I dove with these guys and had a great time.  My divemaster was Tat.

http://www.westcoastdivers.com/westcoast.htm

I dove with these guys and had a great time.  Ask to dive with Tat.

http://www.westcoastdivers.com/westcoast.htm

#Hi-
#
#I'll be in Phuket on the 18th-21st of May and am hoping to do two days of
#diving while there. Unfortunately, it would seem that the Similian Islands
#reserve will be closed during this time - apparently, the fish get a vacation
#for part of the year to keep them healthy.
#
#Does anyone have opinions, good or bad, about day boat trips leaving from the
#Patong Beach area? I'm particularly interested in knowing what dive operators
#you've used, whether you were happy with their service, and which dive sites
#were your favorites.
#

There are no boats that leave from Patong Beach. There are several dive
shops, all of whom will book boats leaving from Chalong Bay. The shop
you book with probably won't own the boat you dive from, so the quality
and reputation of the shop have almost no reflection on the quality of
the dive operation.

Beach diving is essentially non-existant in Patong bay. Patong is the
party center of Phuket, and most activities at Patong Beach are geared
towards recovering from the previous nights indulgences or doing things
like parasailing and watching idiots attempt to sail Hobie Cats. There
are plenty of dive shops in Patong, including one of my favorites
(www.divesupply.com), but the diving activity itself is elsewhere.
There's decent shore diving along the south side of Kata beach, but to
be honest, there isn't good shore diving anywhere on Phuket.

#Email replies directly to me would be appreciated, since I'm not always up-to-
#date in reading this ng.
#

Too bad. You post a question to the newsgroup, you get the answer on
the newsgroup. Most of us don't de-archive posts, so there's always
Google.

#Thanks!
#--Vince