I was born the 4th son in my family in Mataram, Lombok, Indonesia on the 31st of January 1962. My parents gave me a long name as usually happens for Indonesian. So my name is Muhammad Taufik Hizbul Haq. It was hard for me to say my own name when I was little. Then, when someone asked me my name, I would say “ciboen”. It has been my nickname since then, and all my friends keep calling me: boen.
My time at school started when I was a Primary School student, I feel in love the water activities straight away. I learned how to swim by myself, even managed to teach myself all the style of swimming. When I was 18, I swam across the strait between Lombok Island (the island where I grown) and Sumbawa Island, the neighbouring island of Lombok. It was 9 hour swim because the current was aganst me for a long time. I did this with some of my friends from our Scuba Diving Club in Mataram, the Rinjani Diving Club. At the same time, I started to learn about Scuba Diving and scuba diving became more than a hobby as is almost cost me my education :) :)??.
I finished studying Law in 1988. It was a little bit later than the other students in my class :) Probably because I took 2 years off before finishing and traveled around Indonesia. I also have joined an International Expedition called Operation Raleigh at that time for 3 months. All participants on that expedition have chance to learn from many kinds of short project likes: Jungle project, wild Pig Project, Orchid project, Community Development project, and so on. The expedition took place in the hard rain forest of the Mollucan Islands, the Eastern part of Indonesia, with more than one hundred participants. Lately, I have been reflecting on how the expedition changed and shaped how I manage all my activities. In 1989, one year after I finished my study, I started to teach people as a Scuba Diving Instructor, and I have been doing this until recently I lived here in new Zealand to accompanying my family. I think that i will continue it again when I go back to my home country next year.
