Nitrox at Komodo land-based?

[charlier]

Apart from a few combinations of a location and a situation that are not well assessed by the dive guides, Komodo diving is generally not wall diving unlike say Alor, Bunaken, or Nusa Penida that regularly bring down currents, hence not so many down currents than fast running currents.

Aligning with Luko and Chilly - I commonly use Nitrox @Komodo. Nitrox really helps with repetitive diving. Typically we dive at Castle and Crystal Rock during the day (depending on the tides) and EAN really helps with NDL. That said, even on Banda sea crossing trips with deep recreational diving, I commonly EAN28 for all my dives.

 

[SeaWarden]

Just for my curiosity. Why go with land based instead of a LOB?

 

[chillyinCanada]

Price and not many lobs in Komodo at the time of year that I hope to dive there.

 

[Thrawn7]

A lot of the top Komodo sites are pretty shallow too.

Cauldron is about 6m at the shotgun bit. The other parts not much deeper.
Manta Point has about 8m bottom.
Mawan 10m where the mantas circle around.
The pinnacle sites like Batu Bolong gets deep... but I prefer to hang around 10m where you get the best corals and aquarium feel.

There are deep sites like Pillarstein, Police corner where you stay deep for a while. But not that many really. I never come close to deco on air (3 dives a day), 60 dives total in Komodo.

 

[Luko]

A lot of the top Komodo sites are pretty shallow too.

Cauldron is about 6m at the shotgun bit. The other parts not much deeper.
Manta Point has about 8m bottom.
Mawan 10m where the mantas circle around.
The pinnacle sites like Batu Bolong gets deep... but I prefer to hang around 10m where you get the best corals and aquarium feel.

There are deep sites like Pillarstein, Police corner where you stay deep for a while. But not that many really. I never come close to deco on air (3 dives a day), 60 dives total in Komodo.

You forgot many of the best dives in Komodo, of which deeper dives:
Castle rock 25-30m and "squarish" dive, doesn't allow shallower
Crystal rock 20m and deeper.
Tatawa Besar, the deeper the fishier it goes, I've been down to 35-40 it was crazy packed with fish.
Pengah there are two ways of diving it, either stay in the shallows or deeper on the wall down to 25-28m, you can combine both.
Batu Bolong is great in the shallows but completely different at depth (some operations use it as deep dive training)
Inside and outside the Cauldron is more like 18-20m.

I have a similar record to your dives in Komodo except that I don't care much for Manta point or Mawan and that I am almost always on deco or 2 minutes from NDL on my third dive. Different operations, different experiences.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I feel better after and between dives on nitrox even though it isn’t like that for everyone else. I try to dive it when I can and I can understand why someone would want to do the same, even with NDL or depth not being an issue. It’s what makes me feel best and perhaps the same goes for the OP. Why try to change someone’s feeling on that?

 

[Cali_diver]

Considering the time of year you should really consider an OP that can go south.. I would especially consider a LOB with your wish list. I don't think many day boats go south and if they do it will be quite a haul. The best diving in Komodo that time of year is in the south hands down... many places in the North are not accessible etc.with bad viz and rough conditions. If land based is your only option I would make sure they are capable of venturing south. I think more boats are staying in Komodo during the off season now so you may have more choices.... I know it isn't super helpful but I personally would not go to Komodo in the off season if the south was off the table.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Hey, @chillyinCanada, what did you decide on? I have 1 day in Komodo for day diving and I’m scoping out my options for a land based op with nitrox and speedboats. What does that leave me with? @Luko ? Dragon Dive and Marlin Dive only?

Thanks.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I'm still up in the air, brb, uh, so to speak.

Not sure now if Komodo will indeed be on the table after all.

@drk5036, how did the rest of your dives go in April/May? Would love to hear back from you.

 

[Luko]

Hey, @chillyinCanada, what did you decide on? I have 1 day in Komodo for day diving and I’m scoping out my options for a land based op with nitrox and speedboats. What does that leave me with? @Luko ? Dragon Dive and Marlin Dive only?

Thanks.

You should ask DDK before. Not sure they’re still using their speedboat. They told me I was their only diver asking for it, so they were planning to sell it AFAIK.
Blue Marlin is for sure, There ´s also another op that is using a speedboat called Red Whale or something like that. Í’m afraid it’s catering to russian divers though...