WHY TRAVEL WITH US – Subculture Expeditions

WHY TRAVEL WITH US?

THIS IS OUR PASSION AND OUR PROFESSION

We are Kerri Bingham and Hergen Spalink and sharing our passion for adventure travel is what Subculture Expeditions is all about.

We have both been scuba professionals since the early 2000s and met while working in the Caribbean. We left there in 2006 and moved to Indonesia to become the managers of a liveaboard. For three years we traversed the archipelago, diving and exploring the country from West Papua to Bali. After working for a season in Tubbataha in the Philippines we were excited to return to Indonesia In 2009 to become the Dive Center managers for critters@lembeh, the dive concession at Lembeh Resort in North Sulawesi. While still at Lembeh Resort, we began running expeditions, starting with a Komodo trip aboard the Damai in 2011. We left Lembeh in 2012, moved to Bali and dedicated ourselves to Subculture Expeditions, which at the time was called ‘Got Muck’.

Since 2011 we have run over 66 group trips (as of August 2022) to destinations such as Bali, Komodo, Alor, the Forgotten Islands, the Banda Sea, Raja Ampat, Triton Bay, Cenderawasih Bay, Lembeh Strait and Bunaken, Halmahera, the Maldives, Fiji, Socorro, Cocos, Galapagos and the Solomon Islands. Leading group trips is not something we do ‘on the side’, this is our full-time profession. We’ve also taught at underwater photography workshops in the Caymans, Bonaire, Lembeh, Bali and Honduras.

In 2013 we became sponsored photographers and ambassadors for Nauticam USA. Through this program we have had the opportunity to use everything from compact to DSLR and mirrorless still cameras as well as a variety of cinema cameras such as REDs, Z-Cam, and Canon Cinema Cameras. Hergen has lectured at major tradeshows and international workshops for Nauticam and our collective imaging works have been published in a variety of well known online and print publications. We’ve also previously worked as Managing Editors and contributors for DivePhotoGuide.

We left Bali in 2017 and returned to the US to expand our business and travel the country. Since the beginning of the pandemic we have gone mostly nomadic, spending as much time as possible on the road in our Airstream trailer with our Bali dog ‘Chewie’. Our home base and the location of the company is in Portland, Oregon.

WHY GROUP TRAVEL

Most of the people traveling with us have been our guests for a long time, some over ten years. That being said, we enjoy new people as long as they share our sense of adventure, fun and love of new experiences. Many people ask us how we make our money. Are we just rich folks that do this for fun? That would be nice, but no. We make our money by chartering the entire boat or resort (or a large portion thereof). As we are travel agents and are taking on a huge financial responsibility, we get it for a better price. We then sell it to our guests for the normal price (sometimes we do have to charge more). So you pay the same amount (mostly) as you do booking directly but you get to travel with us! So what? Well, we know the areas and generally get full control over the itinerary. We don’t just dive ‘Site x’ because it’s 9am on Tuesday and that’s where the boat goes at that time. Also, we bring fun people along! We can also help you with your imaging. We don’t do formal training (unless requested). You get true one-on-one help when you want it, either on the boat or in the water. At the end of the day we aim to provide everyone with the best possible holiday experience.

SUBCULTURETRAVEL.COM

The other part of our business is as the exclusive US representatives for the Samambaia and Pindito livearboards as well as Alam Batu Beach Bungalow Resort in Bali. This side of the business is ‘Subculture Travel’. These are operators we know and love and use for our own SCTX trips as well. We regularly attend tradeshows for these operators so let us know if you’d like to meet up at the next one.

Hergen & Kerri