Hin Yai Pinnacle Dive Site – Gulf Of Thailand

Hin Yai Pinnacle | Samae San Dive Site

Hin Yai is an underwater Pinnacle that we discovered and mapped as a new dive site back in 2012. We located it using local knowledge from fishermen, naval charts and GPS. No one dives here. From time to time, when the tides and weather are right, we head out to explore this forgotten gem of a dive site.

Hin Yai Pinnacle is 14m below the surface and slopes off down to about 25-30m at the sandy edge. Rocks and boulders construct its south side with overhanging ledges and crevasses, providing many nooks and crannies to explore with your flashlights!  Coral overhangs and small caves grace the northern side of this dive site and have nudibranchs and other macro critters in abundance! Moray eels, schooling batfish, great barracuda and eagle rays are other possible sightings at this dive spot.

EDIT: Since discovering the main Hin Yai Pinnacle, we have found that there is also a second smaller pinnacle nearby that is yet to be mapped and marked accurately.

Hin Chalam

Although rarely dived, Hin Chalam (Hin Meaning Rock, Chalam meaning Shark) is probably one of Pattaya and Samae sans best diving spots and always wins credit for being so from divers.

“The Rock” is a narrow outcrop about 30 minutes further south of Koh Chuang in the Same san island cluster.  Diving here has many features and opportunities. It is possible (if you are good on your gas consumption) to circumnavigate the whole island on a single dive, starting down deeper at about 20m and working your way slowly up to the shallower reefs’ outcrops towards the end. The southern and northern ends have some of the most spectacular features of the site including “The Cave” not a penetration dive by any means but a pretty sweet photo opportunity chance for a more experienced diver to go inside the overhang and shoot the divers swimming by outside and on the other side there is “The Wall” which starts at 4m and drops down to approx 14m, you always get great macro life on this dive site with plenty of Nudi branch and dresser crabs, fringing coral slopes with Anenome gardens and rocky reef formations full of moray eels and barracudas.  Depth diving dive sight ranges from 5-25 meters and visibility running 8m-20 m.

Unfortunately, its remote location has also made it a favourite of the Royal Thai Navy and Air Force, which use it for bombing practice from time to time. There are large amounts of unexploded ordnance all around the site, including large artillery shells and rockets. The Royal Thai Navy states it is safe to dive here since the shells and rockets are training grade; however, just because they don’t have explosives inside doesn’t mean they don’t have detonators. Look, and most certainly don’t touch- and you’ll find these interesting, unique features of this dive site.

Hin Chalam truly is a terrific dive site, and if done right, you can find many pelagic species, anemones, whip coral, leather coral, barrel sponges, and gorgonians sea fans, plus a good amount of hard corals.
From time to time, Whale sharks and larger eagle rays are seen here as well, so always keep an eye on the deep blue as you go along the walls and outcrops.