Who's Who in Thailand's Technical Diving Scene
Thailand is where a great many divers learn cheaply, on warm reefs, in flip-flops. It is also, far more quietly, one of the most concentrated pools of technical and cave diving expertise anywhere in Asia — a scene built around technical diving in Thailand that most visitors never see.
The clearest evidence is not a certification count. It is that when a cave floods somewhere in Southeast Asia, the divers who get the call are disproportionately based here.
1. The Instructor's Instructor: Parasu "Por" Komaradat
Por Komaradat is an independent technical, cave, mine, wreck and CCR instructor trainer, and IANTD's regional manager for Thailand. Based in Bangkok and teaching through Dive & Co. Extreme, he left a career in software engineering to teach full time, and has now done so for more than sixteen years across Thailand, Indonesia, Japan and China.
His standing rests on something specific: he holds evaluator-grade ratings in Cavern, Intro to Cave, Full Cave and Mine Diving — the tier above instructor trainer, which qualifies him to certify the people who certify instructors. He is also a Rebreather Full Cave Instructor Trainer and an Advanced Trimix Instructor Trainer, dives eight different rebreathers, and carries 120 course ratings on this site, seventeen of them at trainer or evaluator level. Away from teaching he explores with the "Filthy Few" team alongside Mikko Paasi and Mika Lindström. That team made the first mine dive in Thailand, at the flooded Boh Yai complex in Kanchanaburi in 2023, and on the Satun Cave Exploration Project has confirmed Toh Wang as the longest freshwater cave in the country. He was called into the 2026 Laos flooded-mine response for his mine-diving expertise specifically — a rating almost nobody in the region holds.
2. Tham Luang Rescuer and Cave Instructor Trainer: Claus Rasmussen
Claus Rasmussen is a Danish technical and cave diving instructor trainer based in Phuket, and a founding member of Tech Dive Asia. He arrived in Thailand in 2002, taught on nearly thirty PADI instructor development courses, and now holds Full Cave Evaluator status alongside instructor-trainer ratings in Advanced Nitrox, Decompression Procedures, Helitrox, Advanced Trimix, Advanced Wreck and Sidemount. He dives seven rebreathers.
In July 2018 he was one of two Danish divers in the cave diving team at Tham Luang, the operation that brought thirteen people out of a flooded cave in Chiang Rai and was reported worldwide. He is also one of the few divers certified to dive the Boh Yai mines in Kanchanaburi, qualifying there in 2024 in the first cohort trained on site. What his students write about, though, is the standard he holds them to: the aspect tags drawn from his reviews include doesn't wave you through, makes you earn it and patient, and more than one reviewer describes him as the first instructor in their career who declined to sign off a skill they had not genuinely mastered. One of those reviewers was already a working technical instructor.
3. Knight of the Thai Kingdom and Rescue Diver: Mikko Paasi
Mikko Paasi is a Finnish rebreather instructor trainer who has owned Koh Tao Divers since 2002 and founded its technical branch. He began his professional career in 1998 at Finland's Ojamo mine, teaches TDI courses in backmount and sidemount to hypoxic trimix depths of 100 m, and is an instructor trainer on the KISS Sidewinder and Scubaforce SF2. He is an elected Member International of The Explorers Club, New York.
Paasi was one of the divers on the 2018 Tham Luang rescue, for which he was made a Knight Grand Cross (First Class) of the Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn by the King of Thailand and awarded a Life Saving Medal by the President of Finland. In May 2026 he led the international dive response to a flooded cave in Xaisomboun province, Laos, where he and Norrased Palasing swam through and found five trapped villagers alive after more than a week underground. He is the most heavily tagged instructor in our Thai listings, with twelve aspect tags spanning rescue and recovery, realistic failure drills, exploration record and rebreathers.
He has also opened a branch of the sport that did not previously exist here. Paasi's team made Thailand's first mine dive at the flooded Boh Yai lead and zinc complex in Kanchanaburi — a century-old working, abandoned for thirty years, with kilometres of tunnel running past 100 metres. Mine Camp 2024 followed, the first mine-diving event held anywhere in Asia. Boh Yai has been restricted since 2026, which is its own story.
4. Shipwreck Hunter and Explorers Club Member: Tim Lawrence
Tim Lawrence owns Davy Jones' Locker on Koh Tao and its technical arm, Tech Dive Thailand. He is a PADI/DSAT Technical Instructor Trainer, holds ANDI Cavern, Intro to Cave, Cave Explorer and Wreck Explorer certifications, and is an elected member of The Explorers Club, New York. When divers ask on ScubaBoard where to train technically in Thailand, his is one of the operations named by habit.
What sets him apart is what he does between courses. Lawrence is a shipwreck hunter whose teams have located previously unknown wrecks in the Gulf of Thailand — including one sitting upright in 53 m some 40 nautical miles north-north-west of Koh Tao, plus aircraft and deeper finds at 56 and 70 m. He has also run cave expeditions to the mainland, including earlier work in the Khao Sok system — closed to divers since 2015 — and a habitat installed inside Song Hong cave to support exploration. Technical and cave diving from a single island operation is an unusual combination in a country whose technical diving is overwhelmingly ocean-based.
5. Rebreather Instructor Trainer with the Deepest Review Record: Kevin Black
Kevin Black is a Phuket-based PADI Course Director, Technical Instructor Trainer and Rebreather Instructor Trainer, and a founding member of Tech Dive Asia. He founded Kiwidivers in Phuket in 2009 and grew it into the region's leading PADI TecRec centre, taking PADI's Diver Retention Award in 2012 and becoming a Course Director in 2013, before selling the business in 2020. He teaches the JJ-CCR, the AP Inspiration and the Poseidon.
He also carries the deepest review record of anyone in this article: 17 reviews naming him, 10 of them specifically about technical or cave training. Two themes repeat. The first is that skills have to be genuinely demonstrated rather than signed off because the week ran out. The second is narrower and more unusual — DPV and scooter training, where already-experienced technical divers single out his depth of knowledge as exceptional.
6. Koh Tao's Working Instructor Trainer: Andy Campbell
Andy Campbell manages Big Blue Tech, the technical arm of one of Koh Tao's largest dive operations, and is an instructor trainer with both TDI and SSI XR. His trainer ratings cover the rungs most divers actually begin on — Intro to Tech, Advanced Nitrox, Decompression Procedures, Extended Range, Advanced Wreck, Sidemount and Nitrox Gas Blending — and he took Southeast Asia's 2016 award for the most SDI and TDI certifications issued.
The volume matters more than it sounds: if you are entering technical diving on Koh Tao, there is a strong chance your instructor was trained by Campbell, or by somebody he trained. His reviews settle on one idea repeatedly, which is that students earn their certifications — one puts it directly, that anyone training with him and the Big Blue Tech team "truly earns their certifications, and has done so safely". He is also known locally for recovering other people's lost equipment from the seabed, a hobby that says something about how much time he spends in the water.
7. The Next Generation: Norrased "Benz" Palasing
Norrased Palasing is the founder of Seascout Diving in Bangkok, an SSI Instructor Trainer across scuba, freediving, extended range, lifeguard and adaptive diving, and holds TDI instructor-trainer ratings in Intro to Tech, Advanced Nitrox, Decompression Procedures and Sidemount. He dives the chest-mounted Dive Rite Choptima.
In May 2026 he became the face of a story that travelled the world. The footage that ran on CNN, the Associated Press, Kyodo News and the Los Angeles Times from the Laos cave rescue was filmed by Palasing, and it was he and Mikko Paasi who surfaced into an air pocket and found five villagers alive after more than a week in the dark — the diver seen handing over blankets and food, telling a trapped man the water was being drained. He belongs to the cohort of Thai volunteer technical divers who deliberately built the country's cave-rescue capability after Tham Luang, so that Thailand would never again need to fly that expertise in. Laos was the proof it had worked.
Honourable Mention: Mika Lindström, Cave Explorer
Mika Lindström is a Finnish technical, cave and mine diving instructor who moved to Thailand in 2011 and teaches Extended Range Sidemount, Extended Range Trimix, wreck, cavern and cave diving. He is the third member of the "Filthy Few" team, alongside Mikko Paasi and Por Komaradat.
Their Satun project has run since 2023 and has laid close to a kilometre of line in Toh Wang Cave, near the Malaysian border — enough to confirm it as the longest freshwater cave in Thailand, with passages running several kilometres towards nearby sinkholes. Much of it was dived on KISS Sidewinders, because the restrictions are too tight for anything larger.
What Thailand's Scene Looks Like From Above
Put the seven side by side and three patterns emerge.
Thailand trains its own trainers. Between them these instructors hold trainer or evaluator ratings across effectively every rung of the technical and cave ladder, which means a diver can go from first decompression course to instructor trainer without leaving the country.
The cave expertise is mainland; the technical expertise is coastal. Koh Tao and Phuket carry the ocean-based technical training, while the cave work happens inland around Krabi, Satun and Kanchanaburi — and the people who do it travel to it.
The exploration is current, and so are the closures. Toh Wang was confirmed as Thailand's longest freshwater cave in the last three years; the country's first mine dive was made in 2023. In the same period Boh Yai was restricted and Khao Sok stayed shut. Our guide to cave diving in Thailand covers what is open, what is not, and what it takes to get in.
The rebreather depth is real. Thailand is the most unit-diverse country in Asia relative to its size:
| Rebreather | Instructors | Where they are |
|---|---|---|
| Dive Rite O2ptima CM | 7 | 7 in Thailand |
| Poseidon MkVI Discovery / Se7en | 7 | 7 in Thailand |
| AP Diving Inspiration Vision | 4 | 4 in Thailand |
| Innerspace Systems Megalodon | 4 | 4 in Thailand |
| AP Diving Inspiration | 3 | 3 in Thailand |
| Divesoft Liberty Sidemount | 3 | 3 in Thailand |
| Hollis PRISM 2 | 3 | 3 in Thailand |
| JJ CCR | 3 | 3 in Thailand |
| KISS Sidewinder | 3 | 3 in Thailand |
| Poseidon Se7en | 3 | 3 in Thailand |
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the best technical diving instructors in Thailand?
Thailand's most senior technical and cave instructors include Parasu "Por" Komaradat, who holds evaluator-grade cave and mine ratings and trains instructor trainers; Claus Rasmussen and Kevin Black, both instructor trainers at Tech Dive Asia in Phuket; Mikko Paasi of Koh Tao Divers, a rebreather instructor trainer decorated for the Tham Luang rescue; Tim Lawrence of Davy Jones' Locker; Andy Campbell of Big Blue Tech on Koh Tao; and Norrased "Benz" Palasing in Bangkok. The right choice depends on what you want to learn and where, rather than on seniority alone.
Which Thai diving instructors were involved in the Tham Luang cave rescue?
Two instructors listed on TecDiveTools took part in the 2018 Tham Luang rescue in Chiang Rai: Claus Rasmussen, a Danish instructor trainer based in Phuket and one of two Danish divers in the cave diving team, and Mikko Paasi, the Finnish owner of Koh Tao Divers. Paasi was subsequently made a Knight Grand Cross (First Class) of the Order of the Direkgunabhorn by the King of Thailand and awarded a Life Saving Medal by the President of Finland.
Where is technical diving taught in Thailand?
Technical training is concentrated in three places. Koh Tao, in the Gulf of Thailand, is the largest hub and home to Big Blue Tech and Davy Jones' Locker. Phuket, on the Andaman coast, hosts Tech Dive Asia and several other technical operations. Bangkok supports instructors who travel to teach, including Dive & Co. Extreme and Seascout Diving. Cave training itself happens inland, around Krabi and Satun provinces.
Can you train to instructor level in technical diving in Thailand?
Yes. Thailand holds instructor trainers across TDI, SSI XR, IANTD and PADI TecRec, covering Intro to Tech through Advanced Trimix, Sidemount, Advanced Wreck, gas blending and rebreathers. Cave instruction goes further still: Por Komaradat holds evaluator ratings in Cavern, Intro to Cave, Full Cave and Mine Diving, which is the tier qualified to certify instructor trainers themselves.
Do Thai instructors teach rebreather courses?
Extensively. Thailand is the most rebreather-diverse country in Asia relative to its size, with instructors qualified on the Dive Rite Choptima, Poseidon, AP Diving Inspiration, JJ-CCR, KISS Sidewinder, Divesoft Liberty Sidemount, Innerspace Megalodon and Hollis PRISM 2, among others. Rebreather instructor trainers in the country include Mikko Paasi, Kevin Black and Por Komaradat.
Choosing the Right Instructor for You
Every name here represents years, in several cases decades, of accumulated expertise. That does not make any one of them automatically right for you.
The people shaping Thailand's technical diving each bring a different specialty and a different temperament. Some lean towards exploration and depth; others towards rescue capability, instructor development, or simply making a first decompression course feel survivable. The most decorated name on this page is not necessarily the one who will teach you best.
What matters is whether their teaching style, location and specialty line up with what you are actually trying to learn — and the only way to find that out is to look around, ask other divers, and talk to a few before committing.
When you are ready to start that search, our directory of Thailand's dive centres and instructors lets you filter by agency, course and rebreather, so you can find the people actually teaching the path you want to take.
This article is built from public records, published certifications and reviews harvested from public sources. If you are named here and something is wrong, tell us and we will correct it.
Cover photograph: cave rescue divers preparing equipment at Tham Luang, Chiang Rai, 2 July 2018. U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Jessica Tait, 353rd Special Operations Group (public domain). Instructor portraits are from their TecDiveTools listings.
Nick is a cave and technical diver — he built to help fellow tec divers find the right instructors, centres, and tools.
