The story of Wakatobi Dive Resort starts back in the sixties when Resort founder Lorenz Mäder's father brought him from the mountains of Switzerland to the Mediterranean and taught him to snorkel. That was the start of a life-long passion for Lorenz. Two decades later after years of working in the Red Sea and Maldives as a dive instructor and Dive Liveaboard Cruise Director Lorenz set out to create his dream. A Dive Resort far away from the tourism hot spots, where he could establish a new way of running an ecotourism operation. A Resort combining diving with care for the environment. A place where a quality experience goes over the number of people served in a day. A community based business concept to manage the natural resources.Lorenz was in Singapore establishing a base for his exploration of Eastern Indonesia. (Having studied Navy Charts and dived the Wallacea area, which marks the region with the highest marine biodiversity, he knew that the envisioned dream location must be there). Months of trekking through the islands and exploring the reefs on local fishermen's boats finally brought him to the blissful corner of an island the locals called Onemobaa (Local language for 'Long white sandy Beach'. Knowing that this was indeed the place to build his resort, Lorenz approached the locals to find out who owned the land. He then met Mr.. Baharruddin, the son of the last Sultan of the area and made friends with him. Till this day the two are, as they say, inseparable. In his role as keeper of traditions, serving the community by thinking long-term, Haji Baharuddin is one of the very few Indonesians truly understanding the necessity of conservation.
Reinforced by Lorenz's personal objective to make a contribution to marine conservation, the challenging project was started in a region where locals have not seen a white man since the Dutch left the country and electricity and running water are still a rarity.
Searching for the right location to setup his dream resort, Lorenz spent many days being "Manta-towed" behind local boats researching the reef conditions in the area. Lorenz' objective - to find a place with a combination of a World-class reef in front, a beautiful topside (read: beach), ground water availability and a friendly local community.
