Dive Sites

Dive Pattaya - you really must. The scuba diving and snorkeling in Pattaya, Chonburi, Thailand is superb, and especially for dive training and courses we would place it as the best destination in Thailand. We cannot make a statement that bold with out explaining the reasons why. 

One great thing about diving in Pattaya, Thailand is that it is not seasonal.  If you want to get wet and dive 365 days of the year - feel free. Generally visibility ranges from 3 - 20 meters. The water temperature maintains between 27 and 30 degrees - so no need to pack those suits! Most dive sites are very good for first class snorkeling also. Snorkel and dive at your leisure.

Basically the dive sites in and around Pattaya fall into three categories:

Samaesan (home to the Hardeep Ship-wreck)

The dive industry is a dynamic, rewarding and exciting recreational sport to be professionally involved in and has countless career opportunities all over the world for people from all different cultures and backgrounds.

As a dive professional you want to make sure that you get off to the best start with you dive career and that means looking for the right dive facility and staff to undertake your PADI ‘Instructor Development Course’ and continuing education programs with. Scuba Trip would like to help you decide if ‘Mermaids Dive Centre’ is the place where you would like to be trained as a PADI Instructor and if our teams, of dive professionals, are the people you want to learn from. We don’t claim or boast to be the best or the biggest, there are other much more commercial, bigger and more business orientated dive schools where you can undertake your course. We prefer a more personalized, real world approach to instructor training and we hope to give you an idea of what you receive when you take your training with us in regards to our staff, experience, facility, reputation, attitude, ambience, and atmosphere and training philosophies.

At Mermaids CDC they pride themselves on having the most comprehensive diving training facilities and well stocked dive shop in Pattaya, Jomtien, Thailand. They cater for the individual beginner diver to the most advanced technical diving addict. Mermaids CDC has:

• 10 full time very experienced scuba diving instructors teaching scuba in English, French, German, Korean, Russian, Japanese, Dutch and Thai. (American, Canadian and Australian also). - All instructors are a minimum of the PADI STAFF instructor rating.
• 4 fully equipped classrooms catering for many students - but private tuition is available on request. 2 of the classrooms are fully computerized. (This basically means that we have laptops and DVD assisted learning).
• 4 fully stocked dive shops (Bangkok, Pattaya and Jomtien) selling Scubapro, Mares, Suunto, Poseidon, Dacor, Saekodive, OMS, Buddy, Ikelite, US Divers, Diverite, Pinnacle, Aqualung, Zeagle, Sealife, Seac Sub, Technisub scuba equipment amongst many other brands. (Offering internships, live-aboards and overseas (Philippines) dive trips. Complete in-house service.
• Fully equipped service center catering for all models of equipment including Poseidon (being one of only a handful of Poseidon specialists in Thailand).
• Fully equipped PADI CDC 5 Star (IDC) center for those wanting to become professional diving instructors. CDC distinguishes us from the rest. We are the ONLY CDC (Career Development Centre) dive center on the Eastern Seaboard - from Bangkok to Cambodia. We have 2 PADI Course Directors on Staff always at your disposal sharing their wealth of PADI and dive knowledge.
• Active National Geographic affiliated dive center offering the PADI National Geographic diver courses and training. - National Geographic diver program details.
• DPV (Drive / diver propulsion vehicles) scooters for additional fun.
• Over 30 sets of mostly new and very well maintained rental equipment.
• Nitrox and Trimix (tri-mix) diving capabilities with a superbly designed and well presented air and mixed gas filling station (helium ready).
• Mermaids has been awarded the Project AWARE Go-Eco award for it's contribution to environmental protection.
• The most specialized technical, rescue and maintenance diving facilities on the eastern seaboard.
• PADI Tec Rec facilities - Tec Recreational and instructor courses. (Instructor trainers on staff)..
• Comprehensive on site service center with extremely experienced technicians.
• PSA Self-Sufficiency Diver Course. SSD Instructor trainer on staff.
• Dedicated 17 x 5 meter scuba dive training swimming pool.
• A factory for making custom made to measure / tailored wetsuits and lycra skins within 48 hours. One of only 2 in Thailand.
• Mermaids is the ONLY Pattaya dive center to privately own/lease and operate 4 dive boats daily – (own 3 - permanently lease 1). We do not allow any other companies or freelancing instruction personnel on our boats – why extend your day unnecessarily? Mermaid's doesn't believe in overcrowding one large dive boat. We have 4 boats so that all of our trips go to different destinations and divers can enjoy smaller groups, more supervision and better diving. This also gives all of our interns the chance to help in supervising dive trips. There is no substitute for the real life experience you get at Mermaid's LIA.
• Scuba tank filling stations to be confident of. All gas fills catered for - Normal air, Nitrox and Tri-mix.
• The ONLY A.S.S.E.T (Association of Scuba Service and Engineers and Technicians) Instructor in Asia. One of only a handful in the world - this is just our typical caliber of staff. Nothing but the best. (All taught by our published  technical director Steve Burton).
• DSAT programs offered  DSAT Trimix - Gas Blender - Deep Tec Diver - Instructor Training in all given.
• The ONLY dive education facility in Thailand to offer the PSA Self sufficiency diver course and PADI Full-Face mask communication courses. (Diver to diver and diver to surface communications) - Instructor Trainers available.
• The ONLY dive education facility in ASIA to offer ERDI rescue courses (PERT). Professional Emergency Response Team (PERT) instructor trainer on staff.
• Mermaids was founded, guided and steered ahead of all dive facilities in innovation by the infamous PADI course director - Steve Blumenthal - Mermaids continues to move forward in memory of Steve.
• 24/7 telephone support for interns.
• One of ONLY two dive shops in Thailand to offer the IAHD (International Association of Handicapped Divers) courses - we have instructors and instructor trainers as with ALL of our specialty courses. Mermaid's works with an active wheel chair using instructor (Mark became an instructor in 2004 within Mermaid's CDC Internship) building on the IAHD program allowing a very precise and accurate perspective on the sensitivities and special requirements of a handicapped diver. Mark, takes the experience over and above the perceived "simulation" experience.
• Dedicated intern student lockers for all of your equipment and personal effects. (Safety deposit lockers inside the dive shop also for all dive trainees).
• Our technical diving director, Stephen Burton is a published technical diver actively creating and promoting new dive models - he has assisted on various world record breaking dives.
• Utilizing Draeger Technology Safety Equipment allows Mermaids to ensure that ALL Mermaid's Air passes ALL Purity Tests including Humidity. Mermaid's Air complies with the Divers breathing air requirements of the following international standards:- CGA Grade-E ( USA Standard), EN12021  (New European Standard), S4275 (British Standard), DIN3188 (German standard) & AS/NZS 2299.1 (Australian standard).
• Dive facilities designed specifically for scuba diving traineeships.
• The most friendly and personal service you'll find around.
• Fantastic team players as staff and interns.
• Active Divemaster Intern Mentor Program. 
• A wealth of knowledge from expat businesses assisting with a smooth transition for anyone wishing to make the move working overseas to gain a dive job and live and work abroad.
• Vast network of dive industry contacts for dive jobs and careers - dive job contacts in Australia, Vietnam, Egypt, Philippines, Honduras, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Cambodia, New Zealand, Seychelles, Maldives, Malaysia and Thailand (This is continuously growing).
• The strongest Diver jobs program in the dive internship industry. An exclusive partnership with Divers Jobs (dot com) has given Mermaids the distinct edge in finding scuba diving jobs for our trainees. Diversjobs allows Mermaids professional divers to apply for dive positions prior to going 'public'.

As mentioned, the facilities are impressive




For more information please email us at: info@scuba-trip.co.uk