Why Borneo Divers?

In the mid-1980's they unearthed the mother load, striking gold with then uninhabited Sipadan Island, a tiny oceanic atoll rising out of the depths off the eastern coast of Malaysian Borneo.  Their first dive at Sipadan came as an epiphany, and they knew immediately that they were on to something big. Intrigued, they returned with more tanks, tents, a camp stove, and started to bring a few friends along. The result, a little more than twenty years hence, is one of the most popular dive sites in all of Asia.

When in 1989 I first visited Sipadan, there was only Borneo Divers’ one small resort, accommodating 16 guests in simple fashion, and providing the best diving and snorkeling I had ever seen.  But “progress” came quickly.  When I returned with a group the following year, there was already a second lodging on the island, operated by Chinese businessmen, and catering mostly to Japanese divers.  This growth trend was to continue.

Along the way, Jacques Cousteau brought the Calypso to Sipadan, pronounced it superb, and stayed five weeks, producing a film entitled, “Ghost of the Sea Turtle,” and changing the pronunciation of the name Sipadan along the way.  SkinDiver Magazine published a major editorial.  Then the executive editor of In Depth Magazine visited Sipadan, crowning it, “The World’s Best Beach Dive.” As a result of this kind of acclaim, today you will find no less than five “resorts” on Sipadan, plus two or three more on neighboring Mabul.  All are exploiting Sipadan’s exceptional diving, and some of them sell their product cheaper than Borneo Divers.  Why then should you pay a bit more to go with the original discovers and developers of Sipadan, Borneo Divers?

I recently took the bull by the horns and asked that question directly of the Borneo Divers.  Between their responses, and my own experiences there with ten visits over as many years, here are some points for you to consider:

• Location, Location, Location – Borneo Divers’ property is directly in front of the drop off.  It’s no more than 30 feet from the dive shop to the water’s edge.  Walk forward 25 feet over a natural sandy bottom, and you step directly from three feet of water, to over 2,000 feet.  But no need to go deep, as the wall sticks out of the water at low tide.  Turn right, swim for 45 seconds, and you are in the midst of the coral garden that In Depth so accurately commemorated.  Borneo Divers’ resort is situated superbly. Each additional resort in Sipadan is located farther away from this drop off. Unfortunately, rather than go to the effort of carrying their tanks to the natural entry point, divers from those resorts are walking over the top of the reef to get to the wall, in the process smashing pristine coral formations. The resorts yet farther down the island have no beach diving access whatsoever, only boat diving. For their part, Borneo Divers is providing three individual boat dives per day, plus easy access to superb shore diving, without destroying the reef that you came to see.

• Quality of the Product – Borneo Divers have, by far, the best physical plant.  That it to say the best refrigeration, the best kitchen facilities, the most spacious and comfortable dining hall, the largest and best kept bath house and toilets facilities, etc.  At a less expensive property you won’t necessarily “get what you pay for,” but you definitely will get “no more than what you pay for.”

• Concern for the Environment – Borneo Divers are the only resort to have a large scale, dependable desalinization system, providing water for showers, toilets, etc. Thus they avoid the use of well water on this tiny island, and further depletion of the water table, land subsidence, etc.  (Bottled drinking water is brought from the mainland.)  On another note, at considerable expense Borneo Divers have taken it upon themselves to purchase the turtle egg-collecting rights at both Sipadan and Sangalaki.  They are leaving them to lie fallow so that the robust turtle population may continue to prosper.  They also do their best to deter guests from molesting the marine life, breaking coral, “riding” turtles, etc.  Apparently, this can not be said for some of the other operations.
  
  
• At their own expense - The Borneo Divers have placed, and maintain, the only professional decompression chamber on Sipadan Island.  The Borneo Divers operate a commercial diving division back on the mainland, so they have the tooling and expertise to operate a proper chamber.

• Don't Support Illegal Operations – Due to their negative environmental impact, two of the other resorts on the island are actually operating illegally.  The Wildlife Management people have tried to shut them down on multiple occasions, but they keep coming back. It appears that “money talks” in Borneo too.  But you don’t have to add your dollars to the equation.

• Dedication to Diver Safety – Borneo Divers' Sipadan Island Resort is a PADI 5-Star Facility.  They operate to a standard of professionalism in diving that some of the other resorts don’t even comprehend. Here is how Ron Holland explained it to me. “If they want to cut prices, they have to economize somewhere, and that is usually in the man-power. This means cheap labor, inexperienced and untrained staff.  Sadly, this includes their dive-guides. Did you know that the last serious dive accident was with (name deleted - KDK)?  Two Taiwanese divers died because they where allowed to deep dive all the time.  Their last known profile was below 100 meters, (over 300 feet!).  That’s what we found from the dive computer on the body of the diver who passed away in our (Borneo Divers’) decompression chamber.  His buddy went a lot deeper and is still going down! Ken do you know what one of their dive guides told me when questioned soon after the accident as to why they allowed their guests to just do what they wanted? (Apart from the safety aspect, this also includes, riding on turtles, walking across or lying on the reef, fishing on the reef at night, etc.)  The answer was that they didn’t want to upset the guest because it would effect their tips!"

  

• Yes, the Borneo Divers are businessmen also, but I know from long association that they have a strong commitment in their hearts, as well as in their business dealings, to maintain the precious natural beauty that they discovered at Sipadan.  Again, I will let Ron Holland explain their feelings in his own words.
  “What is happening on Sipadan should be your concern, as well as ours.  We can not fight the problems all by ourselves.  We've tried for years now and we are losing ground, because there are always agents out there in the world who don’t give a damn about the future of Sipadan and just want to sell it cheap for the sake of a few bucks. Well Sipadan is not cheap.  It’s a delicate, remote island paradise, and to run it efficiently and safely you have to spend the money to do it right. If most of the agents world-wide would stop selling these illegal operations, they wouldn’t last long.” Ron Holland

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