PADI Scuba Diving Courses – Chaloklum Diving, Koh Phangan, Thailand

For people who don’t have the time for full diving courses or who want to check it out first, we can provide a real taste of scuba diving in a safe, controlled style.
After a careful briefing on safety rules, techniques and equipment, you start in water “deep enough to stand up” and then progress to do a shallow water dive (or 2) with your instructor. We usually specify a maximum of 2 divers per PADI professional.

Your 1st dive can be credited towards an Open Water Diver course with us if you want to get your PADI card, or you can just join us for more fun diving trips…

The definitive beginners diving course takes 3 or 4 days. It involves simple theory (DVD & personal teaching) & assessments, shallow water training sessions (off the beach or in our training pool), basic snorkelling techniques, & then 4 actual scuba dives (the last 2 are usually on boat diving trips to top dive sites).
On successful completion of the programme you will understand how to make safe SCUBA dives. You receive from us your diver’s log book and PADI Open Water Diver certification; valid for life.
To save some time before you come to Thailand, you can complete the theory online using the “eLearning” system before you leave (see below).

After enrolling online, this learning system provides you with interactive presentations that include videos, audio, graphics & reading. Short quizzes let you gauge your progress, & review & correct anything you might happen to miss. This lets you move through the programme efficiently & at your own pace.
When you arrive in Thailand the theory portion of your diving course is done; we can get straight into the water (& you’ve saved a day of holiday!).
Available for Open Water, Advanced, Rescue & Nitrox training.

PADI recommend this “divers tune-up” after more than 6 months of no diving. We will refresh your basic dive theory, check & refine your SCUBA skills, & then do a shallow fun dive with you too.
After you’ve done this you’re really ready to enjoy further scuba dives with us!

The next of the Padi courses is an experience programme, introducing you to new and diverse areas of diving that were not covered at Open Water level.

You will complete a deep dive and an u/w navigation dive, plus 3 other specialized dive activities such as night diving, peak performance buoyancy, underwater naturalist (no, not naturist!), digital u/w photography, fish identification, multilevel diving or search & recovery. You do 5 dives in total, usually over 2 to 3 days, & get to see some of our great dive sites.

Any of the Advanced dives can be credited toward a speciality course, if you want to take it further later…

A one-day course, conducted at the dive shop, covering basic first aid techniques & including cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.

It is required training for the Rescue Diver course, but just as important for non-divers to learn as well.

A more serious (but definitely still fun!) diving course, available for Advanced O/W Divers (or equivalent rating).
Self-rescue techniques, dive equipment issues, surface & U/W problems, emergency management, actual rescue scenarios & more, are covered in theory lessons at the dive centre & a minimum of 5 in-water training sessions over at least 3 days.
On the last day we like to make the training from our boat on a diving trip to one of the top dive sites.
This certification will help you to care for a dive buddy with a variety of possible problems, in addition to becoming a more able, self-sufficient & confident diver yourself.

We’ve been diving around Koh Phangan for many years & have photographed most of the marine life of the Gulf of Thailand (check our U/W field guide). So join us for the Speciality U/W Naturalist course or the U/W Digital Photography course; we are genuine experts.
Have you ever wanted rather more time underwater than normal air allows you, or do you want to do some deeper diving, but with proper training first? Then you’re looking at our Enriched Air (Nitrox) or Deep Diver speciality programmes.
We offer loads of speciality diving courses including Coral Reef Conservation, Search & Recovery, Night Diver, U/W Navigation, Equipment Specialist, Fish Identification and Multilevel/Computer Diving.
Just send us a line and tell us what you want!

The first level in the PADI professional programme will teach you how to care for certified divers & assist an instructor with PADI courses. This should take a minimum of 4 weeks (including as many dives as it takes) as there’s lots to do!

In-depth theory (which we can still teach personally at the dive school), lots of in-water work with our instructors & divemasters, but also learning what it really means to work for a dive centre; from filling tanks and maintaining dive equipment, to caring for divers & students, meeting with customers, & helping to run the dive shop.