Dear Team Member,
I hope this message finds you healthy and well. By popular demand, we decided to write about a topic a lot of you have been curious about - what skills are needed to enjoy the two top wreck destinations on the planet to the fullest.
A misconception about diving in Bikini Atoll and Truk Lagoon is that both are deep, technical diving locations. In fact, with 70% of the wrecks in Truk Lagoon resting at depths of 40 meters or shallower, Truk is more than suitable for recreational divers. Is the same true for Bikini Atoll? Let’s dive into it!
TRUK LAGOON
Deep exploration diving in Truk Lagoon is popular, and there are plenty of wrecks past 40 meters. Because there are so many options, we run dedicated trips to Truk Lagoon for our CCR/open-circuit tech, and recreational divers.
With over 50 wrecks in this lagoon - making it the biggest concentration of war wrecks on the planet - there is no shortage of variety and it is impossible to see everything in one trip.
Having said that, we created these dedicated trips to satisfy this gap in the market. A huge part of the guests visiting Truk, nearly 3/4 are recreational. This often meant that the uneven split of skills, experience, and expectations on a liveaboard meant that everybody maybe not got exactly what they wanted. This is where the Dirty Dozen itineraries were born.
The goal of our technical and recreational itineraries is to give each customer regardless of their certification the most out of their trip.
These are the 3 different itineraries for Truk Lagoon which we have to offer:
⬇️REC ONLY - Max 40m/130ft
This itinerary focuses on 70% of the wrecks in Truk Lagoon where depths are above 40m/130ft. NO decompression diving allowed.
Certification prerequisites: PADI ADVANCED OPEN WATER OR EQUIVALENT.
Nitrox certification is not mandatory but highly recommended for your own safety and to give you maximum dive times.
A Wreck Diver specialty is also useful and means you can enjoy the wrecks as much as possible.
⬇️MOD 1/DP - Max 45m/147ft
This itinerary is similar to the REC ONLY itinerary but expands into the wreck selection to 45m/147ft. The big difference here is that extended rebreather dives and decompression diving are permitted.
Certification prerequisites:
TDI DECOMPRESSION PROCEDURES/CCR MOD 1 OR EQUIVALENT.
TDI Advanced Wreck Diver is not mandatory but highly recommended for your own safety and enjoyment.
⬇️MOD 2/NMX TMX - Max 65m/213ft
This itinerary focuses on the best wrecks shallow and deep in Truk Lagoon. About 60% of the itinerary is spent at MOD 1 levels building up and the rest is in MOD 2 territory.
Expect 120-150min runtimes on CCR twice a day. CCR/OC both permitted.
Certification prerequisites: CCR MOD 2 OR EQUIVALENT/OC Extended Range
TDI Advanced Wreck Diver is not mandatory but highly recommended for your own safety and enjoyment.
OC TEC divers are limited to the depths of their certification.
See the attached calendar below showing our REC and TEC itineraries for Truk Lagoon and contact us for further information on the trip you wish to go on.
Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll is a bit of a start contrast to Truk Lagoon. There are only 9 wrecks instead of 50+ and barely a handful of them can be accessed with a recreational or even decompression procedures certification. Mix in an aircraft carrier with hundreds of rooms and upside-down battleships and a good bit of experience and skills are needed.
Certification prerequisites are MOD 2 or OC Extended Range.
TDI Advanced Wreck Diver/Full Cave is not mandatory but highly recommended for your own safety and enjoyment. Some of the penetrations are so challenging that either of these certifications is required, and we reserve any right to refuse you access to the route based on our judgment of your skills/attitude.
TDI Extended Range or an equivalent rating allows you to conduct decompression dives to 55m/164ft or deeper with a twinset and enriched air stage cylinders for decompression. Normoxic Trimix qualification is not required. No trimix can be provided for OC divers due to the extreme scarcity in the Marshall Islands.
We hope this cleared up some confusion regarding what certifications are needed for Truk Lagoon and Bikini Atoll. More details along with tons of other information can be answered in our Expedition PDFs for Truk Lagoon and Bikini Atoll which you can download by clicking on the links above. Below you can see our availability for Bikini Atoll until 2025.
TRIP ALERT
We just had a space open with our special guests Marissa Eckert and James Draker for Truk Lagoon in November this year. Our entire year has been sold out for a while, so this is a golden opportunity to get back to Truk Lagoon at the end of this year. Email us for more information.
That is us for this week, we look forward to some great adventures with you in the years to come and as always, don’t forget, if you are feeling lonely, then we are here to chat Dirty.
Love,
Aron Arngrímsson and the DDE Team