A story about Antoine, a french diving instructor with big visions.
Antoine, you are the owner of a dive school and a hotel located in Bali, but your name reveals you as french. I’m curious about your story, what made you settle down in Bali and start this type of business?
Well, I started diving when I was eight years old, because my dads’ best friend was the captain on Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s Calypso and he took us with him sometimes. That time I fell in love with diving and it never really let me go. I quit school when I was 15, because I wanted to be independent and do my own thing. Being a diving instructor is my number 37 job. My father was a pilot, so I was always able to travel a lot, and this brought me to many different places around the world. After having several jobs in France I did my diving instructor training when I was 23 and started searching the world for the best dive spots. I had been to Madagascar, Mexico and many other places, before I arrived in Bali.
I had seen many beautiful places by that time, but Bali was unique. It has its own vibe.
The locals here are always smiling, it’s not about being productive every second of the day, it’s about living a happy life. I had never seen that in a way Bali has. And, not to forget, it has amazing dive spots. I decided to stay, as I fell in love with the people, the nature and the diving here. That was 12 years from now. It feels like yesterday. As I decided to settle down here I started to build my hotel and the diving school. I didn’t have a big investment we had to build the hotel all by ourselves. I started planning everything from scratch, designed every inch of the hotel on my own and literally built it with my own hands. Of course I had help from others and it took us five years to finish the hotel. It has turned out very well and also the diving school has evolved during that time.
That sounds awesome. How is everything going now?
Right after we finished the hotel Covid arrived and there were no more tourists arriving in Bali. The diving school didn’t have any clients anymore and everything was about to collapse. But there were many tourists that were stuck on the island, because of Covid they couldn’t go anywhere. So, instead of spending my days in front of the TV and suffering from loneliness I decided to start a facebook group for stuck tourists. I offered them to stay in my hotel for a very cheap price and one day after the facebook group was set up, the hotel was full. We were all strangers when these people came to my hotel, but by the time traveling was allowed again, we had become friends. That was a wonderful experience. We had talkings, barbecues, dive training in the pool (even though we would have loved to go to the ocean) and helped each other in this difficult time. I was able to pay for electricity and the daily needs that way and we survived. Now, people are coming back to Bali, all restrictions have been released and we’re more than ready to start. Even though all of us in Bali had a very tough time during Covid, there’s lots of competition between dive schools and hotels, as there’s more and more coming. On the other hand, there’s more and more tourists coming. When I arrived in Bali 12 years ago the underwater landscape was completely different from what it is now.
Back then I was able to spot sharks in the first 10 or 15 meters of diving, now there’s no way to do that anymore. It’s very sad and alarming to see how nature is suffering from global warming and frequentation.
The problem is that in Bali, people are dependent on tourism, and so am I. We need to find a way to have both, tourists and protect the sea and nature. That’s why I’m very much focussed on doing everything as eco-friendly as possible. We don’t have plastic straws, no plastic bottles, we’re never going to the supermarket to buy fish, we’re getting everything we need for our restaurant at the local markets and don’t over consume. The only thing I couldn’t fix yet is the electricity problem, as we don’t have solar panels. But that’s something to come.
I read a survey that says the GenZ and the Millenials are very aware of that problem and that they are willing to pay more for an eco-friendly diving experience.
Oh, really, that’s awesome. That’s something I love to hear, because that’s exactly what we’re offering. I’m afraid that my kids won’t be able to see the world the way I was able to see it, so I’m really concerned about this topic and do everything to make an impact.
So are we. If all of us would work together and give back a bit, the world would be a better place. Let’s never stop trying. But I guess we could fill this interview only with this topic, let’s come back to your diving school. You are offering something very special, right?
Yes, as I said, there’s lots of competition here in Bali so I decided to specialise in deep diving. Our deepest dive was about 170 meters. We are able to do that because of our special gear. It’s a diving rebreather. With that system you don’t have any bubbles or noise anymore. The system recycles the air you breathe and that allows you to dive for up to 12 hours. I’m proud to be the world’s first dual rebreather diving instructor. We are the most expensive dive school in our area, and that’s why.
We’re offering this very special, unique experience to explore the world underwater in a calm and kind of natural way.
Most divers, even experienced ones, never did this type of diving and for me it’s so nice to see how amazed people are after a deep dive with the dual rebreather system. It’s also a more sustainable way of managing a dive school, as we’re not offering cheep prices to have as many clients as possible. Due to our special offers and higher prices we have a lower amount of tourists diving with us, but we can give them the best experience and also prevent nature from being bothered too much.
That sounds like the right way to do it. What else makes your dive school stand out from the crowd?
We want to integrate crypto currencies as a payment method. In Bali you can only get up to 120 $ in cash from an ATM in one withdrawal. And you have to pay fees every time. That bothers people!
Using crypto currencies could be a sustainable way to overcome this problem and I want to be one of the first using this advantage.
I’m convinced that this is our future and I don’t want to be left behind and think about this in 5 years, when everyone around me already grabbed this chance earlier. You need to know that web3 and crypto currencies are a big thing in Bali. Many of my friends are already into it. I need to admit that my life is all about diving, so I didn’t have the time to dive deeper into web3, but I have an overview and I believe in it.
