Hey Folks!
Our brand new website is up!
If you are a diver, or would like to become a diver.
If you live and work in Taiwan.
Or perhaps you’re just visiting Taiwan.
www.taiwanscuba.com is for you.
Lots of great information about scuba diving in Taiwan and how to access it.
Come and join our community.
Cool. I did a dive just this last weekend at Hu Bi Hu In Kenting and was amazed at the amount of beautiful soft coral. The fish population was not too high but I did see a few types that I had never seen before. All in all it was a great experience. I forget the name of the shop that I went with but it was the first one before entering Kenting, quite a large place with accomodation provided, although we didn’t stay there. The cost was 1500 person for one dive and 2000 per person for 2 dives.
Great news. Congrats on your website.
Erm, are you going to post prices for the courses. We had a discussion going a couple of weeks ago about how alot of scuba outfitters are greatly overpriced when compared to destinations such as Thailand and Bali.
Care to share?
Gumper,
It was actually the prices from www.Taiwanscuba.com we were talking about. 
It seems you might find them a little expensive unless they’ve lowered their prices. I’m still pondering whether to take MJB’s advice(I’m strongly in agreement with) and wait for scuba diving in Taipei, so that the cold water won’t be such a shock when I go back to the US this summer.
Cheers,
Okami
[quote=“Okami”]Gumper,
It was actually the prices from www.Taiwanscuba.com we were talking about. It seems you might find them a little expensive unless they’ve lowered their prices. I’m still pondering whether to take MJB’s advice(I’m strongly in agreement with) and wait for scuba diving in Taipei, so that the cold water won’t be such a shock when I go back to the US this summer.
Cheers,
Okami[/quote]
Thanks O.
You should know that the best diving I’ve ever done was off the coast of Vancouver (Gulf Islands) in 
February
Fish love cold water. And, if you use the right gear, cold water diving can be the best experience. Might I suggest that you combine your open water course with the “dry-suit” course. You can dive in the Arctic Ocean with a dry-suit. When we dove in the Gulf Islands, we used 11mm wetsuits with hoodies and jackets. The only exposed skin was our cheeks (on our faces), but once they froze, you hardly even noticed the cold.
MJB is spot on with the rough conditions thing tho. If you can dive here, you can dive anywhere.
A friend of mine is a dive instructor in Taipei. He’s got lots of experience and patience and he also arranges dive trips to Kending, Green Island, the Phillipines, etc. Check out his website at www.divetaiwan.com.
Hey Folks,
Taiwan Scuba is based out of Taichung.
Typically, the good folks in Taipei usually dive on the North East Coast.
Being that much closer to Kenting and some Southern dive spots, we do the majority of our diving down South.
As far as prices for courses go, the price of our Open Water certification is exactly the same as one would pay on Boracay and elsewhere in the Philippinnes.
We charge 12,000 NT for an Open Water Course.
This includes:
Use of all PADI Materials
All equipment rental
Certification Costs
Air
Of course, there are places in Asia and elsewhere where you can pay less for a course. Places like Thailand have dive resorts destinations that are right beside the ocean and have a very high volume and throughput of students and are able to provide cut rates for courses.
To use something of an analogy, it is also possible to get an inexpensive tattoo, but to my mind, I prefer a service that concentrates more on quality and not quantity.
As a Dive Instructor, I have to say, that I have seen some shops throughout Asia that ‘stack’ courses with students.
We try to provide low student / instructor ratios and instill a sense of confidence amongst our student divers. A confidence that lasts, not just for the duration of the course, but for however long the diver chooses to engage in the sport of diving.
Cheers,
Joe
PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor