An Indonesian newbie AOW inspired by foreign cave divers/rescuers in Thailand

[arianputra]

Cert wise, I'm interested in sidemount (maybe british style?), overhead environment like wreck, mine and cave. And maybe some diving advanced tec "toys" like DPV or Rebreather. But it'll take me 5+ years to even touch those type of specialty diving.

Still a long way to go for me to be a cave diver, especially with limited tech instructors and variety of cert agencies. The venue that is similar to Tham Luang flooded cave (my inspiration) obviously won't exist too. Unless British CDG open a branch teaching sump diving and world class cave diving apprentice program here in Indonesia.

Literally 90% of instructors here are PADI and SSI. And that's how I got my PADI AOW cert in Bali during vacations these last 2 years. I'm thousand of miles away from Bali so my diving experience are limited. I can try solo diving in my local lakes with murky water and muddy environment but I'm not that stupid and that's definitely illegal. I've caught a peek of tec and cave diving course manuals and general info from reputable specialized agencies (obviously not PADI and SSI), and made me hate myself for being born in a region thousands of miles away from tec diving centers.

I'm a big fan of Tham Luang cave rescue. I've read books about it written by civilians (Cochrane, gutman, soontornvat, aronson), read books about it by the divers themselves written for civilians (Richard Harris and Craig Challen) and watch every single video available about it. I even saved some videos with Thai language despite not understanding the language just because some contain rare video of the divers.

If anyone reading this useless member intro thread is a fan of the Tham Luang story too, maybe you can share some materials with me. Especially from the Thai, and from country origins of each divers.

 

[drk5036]

The most important thing you can do is just keep diving! I’m sure you’re aware, but Indonesia probably has the best diving in earth, and most of that isn’t located in Bali. The best advice for you at this time is just keep diving snd getting practice. Standard backmount with Al80 tanks, in a standard old BCD is fine, just try to increase you number or hours beneath the surface.

whereabouts in Indonesia are you located? Maybe some people here might have suggestions about where you could dive closer to home.

 

[Centrals]

Indonesia might have one of the best diving in the world but all those places are NOT that easy to reach even for the local.
I am pretty sure the OP would have good idea on the best dive sites in his/her own country.
Most of the WWII wrecks have been looted and salvaged over last few yrs. SHAME. I did come across some tec centres in Bali, Lombok and Bunaken.
As for cave diving :

Indonesia Cave Diving

Good luck.

 

[Tripp]

Welcome to ScubaBoard and Howdy! from Texas! There is a lot of info on this site to delve in to. I agree, first, do a lot of diving. You will find your interest and it may not be what you initially think it will be. Be open and try many types of diving. We're glad you're here!

 

[arianputra]

The most important thing you can do is just keep diving! I’m sure you’re aware, but Indonesia probably has the best diving in earth, and most of that isn’t located in Bali. The best advice for you at this time is just keep diving snd getting practice. Standard backmount with Al80 tanks, in a standard old BCD is fine, just try to increase you number or hours beneath the surface.

whereabouts in Indonesia are you located? Maybe some people here might have suggestions about where you could dive closer to home.

I'm from Central Borneo, more specifically working in Palangkaraya region. Nope, just some murky muddy river here. Yeah there are caves but no cave diving. The nearest famous dive centers are located in Derawan, East Borneo. But I'm not really interested in going there since there's no direct flight to that island (basically $40 to nearest large airport, connect to small airport for $40 again), and then still need to ride a chartered boat, basically it's cheaper and easier for me to go to direct Bali flight for $50 to $60. Not including swab test covid. The nightlife in Derawan is still less than Bali, I'm quite experienced in finding traveller bargains in Bali too. But I won't be going to Bali at least until the end of the year. It's just about the bang for my bucks, really.

Maybe I'll try Raja Ampat, Lombok, or Komodo island for my next dive spot, see if they offer cool courses or worthy dive trip (where I'll get new knowledge without partaking in certification course dives) for cheap. PADI and SSI have courses targeted for tourists that don't exist in other agencies I believe? Like night diving, search and recovery for items, or boat diver. But I'm more interested in diving open water more and then try asking what courses should I take to progress in cavern/cave route.

Sulawesi dive trek is quite known to here in Indonesia. Especially since they are quite geared towards cave diving. But I'm not ready for that yet.

As for equipment, all I have is a BCD cressi beginner set. An instructor told me I should watch for bargains for cheap diverite or hollis hybrid sidemount once I'm ready to complete my sidemount course. So I'll just keep renting what I need for now. I'm trying to be more experienced in buoyancy control, air management, and basics of diving. I don't even own a digital dive computer yet lol. Maybe I should only invest in one soon. Especially since PADI tec nitrox is quite popular for divers who completed more dives and cert after AOW.

But like what you said, I'll keep diving whenever I have the time. I'll try finding courses from instructor teaching SDI/TDI, IANTD, RAID, PSAI, or other reputable agencies, especially if it's cheap and help me progress towards cave diving. And maybe trying rec rebreather courses, if I'm worthy for the prerequisites of course.

Cheers

 

[arianputra]

Indonesia might have one of the best diving in the world but all those places are NOT that easy to reach even for the local.
I am pretty sure the OP would have good idea on the best dive sites in his/her own country.
Most of the WWII wrecks have been looted and salvaged over last few yrs. SHAME. I did come across some tec centres in Bali, Lombok and Bunaken.
As for cave diving :

Indonesia Cave Diving

Good luck.

Yeah it's ridiculous because I'm situated in a bad spot for someone interested in diving. Basically, it'll cost me more to travel from my place to nearest famous diving center, yet it's cheaper to go thousands of miles to Bali. Because the nearest tec centers are in Malaysia (international flight) and Derawan east borneo (domestic but needs connecting flight and chartered boat).

I'll definitely look out for bargains from the dive site in the thread you linked. Sulawesi dive trek is quite known.

Cheers

Welcome to ScubaBoard and Howdy! from Texas! There is a lot of info on this site to delve in to. I agree, first, do a lot of diving. You will find your interest and it may not be what you initially think it will be. Be open and try many types of diving. We're glad you're here!

Howdy. I've been reading and watching about cave diving in USA especially wkpp, jacobs well, eagle's nest, indian springs etc. Amazing, terrifying, and complex stuff your country's divers did over there.

I can only dream to even have near access to NSS-CDS, NACD, and GUE instructors here in the middle of Borneo. I'm not interested in GUE holistic approach obviously, since my inspiration which is Tham Luang cave rescue is like a polar opposite of that kind of approach, but how cool it'll be if I can get GUE level of courses here

 

[Centrals]

Central of Kalimantan! You can't ask for a worst place to live for an avid diver in Indonesia. Jungle and River. Banjarmasin probably is your nearest airport for domestic connection.
Derawan is not easy to get to but you do not need to charter boat to get there from the mainland.
There must be ferry connection between Banjarmasin and Central/Southern Sulawesi. But a long bus trip to Manado.
I once crossed over from Parepare to Samarinda 30 yrs ago.

 

[arianputra]

Central of Kalimantan! You can't ask for a worst place to live for an avid diver in Indonesia. Jungle and River. Banjarmasin probably is your nearest airport for domestic connection.
Derawan is not easy to get to but you do not need to charter boat to get there from the mainland.
There must be ferry connection between Banjarmasin and Central/Southern Sulawesi. But a long bus trip to Manado.
I once crossed over from Parepare to Samarinda 30 yrs ago.

Hi there, you clearly know more about diving in Indonesia more than I do lmao. Usually I'll take economy ticket from my airport, direct transit in surabaya/jakarta (sometimes without getting out of plane), and immediately headed to Bali, at around Rp 750k. To get to Derawan however, there is no flight straight to Berau, which means it'll be one long stop in Balikpapan, not to mention the ticket to balikpapan itself already cost ±80% as palangkaraya-bali route at Rp 600k. Just not worth it.

Balikpapan and Samarinda (both east borneo) have the same water quality with my kahayan river, but in a lot of ways, it might be worse there. Since Samarinda is an active river port, and balikpapan constantly got it's coast and beaches contaminated with Pertamina crude oil

I'm definitely interested in bunaken and cave diving in Sulawesi. Never been there, but it's certainly famous. We'll see, once my vaccine is approved, I'll try planning.

Cheers

 

[drk5036]

Hi there, you clearly know more about diving in Indonesia more than I do lmao. Usually I'll take economy ticket from my airport, direct transit in surabaya/jakarta (sometimes without getting out of plane), and immediately headed to Bali, at around Rp 750k. To get to Derawan however, there is no flight straight to Berau, which means it'll be one long stop in Balikpapan, not to mention the ticket to balikpapan itself already cost ±80% as palangkaraya-bali route at Rp 600k. Just not worth it.

Balikpapan and Samarinda (both east borneo) have the same water quality with my kahayan river, but in a lot of ways, it might be worse there. Since Samarinda is an active river port, and balikpapan constantly got it's coast and beaches contaminated with Pertamina crude oil

I'm definitely interested in bunaken and cave diving in Sulawesi. Never been there, but it's certainly famous. We'll see, once my vaccine is approved, I'll try planning.

Cheers

Before corona, how difficult was it to get to Kota Kinabalu? Cheap diving can be down there.

Sipadan (in Malaysia, which makes Indonesian’s unhappy I’ve heard) also must be not far from you distance-wise, but is maybe difficult to get to. The closest airport is Semporna. The diving is incredible, but not cheap.

 

[Centrals]

Balikpapan and Samarinda (both east borneo) have the same water quality with my kahayan river, but in a lot of ways, it might be worse there. Since Samarinda is an active river port, and balikpapan constantly got it's coast and beaches contaminated with Pertamina crude oil

I'm definitely interested in bunaken and cave diving in Sulawesi. Never been there, but it's certainly famous. We'll see, once my vaccine is approved, I'll try planning.

It was NOT a diving trip to Samarinda, a short river journey up the Mahakam river. It was brown water all the way but I have the best and freshest nangka I ever tasted. Villages built on stilt, reburial of the deceased(celebration party atmosphere). Remind me of the Toraja funeral.

You have one of the best in the world so do not waste your opportunity.
Have fun.