Terms and conditions for Scuba Junkie Kota Kinabalu
● A deposit will be required to secure your booking and is non-refundable.
● Balance payment will be due 7 days prior to the start of your package.
● If payments are not received by the due date then we reserve the right to cancel your booking.
● RM150 cancellation fee is applicable with less than 48 hours notice
● In the event you are unable to come, and inform us a minimum 48 hours in advance of your booking start date then we will credit your deposit and any balance payments made, towards a future booking with Scuba Junkie Kota Kinabalu, up to a maximum of 12 months from the start date of your original booking.
● No refunds are available in case of illness, missed dive / snorkel trips, incompletion of dive course. We recommend ensuring that you have valid travel insurance that covers these possibilities.
● If we are forced to cancel any part of your trip due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances then a refund or credit towards a future holiday will be offered.
● If you are booking as part of a group, and one or more members are not able to attend, their payment will not be able to be credited to the remaining group members.
● We cannot accept responsibility for any damage to personal items, injuries or any lost flights in the unlikely event of a cancelled transfer or longer journey time due to circumstances outside of our control, such as bad weather conditions / mechanical issues.
● Scuba Junkie reserves the right to change the destination of dive sites depending on weather and other conditions if need be.
● Proof of diver certification will be required for certified divers, either via email, hard copy or E copy upon check in.

Scuba Junkie KK is located in Kota Kinabalu, which is on the west coast of Sabah. Kota Kinabalu (KK) is the capital of Sabah and has an international airport close to the town centre, with a range of accommodation to suit everyone’s needs from five Star Resorts to small cosy hotels & even budget backpackers.

We do not offer hotel pick up however most hotels are within 10 minutes walking distance or if you are staying a little further away you can order a Grab (Taxi) which has very affordable rates.

Check out our page "Getting here" for more information

Plastic pollution is not only a huge global issue; it is also a major issue locally. We are actively working against this through weekly beach and reef cleans, but prevention is better than cure. Please do not bring any single use plastics or Styrofoam onto any of our boats. We appreciate all your efforts to support us in this. Not just at our locations, but wherever you choose to travel

Reusable shopping bags. Single use plastic is banned from our dive boats – if you wish to bring snacks, please use a reusable shopping bag.

Reusable water bottle. We recommend bringing a reusable water bottle- Please do not buy single use plastic water bottles – they account for up to 80% of the bulk we pick up on beach and reef cleans. Please bring your own reusable water bottle with you, which you can refill from our office or on the boat. If you do not have a reusable water bottle, you can buy one in our retail shop in Kota Kinabalu.

Reef safe sunscreen and sun protection. We are proud members of Green Fins, and our dive operations have strict guidelines to minimise damage to coral and marine ecosystems. To further minimise adverse impact to coral reefs, please use reef safe sunscreen before diving. Sunscreens with Oxybenzone and Octinoxate can harm corals – avoid purchasing these types of sunscreen. Even better, bring a long-sleeve rash vest, sunglasses and a hat with you- we are sunny almost all year around!

Dry Bag/ Day Bag. It’s a good idea to prepare a small day bag with towel, possible change of shirt, camera etc as well as a water bottle- The islands are around a 20 minute speed boat ride away from Kota Kinabalu. Our boats have a roof but open on the sides- so to avoid any damage to your electronic/ valuable items- we do recommend a dry bag. We sell very affordable SJ dry bags in our retail shop.

Certification Card. Remember to bring proof of diver certification. An online card, email confirmation, or physical card will all be accepted. When unsure about your certification, please let us know in advance and we can try to help by checking the database of PADI and SSI before arrival. If there is no proof of certification, there is a risk you would not be able to join our certified divers group- we will only be able to offer a try dive experience or snorkelling trip instead.

We strongly recommend each guest purchase accident, medical, baggage and trip cancellation and interruption insurance. Insurance will protect you from financial disappointment if you are prevented from making your scheduled trip due to illness or flight delays. We recommend DAN insurance for all our divers.

Refresher Dives
If your last logged dive was longer than six months ago, we recommend joining our refresher sessions- this will be combined with your first dive of the day (this will be conducted in a confined area in the ocean and will not have any additional charge!) Skills to practice are: a weight check, some basic mask and regulator skills and buoyancy skills. After the skills are completed, you will be able to dive the house reef sites (some of the best on the island!) The remaining dives of the day will join the dive boats. Spending a little extra time on a few skills to ensure you are 100% comfortable and confident will benefit during your dive trip.

Courses
You are required to fill out a PADI medical form upon arrival before starting any courses, please check if you are “fit to dive” before you book the course as you may need to have your form signed by a doctor in order to be able to dive.

Please note that as per PADI & DAN recommendations, you can’t fly for 18 hours after diving so the earliest you should book a departure flight is 10am on the day after you finish diving.

Day trip in KK marine park
Meet at Jesselton point to register 8:15am
Depart Kota Kinabalu by 9am
1st dive/snorkel: 9.30-10.30AM – 1st Surface interval 10:30- 12.00PM
2nd dive/snorkel: 12.00-1.00PM – Lunch Break 1.00-3.00PM
3rd dive/ snorkel: 3.00-4.00PM
Arrive back in Kota Kinabalu approx. 4:30PM

We only offer no decompression diving. To ensure our divers are safe at all times- we require all divers with their own computers to stay five minutes or above the NDL limit at all times. Due to this, we do request all divers who are not diving with a computer to stay at the same depth, or slightly shallower than their guide. If for some reason you do go over your NDL- please ensure you inform your guide so that a prolonged safety stop can be arranged to clear your dive computer. Please be advised that you will not be able to dive for the remainder of the day. If your computer goes into error mode due to you not clearing your computer- you will be required to wait a minimum 24hrs before being able to join our dive trips again. There will be no refund applicable for these missed dives.

Guides do change day by day- if you would like to request a specific guide- please let us know (either at the time of reservation if you are joining us again and we will do our best to arrange this)

We do not advise you to take valuables on the boats during your snorkelling/diving tours. Our boats are small speedboats- as such there is nowhere to lock valuables away, and there is a chance that items can get wet on board.

Lunch is included with all day trips and will be served at a small restaurant on the island where you can choose your preferred meal from a variety of local dishes, they can cater for vegans & vegetarians & all meals served are Halal. Water refills are provided on the boat.

Please take into account that you are in a Muslim Country and public nudity is strictly forbidden. When you are in Kota Kinabalu town please do wear shorts/ shirts/ dresses (not swimsuits).

On the various island beaches it is OK to be in your swimwear. Please be sure to cover back up before getting off the boat in Kota Kinabalu after your day trip.

Scuba Junkie SEAS is the dedicated conservation arm of Scuba Junkie. This was set up in 2009 with the aim of raising awareness for shark conservation in the area. Since then, our portfolio has diversified and we now have six major work areas:

Eco-friendly resort
Tackling marine debris
Shark conservation
Turtle conservation
Coral conservation
Outreach programmes

SJ SEAS are based at the Mabul Beach Resort, where we have an office and classroom adjacent to the restaurant. All of our conservation activities are coordinated or run on Mabul – including our conservation internships, our weekly beach and reef cleans, our coral restoration projects, our turtle hatchery, turtle and shark surveys, and major outreach programmes with local schools and colleges.

Central to all of our work is encouraging the local community to take part in all aspects of our conservation programmes, through both awareness raising and practical activities. Taking care of an ecosystem means taking care of the people within it too, and taking into account their needs and livelihoods in a responsible manner! Due to the fact that many of the local community rely on the marine ecosystem for food and their livelihoods – many of our projects are geared towards facilitating sustainable livelihoods, for example, the Mabul Community Market.

We are proud to have an extensive portfolio of conservation programmes already in place – a lot of hard work has gone into getting where we are today, and it will take more hard work to keep it going. We hope that through the collaborative work of passionate people we can make a difference to our beautiful oceans and the lives of those that rely on them.

If you’d like further information on any aspect of our work, please feel free to email us at scubajunkieseas@gmail.com

Weather is very difficult to predict in a tropical country and on an island in the middle of the ocean- Please note that the below is a suggested guideline on the expected visibility and waves each month in the area however weather can be unpredictable and thus this can change from year to year.

In general diving and snorkelling in the area is amazing all year round and the weather conditions are sunny with a slight chance of rain- when it does rain- it rarely lasts longer than a couple of hours.

Generally air temperature is 25-30℃ during the day and 20-25℃ at night. The water temperature is generally 28-30℃ all year round and the water visibility anywhere between 5-40m with Feb-Jun and Oct-Nov being the clearest months.

Borneo is nick-named “land beneath the wind” as we are fortunate enough to not experience monsoon seasons- though occasionally we do experience the tail end of storms from other locations.

Dive site locations are assigned the day before- based on weather/ waves/ requests and where you have already been. If you have a particular dive site request- please let the dive team know!

GAYA: Agill Reef, Eel Garden, Police Bay, Muca Point, Gaya Corner, Tanjung Tokong

SAPI: Clement Reef,Rons Reef, Sapi Slope, Sapi House Reef, Nudi Garden,Fish Feeding,Coral Garden

MAMUTIK: Pyramid Reef, South Reef, Mamutik North, Mamutik East, Nemo Playground, Midriff, The Rock

SULUG: Suluman Reef, South Sulug, Sulug Reef, North Reef

MANUKAN: Manukan Reef, Manukan Slope, Gato Reef

EDGEL PATCHES: Edgel Patch Small, Edgel Patch North, Edgel Patch South

We have Olympus TG5 camera and housing available to rent. We strongly recommend all guests to bring their own SD card or USB to transfer the pictures across. SD cards are available to buy from our retail shop! Please note that camera rentals are not available during DSD or Open Water Course dives. We do not have GoPro’s for rental or sale.

Price: RM150 per day

All night dives are guided by one of our dive professionals- these are conducted within KK marine park upon request & are minimum 2pax. We limit the total number of guests on a night dive so please do check for availability! To join a night dive- you must be a minimum open water level certified, and have done at least one day dive with us (to ensure you are comfortable with our guides and equipment before embarking on a night dive!)

Price: RM160 per dive (includes torch rental)

A dive computer is recommended by PADI, but not mandatory! All of our dives are guided by a dive professional- and all of our dive guides wear a dive computer to keep you safely in your limits. If you would like to rent one of our dive computers, please let us know! Dive computers are provided FOC for the Open Water and Advanced Open Water course - if you would like to keep them when fun diving, the rental fees are as follows:

1 Day: RM50 / 2 Days: RM80 / 3 Days: RM100 / Extra day: RM20RM per day

BCDS: We have a combination of Mares Rover & Scubapro T-1 BCDs.

REGULATORS: We have Scubapro brand regulators. All of our rental regulators are Yoke valves- if you have a DIN regulator don’t worry! We have DIN adaptors available to borrow during your trip.

WETSUITS: We have 3mm shorty wetsuits or full length suits if you prefer a bit more cover. Water temperature rarely drops below 27C!

MASKS: Our masks are standardized one size fits all! Please note that we do not have prescription masks available for rental or retail.

FINS: Our fins are closed heel style (no need for booties!) available from size (European) 34 to 46-47.

We do also have a few children’s masks and fins available though our range is not extensive so please do check prior to arrival.

For our guests traveling with their own equipment we can keep your dive gear together in one place to dry overnight & bring back to you the following day!