Your typical day will consist of 1-2 survey dives and some time spent on various community projects in the local community which is spread out through the week. At Barefoot Conservation we believe it is vital to work in the community, educating, improving equality of life and alleviating poverty, alongside producing vital data that will help both the local community and government best protect their local habitat and surrounding coral reefs.

Breakfast will be served around 7am and depending on the weather, and advice from our Instructors & dive guides/boat crew, you will either start your first survey dive of the day around 8-9am or visit the local community to assist on various community projects which our staff will organise.

At the end of each survey dive you will relay the data from your dive slates on to the data recording sheets, for later entry into our database with our Marine Biologists. 

After lunch (12:00-12:30) you will do the opposite of what you did in the morning, so if you worked on community projects in the morning, your undertake survey dives in the afternoon and vice versa. Sometimes you may do one morning dive and one afternoon dive, if no community programs are happening that day.

Dinner is served at around 19:00 and, after a short de-brief session on the days activities, the evening is yours to relax, have a cold coke/beer and talk about the amazing marine life you saw or the kind villagers you made friends with, while watching the sunset off Barefoot or Arborek jetty.

Some evenings may involve an advanced presentation or Indonesian language lessons for those interested and theory sessions for volunteers taking extra PADI scuba courses.

Monday to Friday are reserved for survey dives and Community project work.

Saturday is for fun dives where the Barefoot dive profiles are relaxed slightly, and dive computers can be used for multi-level divers, that are deeper and longer.

Wednesday mornings the team goes to Waisai the capital of Raja Ampat to collect/drop off volunteers and pick up supplies. Volunteers can sometimes join this trip if space is available. Please be aware that the capital only has a population of 6000 and hence is still small, so it does not have hundreds of shops.

Sunday is a complete NO dive day, this is for health & safety reasons and gives your body time to recover from the weeks diving. This gives you some valuable downtime when you can sunbath, play volleyball or football, go for a swim/snorkel, read a book, go for a walk around the island, watch a movie or visit the local village.

Saturdays & Sundays may be used by the Scuba Instructor when teaching extra PADI Scuba courses, however only confined diving (no deeper than 5 meters) can be undertaken on the Sunday.

*Please note, our basecamp is located on a remote paradise island, with limited resources (power & fresh water for example). The basecamp is very basic, so please do not expect 4-5 star conditions, but do expect amazing sun sets/rises and to make lots of new friends!*