Trip Report Scuba Junkie Komodo: sketchy diving practices

[Dan]

Many of us have added that poster to our ignore. list.

 

[Sascha314]

The deeper dives typically are pinnacle dives, where you slowly ascend in a zig-zag manner. The drift dives are, in general, rather shallow. I just checked my log and there was not a single rectangular profile. The coral garden in the shallows often is the best part (if you like fish soup, as I do).

They make pretty tasty stuff out of tempeh, tahu (tofu) and egg - you should give it a try. Or ask the crew for some of their fish. I reckon they would share.

Well if its getting shallow, slow ascent and something to see, I would not worry too much about Nitrox tbh.
Usually when I have a "deco stop" of about 2 to 4min (at my conservative setting) at somewhere 3 to 6m(!) with a maximum dive depth around 33m it will clear once I reach about 9 to 10m or maybe need to stay there for 1 to 2 minutes.

That was a joke with the meat... but actually well tbh I always prefer the meal with meat over something else.

 

[34109411]

I don’t know why people freak out when they hit 0 NDL. Even with 1-2 minutes Deco that’s not big deal and the Deco time clears up as you go to shallower depth. Instead of 3 minutes safety stop, you end up doing say 5 minutes.

well with the supervision of a DM we did hit NDL on purpose to see the mecanic behind it and understand what to do. I do suggest to people to do so. (Under supervision for the first time)

 

[Sascha314]

well with the supervision of a DM we did hit NDL on purpose to see the mecanic behind it and understand what to do. I do suggest to people to do so. (Under supervision for the first time)

I suggest to read and understand the manual of your computer before. Its not a good idea to try that under water, even under supervision.

 

[34109411]

I suggest to read and understand the manual of your computer before. Its not a good idea to try that under water, even under supervision.

off course i did that (20 years ago LOL) and still do it when i get new computer.

Be safe

 

[runsongas]

@cetacean that's exactly what SJ is, a budget resort that has a heavy backpacker crowd. it caters to a demographic that can't or doesn't want to drop 2.5k+ a week on a mid end komodo liveaboard. a month at SJ is about 1/3 what it would be for 4 weeks liveaboard. and you can still get 21 dives a week in if you don't skip days. but judging it against a far more expensive liveaboard experience is disingenuous. yes you won't see deep south sites like german flag/manta alley/cannibal rock, but you still get the rest of the sites in the NP and you will see plenty on those dives.

 

[cetacean]

@cetacean that's exactly what SJ is, a budget resort that has a heavy backpacker crowd. it caters to a demographic that can't or doesn't want to drop 2.5k+ a week on a mid end komodo liveaboard. a month at SJ is about 1/3 what it would be for 4 weeks liveaboard. and you can still get 21 dives a week in if you don't skip days. but judging it against a far more expensive liveaboard experience is disingenuous. yes you won't see deep south sites like german flag/manta alley/cannibal rock, but you still get the rest of the sites in the NP and you will see plenty on those dives.

I'm very aware that's what it is. It's not always described this way

I would also suggest that you can get better guiding (at least for photographers) from some of the other (LoB) operators.

I think the behavior the OP originally described from the guides fits the ethos of the place. It's sad, but unfortunately true.

Having been to Lembeh a handful of times, it seems that the more casual the dive resort, the more likely the guides are willing to harras the wildlife (most likely in pursuit of tips from the guests). This was absolutely true in Hawaii as well for a long time (only recently has it gotten better as people have started talking about it more).