Maluku Divers Dive Team; Semuel Bukasiang
No muck diving resort can develop the reputation Maluku Divers has, without a team of great dive guides who are able to spot the tiniest and most cryptic critters consistently, dive after dive after dive. At the helm of the Maluku Divers Dive Team Semuel Bukasiang, Senior Dive Guide is one of the best dive guides that you would have the honour of diving with.
Known more fondly as “Om ‘Muel” (Uncle Semuel) amongst the Maluku Divers Resort team, the dedicated father of three has 18 years of diving and just under 20,000 dives under his belt. Observing Semuel’s calm composure underwater even in the most challenging conditions, no one would have guessed that he had been afraid when taking his first dive in May 1994 with his dive instructor, the late Muck Diving King, Larry Smith. But, this first dive into Lembeh Straits signalled the discovery of a lifelong passion in muck diving. Under Larry’s guidance, Semuel discovered another world whose creatures cleverly camouflage and blend themselves into their unusual environment.
In the years before he joined Maluku Divers in Ambon, Semuel has had the opportunity to dive most of the well-known dive sites of north and south Sulawesi—Bunaken, Bangka, Lembeh, Sangihe, Selayar—and even participated in exploratory dive expeditions around north Maluku—Ternate, Tobelo and Halmahera—before these sites were known. The trailblazer in him saw him on a liveaboard that plied Raja Ampat and the Banda Sea, which eventually paved the way for him to come to Ambon.
After almost two decades of hunting for rare and unusual critters, Semuel’s passion for muck diving continues to be fuelled by the thrill of discovering yet more interesting marine life in Ambon Bay at every dive. When he first dove Ambon, Semuel was amazed by the abundance of critters he saw, which immediately convinced him to make Maluku Divers his home. In his years in Ambon, Semuel also discovered and pioneered a large number of dive sites in Ambon Bay, one of which, notably, is ‘Mimic Point’, where he found 9 mimic and 4 long-arm octopi on his first dive, so if Semuel has a hunch about a site that he hasn’t tried, it’s probably worthwhile joining the exploration!
Like his mentor, the late, great Larry Smith, Semuel aspires to blaze a trail in muck dive-guiding, passing his experience and enthusiasm to other youngsters living in Ambon, in the hope that others will develop his passion for the art of finding the unique critters in Ambon Bay.
“Emily and I certainly did enjoy our visit to Ambon. The resort is fantastic, Marcel was great to meet, socialize and dive with and having Samuel as our dive guide was like having Larry Smith guiding me again (at least in spirit). We really were blown away by the variety and species in Ambon. It really makes a huge difference to go with local knowledge. The difference between going to a movie theater and watching previews, then leaving or going to the movie theater and seeing Avatar in 3D.”
Douglas Seifert; April 2010
