Kiwidivers
The best SCUBA shop in Phuket for dive tours and instruction

My brother and I arrived in Phuket and decided on short notice to take an Open Water Course. All dive shops turned us down for short notice, however, Charles at Kiwi Diver made it happen! As we learned to dive, Charles was meticulous with the training, yet he made diving fun and not too technical! As I honed my skills, I became more confident and explored divergent dive sites. If you're in Phuket and thinking about taking a dive, Kiwi Diver is your place. The prices might be a little higher than other dive shops, but the divemaster here has over 9,000 dives under his belt, which translates to a fantastic learning experience.

I booked a day trip with Kiwidiver in Jan 2018 and had an awesome day. Other than the main street dive centres, Kiwidiver uses higher end equipment, as they are specialised in Technical diving. So for all courses and day trips they use Frog BCDs and APEKS regulators, which are owned by and serviced at the dive shop (and not rented). I booked 3 fun dives at Racha Noi and Racha Yai. Meeting point is the Kiwidiver shop, where you'll be fitted in your scuba gear and from there transferred to the peer, which is a mere 5min drive from the dive center. The dive boat was large and did not feel crowded. There is breakfast, lunch, snacks, water, tea and coffee provided. Dive time is 50min at each site, so make sure you've set up your equipment and are ready to jump. Your instructor will tell you the boat time before starting the briefing. Between dives you can stretch out on the sun decks and enjoy the cruise. Don't forget to take your own towel, sun lotion, sun glasses and maybe a book if you're travelling solo. Also some cash, so you can leave a tip for the boat crew!

Super chuffed to now be SSI open water certified! Thanks Charles. Charles is very experienced, very knowledgeable of the dive sites across Phuket , an ex serviceman from the UK he has dived all over the world and been an instructor since 2000. With tips about where to go in middle America and California, he even found a missing WW2 plane in Loch Ness and offered closure to the families of the fatal accident decades after the fact. Very generous with his knowledge, and I was lucky enough to have him as my personal instructor when others wouldn’t have bothered with only one student. It’s the off season in phuket so many other instructors would wait until they could book multiple students on their dives. Now SSI open water certified, very confident, and having swum with leopard sharks, turtles, lion fish, and sighted many fish and corals I need to avoid to stay safe , I gotta say I can’t fault the training, detail, and knowledge I have is all down to the thorough and fun training of one very clever and talented Scottish fella. Completely unsteriotypically generous. (Sorry Charles had to remind you of the stingy Jock joke). Oh and special thanks to the boat crew , great food, friendly assistants, and awesome dive sites.