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Dive Downbelow

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Asia

Location

Kota Kinabalu, SB

Malaysia

6° 0' 45.4248" N, 116° 1' 13.8612" E

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Organization

Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures

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Bio

Downbelow Marine & Wildlife Adventures is a PADI 5 Star IDC Diver Training Centre in Sabah, Borneo with a dive shop, classroom & travel centre in Kota Kinabalu and a beach-side dive centre on the nearby Gaya Island, just 10 minutes away by boat.

The dive centre, surrounded by tropical jungle and vibrant reefs, is where you can learn to dive in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Downbelow uses the latest training methods and regularly serviced, quality diving equipment to conduct all levels of diver training, from Discover SCUBA through to IDC Staff Instructor.

For the aspiring professional SCUBA diver, diving internships are on offer and ranges in length from 1 to 6 months, enabling even non-divers to quickly progress from zero to fully qualified open water diving instructors, ready for employment anywhere in the world. Under the leadership of resident PADI Course Director Richard Swann, Downbelow’s Go Pro Instructor Development team team-teaches, giving candidates the full advantage of their collective decades worth of experience. For a one-stop shop that provides the best PADI SCUBA diving facilities and the widest range of PADI courses in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah; when you dive Sabah, DiveDownbelow.

My Blog Entries

Submitted by Dive Downbelow on May. 14/13

Downbelow team in Another Conservation Project in Borneo

Barely a week after removing an illegally dumped fishing net near our PADI 5 Star IDC Dive Centre, the environment-loving heroes from Downbelow held another clean-up event.

Submitted by Dive Downbelow on May. 12/13

Effort to Regenerate Damaged Corals in Borneo

We are very passionate about preserving the environment and promoting conservation as much as we can.

Among them is removing hundreds of nets that we found within the protected area of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Borneo where our PADI 5-Star IDC dive centre is also located.

Recently however we began a different conservation program, whereby we construct an artificial reef and re-plant broken and damaged corals.

Submitted by Dive Downbelow on May. 08/13

Another Fishing Net Menace Removed From A Marine Park in Borneo

The Downbelow crew assisted by our PADI Divemaster and Instructor Development Course (IDC) interns removed another illegally dumped fishing net found within the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park in Borneo.

Submitted by Dive Downbelow on Mar. 15/13

Film Crew Does Not Support Extinction

Recently Downbelow's resident PADI Course Directory Richard Swann and the Downbelow family spent a day with Japanese film crews Go Hayakata, Masayuki Kuritani, Mari Hatano from Sky 1 along with Freediving champion Hanako Hirose at our PADI 5 Star IDC Dive Centre, Borneo.

They were here for a film shoot and eventhough we hosted them only for a day, we were happy to do our job.

Submitted by Dive Downbelow on Mar. 06/13

Spreading the love for marine life through Adventure Programs

Downbelow's Resident PADI Course Director Richard Swann is pasionate about the marine environment so as part of our adventure group programs we have included the AWARE Coral Reef Conservation Speciality Course.

Submitted by Dive Downbelow on Feb. 25/13

New AWARE Shark Conservation Speciality Instructors Coincides with Whaleshark Sightings

Downbelow's resident Course Director had the pleasure of qualifying 2 new AWARE Shark Conservation Speciality Instructors at our PADI 5-Star IDC Dive Centre in Gaya Island, Borneo a few days ago.

Congratulations to Stefan Bucheler and Samantha Sherman on the completion of their course and are now proud AWARE Shark Conservation Speciality Instructors.

Submitted by Dive Downbelow on Feb. 20/13

Downbelow says extinction is not an option

In view of the fast approaching CITES meeting, the staff at our main office is reminding everyone extinction is not an option for the sharks and that we are fully behind Project AWARE.

The attached picture shows our resident PADI Course Director Richard Swann and staff from the Downbelow office.

Our staff at the dive centre in the island are all supportive too, in fact our dive centre is 100% Project AWARE and is currently the only one in Borneo.

Submitted by Dive Downbelow on Jan. 28/13

Ghost Nets in Borneo

Check out this video done by one of our PADI Divemaster interns Jason Kovacs from Australia. It was filmed during our Project AWARE net removal activity just a few weeks ago. For Jason, it was his first experience in net removal.

He showed us this video and it was done so well that we feel it needs to be viewed by everyone, so we are sharing it here.

Submitted by Dive Downbelow on Jan. 16/13

Downbelow Fought A Monster Net

Downbelow formed a team of heroes and fought a monster under the sea!

It started when our dive guides stumbled upon a large illegally discarded net within the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park in Kota Kinabalu Sabah.

Seeing that it was one of the longest nets that our team has encountered, Downbelow's Managing Director and resident PADI Course Directory Richard Swann knew he needed a big team to counter the monster.

Submitted by Dive Downbelow on Jan. 08/13

Happy New Year 2013!

All of us at Downbelow would like to wish our fellow divers a very Happy New Year 2013! Let us all together make this a better year for our ocean and all marine life. We have so much planned in our conservation efforts for this year.

Bookmark our page or become our dive buddy to see what we are up to this year.