Claudia Spitzl

Hi, divers! I am Claudia, an Austrian volunteer who arrived in Madang at the beginning of 1998. Luckily, in my first month here I met a group of divers who invited me to come along. We go out every Saturday, and I mean every Saturday, no matter what the weather is like (we would probably even go if it suddenly started snowing…).

When I came to Papua New Guinea I was not a very experienced diver. I had done my Open Water Certificate in Belize and had done a couple of dives in Brazil. But my fascination with this sport has grown since coming here. I have gotten my Advanced Open Water Certificate here, and I dread the day when I will have to go back to Austria, not being able anymore to recharge my batteries every Saturday morning under water.

There are a lot of dive sites around Madang - reefs, passages, walls falling straight down, but especially some spectacular wrecks. Sometimes I think, even if we would go to the same spot every week, I wouldn't get bored - there is just too much to see. Some of the most fascinating stuff I have seen are a school of hammerheads, turtles, a group of manta rays floating down from the surface, huge schools of barracudas circling us, and the most colorful coral you can imagine. I am just looking forward to every dive…