Edi Frommenwiler MV Pindito Liveaboard Indonesia

Edi Frommenwiler was born in 1956, the second youngest of ten children of a "typical" Swiss family in Rothenburg, situated near Lucerne in Switzerland. After a somewhat unsettled life as a trucker in the Middle East and as tour guide for the adventure and trekking company "Intertrek", Edi decided to settle down in Indonesia which has become his new home. Today he lives in Bali with his Indonesian wife Ella and their two children. But, even in Bali, it´s difficult to live just on love and air.

Edi decided to build a ship, the Pindito. A rather courageous project for a Swiss national whose relationship with mountains was a lot closer than that with water, and with no experience in shipbuilding whatsoever. Financing such an idea was not the easiest of matters either. Finally, with the financial help of family and friends, construction started on a beach in Borneo in 1991, using Edi’s own plans and relying on his technical skills and sheer willpower.

To build a ship in Indonesia strictly means manual labour. The laying down took place on March 31th, 1991, Edi’s 36th birthday. In the end, 80 people worked on the construction of Pindito, which was finished after 1 year in 1992. The first dive cruise ever started in April 1992. Since then, the Pindito cruises very successfully through the Indonesian archipelago. Edi and his team have mastered all crises so far, and he has remained true to himself. Today, after 13 years of operation and about 350 cruises later, the Pindito is widely recognized as THE live-aboard dive vessel in Indonesia.

Edi still leads most of the cruises himself, and he and his underwater video camera rarely miss a dive. After 13 years and 6000 dives later, Edi’s passion for small underwater critters, is stays very strong. He still discovers new things and his video archive has already become a legend. In 2004, Swiss television realized the documentary Edi’s Paradise, a must see for all lovers of the underwater world.