liveaboard trip bookings as well!
Insurance & Safety
What about dive insurance? We strongly recommend you to carry proper travel insurance for travelling to Thailand anyway, e.g. in the unlucky case you were involved in a traffic accident. Many travel insurances do cover sports diving up to the depth limit set by your training level. (This is a great reason to move on to Advanced levels from Open Water even if you have lots of dives). We recommend you to check with your insurance provider before travelling. What about Scandinavian Scuuba Doo's insurance policies? Scandinavian Scuuba Doo Co. Ltd has a Tourism Authority of Thailand license, where certain insurances are required. We are in fact insured to the higher level of 1 Million baht, not 200,000 baht or 100,000 baht which is still common in Phuket. Our company car is insured for passengers. We also carry insurance many benefits as a registered 'Partner in Safety' with the SSS Recompression Network here in Phuket. Our dive staff are fully professionally insured through DAN Europe, DAN Asia Pacific, PADI or other providers, but again, to ensure that you are fully covered in all instances, we recommend you to check with your own insurance provider before arrival. Can you recommend or sell any dive insurance policies for us? Yes to both questions. We recommend the non-profit DAN Europe, DAN Americas or DAN Asia Pacific organizations depending on where you live. Dive Master Insurance is also good. We sell the latter, even for as short a time as a few days, through a company called Indepths. You can buy this insurance in our dive shop before your dives. Are there any recompression chambers in Phuket? Yes, there are three active ones. We are a 'Partner in Safety' with the SSS Recompression Network which works out of the Phuket International Hospital. This means that your insurer pays considerably less for any chamber treatment there if you dive with us. There is also a chamber in the Bangkok Phuket Hospital and one in the Wachira General Hospital. They are all easy to reach in Phuket Town and they are all good. Are your staff trained in First Aid? Yes, all our dive staff are trained in First Aid, either through Emergency First Response or Respond Right International (or both!). We have an Emergency First Response Instructor Trainer and a Respond Right Instructor Trainer permanently on staff, so we can also train you up to instructor level. Many of us have real-life experience of attending to life-threatening injuries or conditions, so we focus on teaching for real-life emergencies. Our goal is that all our staff, whether diving or not, eventually shall be trained First Aiders. Do you carry oxygen onboard? Yes! And we are trained to use it as well. Do you carry Automatic External Defibrillators (AED's)? No. AED's do save lives, but their legal use in Thailand differs markedly at present from the United States and from most parts of Europe. Can I start with the Advanced course and bypass Open Water? No. You must start with the Open Water course. This is where you learn primary diving skills. The Advanced course is always a follow-up level. Can I do the Open Water course in two days? It is almost technically impossible to do this from scratch. You would have to do theory, many confined sessions and four open water dives in just two days, and everything to a satisfactory level. If you do the theory online, however, you can finish off all theory with e.g. the final exam in the morning, do the confined water sessions in the afternoon and do one beach dive to round off the day before it gets dark. The next day you would do the remaining three open water dives. So the answer here is yes. But let's face it, it would be difficult for most students to retain knowledge in such a short time. A three-day course is already a much more relaxing experience and gives much better results. Hence we do three and four-day open water courses, but not two-day courses. Two-day Open Water courses are a sell-out qualitywise in our humble opinion! Any difference between PADI Scuba Diver and SSI Scuba Diver? Once certified, there is little difference. A PADI Scuba Diver can technically only dive to 12 metres with an active PADI Professional. An SSI Scuba Diver can dive to 12 metres with an active dive professional from any reputable agency: SSI, PADI, BSAC, NAUI etc. There is no final exam in the PADI version. There is a final exam in the SSI version. An SSI Scuba Diver student might dive down to 18 metres with our instructor under training in Thailand, but is limited to 12 metres worldwide after certification. Basically that is all the difference. Any difference between PADI Open Water and SSI Open Water? After certification, no! Both certifications are issued for entry-level autonomous divers under European Standard EN-14153-2. This means that the Open Water Diver can dive down to 18 metres with a dive buddy of at least the same level. The two courses are very similar, as one would expect from two organizations who both set mutual standards in e.g. the World Recreational Scuba Training Council. However, there are some minor differences. The SSI Open Water DVD is available with narration in more languages than the PADI DVD. The latter e.g. carries Nordic language subtitles to the English dialogue. So if you're Swedish, Danish or Finnish, for example, you'll probably find the SSI DVD more fun because you can listen to it in your native tongue. On the other hand, if you're e.g. Norwegian, there is presently no SSI language support at all, so the PADI course may be more to your liking, unless you're happy to do the theory in Danish or English. The SSI DVD sessions will irrespective of language last about 2 hours. The PADI DVD session will last up to 3 hours and 40 minutes as it repeats the PADI manual almost word-for-word, including the jokes ... Therefore, generally, the PADI theory sessions will last quite a bit longer than their SSI equivalents. SSI wants instructors to give some 20% input in the course, which means that the SSI course is somewhat more flexible. At Scandinavian Scuuba Doo, we believe divers are made in the water, and hence this allows us correspondingly more water time for the same duration of the course, and we like to focus on essential dive skills, to create good newbie divers. Both SSI and PADI, however, have excellent Open Water courses, and the end result is the same whatever you choose: a confident diver with good basic dive skills who is not afraid to dive on his or her own after the course. You are getting the same highly-qualified instructors after all. Why are SSI courses cheaper than the equivalent PADI courses? Because PADI requires students to buy the materials for many PADI courses. As we do not want confuse you as to the actual price for certification, we have effectively added the price of the manual to the relevant PADI course. (Ok, it's a bit more complicated than that, because manual prices differ quite a lot here in Thailand. But in short, we are giving our students very good value for money on manuals both for PADI and SSI courses, and our PADI and SSI courses are both advantageously priced). If you do not need a manual for that particular course, the price is of course set without a manual, irrespective of whether it is a PADI or SSI course. We then clearly state this. No trickery or jiggery-pokery. SSI does not require the student to buy his or her own set of materials (apart from professional level courses and Respond Right). Therefore we can lend you our own SSI manuals in your language for most SSI courses. You simply hand the SSI manual back in the same pristine condition that you borrowed it when you have finished the course. Or you can buy the manual, if you like. Many of our SSI students actually tend to do this after the course, but this is completely up to you! If you opt to buy the SSI manual, there is incidentally no price difference at all between our basic SSI and PADI courses, e.g. Scuba Diver, Open Water, Rescue etc. You can easily verify this by adding the price of the SSI Open Water Manual or Diver Stress&Rescue Manual to the corresponding course price. The price now is identical to the PADI course price! This is logical. Both are very similar and both are of the same high quality. So the "compulsory buy versus optional buy" difference is the only reason that our SSI courses generally are cheaper. Qualitywise there is absolutely no difference at all. Why do you sell the PADI manuals instead of lending them to us? Because for most PADI courses, this is an absolute requirement. It forms an essential part of PADI standards. Now, do some dive centres abjectly ignore this requirement in order to make the PADI course cheaper? Yes. We leave it to you to judge what this means regarding their adhering to general safety standards and good business practices ... Luckily these kind of centers are few and far between. Almost all good PADI dive centers and instructors comply with the "buy the manual" standards. This is one reason why most PADI course prices in Phuket are roughly in the same ball park. Do I have to have the Advanced level to dive to 30 metres? It depends. We certainly wouldn't prevent an experienced OW diver from diving to 30 meters with one of our dive guides if there is documented deep diving experience or similar. But for insurance purposes it is always a good idea to get that Advanced qualification anyway. Our courses are excellent quality for money, so why not do the Advanced course when you're here? Remember: the Advanced course is different from the Open Water course, with much less theory and skills practice. It's just like fun diving, really, but with the added input of knowledge from your experienced Scuuba Doo instructor. So it's a really fun course at a really good price. What if I forget my dive certification? Can I dive anyway? Yes, but not necessarily as a regular fun diver. Here's the rub: If you're a PADI or SSI diver with a reasonably recent certification (i.e. the last decade or so), we can easily find you on the PADI or SSI professional web pages. Then you dive as a normal fun diver (or can continue to the next higher level if you want to do a course). We'll even print out the confirmation for you from the PADI or SSI web pages. The above will usually work for NAUI divers, too. We can also check your log book if you have it with you. If we can't find you on the web for whatever reason, if you have no log book and no certification card, there is quite frankly no proof that you have ever received any dive training whatsoever! You can still dive, however, by SSI Try Scuba Diving or PADI Discover Scuba Diving. When do I get my certification? For PADI courses, we will issue your temporary certification card immediately upon completion of your course. This is valid for 90 days. We will also submit your details to PADI Asia Pacific in Sydney, Australia, who in turn will print your permanent certification card and send it to your home address. This process usually takes a month or two, and may sometimes take up to three months due to local postal services etc. For SSI courses, we submit your details to the SSI Phuket local office who will print your permanent certification card the same day as you complete the course, or the following day. Barring unforeseen circumstances, in most cases this means you go home with your new permanent card and can use it immediately. In both cases, the permanent certification card is in plastic, contains your certification data and is valid for life. The SSI card also lists the total number of dives you've logged so far as well as the year you began diving as far as we can verify. These are nice bonuses. Why does the DM/DCS course vary so much in its time scale? A PADI Divemaster or SSI Dive Control Specialist course may vary from 10 days to several months. This is because both courses are extensive with very strict performance requirements which may take some time for the candidate to master. Remember: The divers who dive with or in any way interact with you in the future deserve the best possible Dive Professionals. That is why you as a Dive Professional deserve the best possible professional training! And that may take time. If you are well-prepared and have worked on your dive theory ahead of arriving here in Phuket, your course may proceed much faster. If you have many dives logged and good dive experience, your course may also proceed much faster. But what matters in the end is not how long it takes to get there, but the final product itself: a role model Dive Professional. Somebody people want to dive with and learn from. That is our goal here at Scandinavian Scuuba Doo. Why is there so much theory in the PADI DM/SSI DCS course? Because both PADI and SSI have put all their dive theory into these levels, and not at the Instructor level. This is logical. Both PADI Divemasters and SSI Dive Control Specialists may get involved in the teaching of new students as Certified Assistants. A Dive Control Specialist may indeed even teach in the classroom and pool under the indirect supervision of an instructor. So of course PADI Divemasters and SSI DiveCons should have a very sound grasp of dive theory. Because we take this theory so seriously at Scandinavian Scuuba Doo, our PADI Divemasters and SSI DiveCons will be well prepared for the Instructor course in the future. I just want to be a dive guide, can't I do less theory? Yes, you can do the SSI Dive Guide course. This is a good qualification with very few theoretical demands. If you want slightly more theory, you can do the SSI Science of Diving Specialty program together with your SSI Dive Guide course. You then attain the rating of SSI Divemaster, which is a recognition level. Why are PADI fees not included in the PADI DM course price? PADI's application fees are not included in the course price for the PADI Divemaster course. These fees, which also cover the first year of PADI Membership, must be paid directly to PADI. Incidentally, this is the case for all PADI Divemaster courses that we know of, all over the world.
I have extensive Try Dive experience. Can I dive with other divers? No, not as a regular fun diver. You can redo the experience by either SSI Try Scuba Diving or PADI Discover Scuba Diving. We know of people who repeat these programs every year for many years in a row and we're happy to assist you. But honestly, if you really do try dives every year on holiday, why not just do the full SSI or PADI Open Water course? It's cheaper and more fun in the long run. And you can do it in as little as three days, particularly if you have dived a few times already. If you don't have three days to spare, but try dive regularly, we recommend you to do the two-day PADI or SSI Scuba Diver course. You can always upgrade to the corresponding Open Water rating later. Can I use an underwater camera during my course? Taking pictures to remember your first underwater experience is a very attractive idea but keep in mind that most beginners must focus on buoyancy etc. By SSI and PADI standards, our instructors are not allowed to photograph during OW courses or Try Dives. We can sometimes arrange for a divemaster to assist with pictures if you have your own camera, and we can even arrange for a professional underwater photographer for a reasonable fee. If it's the right sort of course, e.g. the Advanced Adventurer programme, it is seldom a problem for the student to bring his or her own UW camera to use.	Top of the morning to you ... © Haissam Mourad
Can I switch between organizations? Yes! Nothing could be easier after certification. All the major diver training organizations (PADI, SSI, NAUI, CMAS, BSAC etc) recognize each others' qualifications. So you can easily go from SSI Open Water to PADI Advanced Open Water to NAUI Rescue Diver to CMAS ***, for example. Or do all your recreational levels through SSI up to, say, Diver Stress & Rescue level, and then continue to PADI Divemaster. Or vice versa. Just because you once took your Open Water certification with a particular organization doesn't mean you're locked in there for life. On the contrary, a well-trained diver is a well-trained diver irrespective of the training organization initials on your certification card. You can always continue your training at the next level with another organization if you want, once properly certified.
Diets, Allergies, Equipment Sales, Restaurants, Bars etc
I am a vegetarian. Do you cater for me? On our own boat, there is a vegetarian option. On liveaboards there are many good choices for vegetarians, particularly if you let us know in advance. In the low season we often use boats from our partner dive centers, but they usually have a vegetarian option, too. It is alway a good idea to notify us a bit in advance, just to make sure. I have a food allergy. Do you cater for me? We can usually cater for most allergies but it is definitely smart to let us know in advance. Some allergies are potentially life-threatening to particular people and it isn't always possible to decide off-hand if there is fish in the vegetarian sauce or if there is gluten in certain food stuffs. We do have a good track record of providing for very allergic people even over several days' diving on different boats and take allergies seriously, so if you let us know in advance we can usually arrange safe and satisfying food. What is your policy on sexual, ethnic or religious minorities? We don't discriminate on gender, on race, on nationality, on religion or on sexual preferences. At all. Ever. You're all divers to us and you're all welcome! Can we drink alcohol before or between dives? Right before diving or between dives? No! If you want a cold beer for lunch, go for it. But then there is no more diving that particular day. So how about after diving? A cold beer on the voyage home from the dive, or some wine with your dinner later that evening? Hey, that's fine by us. Enjoy! (But please drink in moderation. If you are obviously inebriated or hungover in the morning, we won't let you dive that particular day for your own safety and that of your buddies. You're welcome again the next day.) It is exceedingly rare for us to encounter any alcohol-related problems when diving so this is merely stating our policy for reference. We want to buy particular dive equipment. Do you have it? If it's for sale in Thailand, yes, we can get it for you, usually same day or next day. Many quality brands actually do their manufacturing in Thailand. This is a particularly good value place to buy masks, wet suits, snorkels, fins etc. Often these quality products are much cheaper than back home. Thailand has a low VAT rate and an efficient manufacturing industry. There are at least six dive equipment importers and suppliers in Phuket and one more in Krabi and we work with all of them. Also, if the gear is available in Bangkok, we can source it there, though it may take a few days. So we can get exactly the same dive equipment as anyone else here in Phuket and we sell them at exactly the same advantageous retail prices. These are some of the brands we can get you, generally the same day as you order: Akona, Apeks, Apollo, AquaLung, Atomic Aquatics, Bauer, Dacor, Frog, Halcyon, Ikelite, Immersion, Lenhardt+Wagner, Mares, OMS, OxyCheq, Pelican, RalfTech, ScubaPro, Sea&Sea, SeaQuest, SeacSub, Sherwood, Suunto, Technisub, Trident, TUSA, Underwater Kinetics (UK), US Divers, UWATEC ... If you have very specific demands such as o-rings for a particular camera or maybe a certain brand of dry suit or similar, it may be easier and faster to find the desired products back home in your own country. Do you rent out digital underwater cameras? Currently, no. But we do sell very good reasonable priced digital UW cameras. How do the Andaman Sea dive sites compare to ...? ... the Red Sea: We have more marine life but less spectacular hard corals and warmer water. Visibility somewhat less. Fewer great wrecks at recreational depths. ... the Mediterranean: We have much more marine life, proper corals and much warmer water. Visibility sometimes less, sometimes better. Fewer great wrecks at recreational depths. ... the Caribbean: We have much more marine life, better corals and warmer water. Is the coral bleaching in Thailand very bad? There is currently (as of September 2010) some coral bleaching all over South-East Asia due to higher water temperatures than usual. The dive sites are still good, however. Can you recommend any good restaurants or bars in Phuket? Sure. Mail us and ask and we're happy to share our own, highly subjective opinions. Phuket has an almost unparalleled array of bars, restaurants and cafés. There is something for almost every taste imaginable.

Frequently Asked Questions

Turtle preening for photographer in the Andaman Sea © Haissam Mourad

Transport, Accommodation, Payments

Do you pick us up for free from our hotels?
What if we are not staying in Kata, Karon or Patong?
What about airport transfers to our hotel?
Do you arrange hotel accommodation?
Do you accept credit or debit cards?
Do you accept American Express or Diners Club?
Do you accept US dollars, euro or British pounds?
Can we pay you in advance by bank transfer?

Insurance & Safety

What about dive insurance?
What about Scandinavian Scuuba Doo's insurance policies?
Can you recommend or sell any dive insurance policies for us?
Are there any recompression chambers in Phuket?
Are your staff trained in First Aid?
Do you carry oxygen onboard?
Do you carry Automatic External Defibrillators (AED's)?

Courses

Diets, Allergies, Equipment Sales, Restaurants, Bars etc

Can I start with the Advanced course and bypass Open Water?
Can I do the Open Water course in two days?
Any difference between PADI Scuba Diver and SSI Scuba Diver?
Any difference between PADI Open Water and SSI Open Water?
Why are SSI courses cheaper than the equivalent PADI courses?
Why do you sell the PADI manuals instead of lending them to us?
Do I have to have the Advanced level to dive to 30 metres?
What if I forget my dive certification? Can I dive anyway?
When do I get my certification?
Why does the DM/DCS course vary so much in its time scale?
Why is there so much theory in the PADI DM/SSI DCS course?
I just want to be a dive guide, can't I do less theory?
Why are PADI fees not included in the PADI DM course price?
I have extensive Try Dive experience. Can I dive with other divers?
Can I use an underwater camera during my course?
Can I switch between organisations?

I am a vegetarian. Do you cater for me?
I have a food allergy. Do you cater for me?
What is your policy on sexual, ethnic or religious minorities?
Can we drink alcohol before or between dives?
We want to buy particular dive equipment. Do you have it?
Do you rent out digital underwater cameras?
How do the Andaman Sea dive sites compare to ...?
Is the coral bleaching in Thailand very bad?
Can you recommend any good restaurants or bars in Phuket?

Transport, Accommodation, Payments

Do you pick us up for free from our hotels?
We do, provided that you are staying in Kata, Karon or Patong. And we drop you off back at your hotel, too. This applies both to daily diving and to courses.

What if we are not staying in Kata, Karon or Patong?
This is handled on a case-by-case basis. We do not promise that we pick you up outside these catchment areas for free, but sometimes it is possible. It depends on group size, if it's a course or fun diving and other factors. It is usually easy for us to arrange free pickups from Chalong or Rawai. Sometimes even from Phuket Town. Kamala pickups can usually be arranged for a small fee. From Bang Tao, the Airport or Ao Po, you'll almost certainly have to pay for your own taxi.

What about airport transfers to our hotel?
We can arrange a transfer for you, and we will try our best to get you the best possible price, but Phuket airport is quite expensive transfer-wise. Usually it is cheaper to get a taxi at the airport than to arrange a pickup. There is a good Airport Bus service to Central Festival and Phuket Town if you really want to cut costs.

Do you arrange hotel accommodation?
We do not currently arrange hotel accommodation, that is, you cannot book hotels through us and pay us for this. But we are very happy to recommend hotels in different price ranges for you. And we highly recommend you to use this link to find and book good hotels at a great price throughout Phuket!

Do you accept credit or debit cards?
Yes, provided they are issued by either VISA or MasterCard. And we charge no extra for paying by VISA or MasterCard either.We carry the cost of the credit card fees as a courtesy to our guests.

Do you accept American Express or Diners Club?
No, and we don't know of very many dive centers anywhere who do, to be honest. This is not a reflection on the card issuers but merely the situation as it is on the ground.

Do you accept US dollars, euros or British pounds?
The currency we accept is the Thai baht, which is a strong currency easily traded around the world. There are plenty of ATM's all around Phuket and Thailand and it is easy to withdraw baht on a foreign card or to trade from your own currency. There are also five or six currency exchange booths, open every day and found as close as 20 metres of our shop where you can shop around for a good rate. The baht is a "proper" currency.

Can we pay you in advance by bank transfer?
Absolutely. E-mail us and we'll pass you our company bank details. This is incidentally the way to pay for your liveaboard trip bookings as well!

Insurance & Safety

What about dive insurance?
We strongly recommend you to carry proper travel insurance for travelling to Thailand anyway, e.g. in the unlucky case you were involved in a traffic accident. Many travel insurances do cover sports diving up to the depth limit set by your training level. (This is a great reason to move on to Advanced levels from Open Water even if you have lots of dives). We recommend you to check with your insurance provider before travelling.

What about Scandinavian Scuuba Doo's insurance policies?
Scandinavian Scuuba Doo Co. Ltd has a Tourism Authority of Thailand license, where certain insurances are required. We are in fact insured to the higher level of 1 Million baht, not 200,000 baht or 100,000 baht which is still common in Phuket. Our company car is insured for passengers. We also carry insurance many benefits as a registered 'Partner in Safety' with the SSS Recompression Network here in Phuket. Our dive staff are fully professionally insured through DAN Europe, DAN Asia Pacific, PADI or other providers, but again, to ensure that you are fully covered in all instances, we recommend you to check with your own insurance provider before arrival.

Can you recommend or sell any dive insurance policies for us?
Yes to both questions. We recommend the non-profit DAN Europe, DAN Americas or DAN Asia Pacific organizations depending on where you live. Dive Master Insurance is also good. We sell the latter, even for as short a time as a few days, through a company called Indepths. You can buy this insurance in our dive shop before your dives.

Are there any recompression chambers in Phuket?
Yes, there are three active ones. We are a 'Partner in Safety' with the SSS Recompression Network which works out of the Phuket International Hospital. This means that your insurer pays considerably less for any chamber treatment there if you dive with us. There is also a chamber in the Bangkok Phuket Hospital and one in the Wachira General Hospital. They are all easy to reach in Phuket Town and they are all good.

Are your staff trained in First Aid?
Yes, all our dive staff are trained in First Aid, either through Emergency First Response or Respond Right International (or both!). We have an Emergency First Response Instructor Trainer and a Respond Right Instructor Trainer permanently on staff, so we can also train you up to instructor level. Many of us have real-life experience of attending to life-threatening injuries or conditions, so we focus on teaching for real-life emergencies. Our goal is that all our staff, whether diving or not, eventually shall be trained First Aiders.

Do you carry oxygen onboard?
Yes! And we are trained to use it as well.

Do you carry Automatic External Defibrillators (AED's)?
No. AED's do save lives, but their legal use in Thailand differs markedly at present from the United States and from most parts of Europe.

Can I start with the Advanced course and bypass Open Water?
No. You must start with the Open Water course. This is where you learn primary diving skills. The Advanced course is always a follow-up level.

Can I do the Open Water course in two days?
It is almost technically impossible to do this from scratch. You would have to do theory, many confined sessions and four open water dives in just two days, and everything to a satisfactory level. If you do the theory online, however, you can finish off all theory with e.g. the final exam in the morning, do the confined water sessions in the afternoon and do one beach dive to round off the day before it gets dark. The next day you would do the remaining three open water dives. So the answer here is yes. But let's face it, it would be difficult for most students to retain knowledge in such a short time. A three-day course is already a much more relaxing experience and gives much better results. Hence we do three and four-day open water courses, but not two-day courses. Two-day Open Water courses are a sell-out qualitywise in our humble opinion!

Any difference between PADI Scuba Diver and SSI Scuba Diver?
Once certified, there is little difference. A PADI Scuba Diver can technically only dive to 12 metres with an active PADI Professional. An SSI Scuba Diver can dive to 12 metres with an active dive professional from any reputable agency: SSI, PADI, BSAC, NAUI etc. There is no final exam in the PADI version. There is a final exam in the SSI version. An SSI Scuba Diver student might dive down to 18 metres with our instructor under training in Thailand, but is limited to 12 metres worldwide after certification. Basically that is all the difference.

Any difference between PADI Open Water and SSI Open Water?
After certification, no! Both certifications are issued for entry-level autonomous divers under European Standard EN-14153-2. This means that the Open Water Diver can dive down to 18 metres with a dive buddy of at least the same level.

The two courses are very similar, as one would expect from two organizations who both set mutual standards in e.g. the World Recreational Scuba Training Council. However, there are some minor differences.

The SSI Open Water DVD is available with narration in more languages than the PADI DVD. The latter e.g. carries Nordic language subtitles to the English dialogue. So if you're Swedish, Danish or Finnish, for example, you'll probably find the SSI DVD more fun because you can listen to it in your native tongue. On the other hand, if you're e.g. Norwegian, there is presently no SSI language support at all, so the PADI course may be more to your liking, unless you're happy to do the theory in Danish or English.

The SSI DVD sessions will irrespective of language last about 2 hours. The PADI DVD session will last up to 3 hours and 40 minutes as it repeats the PADI manual almost word-for-word, including the jokes ... Therefore, generally, the PADI theory sessions will last quite a bit longer than their SSI equivalents.

SSI wants instructors to give some 20% input in the course, which means that the SSI course is somewhat more flexible. At Scandinavian Scuuba Doo, we believe divers are made in the water, and hence this allows us correspondingly more water time for the same duration of the course, and we like to focus on essential dive skills, to create good newbie divers.

Both SSI and PADI, however, have excellent Open Water courses, and the end result is the same whatever you choose: a confident diver with good basic dive skills who is not afraid to dive on his or her own after the course. You are getting the same highly-qualified instructors after all.

Why are SSI courses cheaper than the equivalent PADI courses?
Because PADI requires students to buy the materials for many PADI courses. As we do not want confuse you as to the actual price for certification, we have effectively added the price of the manual to the relevant PADI course. (Ok, it's a bit more complicated than that, because manual prices differ quite a lot here in Thailand. But in short, we are giving our students very good value for money on manuals both for PADI and SSI courses, and our PADI and SSI courses are both advantageously priced).

If you do not need a manual for that particular course, the price is of course set without a manual, irrespective of whether it is a PADI or SSI course. We then clearly state this. No trickery or jiggery-pokery.

SSI does not require the student to buy his or her own set of materials (apart from professional level courses and Respond Right). Therefore we can lend you our own SSI manuals in your language for most SSI courses. You simply hand the SSI manual back in the same pristine condition that you borrowed it when you have finished the course. Or you can buy the manual, if you like. Many of our SSI students actually tend to do this after the course, but this is completely up to you! If you opt to buy the SSI manual, there is incidentally no price difference at all between our basic SSI and PADI courses, e.g. Scuba Diver, Open Water, Rescue etc. You can easily verify this by adding the price of the SSI Open Water Manual or Diver Stress&Rescue Manual to the corresponding course price. The price now is identical to the PADI course price! This is logical. Both are very similar and both are of the same high quality.

So the "compulsory buy versus optional buy" difference is the only reason that our SSI courses generally are cheaper. Qualitywise there is absolutely no difference at all.

Why do you sell the PADI manuals instead of lending them to us?
Because for most PADI courses, this is an absolute requirement. It forms an essential part of PADI standards. Now, do some dive centres abjectly ignore this requirement in order to make the PADI course cheaper? Yes. We leave it to you to judge what this means regarding their adhering to general safety standards and good business practices ...

Luckily these kind of centers are few and far between. Almost all good PADI dive centers and instructors comply with the "buy the manual" standards. This is one reason why most PADI course prices in Phuket are roughly in the same ball park.

Do I have to have the Advanced level to dive to 30 metres?
It depends. We certainly wouldn't prevent an experienced OW diver from diving to 30 meters with one of our dive guides if there is documented deep diving experience or similar. But for insurance purposes it is always a good idea to get that Advanced qualification anyway. Our courses are excellent quality for money, so why not do the Advanced course when you're here? Remember: the Advanced course is different from the Open Water course, with much less theory and skills practice. It's just like fun diving, really, but with the added input of knowledge from your experienced Scuuba Doo instructor. So it's a really fun course at a really good price.

What if I forget my dive certification? Can I dive anyway?
Yes, but not necessarily as a regular fun diver. Here's the rub: If you're a PADI or SSI diver with a reasonably recent certification (i.e. the last decade or so), we can easily find you on the PADI or SSI professional web pages. Then you dive as a normal fun diver (or can continue to the next higher level if you want to do a course). We'll even print out the confirmation for you from the PADI or SSI web pages.

The above will usually work for NAUI divers, too. We can also check your log book if you have it with you.

If we can't find you on the web for whatever reason, if you have no log book and no certification card, there is quite frankly no proof that you have ever received any dive training whatsoever! You can still dive, however, by SSI Try Scuba Diving or PADI Discover Scuba Diving.

When do I get my certification?
For PADI courses, we will issue your temporary certification card immediately upon completion of your course. This is valid for 90 days. We will also submit your details to PADI Asia Pacific in Sydney, Australia, who in turn will print your permanent certification card and send it to your home address. This process usually takes a month or two, and may sometimes take up to three months due to local postal services etc.

For SSI courses, we submit your details to the SSI Phuket local office who will print your permanent certification card the same day as you complete the course, or the following day. Barring unforeseen circumstances, in most cases this means you go home with your new permanent card and can use it immediately.

In both cases, the permanent certification card is in plastic, contains your certification data and is valid for life. The SSI card also lists the total number of dives you've logged so far as well as the year you began diving as far as we can verify. These are nice bonuses.

Why does the DM/DCS course vary so much in its time scale?
A PADI Divemaster or SSI Dive Control Specialist course may vary from 10 days to several months. This is because both courses are extensive with very strict performance requirements which may take some time for the candidate to master. Remember: The divers who dive with or in any way interact with you in the future deserve the best possible Dive Professionals. That is why you as a Dive Professional deserve the best possible professional training! And that may take time.

If you are well-prepared and have worked on your dive theory ahead of arriving here in Phuket, your course may proceed much faster. If you have many dives logged and good dive experience, your course may also proceed much faster. But what matters in the end is not how long it takes to get there, but the final product itself: a role model Dive Professional. Somebody people want to dive with and learn from. That is our goal here at Scandinavian Scuuba Doo.

Why is there so much theory in the PADI DM/SSI DCS course?
Because both PADI and SSI have put all their dive theory into these levels, and not at the Instructor level. This is logical. Both PADI Divemasters and SSI Dive Control Specialists may get involved in the teaching of new students as Certified Assistants. A Dive Control Specialist may indeed even teach in the classroom and pool under the indirect supervision of an instructor. So of course PADI Divemasters and SSI DiveCons should have a very sound grasp of dive theory. Because we take this theory so seriously at Scandinavian Scuuba Doo, our PADI Divemasters and SSI DiveCons will be well prepared for the Instructor course in the future.

I just want to be a dive guide, can't I do less theory?
Yes, you can do the SSI Dive Guide course. This is a good qualification with very few theoretical demands. If you want slightly more theory, you can do the SSI Science of Diving Specialty program together with your SSI Dive Guide course. You then attain the rating of SSI Divemaster, which is a recognition level.

Why are PADI fees not included in the PADI DM course price?
PADI's application fees are not included in the course price for the PADI Divemaster course. These fees, which also cover the first year of PADI Membership, must be paid directly to PADI. Incidentally, this is the case for all PADI Divemaster courses that we know of, all over the world.

I have extensive Try Dive experience. Can I dive with other divers?
No, not as a regular fun diver. You can redo the experience by either SSI Try Scuba Diving or PADI Discover Scuba Diving. We know of people who repeat these programs every year for many years in a row and we're happy to assist you.

But honestly, if you really do try dives every year on holiday, why not just do the full SSI or PADI Open Water course? It's cheaper and more fun in the long run. And you can do it in as little as three days, particularly if you have dived a few times already. If you don't have three days to spare, but try dive regularly, we recommend you to do the two-day PADI or SSI Scuba Diver course. You can always upgrade to the corresponding Open Water rating later.

Can I use an underwater camera during my course?
Taking pictures to remember your first underwater experience is a very attractive idea but keep in mind that most beginners must focus on buoyancy etc. By SSI and PADI standards, our instructors are not allowed to photograph during OW courses or Try Dives. We can sometimes arrange for a divemaster to assist with pictures if you have your own camera, and we can even arrange for a professional underwater photographer for a reasonable fee.

If it's the right sort of course, e.g. the Advanced Adventurer programme, it is seldom a problem for the student to bring his or her own UW camera to use.

Can I switch between organizations? Yes! Nothing could be easier after certification. All the major diver training organizations (PADI, SSI, NAUI, CMAS, BSAC etc) recognize each others' qualifications.

So you can easily go from SSI Open Water to PADI Advanced Open Water to NAUI Rescue Diver to CMAS ***, for example. Or do all your recreational levels through SSI up to, say, Diver Stress & Rescue level, and then continue to PADI Divemaster. Or vice versa.

Just because you once took your Open Water certification with a particular organization doesn't mean you're locked in there for life. On the contrary, a well-trained diver is a well-trained diver irrespective of the training organization initials on your certification card. You can always continue your training at the next level with another organization if you want, once properly certified.

Diets, Allergies, Equipment Sales, Restaurants, Bars etc

I am a vegetarian. Do you cater for me?
On our own boat, there is a vegetarian option. On liveaboards there are many good choices for vegetarians, particularly if you let us know in advance. In the low season we often use boats from our partner dive centers, but they usually have a vegetarian option, too. It is alway a good idea to notify us a bit in advance, just to make sure.

I have a food allergy. Do you cater for me?
We can usually cater for most allergies but it is definitely smart to let us know in advance. Some allergies are potentially life-threatening to particular people and it isn't always possible to decide off-hand if there is fish in the vegetarian sauce or if there is gluten in certain food stuffs. We do have a good track record of providing for very allergic people even over several days' diving on different boats and take allergies seriously, so if you let us know in advance we can usually arrange safe and satisfying food.

What is your policy on sexual, ethnic or religious minorities?
We don't discriminate on gender, on race, on nationality, on religion or on sexual preferences. At all. Ever. You're all divers to us and you're all welcome!

Can we drink alcohol before or between dives?
Right before diving or between dives? No! If you want a cold beer for lunch, go for it. But then there is no more diving that particular day.

So how about after diving? A cold beer on the voyage home from the dive, or some wine with your dinner later that evening? Hey, that's fine by us. Enjoy!

(But please drink in moderation. If you are obviously inebriated or hungover in the morning, we won't let you dive that particular day for your own safety and that of your buddies. You're welcome again the next day.)

It is exceedingly rare for us to encounter any alcohol-related problems when diving so this is merely stating our policy for reference.

We want to buy particular dive equipment. Do you have it?
If it's for sale in Thailand, yes, we can get it for you, usually same day or next day. Many quality brands actually do their manufacturing in Thailand. This is a particularly good value place to buy masks, wet suits, snorkels, fins etc. Often these quality products are much cheaper than back home. Thailand has a low VAT rate and an efficient manufacturing industry. drop

There are at least six dive equipment importers and suppliers in Phuket and one more in Krabi and we work with all of them. Also, if the gear is available in Bangkok, we can source it there, though it may take a few days. So we can get exactly the same dive equipment as anyone else here in Phuket and we sell them at exactly the same advantageous retail prices.

These are some of the brands we can get you, generally the same day as you order:

Akona, Apeks, Apollo, AquaLung, Atomic Aquatics, Bauer, Dacor, Frog, Halcyon, Ikelite, Immersion, Lenhardt+Wagner, Mares, OMS, OxyCheq, Pelican, RalfTech, ScubaPro, Sea&Sea, SeaQuest, SeacSub, Sherwood, Suunto, Technisub, Trident, TUSA, Underwater Kinetics (UK), US Divers, UWATEC ...

If you have very specific demands such as o-rings for a particular camera or maybe a certain brand of dry suit or similar, it may be easier and faster to find the desired products back home in your own country.

Do you rent out digital underwater cameras?
Currently, no. But we do sell very good reasonable priced digital UW cameras.

How do the Andaman Sea dive sites compare to ...?
... the Red Sea: We have more marine life but less spectacular hard corals and warmer water. Visibility somewhat less. Fewer great wrecks at recreational depths.
... the Mediterranean: We have much more marine life, proper corals and much warmer water. Visibility sometimes less, sometimes better. Fewer great wrecks at recreational depths.
... the Caribbean: We have much more marine life, better corals and warmer water.

Is the coral bleaching in Thailand very bad?
There is currently (as of September 2010) some coral bleaching all over South-East Asia due to higher water temperatures than usual. The dive sites are still good, however.

Can you recommend any good restaurants or bars in Phuket?
Sure. Mail us and ask and we're happy to share our own, highly subjective opinions. Phuket has an almost unparalleled array of bars, restaurants and cafés. There is something for almost every taste imaginable.

Scandinavian Scuuba Doo Co, Ltd. 25 Karon Rd. Karon, Muang, Phuket 83100 Tel: +66-76-333 606 Fax: +66-76-333 607
Coding & Web Design by Ola Hellman Nielsen Text & Layout by Kjell Nylund ©Scandinavian Scuuba Doo Co Ltd.


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