Wicked Diving - spreading the word about coral reef conservation

Below is a report on the recent visit to a school Wicked Diving sponsors. As part of our ethical operations, we not only pay the rent for the entire Outreach school, but is also part of the training for our divemaster trainees to participate in projects that help increase awareness within the local community. We feel very strongly that as future divers - they should learn how to affect more than just divers, they should be improving the community they will work in. It also helps the children in the school learn far more about the marine environment.


By Divemaster Trainees Lucy, Will, and Lukas.


The Divemaster intership at Wicked Diving includes to participate in a Community or Envyronmental Project, to comply with that, last Jan 26th we had the opportunity to visit the Youth Outreach Program (a local school for burmese children) to present a lecture on Coral Reefs.


We discussed what coral is, how it grows and where it is found. We explained why it is important to Thailand - with reference to biodiversity, tourism and fishing. Finally, we showed them what threatens the coral locally and what can be done to counter these threats, emphasizing what the children can do to help to preserve them.


With the aid of some presentations, 2 mini plays, traditional spoken instruction as well as videos, we manage to keep well the attention of the 20 or so children for 1:30 hrs! :)


Finally, we challenge the children with a quizz to ascertain how much they had retained from our explanations - with a small prize for the team with the highest score. We were really pleased to see most of the children had learned a fair deal and, judging from their feedback, had enjoyed the session as much as we had.


Overall, a really rewarding afternoon as a Divemaster! ;)



Thank guys! Great job! When they joined our Divemaster program, who would have expected to be preparing powerpoints for Burmese school children :)





You can learn more about the the Ethical programs Wicked Diving participates in. We use 2% of all revenue generated to support these programs. When you dive with Wicked - you are helping improve our local communities.

Similan Diving

Wicked Diving - Reef Guradians

On 21st and 22nd of Dec, Diego Ballesteros, one of our instructors, together with staff of other two dive centers that operate in the area, attended to a training program in the Similan island 4, organized by the Similans National Park Headquarters, the Surins National Park Headquarters and SAMPAN (Strenghtening Andaman Marine Protected Areas Network), to become a "Reef Guardian".

This pilot program intend to take advantage of the skills of dive/snorkel guides that work everyday in either of the National Parks (NP) to survey selected reefs once a month during this season, to collect relevant data that will help to evaluate their health status. The technique used for the survey is an adaptation of the "Reef Check", but is much more flexible, which allows a guide on duty to perform it.

It consists on the following, the guide leads his group on a normal tour (dive), takes the "Reef Guardian Slate" and tries to follow the same route that last month for roughly the same length/time and on the way counts individuals of some target species of fish, invertebrates and records signs of reef threats, being as accurate as possible but at the same time allowing to control his group and giving them an enjoyable experience. The results of the survey are sent to SAMPAN, that, together with researchers in the Prince of Songkhla University-Phuket, will analyze the data to determine the reefs status.

The Wicked Diving staff will be surveying Anita's Reef and West of Eden every month for the next 4 months and will send this information to help out in the research developed on the reefs of the Similan Islands.

To be continued...


-Similan Dive Center

Similan Diving - New Year's Liveaboard with the Parinee!

New Years Trip

Here's the group photos from the Wicked Parinee Liveaboard to the Similan Marine Park and Richelieu Rock - enjoy!Hope they bring back memories of fun times in Thailand and a wicked New Year party!


Starting with the first dive at the Boonsung Wreck close to Khao Lak with thousands and thousands of Barracudas circling us we were off to a great start. We eventually missed the bigger creatures at Koh Bon that day but with a large Napoleon wrasse, Lobster, Octopus and a Sea snake every one was happy heading to Koh Tachai for the first night dive of the trip.


The waves did not shake anyone out of bed after an early start of the Parinee when we moved North to Richelieu Rock on New Year's Eve. The experience of two fantastic dives with a Sea horse, Shrimps, Barracudas, Moray eels and never ending shoals of other fish let everyone wish for more air in their tanks. Back at Koh Tachai we had a fantastic dive at the Pinnacle where we watched a feeding frenzy of trevallies and a huge school of Chevron Barracudas circling the Northern Pinnacle.


We celebrated into the 2012 after another great night dive at turtle Rock, having the first count down with the help of a flexible clock a little earlier as usual since only a few could stay awake until our second count down of the night. No one minded since we could enjoy the fire works for a long time over Island 8 and 9.


During our travels we enjoyed playing Rummikub, Bananagrams and Yatzi till the late evenings. We will miss the sound of the dices and tiles on the wooden table. Everyone was friendly to each other so that no master assassin was awarded the toothbrush's games first price. But the crew and staff thanked Baxter for his endurance in driving the boat back into the safety of port. A treasure hunt for oranges made everyone a proud owner of various Wicked items like stainless steel bottles, t-shirts, mask straps and hand made organic soaps.


On our days diving the Similan Liveaboard everyone was amazed by the crystal visibilities. Turtles, Octopus, Barracudas, Sea snakes and more Lobsters met us on our dives at North Point, Whale Back Rock, 3 Trees, Turtle Rock, Elephant Head Rock and West of Eden.


We are happy that we could take you all out on this trip and thank the captain and crew who made the travels safe and convenient. We hope you enjoyed the trip as much as we did. Thanks again for being such a great fun-loving group of people, you make the trips more of a holiday than a job for us - it was brilliant to meet you all, having a wonderful start into the New Year & get to share the diving experiences with you. Congratulations as well again to Yoko, Linsey and Steve who passed their SSI Advanced Adventurers with Tuk. Two thumbs up!

-Similan Diving

Similan Diving Liveaboard parinee - December 20-22,2011

And a great diving holiday!

Starting with a great breakfast impeccably prepared by our super chefs P’Nui and P’Taai, we already knew we were off to an awesome trip!

Check dive at Hideaway Bay was the prelude of great diving, followed by the action at Anita’s Reef, where we were all flying in the current watching the reef passing by before our eyes.

Next day West of Eden, then 3 Trees and Turtle Rock, to complete the “Wicked hardcore diving day” with the beautiful night dive at Bangu Bay. What a day!!!! Even by snorkeling with P’Korn we had the chance to see octopus, titan trigger fish and tunas.

Last day North point early morning, then we tried our luck at Kho Bon, searching for those black-and-white, pelagic creatures J. We were not quite lucky this time but we still had wicked time under water! And what a pleasure to see P’Korn diving with Tuk! Congratulation P’Korn on completing 2 resort dives! Ian, be ready to share your passion with her! She’ll soon want to become certified J. Last but not least, the Boonsung wreck; nobody believed that we were keeping the best secret for last dive. The abundant marine life around the wreck was simply fantastic, leaving all of us asking for more……maybe next time!

The group was very well mixed, as we had some more experienced divers, Ian, Maurits, Caroline and Andrew, all taken care by Colin.

Sajit and Daniel, a bit less experienced but very much willing to improve their skills, and by the way, Daniel has taken some awesome pics!!

David and Mameaw, freshly certified OWD in BKK, taken care by Tuk and now they dive as they had been doing that for ages. Well done guys!

Some open water diver decided to progress to the next level; congratulation Maarten, Fleur, and Mona on completing your SSI Advanced Adventurer course. And thank Anna and Gae for their great job!

Sujin completed the Open Water AND the Advanced Adventurer course under the safe and professional guidance of Anna. Not only that, she was with no doubt the sweetest of the whole bunch. Her kindness has stolen a piece of heart from us all.

And of course, as any Wicked trip, not only diving but lot of fun. Daniel won the prize for the best serial killer with his tooth brush. And never trust wicked instructors while playing tooth brush killing. In fact at the end of a perfect dive at West of Eden, Sajit was killed by her guide (that was me J). Mona the most strategic and most successful werewolf of the Wicked’s history. And how to forget the arguments between Daniel and Maurits on deciding who was a werewolf needed to be killed (and of course Mona listening and hiding). Typical of our Similan Liveaboards

A special thank to Capt. Khaw for cruising us safely to dive sites and back home, P’Khaw and P’Toon for their help on the dive deck.

Overall, we hope you all had a wonderful trip, thanks again for being such a great fun-loving group of people, you made the trip more of a holiday than a job for us - it was brilliant to meet you all & get to share the diving experiences with you.

-Similan Diving

Wicked Diving Christmas on the Parinee

White Christmas on the Similan Islands
(White Sand Christmas that is...)

Starting with the first dive at the Boonsung Wreck close to Khao Lak with thousands and thousands of Barracudas circling us we were off to a great start. We eventually missed the bigger creatures at Koh Bon that day but with a large Napoleon wrasse, Octopus and a Sea snake every one was happy heading to Koh Tachai for the first night dive of the trip.






The waves did not shake anyone out of bed after an early start of the Parinee when we moved North to Richelieu Rock on Christmas Eve. The experience of two fantastic dives with mating Cuttle fish, Shrimps, Barracudas, Moray eels and never ending shoals of other fish let us forget the sometimes challenging currents. Some of us even got luckey to see a Sea horse. Back at Koh Tachai we had a fantastic dive at the Pinnacle where we watched a feeding frenzy of trevallies and a huge school of Chevron Barracudas circling the Northern Pinnacle. Christmas evening ended with another night dive at Koh Bon and an enormous dinner cooked together by P'Nui and P'Tai.

During our travels we enjoyed playing Rummikub and Yatzi till the late evenings. We will miss the sound of the dices and tiles on the wooden table. Chris' persistence paid out in the toothbrush game when he finally managed to kill Kerry after a 24 hour duel and won the prize for the game.

On Christmas day we did another 4 dives, finding more Octopus, a ghost pipe fish, turtles, Moray eels and other fantastic marine life around the boulder sites of islands 8 and 9. If someone waited for gifts under the Christmas tree then even their wishes got fulfilled. A treasure hunt for oranges made everyone a proud owner of various Wicked items like stainless steel bottles, t-shirts, bottle coolers, mask straps and hand made organic soaps.

We are happy that we could take you all out on this trip and thank the captain and crew who made the travels safe and convenient. We hope you enjoyed the trip as much as we did Thanks again for being such a great fun-loving group of people, you make the trips more of a holiday than a job for us - it was brilliant to meet you all, spend the Christmas days together & get to share the diving experiences with you.

We were honoured that Antoinette chose us as her birthday company - we hope you had a memorable day! Congratulations as well again to Sonia, Dino and Ciaran who passed their SSI Advanced Adventurers with Roland. Two thumbs up!

And to all - a good night!


-Similan Diving