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Educational and Research Trips

Wicked Diving is founded on the belief that diving should be safe, educational and fun. You will find a different kind of diving with us. In addition to these base ideals, we respect and protect the environment we live and play in. Wicked boats use BioFuel, and while participating in activities with us you will notice that we use natural and organic materials whenever possible. These products range from 100% organic cotton linens and towels, natural body soaps and shampoo’s, and phosphate free detergents. Wicked strictly enforces no trash overboard, no fishing and no touching or handling of ANY marine life what so ever. We show respect for the natural resources we all enjoy, and protect and preserve them for the next visitor to enjoy as well.

With this in mind we proudly offer some incredible opportunities to experience the local marine life, dive sites and gain more knowledge and experience. Our 3 day Educational Tours feature topics like Whale Sharks & Manta Rays, Turtles, Sharks, Reefs and we even have a Wrecks and Pinnacles trip for thise who like a challenge. Check our schedule to see which trips fit your plans or see the bottom of this page to check out the different trips we have scheduled.

Wicked Diving Special Education Tours – 3 days / 2 nights, 18,900 Baht

These unique tours will give you the chance to do some great diving and learn more about the amazing marine life that you see under water at the same time. There will be interesting lectures and presentations by our staff, reef and beach clean ups, buoyancy workshops and at the end of the trip you will also receive the SSI ECOlogical Specialty rating. Each buddy team will also get the opportunity to use an underwater camera for research purposes. We only do a few trips per season and for this season we have chosen the following topics:

Special Education Tour – Turtles and Reefs

Have you ever seen a turtle on a dive? Learn more about these amazing marine reptiles and find out about their life, their feeding habits and how they reproduce. Thailand and other areas in South East Asia offer a lot of breeding areas for turtles. But where do the small turtles go when they hatch? And what threats do they face when groing up? Learn which species there, how you can identify them and what you can do to help protect them. Of course our guides will do our best and try to find as many turtles as we can. The most likely place to find them in the Similans are on the coral reefs. You have probably made a lot of dives on coral reefs, but have you ever taken a closer look at them? Find out about the amazing diversity and complexity of the worlds reefs. Where you can find them, how they are build up and what different types of reefs exist. We also teach you on the science of Reef Monitoring – a way to find out if a reef is healthy or not.

I want to know more… Check our liveaboard schedule

Special Education Tour – Whalesharks and Manta Rays

When you are a dive instructor on a liveaboard in the Similan Islands, you can say you have a pretty good job. This area is one of the few places in the world where you have the chance to encounter two of the biggest fish in the oceans: Whalesharks and Manta Rays. Especially between February and April they seem to be around at various dive sites in the region. That doesn’t mean there is a guarantee to see any of them, you still have to consider yourself very very lucky if you have been face to face with a whaleshark or when you have seem the magic of a manta ray. On these trips we will dive sites where whalesharks and manta rays are seen most. So keep your eyes open in the blue and cross your fingers. We will  however guarantee you interesting lectures by our staff with lots of information on the life, physiology and threats of these amazing creatures. We also teach you about Ecocean, a non-profit organization that allows anyone to add important data into a worldwide database for whalesharks. All you have to do is take a picture of its side and upload it on the website and your whaleshark will get its own personal code which can be used to track them. That is, if we find one of course….

I want to know more… Check our liveaboard schedule

Special Education Tour – Sharks and Rays

Next to whalesharks and manta rays, the Similan Islands are home to many other species of sharks and rays. Among them are whitetip and blacktip reefsharks, leopardsharks, shovelnose rays, eagle rays, mobula rays, blue spotted rays and many more species. These fish belong to the subclass of Elasmobranches also described as cartilaginous fish and are some of the oldest creatures to be still around on earth. Sharks and rays always seem to fascinate divers and for a good reason. They are beautiful and often sit on the top of the food chain. This also gives them a vital role in the natural balance of coral reefs. You will learn about which species you can find in the Similans, their sensory systems, how they reproduce and their anatomy which is part of the SSI Shark DIver specialty. And of course we will go and dive the sites where we are most likely to find them. We will also show some movies on the shark finning industry and the impact this has on the health of our coral reefs.

I want to know more… Check our liveaboard schedule

Special Education Tour – Wrecks and Pinnacles

Some people are just fascinated by diving wrecks… and so are we. They are perfect artificial reefs and very often after only a few months will provide a home to many different species of fish. The Simillan Islands and Khao Lak area have a few interesting wrecks, each with their own story. We will visit the Atlantis Wreck on island #8, the Chinese Wreck on island #5 and the Boonsung wreck and Premchai wreck near the coast. But next to wrecks we also have a few very interesting pinnacles that are not often dived by the crowds. They are often deep and there can be strong currents, but the marine life is amazing and you have a good chance on seeing some of the big stuff at the deeper parts of the sites. Diving wrecks and pinnacles need some special considerations if you want to do it in a safe and enjoyable way. Nitrox is very helpful as it greatly increases bottom times. And because of the increased air consumption at depth you want to make sure you have enough air with you. We will teach you how to calculate your Surface Air Consumption Rate, proper descend – navigation – ascend procedures, locating the divesites and how to manage narcosis. Instead of the SSI ECOlogical specialty, we include your deep diver specialty for free and you can do the nitrox specialty at discounted rates. If you are already a Nitrox diver, you might want to do an advanced nitrox or technical foundations course where you have the chance to dive with different gas mixes or up to 4 tanks.

I want to know more… Check our liveaboard schedule