Ethical Diving

Wicked Diving is a collective of many diverse and interesting people – all gathered together by our passion for the oceans. We bring a vast range of backgrounds to our dive center and it shows! We offer a broad range of services with an emphasis on safety, lifelong learning and being ethical –  we all believe that we can and are making this a better world.

A key part of this is the 2% policy. We use 2% of all our revenue to help our local communities and/or ecosystems. This has helped support several great projects – from the Baan San Fan Orphanage to the creation of an internship program for Komodo Villagers to become dive guides. To date this has generated more than $50,000 in support – and this is all due to you. By choosing us, you are also helping these programs and many more.

It’s not just money, nope, we put time and energy into these projects. All our Divemaster Trainees are required to participate in these projects, the staff jump right in as well – whether helping our artificial reef, teaching swimming or giving lectures. Even our guests jump in when they can.

We also practice “Low impact” diving – which is us trying to leave as little evidence behind that we’ve even been there. This covers so many things – from the rechargeable batteries for our underwater flashlights to the organic bio-degradable shampoos we provide on the liveaboards! We even go as minimal impact underwater – not allowing any touching of animals or corals and offering buoyancy tips on the trips to keep divers from bumping into things.  Almost every liveaboard trip we do involves a beach clean-up and these can be intense – with prizes given to the best teams ?

Even our products are sourced locally when we can. This is no easy undertaking living and working where we do. Each location has challenges for ethical sourcing, but we try! In Komodo the coffee you drink comes from our own staff’s farm, then she roasts it at her house and grinds it with mortar and pestle – talk about locally sourced! In Thailand, the eggs are from organically fed chickens from the Orphanage and have now become a primary revenue stream. On expeditions we literally walk into the local villages to find what fruits and vegetables they have available!

We are a dive center – so of course we worry about the environment. But we are also residents in these communities and we create both incomes and training opportunities. We not only provide the rent for a children of migrant Burmese laborers – but we teach there! This not only creates a safety net for a overlooked population – but also training on recycling, ecology, and even snorkeling! In Indonesia we teach swimming to all the future guides at the vocational college, creating and internship program for those seeking to become dive guides.

For us this is a journey, and one we’re glad to be on! We’re not claiming we’re green superheroes, we know we still have much work to do! But we are looking forward to continuing our journey and making a Wicked difference!

We are always striving to improve so we use the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC) as our guideline for Ethical Diving and track ourselves against these key criteria. Wicked Diving was the first dive center in Thailand to have a Responsible Tourism policy and have been twice shortlisted for the Responsible tourism award. In addition, we aim to adhere to a Code of Conduct whenever we enter the water. You can read our Diving and Snorkeling Code of Conduct here. If you want more specific information about this or our plans just drop us a line….