Gili Air Divers — Family-Run SSI Instructor Training Centre since 2011

Gili Air Divers was founded in 2011 by a French team and is still family-run, making it one of Gili Air's longest-running independent dive schools. It is an SSI Instructor Training Center (ITC) and Pro Center, and its founder, Birkan "Bibi" Tanis, has been an SSI Instructor Trainer since 2013 after working as PADI IDC staff. Instructors are dual-rated PADI and SSI, and the team teaches in English, French, Spanish and Bahasa Indonesia.

The main centre is on Gili Air's west coast, about 50 metres from the sea, and a quieter sister centre, Gili Meno Divers, operates from Kontiki Cottages on Gili Meno and is popular with macro photographers. Groups are capped at four divers per guide or instructor, and more than 20 reef and wreck sites around Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan are 10 to 20 minutes away by boat, with turtles on almost every dive.

Scuba courses run from SSI Basic Diver, Scuba Diver and Open Water through Advanced, specialties and Diver Stress & Rescue to Divemaster, and the centre also has an SSI freediving school offering trials, Level 1 and Level 2 and line-training sessions. A 3 mm shorty is provided free with every course.

Published prices at the time of writing included IDR 6,900,000 for the SSI Open Water Diver course, IDR 1,350,000 for a half-day Basic Diver try dive, and fun-dive packs of IDR 1,755,000 for three dives, IDR 2,890,000 for five (night dive included) and IDR 5,780,000 for ten. Check the website for current rates.