Our Local FriendSSI certification3 days4 ocean divesTo 18m4 nights included
SSI Open Water Diver Course
Mae Haad, Koh Tao · Starts daily
$417
per person · 4 nights' accommodation included ฿12,500
About this course
The one that makes you a diver.
Koh Tao certifies more divers than almost anywhere on the planet, and the reason is unglamorous: warm water, little current, and shallow bays that forgive a beginner's mistakes. It is an unusually easy place to learn something that sounds hard.
Three days. Day one is theory and the pool. Days two and three are four dives in the sea, each a little deeper, until you're at 18 metres and it feels ordinary. Four students to an instructor, maximum.
Four nights at the Regal are included — Pok's own place, a few minutes from the pier, with the pool you'll do half your training in.
Course structure
Your day-by-day journey
Day 1 — Digital theory at your own pace, then a full afternoon in the pool. Gear, breathing, mask clearing, buoyancy, regulator recovery, air sharing, controlled ascents — each one repeated until it's dull.
Skills you'll earn
What you'll be able to do
Assembling, checking and diving a full set of gear Mask flooding and clearing, regulator recovery, air sharing Neutral buoyancy and controlled ascents and descents Dive planning, no-decompression limits and computer use Buddy checks, hand signals and basic navigation
Certification
What you take home
SSI Open Water Diver
A lifetime, globally recognised certification to dive independently with a buddy to 18 metres. Issued digitally the day you finish, and accepted by every dive centre in the world. Ages 10–14 certify as Junior Open Water Diver.
Lifetime validGlobally recognisedMax depth 18m4 logged dives
What's included
What the price covers
- All dive equipment for the length of the course
- A dive computer to use, free
- Digital learning materials and your certification
- Boat trips, with drinks and snacks aboard
- 30 days of dive accident insurance
- A free T-shirt, and 10% off anything you book afterwards
- Four nights' accommodation, private room with air-con
Honest Corner
— real talk before you enrolYou'll love this if…
- Four nights' accommodation genuinely included, not a discount dressed up
- Max four students per instructor, and the bays here are forgiving
- The certification never expires and works everywhere
Worth knowing before you enrol
- Three full days — it eats a short trip whole
- There's a 200m swim and a 10-minute float before you start
- Some ear, heart and lung conditions rule diving out; the medical form is read properly
- If you're slow to get a skill, you get an extra day rather than a pass
Student fit
Who's this course for?
Great fit
🌊
Complete beginners
The overwhelming majority of people on this course have never breathed underwater. It's built for exactly that.
Great fit
😰
Nervous swimmers
You can swim but deep water unsettles you. Small groups and shallow, clear bays are the whole point.
Great fit
👨👩👧
Families with older kids
From age 10. Getting certified together is a rare thing to share.
Maybe
⏳
Two-day trips
It needs three days minimum. Look at the Scuba Diver course or Basic Scuba instead.
Not for you
Common questions
