Has anyone used the Tropic Diving Center in Taipei?
They run various PADI courses, and have dive trips to the northeast coast almost every weekend (weather permitted). In summer they also have weekday diving trips. Further afield, they often have trips to Green Island, Orchid Island and Kending, and overseas dive trips to places such as Palau, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
Manager Mr. Cheng (he speaks English)
Tropic Diving Center
No. 34 Zhishan Road, Section 2,
Shilin, Taipei 111
TEL:886-2-2880-1231
I got the above information from Mr Cheng, but I haven’t had any dealings with the dive shop.
I’ve never used these guys but not really needed for the northeast coast …You can rent your tanks and equipment on site in Pitou harbor. There are at least 4 dive shops there…Avoid Sundays unless all you want to see are other divers. There are other divers here (including myself)who go out on their own…Far more relaxing than the Taipei organized cattle drives.
There is a group of three here in Taoyuan/Yangmei that goes out a couple of times a month, and all have vehicles/equipment. We usually skip the Pitou weekend mess by renting our tanks locally.
If they do offer weekday trips take advantage of this, as you’ll get the dive site to yourselves and you might actually see something!
There are a slew of dive sites to chose from and the only real requirement to keep you out of the Taipei dive shops is…a car.
With your interest in snakes, you need to head out to Green Island ASAP…You’ll see a dozen or so banded sea-kraits on every dive!
Botti, is the Bitou place you refer to called Northeast Coast Adventures or something? If so, I think they’e the same bunch as Tropic.
A good friend of mine is a dive instructor, and he works with tropic. If anyone wants to get licensed to dive, you should call him. I think you get about 4 indoor (pool)dives, 4 outdoor dives, a book, a kit and maybe a wetsuit (to keep) too. And you get your license. Costs about 10000NT.
Hi, Could you give me the contact information about diving club in Taoyuan/ Yangmei? Thanks, Jane
[quote=“Michael J Botti”]I’ve never used these guys but not really needed for the northeast coast …You can rent your tanks and equipment on site in Pitou harbor. There are at least 4 dive shops there…Avoid Sundays unless all you want to see are other divers. There are other divers here (including myself)who go out on their own…Far more relaxing than the Taipei organized cattle drives.
There is a group of three here in Taoyuan/Yangmei that goes out a couple of times a month, and all have vehicles/equipment. We usually skip the Pitou weekend mess by renting our tanks locally.
If they do offer weekday trips take advantage of this, as you’ll get the dive site to yourselves and you might actually see something!
There are a slew of dive sites to chose from and the only real requirement to keep you out of the Taipei dive shops is…a car.
With your interest in snakes, you need to head out to Green Island ASAP…You’ll see a dozen or so banded sea-kraits on every dive![/quote]
We are not really a club…Just a group of guys that dive together and happen to live in Taoyuan and Yangmei.
However, the place we rent our tanks does not rent gear, so if you don’t have your own equipment it might be a problem…Most people rent their gear in Pitou, but the dive sites we use are far south of there and it’s out of our way…
Send me a PM with your contact info if you want to get wet…We leave at 5:45am on Sunday morning and are usually home by 3pm…This weeks out due to weather conditions but next week is looking good.
Me and a few friends got our OW with Tropic and a few of us got our advanced done there too-all done in English. Tropic has quite a few foreign instructors and teaches rescue and instructor courses in English. They also have a shop in Pitou Harbour as well. A few of us are members there and as members, you get 30% off all purchases and discounts on trips as well as free tanks! It’s not a bad deal at all. I think this shop is quite good compared to some of the others and the manager at the shop is great and very professional.