SSI
Eco-friendly, Credit Card, Hotel Pickup, Credit Card Fee, Pool, Classroom, Free Wifi, Child Friendly
English, German, French, Spanish, Thai
Merlin Divers is a SSI Dive Center on Kamala beach on the west coast of Phuket.
All SSI dive courses from the beginner to the professional level are conducted at our facility..
Our local half day trip offers the shortest possible day trip with 2 dives on a traditional local boat.
We are proud to offer a personal and more private diving experience with small dive classes and dive groups.
We offer too all the day and overnight trips to the most famous dive areas in Around Phuekt like the Phi Phi, Racha, Smilan and Surin islands.
And the dive shop itself has one of the biggest retail showrooms on Phuket island for snorkeling and scuba diving equipment..
Cameras For Hire, Compressor, Equipment For Sale, Equipment Hire, Own Day Boat, Servicing, DIN, Valve Adapters, Yoke
Other contact methods:
+66 (0) 76 385518
Your enquiry will go directly to Merlin Divers Phuket
Merlin Divers Phuket will respond to your enquiry within 24 hours
There is no obligation to make a booking
Prices shown in US Dollars (USD).
Get wet, get underwater, and see if scuba diving is for you. Without a lot of theory, classroom time, or stress, students can be blowing bubbles beneath the surface and enjoying their first scuba experience. This session is a great option when someone is curious about diving, but not sure they want to commit for full certification. This session can also be a good way to keep children occupied with a specially trained scuba instructor teaching them scuba basics while their parents or siblings are out diving deep!
All the gear - masks, snorkels, fins, wet suit (if required), vest, tank, and regulator are included.
Instructors guide students through pool exercises, giving them a smooth, easy and quick introduction to scuba gear and how to use it.
Open to ages 8+. Usually takes around 2 hours depending on class size. Safety, fun, and introducing the excitement of diving are what it is all about.
When they realize how simple and cool it is to breathe underwater, students will want to sign-up for the next level: Open Water.
SSI Open Water is a certification recognized world wide and allows you to dive in the most common environments with a dive buddy. Covering both the important theory of underwater breathing challenges and activities imparting safe diving practices, students progress from novice to a comfortable skill level. Instructors review interesting diving manuals, DVD's and online training with students prior to pool or open water diving sessions.
All basic scuba gear is provided including: wet suit, buoyancy vest, tanks, regulator, gauges, fins, mask and snorkel.
Upon completion, students can rent equipment at most dive shops, dive in a wide variety of conditions, and dive about 30 meters or 100 feet deep. This means they can see most of the great diving sites around the world.
The class includes a total of at least 5 confined pool sessions with a minimum of 4 open water dives for passing the certification requirements. You need between 3 to 4 days to complete the course.
Requirements for entering the Open Water course include:
• Must be at least 12 years old
• In good health without a cold or ear infection
• Be ready to start the adventure of scuba!
Once as student passes through the Open Water course, they will often want to learn more about specialty diving skills such as nitrox, wreck diving, diver stress and rescue, or any of the 18 diving specialty sessions.
For Open Water Divers who want the most demanding Advanced Diver certification in the scuba industry, this is your course. Similar to the Specialty Diver, the Advanced Open Water course involves pursuing specialty diving skills. Here is the complete list of specialty courses available:
• Navigation
• Deep Diving
• Enriched Air Nitrox
• Boat Diving
• Perfect Buoyancy
• Search and Recovery
• Dry Suit Diving (for cold water)
• Night/Limited Visibility
• Wreck Diving
• Shark Diving
• Digital Underwater Photography
• Equipment Techniques
• Waves, Tides and Currents
• Stress and Rescue
Instructors lead students through both theory and practical exercises for 4 individually chosen specialties. This is a great sampler course for choosing specialty diving skills to focus on.
Divers pursuing this rating are encouraged to invest in their own equipment for improved familiarity, leading to improved safety. However, students can choose to rent the basic scuba gear required, as well as specific gear for each specialty.
24 dives are required to obtain the coveted SSI Advanced Open Water rating, far above requirements from any other rating agency. Course length varies from 1-3 days.
The same age and physical requirements for Open Water apply here.
Age requirement is 12 years or older.
Deep Diving, Cavern Diving, and Ice Diving are not available to Junior Divers.
This in depth Advanced Open Water course prepares divers for making the challenging leap into Master Diver status. The other option after this rating, is to take more of the specialty courses to gain additional experience and a rating for each specialty.
This is the starting level for professional diving under SSI. With this rating, you can get paid to lead and guide certified divers. The great responsibility of this rating means that it is a challenging rating to achieve. First, the instructors will get student's dive skills to exemplary levels. They must set the standard. Second, the class will train divers how to plan, organize, and lead dives with an emphasis on safety. Third, all the diving and teaching skills developed are put to the test for insuring the potential Dive Guide can handle the pressures of diving while teaching.
A full range of diving specialties must be mastered by prospective Dive Guides so they can be the confident leader of a diving group. Wreck diving, nigh diving, deep diving, etc. are all covered from preparation, planning, through boat check in. Each student must have rescue skills, dive leadership skills, searching and navigation skills.
All students will be expected to have their own scuba gear for this level. Additional gear is available for purchase in the dive center as needed.
Tests include:
• 700 meter snorkel swim in under 20 minutes
• Underwater swim of 25 meters or more
• 15 minutes of water treading
• Rescuing an unconscious diver 100 meters away in under 8 minutes
Applicants must hold Advanced rating, be 18 years or older, have logged at least 24 dives - with 50+ recommended, and be SSI Stress and Rescue Diver certified.
A minimum of 40 dives are required for this rating. Generally allow 2-4 weeks to complete the Dive Guide rating. Once you get this rating, you can find work almost anywhere in the world as it is recognized to be among the top ratings available.
SSI Divemasters can lead certified divers, like a Dive Guide, but can also assist diving instructors with courses. This is a key step prior to full instructor status.
Most Dive Guide rated students immediately sign up for the Divemaster course to keep the momentum.
One of the key requirements for Divemaster is The Science of Diving module. This critical, detail filled instruction brings a more technical and thorough understanding of diving effects. With the additional knowledge and understanding, the Divemaster is able to impart more information to students as well as lead safer dives.
Students must have logged 60 dives to attain a Divemaster rating.
Part of the training is simply diving with top flight instructors and learning from the best.
Requirements include:
• 18 years and up
• Hold a license to administer oxygen
• Be a certified Stress and Rescue Diver
• At least the specialties ratings for Deep, Nitrox and Navigation, though going through Master Diver is recommended.
Total time for completion varies but 8 weeks is recommended. There is also a 2 week internship period.
Other contact methods:
+66 (0) 76 385518
Your enquiry will go directly to Merlin Divers Phuket
Merlin Divers Phuket will respond to your enquiry within 24 hours
There is no obligation to make a booking
Other contact methods:
+66 (0) 76 385518
Tin Lizzy is a tin-mining excavator that has fallen of a boat over 30 years ago. This little wreck together with 3 huge piles concrete blocks is home to many many fishes. You can find all sorts of reef fishes on the wreck and certainly a very interesting dive sites for macro photography.
The dive site also offers some very hard to find creature like real stone fishes, flounders albeit small ones and the flatfish aka crocodile fish.
From Kamala beach it is a boat ride of about 30 minutes on a converted longtail boat - typical Thai style wooden boat. Merlin divers offers a half day trip that often visits Tin Lizzy. Th season to dive there runs from end of September to middle of May. The dive site depth is maximum 16 meters at high tide. The site is also big enough to do 2 dives there.
The dive site is sensitive concerning the visibility because it is hardly a kilometer out of Bangtao beach hence with the shallow water and waves it quickly gets the visibility to less than 10 meters. Best is always to dive Tin Lizzy with slack high tide or slack low tide around half moon when the change of low to high tide is the minimum.
This will permanently delete the comment. Are you sure?