Diving Sabah | Diving Sabah? Dive Downbelow!

Girl Power Professional Scuba Diving Interns in Sabah, Borneo

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012 @ 11:30 Diving Sabah, News, Professional Diving Internships

New addition Liz on the left, with Sara behind, Leanne right and resident PADI Course Director Richard not looking worried at all

Girl Power currently rules the scuba diving roost at Downbelow’s PADI 5 Star IDC Dive Centre on Gaya island in Sabah, Borneo with no less than 3 professional lady scuba diving interns.

Resident PADI Course Director Richard Swann is taking charge of their diver education and is keeping a close watch on the lasses who he describes as “mischievous”.

Newest addition to the sisterhood is Liz Street, originally from Malaysia, but joining us from where she lives in the UK.

She’s in it for the long run here in Sabah, Borneo with a 3 month internship.

Liz starts off with the PADI Rescue Diver course and will go all the way to PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor during our next PADI IDC, staying on for 5 Speciality Instructor level courses to finish off as a PADI MSDT (Master Scuba Diver Trainer).

Learn PADI Open Water Scuba Diving in Sabah, Borneo

Thursday, March 1st, 2012 @ 09:46 Courses, Diving Sabah, News

Experience Underwater Magic with Downbelow while diving Sabah, Borneo

Diving Sabah, Borneo is an excellent choice for scuba divers looking to make the most of a dive holiday.

Before enjoying Sabah’s dives and underwater treasures however, a scuba diving certification is required.

PADI – Professional Association of Diving Instructors – is the world’s largest diver training organisation body in the world having certified over 20 million divers since being founded in 1966.

Downbelow is a PADI 5 Star IDC Dive Centre in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah where you can learn to scuba dive, do try dives or even earn your scuba instructor certificate through our popular Instructor Development Course (IDC) and Professional Diving Internships.

Our Sabah operations offer a full range of PADI scuba diver courses, from Discover Scuba Diving for beginners, PADI Bubblemaker for kids and our professional range of courses for those who want to teach scuba diving for a living.

All our courses are conducted at the our beach house dive centre, which is located a mere 10 minutes by boat from Kota Kinabalu on the tropical Gaya island, Sabah.

We are also active Project AWARE participants and marine conservation is at the core of our company.

Find out more about how to learn to dive in Sabah with Downbelow: have a look at our recreational dive courses, professional dive courses, facilities and equipment & safety pages outlining our dive operations in Sabah, Borneo.

Double Discount on Kapalai & Lankayan until 15 Dec 2011

Monday, November 14th, 2011 @ 10:00 Diving Borneo, Diving Sabah, News, Promotions

Diving at Sipadan Kapalai Dive Resort Arguably amongst the best diving resorts in South East Asia, Sipadan Kapalai Dive Resort and Lankayan Island Dive Resort are well popular amongst divers visiting Sabah, Borneo.

For stays until 15 December 2011, Downbelow is giving double discount on the fabulous Kapalai Dive Resort and Lankayan Island Dive Resort near the world-famous Sipadan Island.

Both Lankayan Island Dive Resort and Sipadan Kapalai Dive Resort are covered by Downbelow’s Price Promise.

What this means is when you book with Downbelow you automatically get a 7% discount from our published rates.

But there’s more! For the next month, to sweeten the deal, if you book with us and stay at either of the resorts from now until 15 December 2011, we will give you an additional 10% discount.

That’s outstanding value!

Click through to the Sipadan Kapalai Dive Resort page or the Lankayan Island Dive Resort page to see what these fabulous destinations have to offer. The links will open in a new window.

In the meatime, email us or contact us by any other means to take advantage of this special offer.

Don’t delay, go diving in Sipadan, Kapalai or Lankayan today!

Email us now to book!

Sipadan Kapalai Dive Resort

Our international staff provide personal, premier service at our PADI 5 Star Instructor Development (IDC) Dive Centre, where we pride ourselves on small group tuition with extremely high safety standards & procedures.

Do visit us at our Dive Shop & Travel Centre where we offer free wireless Internet and refreshments.

Tel: +6 012 866 1935
Email: dive@divedownbelow.com

Visit our Facebook page to see what we get up to over here in paradise!

Shark Diving in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo

Monday, August 8th, 2011 @ 13:13 Diving Sabah, News, Tunku Abdul Rahman Park

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo: Downbelow’s office staff was at the Beach House last weekend for the Project AWARE event, and also managed a shark dive.

The blacktip reef sharks are so regularly spotted in Kota Kinabalu’s TAR Park, that it’s possible to schedule a shark dive with us with pretty decent odds of spotting one or two.

On this dive the office staff were treated to the sighting of 2 rather large blacktip reef sharks at the usual spot.

The sighting of the large sharks caused a bit of an adrenaline rush for our office girls, in spite of knowing that blacktips are timid and rarely pose a risk to humans.

Our resident PADI Course Director Richard regularly spot the blacktips and is collecting data on them. He’s spotted over 15 individuals over the last few years.

Their increase in numbers is a great excuse to dive for TAR Park divers and for shark diving in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo.

Passing a Rescue Diver Course in Sabah, Borneo

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011 @ 09:00 Courses, Diving Sabah, IDC, News, Professional Diving Internships

Sabah, Borneo: We had a good group of candidates pass their Rescue Diver Course at our PADI 5 Star IDC Dive Centre on Gaga island in Sabah, Borneo this month.

Congratulations to our guests Dewi and Katie on successfully completing their PADI Rescue diver course.

Downbelow’s local intern Jeff was also on the Rescue Diver Course as part of his training program with us.

He too passed, and we’re well proud of him, because we see good things coming in the future.

International Divemaster Paul and local intern & Divemater Jessica, also sat in on the PADI Rescue Course to gain additional experience in preparation for the PADI IDC Instructor Development Course coming up in September for which both have enrolled.

Click on the links for more details about the PADI course we offer, as well as the GoPro courses or specifically our next PADI Instructor Development Course IDC in Sabah, Borneo.

Video of Frogfish Walking & Swimming Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Sunday, July 24th, 2011 @ 14:31 Diving Sabah, News, TAR Park Froggies

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah: A couple of days ago we introduced the small, but very interesting frogfish, Custard, to you.

See her in action below, with video of the frogfish swimming and walking!

So Custard is the little froggie that’s hanging out over at Adik reef in the TAR Park, which is 10 minutes off shore from Kota Kinabalu here in Sabah.

You can read the blog that introduced her here, or check out the video clip below, also available on our YouTube video channel:

Downbelow’s Video Clips of Diving in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011 @ 15:39 Diving Kota Kinabalu, Diving Sabah, News

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah: If you’re not subscribed to our YouTube channel yet, now’s a good time, because a steady stream of diving in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah clips will be going online.

We have a stash of footage taken over recent years, but with all the action going on in the TAR Park here in Kota Kinabalu recently, Richard is getting in the water with his video camera more often.

Also, Elvis is getting up to speed with the equipment, so soon we’ll have not just awesome photos coming up from our TAR Park diving, but also video to go with it, which will have you drooling at the diving here in Sabah.

Here’s a little taster; a little compilation of some serene diving scene from the TAR Park and other sites in Sabah. Enjoy!

Downbelow’s Big Push to Support Project AWARE

Monday, July 18th, 2011 @ 16:12 Diving Sabah, News, Project AWARE

Sabah, Borneo: Downbelow illustrates their commitment to help Project AWARE further their environmental conservation causes with a strong statement of support for the Project AWARE Foundation…

The best way for divers to show off their contribution to environmental conservation is through a Project AWARE branded certification card, easily obtained by donating RM35 or more to Project AWARE at the time of certification.

100% of this amount goes toward Project AWARE’s conservation projects, the big two which are Sharks in Peril and Marine Debris – fighting the decline of the shark population and helping stave the flow of rubbish into our oceans respectively.

Downbelow is so committed to these causes, that we have paid upfront for 500 certification cards, because we believe divers want to save the environment that they enjoy so much.

That’s a solid contribution of AU$5,000 (RM16,000) to help protect our oceans and the sharks that live in them.

We advocate the virtues of Project AWARE and their work to divers, and implore newly certified divers to also contribute to this worthy cause. Every additional contribution is a bonus and will perpetuate our efforts.

Plus divers gaining their new qualifications will receive that shiny and good-looking Project AWARE branded certification card and they can sleep easier knowing that choosing to support Downbelow is choosing to support the environment.

So dive with the company that cares. Dive Downbelow!

Downbelow’s Big Push to Support Project AWARE

Usukan Bay World War 2 Wreck Dives in Sabah

Monday, July 4th, 2011 @ 15:09 Diving Sabah, News

Sabah, Borneo: Last week Downbelow set out for the Usukan Bay World War 2 Wreck Dives along the Sabah coast.

With our custom-made fast dive boats, the guys got there in no time and could set about the task of exploring these interesting World Word 2 shipwrecks.

World War 2 Shipwreck History

North Borneo, as it was known back then, saw a fair bit of World War 2 action, both on land and sea.

The 3 ships now lying at the bottom of Usukan Bay were part of a Japanese convoy, and sunk during the night of 1 October 1944 after being torpedoed by an American submarine, the Hammerhead SS-364, on only its 2nd war patrol.

Records show that the 3 Usukan Bay shipwrecks are possibly Hikane Maru (a.k.a. Higane Maru), Hiyori Maru and Kokusei Maru.

However, because the ships were standard type 1K cargo ships, similar in length and size, it has been impossible to identify them individually.

Having been at the mercy of the harsh marine environment for 67 years now, the Usukan Bay World War 2 shipwrecks may forever be known simply as the Rice Bowl Wreck, the Upside Down Wreck and the Usukan Wreck.

Diving the Usukan Bay Wrecks

The wrecks all lie in 25m – 40m of water and thus requires at least an Advanced Open Water qualification to dive.

The wrecks lie in a spot which requires special effort to visit, so diving the Usukan Wrecks means that often you’ll be the only diver there.

For this reason the environment is also undisturbed and beautifully overgrown with all manner of soft and hard corals, which is inhabited by a wide variety of marine life.

Visit our Usukan Bay Wreck Diving album on Facebook for more images of these facinating wrecks.

If you want to dive the Usukan Bay Wrecks for yourself, contact us to book your trip.

Rare Species of Scorpionfish Spotted in TAR Park

Sunday, May 29th, 2011 @ 15:58 Diving Sabah, News, TAR Park Froggies, Tunku Abdul Rahman Park

Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, Kota Kinabalu: There was a buzz of excitement around the dive station on Gaya Island in KK on Wednesday as Downbelow MD Richard return from a fun dive more buzzed than usual.

“I have found an awesome and rare creature,” he said, almost audibly panting in an email to the office, “stay tuned for an update.”

I waited with bated breath.

Richard must have some sort of TAR Park radar, because if there’s a rare creature in the TAR Park, he knows about it. And usually gets a photo of it too.

Dolphins? Yup, they’ve been in the TAR Park. Sharks? Yeah, them too. Marble rays, cobia, peacock mantis shrimp, marble ray, frog fish, seahorses, blue ringed octopus, barracuda, ghost pipefish, harlequin shrimp?

Yes, yes and yes – not only have they been spotted in the TAR Park, but Richard has the pictures to prove it too (check out or Flickr photo stream for some highlights).

So when he says he found something awesome, move to the edge of your seat and prepare to be awed.

The critter he discovered this time, luckily armed and ready with his camera rig, is a very rare species of scorpionfish.

This particular scorpionfish (Rhinopias fondosa) is usually only found in certain parts of Indonesia. But such is the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, where she lies just off the coast of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, that you never know what you might find below the surface.

And like one of our Facebook friends rightly said: “Dive with the best, you will see the best“.

To see more of the rare scorpionfish, check out the Facebook album online.

Diving Sabah? Dive Downbelow!

Girl Power Professional Scuba Diving Interns in Sabah, Borneo

Learn PADI Open Water Scuba Diving in Sabah, Borneo

Double Discount on Kapalai & Lankayan until 15 Dec 2011

Email us now to book!

Shark Diving in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo

Passing a Rescue Diver Course in Sabah, Borneo

Video of Frogfish Walking & Swimming Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Downbelow’s Video Clips of Diving in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Downbelow’s Big Push to Support Project AWARE

Usukan Bay World War 2 Wreck Dives in Sabah

World War 2 Shipwreck History

Diving the Usukan Bay Wrecks

Rare Species of Scorpionfish Spotted in TAR Park

Dive Downbelow

SCUBA Diving Kota Kinabalu

SCUBA Diving Borneo

Sabah Tavel Centre

Marine Biology

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