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Scuba Diving – Life on Liveaboards

Scuba Diver in Raja Ampat Indonesia

Have you ever dreamed of living and scuba diving right on top of one of the world’s best dive sites, starting the day by pulling on your wetsuit, slipping into your dive gear, and dropping into the clear, warm ocean above a coral reef teeming with fish all waiting to wish you good morning?
This is the dream made real by liveaboard dive boats, which have been multiplying in recent years in response to demand from divers with busy lives who want to make the most of the leisure time they have.

There are options for all budgets, from dormitory accommodation to palatial private cabins, from canteen-style buffets to fine dining. You can share the deck with a couple of dozen other keen divers or scuba in style on an exclusive boutique luxury vessel with personal rinse tanks and dive valets to look after you and your gear. Some liveaboards offer weekend schedules; others extended voyages to really let you get away from it all.

What are the pros and cons of Liveaboard Scuba Diving?

The main advantages are that you get access to more remote and unspoiled places that see comparatively few divers and you can easily dive four or even five times a day.

The disadvantage is that you are living on a boat, which can be uncomfortable if sea conditions become rough. Your food options are limited and nightlife is usually non-existent. If you do not get on with your fellow travelers it is hard to escape but liveaboards are usually very convivial places full of like-minded, outgoing folk.

A Typical Liveaboard Day

You wake early, roused from your sleep by sunrise and the sound of activity. You throw on your swimsuit and a t-shirt and head for the galley for a snack to wake you up and give you energy and hydration for the first plunge of the day.

You greet your companions on the dive deck where your equipment is ready to go. You showed the crew how you like it set up on the first day and they are quick learners. During the trip, your dive gear lives permanently in the space allocated to you. Your wetsuit hangs nearby although you will be diving so frequently it will never get really dry! On some boats you gear up fully on deck and jump straight in; other liveaboards use small boats called tenders to take you back and forth to the sites.

Breakfast follows the first dive and from there the day progresses in a sequence of rest – dive – eat – rest – dive – eat until you fall into bed and are rocked to sleep by the sea.
Every boat has a sunbathing area, shaded deck space, and a communal lounge where there might be a Scrabble game going on or someone running through their photos from the last dive. If you want some privacy, you can retreat to your cabin, which on most boats is a shared twin room with bunks or single beds. If you are traveling alone you may find yourself sharing with a stranger, usually of the same sex. This is not necessarily a bad thing. You may find you have made a buddy for life!

There are fresh water showers on deck and usually in the cabins but expect hot water to be in short supply. Think of it as a wonderful surprise if you get some and use it sparingly as you may not be the most popular person on board if you are the only one that got to enjoy it!

Tips for Liveaboard Trips for Scuba Divers

Join a pool session or a local dive. Run an in-water check on your equipment before you go. If you find problems get them fixed and then go back in the water and check everything again before you leave.

Pack light: liveaboard life is very informal. Take a few T-shirts and pairs of shorts, a sarong or two, and a sweatshirt for the cool evenings at sea. Don’t bring shoes apart from those you wear to travel; you will go barefoot on board and can use your dive booties for any beach walking.
Be prepared with: –

  1. Multiple surface signaling devices such as a torch, a noisemaker, and a tall, brightly coloured safety sausage
  2. A small spares kit containing a mask strap, regulator mouthpiece, and two fin straps, (as they both tend to break at the same time!)
  3. A personal medical kit containing anti-motion-sickness pills, patches, or wristbands; eardrops; antibiotic ointment for coral cuts and hydrocortisone cream for hydroid stings.

Warning: liveaboard diving can be very addictive!

Simon is the best-selling author of Scuba Confidential – An Insider’s Guide to Becoming a Better Diver and Scuba Professional – Insights into Scuba Diver Training & Operations. Both books are available from Oceanic Ventures. Simon has also just published a new book for divers-to-be and absolute beginners called Scuba Fundamental – Start Diving the Right Way

Simon Pridmore Avatar
Originally from the UK, Simon has lived in the Asia-Pacific region for almost 40 years and has been involved at the sharp end of the scuba diving industry since the early 1990s, pioneering mixed-gas deep diving in the region, first in Hong Kong and later through Professional Sports Divers, his dive centre in Guam, Micronesia. He then moved to the United Kingdom to run a major technical diver training agency and work with cutting edge dive equipment manufacturers VR Technology. Today, he is one of the most prolific and well-known scuba diving and travel authors around. As well as his many books and guides, Simon writes regular columns for a variety of magazines and, under the pen name S.J. Pridmore, has recently published a highly-acclaimed first novel May the People Know I’m Here? After a decade in Indonesia, then a couple of years back in Hong Kong, these days Simon and his wife Sofie live in the south of Taiwan, still on the move as always, trying, but so far failing, to find a cure for their itchy feet.

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New Scuba Diving Equipment – Ocean Positive Swimwear

Oceanic Ventures now carrying the complete line of Ocean Positive swimwear for men and women from Fourth Element.  These are suits with minimal fasteners that make them comfortable under wetsuits but stylish enough to wear when you are not in your suit.
Ocean Positive swimwear and hydroskin rashguards are made using recycled nylon from fishing nets which have been abandoned by fishing vessels having snagged on reef, wrecks etc.
These “Ghost Nets” amount to over 600,000 tonnes of lost gear every year. The main hazard is to marine life – from invertebrates to large marine mammals. They continue to fish, long after they have been abandoned, and account for countless lives. The netting, very slow to degrade, scrubs coral, creating a desolate seascape where they are dragged over the reef by shifting currents.
Now, all over the world, dive teams are removing these Ghost Nets from the wrecks and reefs, often at great depths, and bringing them up to the surface where they can be recycled and spun into nylon yarn.
Fourth Element uses fabric made from ECONYLl®, the recycled yarn, combined with Lycra® to make a line of active swimwear.
“This is a fantastic idea, [one which] demonstrates what we can, and should, do for the oceans”. ‘Her Deepness’ Sylvia Earle.
Here is a video explaining the idea behind Ocean Positive.

And, If you want to see the product in action watch this video…

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New Scuba Diver Video

The other day, I had an idea to try a new video for the website.  My idea was to have a short video to add to our website for new divers to entice them to call or come-by.  Since our program is a little different, I thought a video might be a good start along with a new page focused on becoming a scuba diver.  Below is the first video I came up with.   I have also set-up the new page for a new diver that hopefully provides a little information and will entice them to call.  You can find that page here.  Please let me know what you think.

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Hidden Scuba Diving Treasures – Muck Diving

Simon is the best-selling author of Scuba Confidential – An Insider’s Guide to Becoming a Better Diver and Scuba Professional – Insights into Scuba Diver Training & Operations. Both books are available from Oceanic Ventures. Simon has also just published a new book for divers-to-be and absolute beginners called Scuba Fundamental – Start Diving the Right Way.

You roll off the boat and look down to get a hint of the wonders that await you on this dive but it seems you are in the wrong place. There are no glorious coral formations; in fact there is no reef at all. Instead the seabed seems grey and featureless and the visibility is reduced by the presence of a nearby river mouth.

 Sixty minutes later, however, you return to the surface with your mind reeling and your camera’s memory card full of pictures of some of the most incredible marine life you could ever have imagined.

You have just been on an underwater treasure hunt; a game of hide and seek with some very clever opponents. This is muck diving!

The Genesis

While early scuba divers were marveling at the beauty of coral reefs and hanging out in the blue watching for whale sharks and manta rays, a whole universe of amazing creatures were going about their business under the sea completely un-noticed.

How could they have remained undetected for so long? Well, first they were small, second, they had developed the art of concealment to a very high degree and third they lived in places that were not particularly pleasing to the eye. Primarily, however, they remained unseen because nobody was looking for them.

Then a few things happened to bring these little creatures into the limelight.

First, the big fish became fewer in number and harder to find. Second, divers became older and a little lazier and, third, there were significant advances in underwater macro-photography.

Most importantly a few enterprising individuals in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Malaysia started looking for marine life in unusual places where nobody had looked before and began to find some absolutely astonishing things.

Muck diving is the quest for these beautiful animals in the sometimes-inhospitable environment where they hide.

Where to Go

New muck diving locations are being discovered all the time but, so far, the world capital is Lembeh Straits on the northeastern tip of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Other locations that also deserve honourable mention include a variety of sites right across northern Bali, Dumaguete in the Philippines, Pulau Mabul off the coast of Malaysian Borneo, Komodo, Ambon and Alor in the Indonesian archipelago and Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea.

Muck Diving Techniques

At first it can appear an impossible task and you will be amazed at how your guides can see things that are almost invisible until you look carefully. Keep trying, however, and with a little experience you will be spotting your own hidden treasures. The thrill of discovery when you find something rare and exotic is hard to beat.

These tips may help: –

  • Look ahead as well as beneath you
  • Be alert for movement as you pass.
  • Follow tracks in the sand
  • Get as close as you can
  • Examine everything from several angles
  • Be patient and take your time
  • Move slowly
  • Stay as near to the sand as possible without disturbing it
  • Use a fin-kick that does not involve downward fin movement so you do not disturb the sand: a gentle frog kick works well

More Spotting Tips

You can also increase your chances of spotting success by knowing where to look, for instance: –

  • Ornate ghost pipefish hang out among feather stars.
  • Pipefish and seahorses hide among sea grass.
  • Baby clown frogfish love rotting wood.
  • Sea cucumbers host colourful emperor shrimps as well as swimming crabs
  • Harlequin shrimps feed on sea stars
  • Urchins are often home to shrimps and baby fish
  • Fire urchins are where zebra crabs live
  • Tube anemones often have small harlequin swimming crabs on their trunks
  • Sea pens shelter porcelain crabs in their fronds
Pointer – OVI Has them in stock

Essential Equipment

An excellent tool that all the top guides use is a stainless steel 30 cm pointer, which you can thrust into the sand to help you balance as you hunt for animals. You can also use it gently to move aside a concealing weed to see more clearly. Attach the pointer with a lanyard to your BCD and tuck it into your harness when you are not using it.

Just Scratching the Surface

Remember, many of the creatures being discovered by muck divers today are new to science. It is exciting to imagine how much more there is to learn and what surprises remain to be discovered by someone with patience, a sharp eye and a pointer.