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.