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 During August 2003 I went to Wakatobi Dive Resort. Wakatobi Resort is on the Tukang Besi archipelago, in southeastern Sulawesi, Indonesia, at the fringe of "civilization." But this remoteness is what makes for pristine diving. None other than Jacques Cousteau declared the Tukang Besi Islands to be "probably the finest diving site in the world." Even less prone to hyperbole, the well-traveled editor of Undercurrent Magazine, John Q. Trigger, named Wakatobi "the epicenter of marine biodiversity." From the reviews I had read about this place I was anxious to see firsthand if the ratings were accurate. This is a very remote resort that until recently took almost a full two days to get to (see the maps to the right to get a perspective on its location). Recently they opened a private airstrip and now have a 2.5 hour charter flight from Bali. Considering the comfort of the bungalows, quality of the food/drink and other creature comforts available its easy to forget how truly remote you are from civilization. Almost 100% of the resort's supplies need to be brought in every 10-14 days with the charter flight or shipped in by local boats which take about 14 hours from the closest idea of civilization. My original intent was to organize a group of dive buddies to visit this resort but that soon fizzled out with trying to get everyone's schedules coordinated. In the end I wanted to go so I went solo and met some very nice divers during my stay. (see April 2004 trip here)
Well I only have good things to say about this resort. I have over 400+ logged dives so I feel comfortable saying that the diving at Wakatobi is some of the best in the world. You can read my review comments in the article I submitted to the Undercurrent's 2004 Travelin' Diver's Chapbook. If you are not familiar with this publication it's like a "Consumer Reports" type report for dive travel. They accept no paid advertisements and review dive resorts and operators incognito so they write unbiased reports. It's a very good publication, if not already a subscriber you can visit their website at http://www.undercurrent.org. You can also read other Wakatobi visitors comments submitted to the 2004 Chapbook which parallel my favorable comments. |
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 Photo Slideshow |  Below you can a photo slideshow of the above and below water still photos that I took during this trip (or click here to view the photo page). However since early 2002 my primary passion has been shooting underwater videos. I've posted several underwater videos below for your viewing pleasure. | | |
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Underwater Videos |  In early 2002 I switched from taking underwater still photos to underwater videos. I still enjoy taking underwater still photos but the underwater videos have presented a new challenge. As William Hung said in "American Idol" I have no professional training but I give it my best. Early on I made the mistake of simply letting the video camera run almost continuously during a dive but I quickly learned that the more video you shoot the more time you spend on the backside editing. I like watching my underwater videos but no one in their "right mind" is going to sit there and watch 12 hours of unedited footage.
During this Wakatobi trip I took approximately 8 hours of raw footage which I've edited into four relatively short videos. All video was shot using a Sony Digital Handycam DCR-PC115E in a Ocean Images underwater housing with video lights (the video lights are generally only used for night dives as the camcorder is very light sensitive and captures good quality video during daylight dives unless there is heavy overcast). I've edited these videos using the Roxio Videowave 5 software. The final videos have been burned to a DVD but for website viewing I've converted to Windows Media Video (wmv) format as this offers fairly good compression while still preserving decent quality. Despite this compression be forewarned that these video files are still quite sizable and will take some time to download (if on a slow internet connection). Clicking on the below video titles should allow you to either download the videos to your computer for viewing using Windows Media Player or another player of your choice. If you'd like to see these videos in full screen resolution send me an email (wdeertz@wdeertz.net) and I'd be happy to mail you a copy of the videos in DVD format (the original is in PAL but if requested I should be able to convert to NTSC).
As I indicated before I don't profess to be a professional underwater videographer but I do enjoy shooting and editing the underwater videos. I am always open to ideas and constructive criticism. If you have any comments or suggestions on ways that I can improve my videos I'd appreciate your feedback. |
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Wet Dreams Video |  This video (approximately 48 megabytes/39 minutes) starts out with the charter flight from Bali and shows the resort topside before we plunge into our first dive. I've tried to cover as many of the critters that you are likely to see while diving the sites that Wakatobi has to offer. |
| Octopus Encounter Video |  This video (approximately 11.8 megabytes/10 minutes) includes an octopus encounter that Noel (my dive buddy) and I had on our early Sunday morning dive. We started the dive at 5:30am before sunrise and ended with the sun on the horizon. I like this time of day diving as you start as a night dive and get to see the reef come to life as the sun rises. We were just about to finish our very early morning dive when we came upon this octopus that was still out scavenging for food. Octopi are normally nocturnal animals so we were actually quite surprised to see it at this time of day. This octopus was quite curious and playful as it allowed Noel to touch it and play with it for several minutes. |
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Turtle Encounters Video |  This video (approximately 9 megabytes/8 minutes)includes various encounters I had with large turtles at Wakatobi. This video includes some footage from a previous trip to Bunaken Underwater Park in Manado Sulawesi. In some of the video you can see the turtle eating as my filming didn't seem to bother it one bit. |
| Village Tour Video |  This is a short video (approximately 6.4 megabytes/6 minutes) of our visit to the village on the other side of the island that the Wakatobi resort is located. The village children were quite intrigued by the video camera and were more than willing to pose for pictures. You can also see the boat building being done by the villagers. |
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