Komodo August 2025

[Newdiver0392]

Hi everyone!

This is my first post here - I am a newbie in the diving world with 50 dives since last year.

I completely fell in love with diving… the problem is that I only have one friend who is a diver and I would love to meet new people sharing this hobbie.

I would be super keen to hear your recommendation / stories as of how you met your dive buddies.

I am considering going to Komodo in August for a week (I live in London) - I am considering staying with Scuba junkie but a bit worried if everyone has a +1 to end up on my own far away from the city.

Thank you

 

[Kahuna.]

Hi, if you have a car you could join a club. I was in Eastbourne Sub Aqua Club when I was living in London. Great bunch of folks with their own boat.

 

[Centrals]

@Newdiver0392
Nothing to worry about as a single diver as I have been doing that for nearly 30yrs.
I had stay at Scuba junkie Komodo as a single diver and shared the garden bale with a complete stranger.

 

[JustinJRL]

No issues! Divers are a friendly, chatty bunch!

My wife doesn't dive, and I live in the canadian prairies where diving objectively sucks.

I've done everything from homestays to resorts to liveaboards, and always seem to meet up with a good crowd from all over the world, who like to share dive stories.

 

[Carlos Diver]

I solo trip anytime Im not in the carribean. Been a lot of places and it has never been an issue. Like Justin said, most divers are friendly and you will make fast friends.

I did scuba junkies solo. They have a good set up and everything went smooth. I stayed in an AC room, I am not as ``adventures" as Centrals, but their garden bale rooms looked perfectly fine for a few nights had I been about 20 years younger.

 

[matts1w]

SJs now has several smaller rooms they are calling garden cottages- smaller than the older AC rooms but with AC and ensuites. They look pretty nice and easier on one's wallet. They look perfect for a single who, like me, has left his backpacking days behind him.

 

[diveUAE]

My husband and I both dive and of course we’re a buddy team - still we met new dive friends

Sometimes couples, sometimes solo divers. How to meet new dive buddies? Be open, talk and listen to people, but above all: be a good diver- learn to manage your buoyancy and air consumption, so you don’t limit your buddy.

Generally we’ve found that most divers are easy to connect with: sharing the dive experiences of the day or past/future trips is always a good starting point.

In February 2024 we were diving with my SIL in Dauin and the dive op added a solo diver to our group - perfectly ok as a it makes sense with a dive group of 4

This diver turned out to be a delight to dive with and she is just so easy to talk with. So when we moved to Moalboal we asked, if she was coming diving with us and luckily she did. We now consider her a great friend, and met up with her for diving in Thailand this February.

For us the best places to meet new friends are the more budget friendly backpacker type of stays we’ve done. In Dauin we stayed at Bongo Bongo, where the rooms are so small you only want to be there for sleeping so naturally you meet and talk with people in the common areas. The divers we met on the very basic “Jaya” Liveaboard in Raja Ampat in 2014 we’re still Facebook friends with.

Of course you can meet new friends in more luxurious resorts- especially if they have a meal plan, so all eat together, even better, if it’s at one big table, where everyone sits together.

Also: don’t be afraid to say no to diving with a certain insta buddy. On a boat in Sudan there was a “princess diver”, she would just do whatever she liked under water. One time she stayed at 25 m with a spectacular tornado of barracudas, while everyone else went down to 40 m to see the hammerheads. Her poor buddy could not get her to follow us (this was not the first time she ignored him and all rules). Once we surfaced he refused to dive with her as a buddy. I think that made her “wake up” a bit- at least she stayed kind of closer to her new buddy (the cruise director as everyone else also refused to be her buddy).

Welcome to the new world of diving.

 

[cetacean]

Hi everyone!

This is my first post here - I am a newbie in the diving world with 50 dives since last year.

I completely fell in love with diving… the problem is that I only have one friend who is a diver and I would love to meet new people sharing this hobbie.

I would be super keen to hear your recommendation / stories as of how you met your dive buddies.

I am considering going to Komodo in August for a week (I live in London) - I am considering staying with Scuba junkie but a bit worried if everyone has a +1 to end up on my own far away from the city.

Thank you

You have already received some great guidance, so I'll just add the following...

Being a single newbie isn't an issue. You will meet other divers no matter where you go. Divers are generally friendly, regardless of country of origin, although language can (at times) be a challenge (likely not in Komodo) but diving with someone where you don't share a language can be tough. Always good to check that your dive guide speaks your language (english is rarely an issue, except in places like Japan or China).

Two things to consider: I've been a single diver on a number of trips (when my wife couldn't get away or where she wasn't particularly interested in diving, like Cocos Island in Costa Rica). Being a single diver is rarely an issue if you're diving a destination that draws serious divers. Being a single diver in the Caribbean might get you buddied up with someone with poor skills, or with different air consumption than you, that can be challenging.

Instead of only looking at diving land-based destinations as a single diver, consider joining a liveaboard. The diving tends to attract more serious divers, and spending 5-10 days with other people (in fairly close quarters) tends to enable you to make fast friends... this is a great way to bond, get some great diving in, and meet new people.

Having said this, Komodo is better done as a liveaboard, but tends to be a more advanced destination. You can do it as a newbie (many do), however there will be some dive sites the guides may not allow you to fully experience (based on their evaluation of your diving skills).

As someone else suggested - a great way to dive with people that you may share something in common with is to sign up for a trip with a dive club or a dive shop. Almost every dive shop will run a few trips each year- great way to get to know people is to go on vacation with them.

As an aside - I've been diving for ~30 years and there are still 1-2 trips I take each year with some local clubs, because I like diving with these folks (then I also take a trip with my wife and our kids).

 

[cozcharlie]

While roommates can be an issue , when it comes to the actual diving I wouldn’t worry about it. The example I always use was when I took a dive trip when my team switched employers about 15 years ago. I had never been to the Philippines and booked a trip to Puerto Galera. Since I was doing a week in a strange country where I knew no one I decided to a week in Maui afterwards to kind of hedge my bets in case I didn’t have anyone to hang out with in Philippines. As it turned out I made immediate friends with the other divers in the Philippines and had a great time. In Maui (where each hotel night cost 7X the hotel rate in Puerto Galera) I was bored out of my mind and wound up coming home early.

The one caveat is that just doing a male share can be a pain if you get stuck with someone you don’t click with during the day or snores at night (like me). If you can afford a little extra many Indonesian liveaboards have attractive single supplement rates that you should consider (many have supplements in the 20-30 percent range where other parts of the world have supplements of 50-80 percent ). Each boat differs , but 20-30 percent isn’t a bad price for your own cabin and a guarantee of no snoring roommate .

 

[boqurant]

No need to worry about going alone, and so long as you're not a liability in the water, most people will probably be happy enough to instabuddy with you.

You might want to get a few more dives in before Komodo though - many of the dive sites have quite strong currents and you'll need to have your buoyancy and gas consumption nailed before you go. Ideally to have faced some moderate currents elsewhere too, practiced reef hooking etc. Possibly Maldives would be an easier place for a start?