The boy from the mountains, who moved to the sea!

The school bell sounded and students took themselves off to their next class. However, there wasn’t the foot dragging that might accompany a journey to a maths lesson or the grimacing the one might expect for English grammar. The students hurried in to class, took their seats and waited expectantly.


The reason? Today was a class with a difference. Today teachers were coming from local dive school, Wicked Diving, to teach them all about the sea.


This year, when the students at SMKN1 returned from their summer break, Wicked Diving took its animated teaching team into the school grounds to contribute to the Travel module, with a programme centering on marine life, conservation and working in diving.

So far students have learnt about the importance of the marine ecosystem, threats to it and to some of the key species within the Komodo National Park, and this week they had a guest speaker. Marsel, who is one of Wicked’s divemasters, from Flores spoke to the class about his life as a dive master.


One of the core principals of the programme is to inspire and motivate the students to look at their dreams and help them to realise what can be achieved. Marsel surely did this as he spoke about being a boy from the mountains, who came to the sea. He couldn’t swim, nor speak English, but with a dream given to him by someone who recognised his potential, Marsel pushed himself to learn these things. He took work on boats and swam every day until he was a strong and confident swimmer. He studied English and tried to take everything from his contact with English speakers, helping him to progress at a fast rate. He then found an opportunity to study diving, resulting in the qualification of PADI divemaster. No mean feat, when you are studying complex physics in a foreign language!


The students were enthralled by his story and the advice he gave them. He is truly a fantastic role model to these students and took the time to explain the difficulties of reaching your goals and also the fact that anyone can do it – not just the boys! No doubt when Marcel becomes an instructor, which is his next dream, he will be back to the school for an update.

Wicked Diving has devised this programme to encourage pride in their country and to foster the wish to conserve it. But it doesn’t stop there. We also want help these students to realise their dreams of becoming snorkel and dive guides. We will work throughout the year with them to provide important swimming coaching to students, many of whom cannot yet swim. For the most motivated and hungry, we will then provide dive training to set them on their way to becoming the next dive guides of Labaun Bajo.


SMKN 1 Labuan Bajo is a tourism school funded in part by the Indonesian government, for students between 15 and 18 years of age. It operates as a vocational facility, aiming to give students a well rounded education and future in the tourism industry. The programme consists of 5 modules – Travel, Hotel, Food and Beverage, Computer 1 (software application) and Computer 2 (hardware).


This is part of what Wicked Diving Komodo does. We try to help improve the community around us and to shape a more positive and sustainable future. When you join us for trips - you are supporting these projects. 2% of all our revenue makes this (And other) programs possible.

When you join Wicked Diving Komodo - you make a difference