Phuket Low Season Diving

For my first post on this new blog I thought I’d write about Phuket low season diving because it’s something that we get asked about a lot and as Phuket becomes ever more popular as a year round tourist destination it’s even more relevant.

Ok there are days when it’s raining and the sea is rough. It happens. Occasionally the boats get cancelled. But most of the time the diving is great. The last month has been like high season weather with sunshine and flat seas. And whalesharks are everywhere everyday at the moment. We saw 4 whalesharks on one dive at Koh Doc Mai last Friday! That’s four different whale sharks not the same whaleshark four times.From May to October the prevailing weather pattern is the south west monsoon which brings can bring wind and waves to Thailand’s west coast. The Similan Islands Marine National Park is closed until late October because getting there by dive boat at this time of year can be rough. Surin, Richelieu Rock, Koh Bon and Koh Tachai are out of the question for the same reason. When people read this and also see the weather statistics for this time of year it puts them off diving Phuket altogether but the fact is that Phuket daytrip dive boats are running daily to local sites like Shark Point, Racha Yai, Racha Noi and Phi Phi Island. And the diving is great. Actually it is often better than in the high season because there are fewer boats with fewer divers on the boats. We see far more Leopard sharks at Shark Point in low season, they come pack to the reef when all the divers leave.

People always ask us, isn’t it better to dive Koh Tao or Koh Samui at this time of year. We always say no, the diving is better in Phuket at any time of year. This is a hard sell. Because we are in the business of selling Phuket diving people assume that we are not being completely honest. But apart from Chumphon Pinnacle and Sail Rock the diving in Phuket really is far superior all year round.