Kata Beach House Reef
Kata Beach House Reef is a nice easy scuba diving beach dive. With the reef is just a short surface swim away from the beautiful white sand off the North end of Kata Beach.
Between October to May Kata Beach House Reef offers nice, easy diving conditions for divers of all levels and experience. Since the reef is shallow, depending on your experience, this often leads to an hour or more dive time. This house reef is a great place for try-dive PADI Discover Scuba Diving for people who have not dived before. There are loads of Ghost pipefish, Cuttle Fish, Parrot Fish, Nudibranchs and several species of Sea Horse. We even had the odd turtle here so keep your eyes open. Additionally, Kata beach reef is also one of the best places for Night Dives on Phuket.
This House Reef is also a convenient option for experienced divers who just want an hour underwater looking at some small stuff. But without having to spend a whole day out on a boat. Whether you are interested in trying scuba diving for the first time, completing a PADI course or just fun diving, Kata is a convenient and fun place to dive. Moreover, given the easy accessibility of Kata Beach, this Phuket dive site offers great flexibility. Consequently, we can usually easily arrange some dives at Kata Beach to suit your holiday plans.
Kata Beach House Reef: Let's go diving ...
Kata Beach House Reef: Easy diving right off the beach
The dive starts by gearing up on the beach and then making a nice easy beach entry. We usually swim out over the sand until we reach the buoys which mark the beginning of the reef. The reef itself is surprisingly large with a section which can be only a meter deep at low tide. This makes it great for snorkeling as well as scuba diving. Having said that, we generally follow the “wall” with the colourful reef on one side and clear flat sand on the other side.
This bottom topography makes Kata Beach House Reef a popular dive site for dives with scuba diving skills practice and certain PADI Courses. Also this dive site can be a good choice for a PADI Rescue Diver course where you need some flat sandy bottom for skill practice. The layout also means lots of space to conduct things like Search Patterns. In addition, as we are at the beach and we can stay as long as we want. This gives the day a more "laid back" feel to it than being out on the boat for the whole day.
There is lots to see here so take your time. You can find Christmas Tree Worms (always a favorite with novice divers), Nudibranchs as well as Sand Striped Eel Catfish. Look carefully and you will find the well-camouflaged Scorpion Fish. Along with our other favorites like Lionfish, Bent Stick Pipefish as well as Ghost Pipefish.
If you heading out over the sand you can find all sorts including Blue-Spotted Stingray and Razor Fish which are particularly fun on Night Dives. There is also a good selection of Clown Shrimp and Mantis shrimp, a photographers favourite. In fact, you never know what you are going to find out on the sand!
Photography at Kata Beach House Reef
Kata Beach House Reef is a very good dive site for divers who like simple shallow dives with long bottom times. In addition, with the marine life we have mentioned, Kata beach reef is a GREAT place for your PADI Digital Underwater Photography Course. The dive site is very popular with Marco photographers especially those after Sea Horses as there are THREE different species regularly spotted here.
There are also “The Cubes” which is an artificial reefs scattered here. These are the same as you will find a number of the Racha Yai Dive Sites. And in the Cubes, you can usually find a variety of Lionfish and Pufferfish lurking around. These are usually great to photograph as well.
Kata Beach House Reef Rebreather Diving:
Also Kata Beach House Reef is a very good dive site for Closed Circuit or Semi-Closed Circuit Rebreather Divers. With the hugely extended dive time that Rebreathers provide, divers can usually make it right the way out to Ko Poo, where depths can reach 18-20m. They can sometimes make it “around the corner” to the North and dive where very few people dive now-a-days. However, please be careful of the currents which can catch you by surprise if the tide is dropping. Rebreather Divers can easily do a 3-hour dive here or longer if their scrubber allows.
It is also a great Rebreather Beach Dive for practicing shallow water skills like buoyancy control. In addition to the wonders of the house reef around you instead of swimming pool walls.
Night Dives
Kata Beach House Reef is a particularly good dive site for Night Diving. Divers can expect to see loads of crabs out hunting, lots of squid and octopus, along with the occasional Cuttlefish. Although for some reason Cuttlefish don’t seem to come out here much at night, but there are usually loads of squid. For those interested in The PADI Night Diving Course, Kata House Reef is an excellent location due to it's accessibility and the variety of marine and macro life.
There is always something new to see at Kata Beach House Reef. And just when you think you've seen it all, Kata surprises you with something different ...