Ko Samui & the Lower Gulf - Thailand - page 1165

DIVE SITES AT A GLANCE
In general, divers don't have a choice as to which sites they explore. Each dive school chooses a smattering of
sites for the day depending on weather and ocean conditions. Deeper dive sites such as Chumphon Pinnacle are
usually visited in the morning. Afternoon boats tour the shallower sites such as Japanese Gardens. Recently, two
large vessels have been sunk off the coast, providing scubaphiles with two new wreck dives. Divers hoping to
spend some quality time searching for whale sharks at Sail Rock should join one of the dive trips departing daily
from Ko Pha-Ngan.
» Chumphon Pinnacle (36m maximum depth), 13km west of Ko Tao, has a colourful assortment of sea
anemones along the four interconnected pinnacles. The site plays host to schools of giant trevally, tuna and large
grey reef sharks. Whale sharks are known to pop up once in a while.
» Green Rock (25m maximum depth) is an underwater jungle gym featuring caverns, caves and small swim-
throughs. Rays, grouper and triggerfish are known to hang around. It's a great place for a night dive.
» Japanese Gardens (12m maximum depth), between Ko Tao and Ko Nang Yuan, is a low-stress dive site per-
fect for beginners. There's plenty of colourful coral, and turtles, stingray and pufferfish often pass by.
» Mango Bay (16m maximum depth) might be your first dive site if you are putting on a tank for the first time.
Lazy reef fish swim around as newbies practise their skills on the sandy bottom.
» Sail Rock (34m maximum depth), best accessed from Ko Pha-Ngan, features a massive rock chimney with a
vertical swim-through, and large pelagics like barracuda and kingfish. This is one of the top spots in Southeast
Asia to see whale sharks.
» Southwest Pinnacle (33m maximum depth) offers divers a small collection of pinnacles that are home to giant
groupers and barracudas. Whale sharks and leopard sharks are sometimes spotted (pun partially intended).
» White Rock (29m maximum depth) is home to colourful corals, angelfish, clown fish and territorial triggerfish.
Another popular spot for night divers.
Technical Diving & Cave Diving
Well-seasoned divers and hardcore Jacques Cousteaus should contact Tech Thailand
( www.techthailand.com ) or one of a handful of other tech diving schools if they want to take
their underwater exploration to the next level and try a technical dive. According to PADI,
tec diving, as it's often known, is 'diving other than conventional commercial or recre-
ational diving that takes divers beyond recreational diving limits'. Technical diving ex-
ceeds depths of 40m and requires stage decompressions, and a variety of gas mixtures are
often used in a single dive.
Several years ago, Tech Thailand's old boat, MS Trident, made a name for itself in the
diving community after successfully locating dozens of previously undiscovered wrecks
in the Gulf of Thailand. Its most famous discovery was the USS Lagarto, an American
naval vessel that sank during WWII. The gulf has long been an important trading route
and new wrecks are being discovered all the time, from old Chinese pottery wrecks to
Japanese marus (merchant ships). In 2011 the Trident was purposefully sunk off the coast