I am organising a fun boat diving trip to Orchid Island. The dates will be May 28th to June 1st. It’s a long weekend for Dragon Boat Festival. Dive schedule will look like this. Ferry from Kenting to Orchid at 08:00 on the 28th. Arrive Orchid at 11:15, check into the hotel and do 2 boat dives in the afternoon. Next day we will do 2 dives plus 1 optional night dive [from the shore]. Following morning same again, do 2 boat dives followed by an optional night dive. On June 1st do two boat dives in the morning, back to dive shop at 12:00, clean up, lunch and ferry back to Kenting at 15:30. Arrive Kenting at 18:30. This gives people coming from up north plenty of time to either drive back up to Taipei or get the HSR from Kaohsiung to points north. There is decent shore diving available for anyone who wants to squeeze in a 3rd dive in the afternoons otherwise in the afternoons you will have time to look around the island. It’s beautiful and has a very interesting tribal culture.
Approximate price for the trip will be NT$10,000. This will include the round trip ferry ticket, scooter hire from the harbour on Orchid, good clean, air con, dorm style accommodation, baggage pick up and drop off from harbour and refreshments on the boat [water, ginger tea] Private double room accommodation is available at extra cost for couples or high volume snorers.
For those of you who have never dived Orchid before, this trip will be excellent, Orchid has 40M~50M visibility, May/June/July is Flying Fish season so we are likely to see pelagics like Tuna and Jacks hunting the flying fish. There is also a chance of seeing Blue spotted rays as well as Mantas, Eagle Rays and whales and dolphins [on the surface]. Orchid Island has an outstandingly beautiful wreck dive which is a must do on Orchid; also in this season the north, north east and east coasts are open for diving. They are closed Oct~March due to NE monsoon. This is the only trip I will make to Orchid this year.
Places on this trip will probably go rapidly so if you are interested please email me ASAP at divingintaiwan@yahoo.com.tw You will be required to pay a NT$3,000 deposit, sent to my ATM to secure your spot on the trip. Bank a/c # supplied when you contact me. Looking forward to diving with you all again and welcome to new divers.
BTW you need to be Advanced Open Water divers or the equivalent to go on this trip. If you have friends you’re welcome to invite them along.
I didn’t know there are that many people keen on scuba.
I don’t have my gear with me, it’s in Australia so is my beloved ice hockey gear, my guitars, my turtles, my CD collections, etc.
Hey, do you teach Deep dive and enrich air using the (International Association of Nitrox and Technical Diving) program of the TDI progame???
It’s too much hassel for me to do those course in Taiwan and I live in Taichung. THe travel time is way too long for me at this stage, i might as well go and jump off a cliff.
Hi, yes there are heaps of divers in Taiwan it is a huge sport here and lots of great diving. There are at least 3 big dive shops in Taichung. BTW the trip to Orchid Island is May 28th to May 31st NOT June 1st sorry about that everyone. Still a few spots left if anyone is interested.
Don’t despair and don’t go jumping off of any cliffs the drive time from Taichung to Kenting is only a few hours. Lots of divers drive down or take the bus or high speed rail and spend the weekend diving in Kenting. I teach the PADI Enriched Air dive course and there is an excellent wreck on Orchid Island.
Safe diving.
[quote=“section61”]Sounds fun,
I didn’t know there are that many people keen on scuba.
I don’t have my gear with me, it’s in Australia so is my beloved ice hockey gear, my guitars, my turtles, my CD collections, etc.
Hey, do you teach Deep dive and enrich air using the (International Association of Nitrox and Technical Diving) program of the TDI progame???
It’s too much hassel for me to do those course in Taiwan and I live in Taichung. THe travel time is way too long for me at this stage, I might as well go and jump off a cliff.
Hi, No I don’t know that particular shop. I live in Kaohsiung and dive in Kenting most weekends. Give me a shout if you want to go diving when you get you gear from Oz I will steer you in the right direction. You can also check out my website www.taiwandive.com for info about diving in Kenting and around the island. Gear is also cheap here if you want to buy any new stuff. BTW there is a big dive gear manufacturers show up in Taipei this coming weekend, in the World Trade Center. It’s open 09:00 to 18:30 Fri, Sat and Sun.
Dive safe.
Just got back from the ocean…The diving season up north is pretty much open. Water: 25c Comfy in a 3mm. Vis was only about 25feet or so, but adequate considering the conditions.
Apart from the dive club deciding to give us nets and sent us down in order to fill them with garbage, it was a great couple of dives and a good start on the season.
[quote=“MJB”]Just got back from the ocean…The diving season up north is pretty much open. Water: 25c Comfy in a 3mm. Vis was only about 25feet or so, but adequate considering the conditions.
Damn, it felt good to get back in the water… [/quote]
Well I spent the weekend in Kenting teaching an OW course. It was stinking hot, and the vis was pretty poor about 15m on Saturday not bad, but less than 10m on Sunday. The water was teeming with tiny little fish, literally millions of them which is what made the visibility so bad. So some pretty cool stuff, a white Frogfish, a Facelinidae species nudibranch and a whole school of Flutemouths I counted about 15 which is very unusual, they usually only come in pairs.
Read this blog post someone wrote about scuba diving and snorkelling on Green Island. It only confirms things I have heard elsewhere about the poor safety standards of diving operators in Taiwan.
I have never been diving in Taiwan and am reluctant to when I hear stuff like this. A few questions:
(1) Are there any reputable diving shops in Taiwan that take safety seriously?
(2) Is it possible to lobby PADI, the government or somebody to get these cowboy/circus diving operators shut down?
There are many perfectly safe Chinese owned operations to go diving with in Taiwan. If you are an English speaker I would recommend that you learn to dive or go diving with one of the foreign instructors, there are many scattered around all over Taiwan. Try taiwandive.com for PADI Discover Scuba Diving, Open Water certification classes or just general fun diving of all kinds around the island but especially the Kenting area. Andy has certified over 500 students and has a perfect safety record.
that you [quote=“wix”]Read this blog post someone wrote about scuba diving and snorkelling on Green Island. It only confirms things I have heard elsewhere about the poor safety standards of diving operators in Taiwan.
I have never been diving in Taiwan and am reluctant to when I hear stuff like this. A few questions:
(1) Are there any reputable diving shops in Taiwan that take safety seriously?
(2) Is it possible to lobby PADI, the government or somebody to get these cowboy/circus diving operators shut down?[/quote]
They ARE likely members of PADI rather then any other certifying organization.
We won’t be feeding the fish, walking on coral or wearing life vest. We will be eco friendly, dive plan with gas management and team oriented diving on Jul31-Aug2 in Green Island. shellbackdiver.com/green_isl … index.html
[quote=“shellbackdiver”]They ARE likely members of PADI rather then any other certifying organization./quote]
Actually shellback, when I worked for the navy here I had access to naval statistics for dive accidents for the whole of Taiwan. Accidents most commonly occured to CMAS, SSI, NAUI and PADI divers in that order. In addition I would say that PADI has one of the best environmental training programs for divers of any agency in the world and probably donates more money to reef projects world wide than any other certification agency. Just because some idiots trample all over the coral, handle and feed fish does not mean to say they are PADI divers. BTW the majority of the dive shops on Green Island are not PADI they are CMAS or SSI.
As a PADI instructor I never allow my students or divers to touch marine life, feed marine life or otherwise handle any marine life whatsoever when I am their dive leader. Can you say the same?
[quote=“finsarefun”][quote=“shellbackdiver”]They ARE likely members of PADI rather then any other certifying organization./quote]
Actually shellback, when I worked for the navy here I had access to naval statistics for dive accidents for the whole of Taiwan. Accidents most commonly occured to CMAS, SSI, NAUI and PADI divers in that order. In addition I would say that PADI has one of the best environmental training programs for divers of any agency in the world and probably donates more money to reef projects world wide than any other certification agency. Just because some idiots trample all over the coral, handle and feed fish does not mean to say they are PADI divers. BTW the majority of the dive shops on Green Island are not PADI they are CMAS or SSI.
As a PADI instructor I never allow my students or divers to touch marine life, feed marine life or otherwise handle any marine life whatsoever when I am their dive leader. Can you say the same?[/quote][/quote]
A friend of mine is AOW in the CMAS system, which he got in Copenhagen. They always deive connected to a buoy, and with buddy lines, backup divers and what have you not, and all that for the chance to dive in the icy mud that is the Sound. OK, we went out with a group of Taiwanese divers in Kenting, it was not a well led trip, the group got spread out over all of Shadao, and people came dribbling bag after a very uneventful dive over a pristine sand bottom. Not fun in other words, unless you enjoy watching sand.
My friend said: “Typical of PADI, they teach people too fast , Put Another Dollar In etc etc.”.
He then started to talk to the divemaster, who then asked him what system he was under. (The divemaster had not checked that detail before going in with us).
My friend replied with barely concealed pride: “CMAS”.
The divemaster replied: “So are we”, and proceeded to show him his CMAS c-card.
Ha Ha so did I. But before we all begin cutting each others air hoses at 30M. I would like to say that I think it ill behoves any professional diver to begin attacking dive agencies or divers certified by a particular agency without concrete facts to back him up not hearsay. I have been diving for the past 33 years and I have been an instructor for almost 18 years. In my time as a diver in Europe and Asia I have made friends with divers and instructors from a great many certification agencies. There seems to be a lot of rivalry between certain agencies. PADI gets a lot of flack, not least from its own instructors. Put Another Dollar In was not coined by students of PADI instructors but by the instructors themselves directed at PADI’s rather outrageous, continually rising prices that it forces on it’s instructors for the materials it sells. Pay And Dive Immediately was coined in the UK by BSAC instructors, as their entry level Open water course takes weeks to complete in contrast to PADI’s days. I am not sure how or who coined the following terms, SSI [Sub Standard Instruction/Instructors] NAUI [Not Another Underwater Idiot] CMAS [Chumps Monkeying Around on Scuba] AAD [ Awefully Adventurous Dummies/Divers] TDI [That Dumb Idiot] I could go on, it seems every dive agency has its detractors.
Anyhow, in my experience there are no ‘bad’ agencies only bad instructors. I have in my time met a few bad instructors but no single agency stands out. PADI has very strict enforcement policies to prevent poor or rogue instructors [instructors that do not strictly follow agency standards] working within the organization. A dissatisfied student or customer only has to complain once to PADI for that Dive Master or Instructor to be Q&Aed by headquarters. In fact I would say PADI is one of the strictest organisations when it comes to standards.
PADI also does a great deal for the marine environment, every beginning level PADI student receives instruction in safe environmental practises in the Open Water reference manual and free brochure guidlines from PADI i.e. 10 Ways a Diver Can Protect the Underwater Environment and Protect The Living Reef. PADI also supports projectaware.org a non profit organisation dedicated to aquatic world awareness, responsibility and education. Few other dive agencies put the same effort into helping the marine environment or educating divers to be pro environment that PADI does. This is one of the reasons I am a PADI instructor and do not belong to another agency.
Anyway can’t we all just get along, have fun diving and enjoy each others company? Our common bond is our love diving and we should all care about preserving and protecting the marine environment. Personally I don’t give a fig about who you were certified by, what kind of fins or BCD you wear or Regs you use as long as you dive safely and responsibly within your trained ability, you can dive with me.
Actually shellback, when I worked for the navy here I had access to naval statistics for dive accidents for the whole of Taiwan. Accidents most commonly occured to CMAS, SSI, NAUI and PADI divers in that order. In addition I would say that PADI has one of the best environmental training programs for divers of any agency in the world and probably donates more money to reef projects world wide than any other certification agency. Just because some idiots trample all over the coral, handle and feed fish does not mean to say they are PADI divers. BTW the majority of the dive shops on Green Island are not PADI they are CMAS or SSI.
As a PADI instructor I never allow my students or divers to touch marine life, feed marine life or otherwise handle any marine life whatsoever when I am their dive leader. Can you say the same?[/quote]
I was reading another internet forum where the discussion was about which organization has the largest accident rate. Obviously it was PADI. The reason cause PADI is the largest certifying organization in the world and more divers are trained PADI then any other organization. Same reason why GM has largest rate of deaths per car accident…there are more GM cars on the road in the world then any other car company. Actually I think Toyota is the largest now. It does not mean PADI or GM are bad in anyway…it is just statistics.
It would only make sense that CMAS has the highest rate of accidents in Taiwan. They are big here…at least they were back in the day. I believe the Taiwan Navy still trains using CMAS.
Hands off is a given when diving with me. There is a difference between organizer and leader. However, unfortunately I have seen pictures where divers on trips I organized have touched marine life. Never any excuse for that…but do have to say that in the picture the diver that was touching marine life was a diver trained by a very famous PADI foreign instructor in Kaohsuing that has been preaching don’t touch marine life. It is hard to control an entire group of trained, independent divers in the water.
the drive time from Taichung to Kenting is only a few hours. Lots of divers drive down or take the bus or high speed rail and spend the weekend diving in Kenting. I teach the PADI Enriched Air dive course and there is an excellent wreck on Orchid Island.
