Diving adds colorful diversions to our sluggish lives

Diving adds colorful diversions to our sluggish lives

By Sadie Mah

JAKARTA (JP): It's three o'clock on a Monday afternoon.
You're stuck in yet another unproductive meeting. As you watch
your colleagues engage in a roundabout debate, you find yourself
drifting off into a fantasy world where boardrooms and meetings
do not exist. In their place is a vast expanse in which you
float, giving you an incredible feeling of lightness and freedom.
Next weekend, you promise yourself you will do something
different.

This is an all-too-common scenario for many of us. Whether
it's pursuing a new sport or visiting new places, we aim to add
colorful diversions to our sluggish lives. Fortunately for those
of us who live in Jakarta, there are still plenty of
opportunities to try out new things. The next time your mind
switches off in one of these escapist games, why not make it a
reality by taking up scuba diving?

S.C.U.B.A. stands for self-contained underwater breathing
apparatus. Hence, scuba diving is a sport where divers are
equipped with their own air supply and other devices that allow
them to breathe underwater. The attraction of diving as a
recreation is obvious. The ability to stay underwater for
extended periods of time allows a diver to explore a whole new
world of brilliant colors and wonderful creatures.

The first scuba was invented in 1825. But it was only in 1943
when Jacques-Yves Cousteau codesigned the first commercially
available scuba and opened the previously unexplored two-thirds
of the planet to the world. Later, a television series in the
United States in the 1960's called Sea Hunt, about an underwater
adventurer, inspired thousands of people to take up scuba diving.
Various training schools were formed, further increasing scuba's
popularity.

Here in Indonesia it has become a popular sport, with
tourists, expatriates and middle to upper-class locals diving in
some of the world's richest coral reefs. The archipelago boasts
over 3,000 species of fish and 3,000 species of coral, with new
species and shipwrecks constantly being discovered, making diving
a worthwhile sport to pursue. But like other recreational sports,
it requires specialized training.

There are about a dozen diving centers in Jakarta. Most offer
courses from PADI (Professional Association of Diving
Instructors), the most widely used training and certifying course
worldwide. For about Rp 2.3 million, students taking the PADI
Open-Water course attend a series of classroom and pool-side
sessions before being taken out to the Thousand Islands for their
first open-water dive. Many beginning divers are quickly hooked
and proceed to take the Advanced Open-Water course, which allows
them to dive at night and in wrecks, as well as study underwater
photography and marine life.

For those who want to get a feel of diving but are not quite
ready for the open-water course, introductory courses are also
available. PADI's Discover Scuba course costs Rp 100,000 and
allows students, donned in full diving equipment, to experience
what it is like to breathe underwater in the confines of a
swimming pool. Alternatively, a temporary certification valid for
14 days is available for those who want to experience diving in
the ocean right away. PADI's Discover Scuba Diving course costs
about Rp 1 million and includes a trip to the Thousand Islands,
where students can do two half-hour dives.

Children of at least 12 years of age can take up diving too.
The PADI Junior Open-Water course certifies divers under 15 years
old. This year, PADI began offering the Bubble Maker course to
prepare kids between the age of eight and 11 for diving.

"It's incredible how fast children learn," Indah Waty, dive
instructor and manager of Aquapro, said.

Equipment

While the cost of learning the sport is reasonably low,
getting the equipment can be expensive. Depending on how far you
want to go, it costs something from US$70 (about Rp 500,000) for
the basic mask, fins and snorkel, to $1,500 for a dive computer.
A wet suit costs $150 and above, while a buoyancy control device
starts from $200. Many new divers choose to rent instead, paying
around Rp 140,000 a day for a full set of equipment.

Dive trips are not cheap either. While there are many
wonderful dive sites in the country, most of these places are not
very accessible to residents of Jakarta. Hence, Jakartans are
often limited to places off the coast of Jakarta and western
Java, where some of the worst damage to marine life is found.
Those dive sites that have yet to suffer the full effects of
environmental damage are far from Jakarta and only accessible by
air, making trips very expensive. A trip to Bunaken in Manado,
for instance, costs Rp 3 million for just the airfare, and $375
for eight dives and four nights accommodation.

There are, however, cheaper alternatives. Some divers choose
to camp on the grounds, saving a good deal of the cost. Some dive
centers and diving clubs, such as Klub Corona, organize cheaper
trips for divers where cost is a concern. The club also trains
divers using the POSSI Indonesian certification, which costs only
Rp 650,000 for the course and a dive trip. Unlike PADI, however,
POSSI is only recognized in Indonesia.

Costs aside, how do you know if diving is for you?

First, you have to be comfortable being in water. PADI
requires every student to be tested on how well they can swim
prior to being certified. Students have to be able to swim 200
yards without stopping and tread water for 10 minutes, although
most centers here do not conform too strictly to these
requirements.

Obviously, you also have to be generally healthy. Those
suffering from asthma, diabetes and obesity are usually not
recommended to dive. Smokers are advised to refrain from smoking
for at least 12 hours prior to a dive. Divers are also advised to
maintain a healthy lifestyle and be physically fit to prepare for
any demands for sudden exertion, such as swimming against strong
currents and getting into a rocky boat.

Many new divers are surprised to learn of the many accidents
that can occur in the water.

"I felt chills in my bones when the instructor started laying
out what could go wrong," said Rosa, a retailer who used to dive
without a license with a group of friends. "I realized that I
could have seriously hurt myself then not knowing what I know
now."

Since diving is considered a high-risk sport, few insurance
companies are willing to cover diving-related accidents. There
are, however, policies that are specific to diving, such as the
PADI-sponsored Diver Protection Program, which is available from
most dive centers here.

Yet, the potential dangers and risks are not enough to deter
enthusiastic divers from descending beneath the surface.

Jeffrey Lambertus, a PADI Open-Water student at Aquapro, said
that having relatives who had been involved in diving accidents
scared him, but he was going ahead with it.

"I've always wanted to know what it's like in there, beyond
what snorkeling can show me," he said. And in a few weeks, he
will share with other divers the knowledge that when long days at
the office become unbearable, there is a place to which he can
escape. In reality.