Scuba Junkie

★ 1 · tom white · 2012-01-20

I took my dive master here after doing a few weeks diving with these guys. Everything was going really well until I handed over the cash for the course. Then it became a hell hole, the staff treated me like a piece of S**T and our regular names became DM-tards adapted from the name Dive Master Trainee. The staff were rude, un-accommodating unless it befitted them and worked the hell out of you. If you are thinking of doing your DMT here, think again it was 4 months of hell. The only grace I got is when I heard half of it burnt down, that made me smile.

★ 3 · Carsten Plock · 2009-07-01

We dived with Scuba Junkies for 3 days. It's a really big diving-base in Semporna. We emailed them 3 weeks in advance to get a permission to Sipadan Island. They replied, that they are fully booked, but that there is a big chance to get a permit via the waiting list. But thats not true, as they have only 7 permits a day and a lot of people on the waiting list. I mean, it would have been ok if they have told us in the email, how small the chances really are - but they pretended them to be bigger, just to make us diving with them. Rental Equipment is quite bad, often really dirty (i.e. mouthpieces). Guides seldomly looked after the buddyteams. They have only few guides, that stay there for a long time. Most of them are shortterm freelancers, that cannot know the reefs as good as a local guide. Whats really disappointing about the waters around Mabul, Sibuan, Mantabuan etc. is that there is a lot of garbage in the water. We have never seen so dirty oceans in whole southeast asia. It becomes even worse, as we spotted two times our Scuba Junkie Boatcaptain and one female Divemaster throwing garbage into the water (pieces of plasticbag, tape from the tanks). Sure, Scuba Junkie are one of the cheapest choices at Semporna, as we know now. If saving money is your main interest, they'll might be ok. For those, who look after quality: go to Northborneo Divers. The Sipadan Inn Hotel is a good, clean, cheap choice for staying in Semporna, we stayed with them.