Sharkey Scuba is owned and operated by a dynamic duo of Oui & Iain. They both are Dive Masters and Iain does all the communications & scheduling. We were very fortunate that Oui was our DM for the two days we had dived in Phuket.
The famous Maya Bay where folks can only walk on the beach now to preserve the marine life.
We have not dived since pre-COVID in the Philippines, so our first day was a refresher day and the second was a standard dive day. Highly recommend those that need a 1-1 refresher to do it with Oui. She has an amazing energy about her, lively and passionate about the sport. She was able to explain concepts easily to us and focus on areas where I had questions like the best ways to do safety stop (knowing I had issues with this in the past). During the dive itself, she made me feel extremely comfortable as she constantly checked in to make sure I was doing ok and seeing all the sea life around us. Even in a group setting on the second day, she attended to all 3 of us based on our individual levels. Truly an amazing DM with 20+ years of knowledge on the island & dive points.
D1 – Racha Noi & Racha Yai
The trip started at 7:30 with an organized mini-bus pickup. On this, would highly recommend folks that plan to dive stay in the Kata area, as it is simply 10-15min away and we have not hit traffic even in rush hour. The groups assembled at Chalong Pier, where all the DMs and the boat were waiting. It took about 1hr from the hotel, to when we left the pier. From Chalong to Racha Noi (our first dive site) took ~2hrs. Starting the first dive, Oui did a quick retraining with us on how to get water out of the mask, how to attach the BDC to the tank, etc. The dives all went without a hitch, during a few instances, she helped me get better with my buoyance. The highlight of the day was at the first dive site, where we had a barracuda storm. At the last dive point where we were at an artificial reef site, where there were many cement blocks & a striped boat sunken half a decade ago. There, Oui took me through the blocks where we saw TONS of sea slugs, extremely long sea cucumbers, puffer fish, hard corals, etc. We came back to the pier at 5:30 and got back to the hotel by 6:15.
D2 – Phi Phi Island & Shark Fin Point
Trip also started at 7:30. My two dive mates were both Shakey veterans (one used to train with Iain & one was on a liveaboard with Sharkey just before). 3 Dives were truly amazing, we saw so many buckets-list sea creatures. We started with 2 turtles where that were feeding on the hard corals, and one swam right past me on its way up to get air. On the second dive, we saw black tip sharks that were very illusive and fast and a lone giant barracuda. On the final dive we saw a massive leopard shark that was so disguised that until it moved, I did not see it. Really had a great day.
All in all, I think we saw all these amazing things 50% attributed to luck the other 50% is definitely due to Oui’s ability to know where these creatures like to be & her keen ability to spot them.
If we do come back to Phuket, I would 100% dive with Sharkey again.
