3 Pinnacle Dive Special – Chaloklum Diving Koh Phangan Thailand

3 Pinnacle Dive Special – One of our favourite diving trips , offering some of the greatest pinnacle scuba dives in the Gulf of Thailand; usually Southwest Pinnacles, then Chumphon Pinnacles & finishing with an afternoon dive at Sail Rock. They are the best dive sites in the Koh Phangan & Koh Tao area for diving with those wonderful whale sharks (unfortunately their appearances are not guaranteed & never as often as we would like).

Please note that the first 2 dive sites are not suitable for Open Water divers (or for snorkelling!), but it is a great dive trip for them to do as part of their Padi Advanced Open Water diving courses…

We leave Koh Phangan early & it’s first stop Southwest Pinnacles; a range of massive underwater rocks running from SSW to NNE. The largest pinnacle comes to within 7 metres of the surface, the rest lie deeper & run down to a max. depth of 30 m. Black & soft corals at depth, with magnificent anemone fields encrusting the pinnacles in more shallow water. Great scenery & views plus big schools of fusilier, snapper, trevally & batfish. Some of the biggest saddleback grouper in our area lurk around the bases of the pinnacles.

Then we head up North of Koh Tao to Chumphon Pinnacles. This is the largest of the 3 dive sites; the main structure comes to within ~14 m. of the surface, with small plateaus & walls down to 35+m. The visibility can be truly excellent here & the scenery is (once again) awesome. This site is best known for its big pelagics; it’s the only site where we also regularly spot grey reef sharks. Always worth the trip!

To finish the day we cruise back to Sail Rock. We arrive after the other diving boats have left & it’s a great dive, even if you’ve been there before. The late afternoon lighting, lack of other divers & wealth of fish life make it an unforgettable end to the day. We are usually back at the dive shop before 6.