The Largest Scuba Diving Lesson and The Most People Scuba Diving Simultaneously

If there was a world record for the land of the people with the most beautiful smile I would personally consider Indonesia for the award. In fact I will hardly forget the warmth of all the wonderful people I met in Manado in the last two days.

Malalayang beach (Manado, North Sulawesi) is the place where on the 16th and 17th of August thousands of scuba divers have joined together, to set a new world record category for the largest scuba diving lesson and to break an already existing world record for the most people scuba diving simultaneously, previously set by the Maldives in 2006 with 958 scuba divers.

Indonesia is often referred as the world’s largest archipelago, including more than 17000 islands, is renowned worldwide for the immense beauty of his underwater world and marine biodiversity.

When you are scuba diving in Manado you can see over 70% of all fish species that exist in the Indo-Western Pacific, and it is no surprise that the local people and all the foreigners who have the luck to dive in the clear Indonesian sea remain amazed by the pristine experience.

So it didn’t seem too much of a hard thing to do for the Indonesian Navy and for Commodore Iskandar Sitompul organising the largest scuba diving lesson with the impressive number of 2465 scuba divers on the first day and an even bigger contingent of tanks, fins and masks on the second day for the most people scuba diving simultaneously with at total of 2486 scuba divers.

Some basic scuba diving techniques like the mask recovery were performed during the scuba diving lesson and to make more special the second record attempt a full ceremony underwater was organised on the 17th of August in occasion of the Indonesian 64th Independence Day anniversary.

The long lines of participants organised in more than 50 groups, once reached the bottom of the sea, at a depth of about 15 meters, took position and the director of ceremonyVice Admiral Moekhlas Sidik, M.P.Araised the red and white Indonesian flag underwater.

The scuba divers paid respect to the flag and prayed silently together, all broadcasted live on TV and reported by a huge number of national and international media present at the event.

It was a touching experience and a very special way of celebrating the 64th National day of a country full of life and extremely proud of his history and his people.

I was impressed by the perfect organisation of both record attempts where the schedule was followed with no delays, no accidents and no last minutes surprises: everything was just perfect.

It was for me a great honour to award during the evening ceremony two official and very well deserved Guinness World Records certificates to the Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Navy Admiral Tedjo Edhy Purdijatino S.H

19 August 2009