Throughout any dialogue about technical diving locations, locations like Mexico and Chuuk Lagoon will definitely come up. However Indonesia is shortly catching up and making its mark on this planet of diving past no-stop limits. Listed here are among the causes Indonesia is turning into a prime tech diving vacation spot.
As a dive vacation spot, Indonesia wants no introduction. An archipelago made up of over 17,000 islands, the nation boasts dive spots that often prime ‘must-see’ lists, together with Raja Ampat and Komodo. As a result of difficult situations, these are appropriate to deeper and longer dives.
Cause 1: A rising neighborhood providing prime quality coaching
Competent technical divers study from extremely certified and skilled instructors. Over the previous few years, the tech diving neighborhood on islands like Bali and the Gilis close to Lombok has grown and each areas have develop into the house base for technical dive retailers, in addition to instructors and teacher trainers providing a variety of programs from completely different businesses.
Whereas technical diving is just not (but?) the norm, it’s turning into extra widespread and it’s turning into extra frequent to see somebody gear up in sidemount gear or pre-breathe a CCR. That is partly because of dive professionals discovering one other form of diving for themselves and spreading their enthusiasm to visiting divers. Extra demand has led to extra provide, and so the neighborhood continues to develop.
Cause 2: Thrilling dive websites to maintain you coming again
Creating abilities as a technical diver means greater than finishing one degree of coaching after one other. Constructing expertise between programs by planning and main dives with different tech divers or a reliable technical diving information is simply as essential. Arguably, these dives are extra pleasing when there’s something to see. In Indonesia, the islands of the Bunaken Marine Park in North Sulawesi provide deep, sheer partitions that drop for a number of hundred ft in locations. Bali and the Gili islands have steep slopes, pinnacle and wall dives that additionally usually exceed the 325-foot (100 m) mark.
The great thing about lots of these websites is that they make for a terrific dive, irrespective of whether or not you might be heading to 130 ft (40 m) or pushing your limits on deeper dives. The marine life will change with each 30 ft (10 m) of depth, with rising depth normally additionally rising your probabilities to come across bigger, pelagic species.
Cause 3: Accessible dive websites and quick journey occasions
Indonesia gives each extraordinarily distant diving and comparatively simply accessible dive websites. The extra distant the situation, the extra you have to be ready to deal with a full-on diving expedition. Extra on this beneath, underneath Cause 5.
Then again, you’ll be able to entry depth immediately from the shore in different places. Northeast Bali, for instance, has drop-offs and sloping partitions that begin immediately from the seashore. In some instances, you’ll be able to conduct technical dives right here immediately from the shore. It’s simpler to do deeper dives with boat help, permitting for a security diver and drop tank. Bunaken Marine Park depends on boat diving with only a few exceptions as currents are likely to push divers alongside its steep partitions. Once more, nonetheless, mind-blowing deep partitions with overhangs, ledges, and large marine life are accessible inside minutes of resorts.
One other benefit of this topography is divers can usually conduct decompression stops on the reef, giving them one thing to see and cross the time, particularly throughout longer stops.
Acquiring gases and bringing tech tools requires a level of planning. Established dive facilities will be capable of provide oxygen-rich mixes on demand. Relying on the place in Indonesia you go, helium could require a little bit of advance warning, so it’s a good suggestion to plan forward, however, as a technical diver, that must be par for the course.
Commonplace tools is broadly obtainable however expensive because of import taxes. Specialised tools, together with rebreather diving consumables, could also be obtainable within the a part of Indonesia you might be visiting — once more, it’s value checking with the dive operator you might be utilizing. If you’re planning main tools purchases, examine costs at house and at your vacation spot to see which choice works out higher.
Cause 4: Combining technical with leisure diving
With depth being simply accessible usually immediately from the shore, tech divers touring with leisure divers might be able to dive with the identical operator. A number of operators are set as much as accommodate each, albeit diving from completely different day boats or on completely different journeys. It is a good technique to accommodate recreational-only family and friends till you’ll be able to persuade them to hitch the darkish facet.
Cause 5: Exploration
What tech diver doesn’t dream of discovering dive websites nobody has seen earlier than? In Indonesia particularly, a lot of our ocean stay unexplored, that there’s a actual probability of being on the frontier of tech diving.
South Sulawesi, for instance, just lately opened Indonesia’s first cave-diving facility. In North Sulawesi, the search continues for the elusive coelacanth. And even in a spot as well-traveled as Bali, just a few divers see the depths of the ocean, and a latest challenge by Unseen Expeditions is exploring species in depths round 325 ft (100 m). On the identical time, divers are nonetheless discovering deep reefs round Lombok, together with deep cleansing stations.
With greater than 17,000 islands, a lot stays to be explored in Indonesia. In any case, it pays to analysis your tech diving store forward of your journey and examine on particular necessities. As a rule of thumb, the extra distant your vacation spot, the extra the journey there’ll develop into a part of your tech diving journey.
