Tasik Divers Komodo

We dived with Tasik Divers at Derawan Dive Lodge every day for a week. Their dive boat is a bangka, like what you would find in Manado - large, stable, and comfortable. On the days that we had some weather it was nice to have the shelter. They always had tea and biscuits onboard, and lunch on the days we stayed out for three dives. The guides are supposedly trained in Manado. As we expected, they were great muck diving guides. However, their expertise seemed to end there. We dove nearby islands a few days that were walls and reefs and were mystified about how they ran those dives. Briefings were pretty much non-existent, even though we had a couple of inexperienced divers onboard. Several times they had the group swimming against the current for the entire dive - with no apparent purpose. Maybe they just kept misreading the current? A couple times the guides wanted us to swim into the shallows for a safety stop right where there was a washing machine current and waves breaking overhead. We refused and swam into the blue, but the divers that followed the guides got rather beat up. On a channel dive they dropped us in the middle of a channel on an incoming tide instead of on the wall where the predators always are. We saw nothing but bad visibility during that dive of course. And the manta dives at Sangalaki were pathetic. Big animals are never guaranteed, but the guides just wanted to aimlessly swim around rather than parking it at cleaning stations. The guides also seemed to have zero respect for the environment. They clawed the reef, scraped their fins on it, and said nothing to the divers that were doing the same or worse. We paid for Nitrox all week, but a couple times they gave us tanks that were only half full. Another couple that was traveling on the same itinerary as us had also requested Nitrox and only got it one day during the week we were there. Don't expect full service like you would receive in Manado or Lembeh. The guides leave your gear on the boat at night and don't bother washing anything. This area has promise and Tasik's other operations are good, so it's really quite a shame this one was so poorly run.

Although Tasik Divers had only recently started operations on Derawan I found the diving exceptional and the staff quite good and attentive. I am sure over time it will get even better. Diving with "stingless" jellies at Kakaban made for an even better experience but I would recommend that folks that go to Kakaban bring their dive boots as getting from the boat to the pathway on shore requires walking across coral. I was the only one with boots on my trip and it made my trip infinitely easier then virtually everybody else's.

My hubby & me had a fantastic time at Derawan. The staffs & lodge is nothing less but fabulous. The dive guides & boat crews are professional and superseded our expectation. *Elli was our group's guide on the 2nd day, was very meticulous with planning all our dives, especially at Maratua, Big Fish Country, he timed the dive so perfectly. *Asman is another dive guide we felt that he went the extra mile. In Big Fish Country, the current was strong, he saw I did not have a reef-hook, he unselfishly gave his reef-hook to me. That made my day! *Pehpeng, one of the fastest &efficient boat crew that we come across. Whether changing tanks in between dives or helping us up to the boat, we were very impressed by his level of service. We both me agreed that all the time spent traveling to and fro Singapore and Derawan is worth it. The only minor disappointment for me, when we were at Sangalaki, there was no Mantas. I was told that the last sighting was in February. Until then, keep up the good work!My hubby & me had a fantastic time at Derawan. The staffs & lodge is nothing less but fabulous. The dive guides & boat crews are professional and superseded our expectation. *Elli was our group's guide on the 2nd day, was very meticulous with planning all our dives, especially at Maratua, Big Fish Country, he timed the dive so perfectly. *Asman is another dive guide we felt that he went the extra mile. In Big Fish Country, the current was strong, he saw I did not have a reef-hook, he unselfishly gave his reef-hook to me. That made my day! *Pehpeng, one of the fastest &efficient boat crew that we come across. Whether changing tanks in between dives or helping us up to the boat, we were very impressed by his level of service. We both me agreed that all the time spent traveling to and fro Singapore and Derawan is worth it. The only minor disappointment for me, when we were at Sangalaki, there was no Mantas. I was told that the last sighting was in February. Until then, keep up the good work!