Diving the HTMS Suphairin Wreck in Koh Tao, Thailand

I dove the HTMS Suphairin in August 2026 with Big Blue Diving, by boat out of Koh Tao, Thailand.

It's one of the newest wreck dives in the Gulf of Thailand, placed in 2023.

The Suphairin sits off the northwest side of the island, about 15 metres from No Name Pinnacle, close enough that the two get dived on a single tank.

That is how I dove it, so the log below covers both sites.

The HTMS Sattakut is the island's older wreck, down since 2011, and the difference in growth between the two is obvious.

Big Blue pair the two with Chumphon Pinnacle on the same morning trip, out at 07:30 and back by 12:30.

About the Wreck

She was sunk deliberately in 2023 as one of a pair of new wreck sites, alongside the HTMS Hanhak Sattru, and she sits upright on the seabed.

Koh Tao operators put the top of the wreck at around 52 feet (16 m), with the seabed between roughly 65 and 100 feet (20 to 30 m) depending where you are along the hull. My deepest point was 76 feet (23.2 m).

Because she went down in 2023, the growth is still early. The hull is coated in rust and a thin encrustation rather than the hard coral you get on a wreck that has been down for decades.

The Dive

The wreck is intact enough that you can work the whole length of her, along the deck and around the superstructure. Small fish hold in the frames the entire way.

Wreck Penetration

Penetration is possible here, but you need a wreck diver certification to do it.

Big Blue would not let me inside without one, and the guides were strict about it.

That means I have no footage from inside the hull, only what I could shoot through the openings.

If you want to go inside these wrecks, get your wreck certification done before you arrive or pick it up on the island.

Dive Conditions

Water temperature averaged 86°F (30°C). Depth is the limiting factor here rather than conditions, and at 76 feet (23.2 m) on air you are working with limited bottom time across two sites.