Indonesia diving conditions in July/August

[Azbuceadora]

That's nearly impossible to predict. Everyone is different. But as the hours and days pass, your inner ear will become acclimated. There are effective preventatives available OTC and by Rx. If you've never spent any time on boats, you should certainly look into having something.

What I would be concerned about is how you will spend your time while your partner is divedivediving. Don't expect to be entertained--take plenty to read, or some needlework (one of my fave non-diving activities), a sketch kit...whatever will keep you busy.

 

[billt4sf]

any insight on how a non-diver on board a live-aboard dive boat would fare regarding sea-sickness - early June.....Komodo region...thank you

Very bored I would think. There should be some snorkeling though.

As far as seasickness goes, it depends on how sensitive the person is, and you want to find this out before you go. My wife needs a scopolomine patch to go anywhere on any boat, I need nothing except in rare cases.

- Bill

 

[Dan]

Hey ScubaBoard colleagues!

Happy holidays to everyone! I am planning to head to Indonesia in July or August of 2018 (nothing arranged yet) for 7-10 days of live-aboard diving.

What are diving conditions like in July or August? My web-research suggests a mixed bag - hearing everything from "visibility will be fine in July/August" to "visibility sucks in July/August". Also hearing the same about weather conditions.

If anyone can speak specifically to diving around Komodo in those months, that would be an added bonus for me!

Would appreciate some honest and experienced feedback! Unfortunately I don't have much travel flexibility and those are the only months that I can go.

Thanks guys!!

What I’m about to say on Komodo is old news & may need to take it with a grain of salt with the more recent heavily visited & crowded situation and you may be too late to see Komodo in pristine condition. Having 30 boats on a dive site is environmentally unsustainable. July/August is not the best time to be in Raja Ampat either. So, may be you need to go elsewhere, like the Philippines or Red Sea.

I’ve been in Komodo 3x, in June 2008, in December 2012 and in August 2014 (yes, I’m old timer). All trips were on liveaboards. Among the 3 trips, I learnt that August is the best time of the year to be in Komodo.

During the northern hemisphere summer time (June-August), cool water from Australia would come up to eastern Indonesia (Nusa Tenggara), bringing nice cool climate to Bali & also Oceanic mola-mola (see my avatar). During that time, mantas also like to hangout in the southern part of Komodo like in Manta Alley, away from the northern Komodo crowd. You may not see them in the northern Komodo (Makassar Reef). I only saw them in Makassar Reef in December with 3 other boats back in December 2012. The weather in the southern Komodo was pretty bad in December at the time, we pretty much skipped Manta Alley. But we did visit the world-class south-eastern Komodo in December like Torpedo Alley, Cannibal Rock, Yellow Wall, Nusa Kode.

The best Komodo liveaboard trip I have ever had was the 10-day roundtrip Bali-Komodo-Bali in August 2014. Basically I took 2 week vacation (16 days, including the 3 weekends). Flew from Houston to Denpasar. Spent 2.5 days in Nusa Penida to see mola mola & mantas then embarked straight on to the liveaboard in Benoa. This way I didn’t lose a day for degassing before flying to Labuan Bajo as I did in the past 2 trips to Komodo. No domestic flight to worry about.