The Ocean's Secrets: Debunking Common Scuba Diving Myths

Do you dream of exploring the world beneath the waves, only to be deterred by spine-chilling tales of being stranded in the ocean's abyss or facing hungry sharks? Well, it's time to dispel these myths and uncover the real story behind scuba diving. The ocean's secrets are waiting to be revealed, and they're far more exhilarating than you could ever imagine!

In this blog, we're on a mission to debunk some of these myths and unravel the truth behind the wonderful realm of scuba diving.

Let's dive in:

Myth 1: Diving is Only for the Super Fit

Reality: Scuba diving is a sport for everyone, not just elite athletes. While adequate fitness levels are essential, you don't need to be an Olympic swimmer or marathon runner to enjoy diving. Most dive certifications require you to demonstrate basic swimming skills and complete a short swim, usually around 200 meters. As long as you're comfortable in the water and are reasonably fit, you can explore the underwater wonders.

Myth 2: Diving is Dangerous

Reality: Scuba diving is remarkably safe when practised with proper training and adherence to safety guidelines. Dive agencies like PADI provide comprehensive courses that equip you with essential knowledge and skills. Always dive with a certified buddy, follow dive tables or dive computers for no-decompression limits, and maintain proper buoyancy control. Diving's safety record is commendable when divers respect the rules and their limits.

"Such a good experience and a very good instructor. Even though I was very scared, they encouraged and helped me a lot. The instructor was very patient, and we took our time to learn everything so that I would feel more confident diving." - Monica

Myth 3: Diving is Too Expensive

Reality: Scuba diving can be as affordable or as luxurious as you desire. While there are costs involved, such as certification courses, equipment rental, or purchase and travel, you can find budget-friendly options. Consider starting with a basic certification like PADI Open Water Diver, and rent equipment from dive shops. As you gain experience and passion for diving, you can gradually invest in your gear.

Myth 4: You Can't Dive with Medical Conditions

Reality: Many individuals with medical conditions can dive safely after consulting a physician experienced in dive medicine. Conditions like asthma, allergies, or even minor heart issues may not be dive-limiting. However, being honest on medical forms and undergoing evaluations when necessary is crucial. Your safety is a top priority in the diving community.

Myth 5: The Ocean is Full of Man-Eating Sharks

Reality: Hollywood has given sharks a fearsome reputation, but in reality, shark attacks are exceedingly rare. Most shark species are harmless and shy away from humans. Divers often go their entire diving lives without encountering a shark. When they do, it's typically a thrilling and memorable experience rather than a dangerous one.

Myth 6: You Need to Dive Deep to See Cool Stuff

Reality: While deep diving opens up different experiences, you'll find plenty of incredible marine life in shallower waters. Many vibrant coral reefs, schools of colourful fish, and fascinating macro creatures can be found in depths accessible to novice divers. Dive sites often cater to various depth preferences. The world-famous USAT Liberty shipwreck in Tulamben, for example, starts at only 3 meters and is accessible from shore!

Myth 7: You Must Travel to Exotic Locations to Dive

Reality: While exotic destinations offer fantastic diving, remarkable dive sites are in unexpected places. Lakes, quarries, and even rivers can offer unique underwater experiences. Local diving can be accessible, budget-friendly, and a wonderful way to hone your skills.

Myth 8: You Need a Dive Buddy

Reality: Dive buddies are crucial for safety, but it doesn't mean you must bring your own. Most dive operators can pair you with a buddy or even be your buddy. It's an opportunity to meet fellow divers and share the underwater experience. Here at Bali Dive Cove in Amed, Bali, our fun and professional team are happy to be your dive buddy during your fun dives!

Myth 9: You Will Get Lost at Sea

Reality: Dive training includes navigation skills to prevent getting lost. Learning to use a compass underwater is part of your scuba certification. During your PADI Advanced Open Water, a whole dive is dedicated to navigation. You will also learn lost buddy procedures during your PADI Open Water Course.

Myth 10: Your Divemaster is Responsible for Your Safety

Reality: While divemasters are trained professionals, your safety is your responsibility. Divers must follow safety procedures, stay within their limits, be aware of their surroundings, and communicate effectively with their buddy and dive team.

Myth 11: Learning to Dive is Difficult/Takes a Long Time

Reality: Learning to dive is an exciting journey, not an arduous task. Certification courses are designed to accommodate your pace. You can start with basic certifications and progressively advance. Each dive is a step forward in your diving adventure. You can start with a one-day Discover Scuba Diving experience to dip your toes in and then progress to a full certification. The PADI Open Water course in Amed, Bali takes as little as 3 days. Want to know more about getting started? Read about the beginners guide to scuba diving here.

Now that we've dispelled some common scuba diving myths, we hope you feel more confident and excited about exploring the underwater world. Scuba diving is a thrilling adventure accessible to a wide range of individuals. It offers a chance to connect with marine life, experience breathtaking underwater landscapes, and contribute to conserving our precious oceans.

Have you encountered any other scuba diving myths? Share your thoughts and experiences with us!

To start your scuba diving adventure in Amed, Bali, send us a message on WA +62 819 4544 3567 or drop us an email at balidivecove@gmail.com. We organise a wide range of PADI courses from beginner upwards and daily fun dives around Amed and Tulamben - we look forward to hearing from you!

A Beginner's Guide to Scuba Diving

Prepare to discover the mesmerising wonders of the underwater world as you embark on a thrilling scuba diving adventure in Amed, Bali.

While scuba diving may seem daunting for beginners, fear not! This beginner's guide will equip you with the knowledge, training, and guidance to dive safely and enjoyably into the depths of this fascinating realm.

Dive into the Discover Scuba Diving Experience

To dip your toes into the world of scuba diving, start with the Discover Scuba Diving (DSD) program. Led by our experienced local instructors, this introductory course familiarises you with diving techniques, equipment, and safety protocols. We start with fitting equipment and filling in some paperwork, then go on a short drive to the dive site. At Bali Dive Cove, we usually offer the Discover Scuba Diving program on the world-famous USAT Liberty Shipwreck in Tulamben —a site brimming with vibrant life and coral.

You will begin with a detailed dive briefing explaining everything you will need to know before taking your first breaths underwater. Then, during a shallow water session in the sea, you'll have the opportunity to practice essential skills before embarking on your very first open water dive. Following a brief intermission where we gather to discuss the dive experience, we'll embark on our second excursion, immersing ourselves in the true magnificence that lies beneath the surface. The DSD experience acts as your compass, guiding you to decide if scuba diving is your destined adventure.

Just finished my awesome experience with Bali Dove Cove. This was my first time scuba diving ever. We did two dives at the ship wreck and saw a lot of fish. My teacher Gede was very good, and patient with me. Highly recommend this for people interested in trying diving.

Submerge Yourself in the PADI Open Water Course

Once you've glimpsed the magic of scuba diving, take the plunge and enrol in the esteemed PADI Open Water course. As a globally recognised certification agency, PADI offers comprehensive scuba diving courses that lay the foundation for your underwater journey. This course delves deep into theory, equipment usage, essential skills, and safety procedures.

The knowledge development section on the PADI Open Water course immerses you in theory and understanding of the aquatic realm and world of scuba diving. These can be completed through online modules, classroom learning, or a combination of both. Dive into the intricacies of dive planning, physics, physiology, and crucial safety guidelines.

Prepare to make a splash in confined water training conducted in controlled environments in the sea. Guided by your instructor, you'll master skills such as equipment assembly, regulator usage, mask clearing, buoyancy control, and underwater communication. These sessions build confidence and ensure your comfort with equipment and fundamental techniques.

The crown jewel of the Open Water course is the open water dives. Dive headfirst into real underwater environments under the watchful eye of your instructor. Four open water dives are required to complete the course. The first two take place in jemeluk bay to a depth of 12 meters, and the final two will be to 18 meters at the USAT Liberty Shipwreck in Tulamben. As you dive deeper, you'll apply the skills learned in confined water, refine your buoyancy control, and unlock the awe-inspiring sights of the underwater world. With each dive, your confidence as a scuba diver will soar.

We had the best experience at Bali Dive Cove. We did our Padi Open Water Diver certification and felt super comfortable/ secure with our dive instructor Wayan. We were able to do the theory part upfront and came to Amed for three days of diving. The instructor was patient, answered every question, and explained everything in detail.The whole staff is really friendly and helpful. We are really happy to have chosen this diving school and would recommend it to everyone!

Certification and Beyond

Upon conquering the PADI Open Water course, you'll be rewarded with a certification that officially recognises you as a qualified scuba diver. This certification grants you the freedom to explore the depths within the limits of your training. However, remember that scuba diving is an ongoing adventure of learning. Seek out specialty courses and advanced certifications to expand your skills and knowledge, continuously pushing the boundaries of your diving horizons.

To embark on your Discover scuba diving experience or to enrol in your PADI Open Water course, send us a message on WA +62 819 4544 3567 or drop us an email at balidivecove@gmail.com - we look forward to hearing from you!

Mastering the Buddy Check for Scuba Divers

Partner Up and Dive In!

Scuba diving into the magical world beneath the waves is, without a doubt, an exhilarating experience. But before you take the plunge while diving in Bali, there's an important ritual that ensures your safety and adds an extra touch of fun to your dive— the BWRAF buddy check. In this blog, we'll explore how the BWRAF method can turn your buddy check into an exciting adventure, guaranteeing safe and enjoyable dives for you and your buddy!

The BWRAF System: Buoyancy, Weights, Releases, Air, and Final Check:

Let's dive deeper...

Buoyancy

Begin by checking your buoyancy control device (BCD). Ensure that it inflates and deflates correctly and that all the dumps are working smoothly. Take a moment to watch your buddy's BCD as well so you're familiar with how their gear functions.

Things to watch for:

• Dumps being caught under the weight belt or the shoulder strap
• BCD stays inflated when inflated fully
• The inflator button doesn't stick
• The deflator button is able to push all the way down
• You are able to easily orally inflate the BCD

Weights

Whether you're using a weight belt or integrated weight pockets, make sure they are securely fastened and easily adjustable. Remember, a right-hand release is the industry standard for weight belts. Integrated weight pockets should be clipped in securely.

Things to watch for:

• The weight belt is not tucked in if too long
• You or your buddy are not over or underweighted
• Weight pockets are clipped in correctly
• Weight is evenly distributed

Releases

Check those releases, including buckles, straps, and quick-release mechanisms. Most BCDs come with 5 releases on the front; a chest strap, shoulder straps, cumber band and waist strap, then 2 on the back; one around the body of your scuba tank, and a security strap over the tank valve. Double-check that your straps are securely tightened.

Things to watch for:

• The tank strap doesn't slip
• Clips are left undone
• Security strap has been forgotten

Air

Confirm that both you and your buddy have your air turned fully on. Perform a buddy breathing exercise by sharing your alternate air source while you breathe from your second stage. Check for any fluctuations in air pressure while breathing. This helps ensure that your air supply is properly functioning.

Things to watch for:

• The air is not turned fully on
• Alternate Air Source is not easily accessible
• The needle of the gauge moves when you are breathing

Final Check

Wrap up your buddy check with a comprehensive overview. Have your buddy do a 360-degree spin to check for any hose entanglements. Confirm that all essential equipment, such as masks, fins, dive computers, cameras, and pointers, are in place. With this final check, you're ready to scuba dive in Bali and explore the breathtaking beauty that lies below.

How can I remember the BWRAF system?

There are a few acronyms that you can use:

• Breakfast With Rice And Fish (Bali special)
• Babies With Rashes Are Fussy
• Barf Will Really Attract Fish
• Bruce Willis Ruins All Films
• Big White Rabbits Are Fun
• Breathing Water Really Ain't Fun

Benefits of the BWRAF System:

By embracing the BWRAF system in your buddy check routine, you unlock a world of benefits that make your dive in Amed safer and more enjoyable:

Safety First: The BWRAF system ensures that no safety aspects are overlooked, providing a solid foundation for a secure dive.

Bonding Through Buddy Checks: Performing the BWRAF buddy check creates a bond between you and your dive buddy. It fosters teamwork, communication, and shared responsibility, leading to a stronger connection both above and below the surface.

Confidence to Explore: The meticulous checks of the BWRAF system instil confidence in your gear and abilities. With confidence, you can truly let go and explore the underwater wonders with peace of mind.

Final Thoughts

By incorporating the BWRAF system into your buddy check routine, you embark on a journey of safety, communication, and excitement. So, remember to embrace the Buoyancy, Weights, Releases, Air, and Final Check adventure before every dive. Let the BWRAF system be your guide as you dive safely into the magical realm beneath the waves.

Here at Bali Dive Cove, we organise daily fun dives around Amed and Tulambem and a wide range of PADI courses from beginner to Divemaster. Send us a message at WA +62 819 4544 3567 or email us at balidivecove@gmail.com We look forward to meeting you underwater!

The USAT Liberty shipwreck

The most famous dive site in Bali and rated one of the best shipwrecks in the World... If you are visiting Bali this is a MUST do!

A brief history

The USAT Liberty (originally USS Liberty) is a 125 meter long Ship which was built in New Jersey, USA in 1918 and was used in World War I and World War II. It was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in January of 1942 which did a lot of damage to the ship. Luckily no one died in this incident and they decided to try and tow her to the nearest port, in Singaraja by 2 other vessels. She was letting on a lot of water and the crew had no other option but to beach it on the rocky shoreline of Tulamben. The Liberty lay on the beach until the strong tremors from the 1963 eruption of Mount Agung which caused her to slide into the water where she now lies on her side in 3-28 meters of water. It is now the most dived site in Bali.

The Dive

The best way to experience the USAT Liberty is with a 2 dive trip. The wreck lies just 15 meters from the beach which makes it a shore dive. The first dive is spent checking out the outside of the wreck and on the second dive we dive more the middle section which also includes some penetration and swim throughs depending on your experience level.

You will see the common reef fish such as Butterflyfish, Indo-Pacific Surgeonfish, Angelfish, Batfish, Trumpet fish, Trigger Fish and Surgeonfish. We also have a wide variety of Anemonefish including Nemo! You can also see Nudibranchs, Turtles, Garden Eels, Blue Spotted Stingrays, Bumphead Parrotfish, Napoleon Wrasse, Electric Clams... and the list goes on! If you are really lucky - Sharks, Whale Sharks and Mola Mola have also been sighted here.

The Liberty is commonly dived as a sunrise dive. It is the most popular dive in Bali which means it can get quite crowded. On the sunrise dive, there will be much less divers around and you get a chance to see the famous Bumphead Parrotfish which are up to 1.5 meters long and frequently school in groups even up to 30 at one time!

Another popular option is Night Diving. Chances to see large Groupers, hunting Moray Eels, Spanish Dancers, weird and wonderful Shrimps and Crabs, Squid, Octopus and more!

'It was pretty surreal to dive at such beautiful sites with such diverse marine life. The highlight was seeing a sea turtle, school of bump head fishes and swimming through a ship wreck.'

'The conditions were perfect and the USAT Shipwreck was amazing.'

'me and my boyfriend had the most amazing dive around USAT Liberty!'

Who can Dive it?

Everyone! Even non divers can enjoy some beautiful snorkelling as the Liberty wreck starts at only 3 meters. As it is so close to the shore, it makes for a really easy entrance and a short swim to the wreck.

We are normally blessed with really good visibility and due to the fact that the Liberty lies on a rocky foundation, even when we have waves, it takes a lot to reduce the visibility.

New Divers - Because it lies so close to the shore and starts so shallow it is a good wreck for newly certified divers as long as you have good control of your buoyancy. We can often have currents on this dive but our experienced Divemasters know where there are places to shelter while still enjoying the beautiful dive and abundance of marine life.

Advanced Divers - The wreck goes to a maximum depth of around 28 meters and there are plenty of cool critters hanging around down there along with some really exciting penetration options ranging from very easy to a bit more challenging.

Courses - It is a perfect location for an Advanced Open Water Course, Wreck Diver Specialty and Deep Diver Specialty.

Where is it?

It lies just 15 meters from shore in an area called Tulamben which is just a 20 minute drive from the popular dive and tourist destination Amed and 3 hours from the Airport.

When to visit?

The Diving in Bali is all year round. Our rainy season is typically from December to April but luckily for divers the rain seldom effects the water conditions. Diving in the rainy season means Bali in general is much less crowded which also means the Liberty is quieter. July - September you will rarely have any rain and the wether is hot and sunny but it's also the busiest months in Bali. Whenever you choose to come - you will be amazed!

Meet the team

Introducing Wayan

Name: I Wayan Mardita

Also known as: Gabres

Age: 28

Experience: 5 years of scuba diving in around Amed with over 2,000 dives in the local area (he lost count after 1000!)

Fun fact - Wayan shares his name with a little over half of the population of Bali making it very confusing when trying to get his attention - half the dive site turns around when you shout WAYAN! Because of this, he also goes by the name Gabres.

Wayan is definitely the smile of the company! He is from the local area in a village called Tukadse. His house is actually less than 20 meters from the dive center.

He started his diving career as just a boy, working for a dive company as a gardener and not speaking a word of English, he was known then, as Wayan Boy. Over some years of gardening and dog walking he was gradually introduced to the underwater world, joining in with tourist student divers. He started moving away from gardening, learning how to repair scuba equipment and starting to assist dive courses. Eventually Wayan was certified as a dive guide and went from the back of the group to the front, guiding divers in his new world. Also his English was much better by then and his name upgraded to Wayan handsome!

After many years of working as a dive guide, learning invaluable lessons and gaining ample experience underwater, he was ready for his own adventure.

In the summer of 2017 Wayan set out on his own to start freelancing, so he could experience what it was like working for other dive companies and start earning some money. Not long after that, he met his business partner and together they started building their own project which is when Bali Dive Cove was born.

Other than diving, Wayan enjoys spending time with his friends and family - he is often the joker of the group! He enjoys travelling and hopes one day to venture a bit further than Asia!

Meet the team

Meet our newest team member - Gede and his Dog!

Name: I Gede Swasme

Also known as: Gede, Made, Rongo or Swasme - we just call him Gede!

Age: 27

Started diving: 2015

Fun fact, Gede has the friendliest and cutest dog who he is very close to. He enjoys introducing him to new faces!

Gede is our newest team member. He started diving in 2015, completing his Open Water and Advanced Open water courses through PADI. He has been diving on and off since then and as of April 2018 he is a Bali Dive Cover!

After school, Gede was already interested in the tourism around Amed and Tulamben and started working on the beach renting snorkeling equipment and taking people out on snorkelling tours. He was passionate about improving his English and would talk to anyone and everyone about anything!

A few years later, along with working on the beach, he got a job at Wawa wewe (a bar in Lipah) serving drinks and entertaining customers with his elaborate stories! He continued working there until the drama with Mount Agung in 2017 meant that many local businesses closed down.

He also got the amazing opportunity to learn how to Scuba dive with a friend who is also an instructor. He passed his Open Water course and almost immediately afterwards he continued with his PADI Advanced Open Water course - he then wanted to dive as much as possible and took part in many fun dives which were taking place.

In April 2018 after Mount Agung had calmed down alot and the tourists started returning. Gede realised that he wanted to turn his huge passion for the ocean and everything diving related into a career. He saw the opportunity that Bali Dive Cove is a new company and thought he would have something to offer. He has already completed his EFR course with us, will shortly be a rescue diver and will begin his Divemaster training later this year.

Gede is already very popular with the guests and we are very excited to continue working with him over the next few years.

In his free time, Gede enjoys spending time with his puppy, playing guitar and singing (he has quite some talent!). He enjoys meeting new people and constantly improving his English skills.

Who cant resist those smiley faces! Come and say hello to our newest members!

News from the cove - Issue #9

Some incredible muck diving, refresher courses and plenty of fun dives! All taken part over the easter holidays :)

Muck diving

Over the last two weeks we have had Geert and Kyle joining us especially for some amazing photography experiences. They both left no stone unturned and came back with some amazing photographs. Both divers were guided by Wayan and Kadek who have amazing eyes to spot the best things! They dived at Melasti in Amed and Tulamben, Seraya secret, Batu belah, Sidem and of course some of the more popular sites over 2 weeks.

I truly love the idea of diving with professionals who are experienced and invested with nurturing the local environment. The people who work at Bali Dive are not transient instructors, rather they are guardians who show people like myself and the inexperienced the wonders of the local underworld, big and small.

So ten weeks passed and I’m back again. What more can I say! {Kylie Tripadvisor}

Muck diving has a very slow pace and needs a lot of patience. It is great for photographers as you can see some very special things down there! Amongst those special things are rare Nudibranchs, harlequin shrimp, peacock mantis shrimps, pygmy seahorse, leaf scorpion fish, mimic Octopus, pipe fish and the list just goes on!

One of the main things that attracts divers is the Nudibranch photography here are some of our favs

5y diving, 230 diving, This time I chose BDC, a small friendly local diving club. As a semi-experienced diver it is great not to have to fit into a "system". Because you don't end up in a large group at BDC, diving is very relaxing. Starting half an hour later: no problem. Staying under water for fifteen minutes longer: fine (an average of 70 minutes of diving). Time between dives: well before a long second dive. Again the same location because that pygmy seahorse apparently looked the other way when the photo was taken: we do. I was very impressed by the professionalism of the team. Safety goes hand in hand with pleasure. Kudos to Jordan who switches from seriousness to a moment with a joke if possible in a very smooth manner. The logistics are also fine. They have a comfortable car that you can take to the most beautiful places on time. Jordan, your positivism and skills give your customers such a good feeling. Kadek, I admire your knowledge about underwater life, your photographic eye, your sincere natural enthusiasm and also your excellent (not exaggerated) cooking skills. I am sure that you will soon be an excellent instructor. Wayan, your relaxed attitude, your attention to the wishes of your customers, your trained eye and your knowledge about the sites that you can show the smallest, incredibly beautiful critters: fantastic. {Geert Tripadvisor}

Refresher courses

Sarah

Sarah came to us recommended by a friend who has dived with us a few times already. She arrived with her friend Kirsten who completed her PADI Open Water course with us. Sarah, an already certified diver started her diving in Amed with a refresher course as it was a while since she last dived! We started in the classroom for a briefing of a reminder of the basic skills and equalisation techniques as well as looking at the equipment again. We headed over to Jemeluk bay along with Kirsten and started in the shallows with some basic skills before heading off for a lovely dive on the Drop off. It didn’t take Sarah long to remember how everything worked!

After coming back to the dive shop for a debriefing and some refreshments, Sarah then headed over to the Pyramids for a gentle drift dive! The next day we woke up at the crack of dawn to head over to Tulamben to enjoy 2 fantastic dives on the USAT Liberty. We had some of the best visibility we have had in a while which made for 2 incredible dives!

We did two days diving in Amed with Bali Dive Cove and will definitely be coming back and recommending to friends. The first day we went to sites in Amed and the second we did a sunrise dive at the Liberty Shipwreck close by. We saw bumphead parrotfish, hawksbill turtle, white tipped reef shark, stingray and much more! Jordan and the team were very professional, clear and encouraging in their instructions. We felt very well cared for throughly relaxed! {Sarah Tripadvisor}

Lou-Lou and Olivier

Oliver had already dived with us in January with his 2 young daughters and this time has come back with partner Lou Lou! Lou Lou had not dived in almost 20 years so a full refresher course was necessary!

They decided they wanted to do an early session on the Liberty so we met the night before to complete all paperwork and equipment organised ready for the early start the next day. In the morning we headed over to the Liberty with their Instructor Jim. They started with a full briefing going over all the safety procedures, skills and what they would see underwater. After testing out all the kit they went in for the first dive. It was really beautiful conditions, really calm and perfect visibility! It took a little bit of time to settle into the skills but Jim was really patient and provided a lot of encouragement to make sure everything was done with ease!

After the skills were completed they headed over to the ship to check out the awesome marine life and beautiful corals!

Fun Diving

We also had Isabella, Kong and Jiannan, Hannah and Matt, two lads from Russia, Jelena and Iris who are all already certified divers and enjoyed some beautiful dives around Amed, Tulamben and Kubu. The water temperature hasn’t dropped below 29°C which has been Lovely!

Isabella enjoyed three days of diving with us starting in Jemeluk at the drop off followed by the Pyramids in Amed. The net day she decided to wake up early for the Sunrise diving on the USAT Liberty. There, Isabella enjoyed 2 dives. The first one was around the outside of the wreck and the second was checking out the middle section. On the final day Isabella decided to check out some of the amazing muck diving Amed and Tulamben has to offer and headed over to Seraya secret in between both villages for this experience. Along with guide Gede, they didn’t come back disappointed! Plenty or beautiful little Nudibranchs, pipe fish and Octopus were just some of the weird critters they saw down there!

Hannah and Matt joined us for a few days from a recommendation and had a great time! They started out in Amed on the drop off and Pyramids and saw loads of stingrays, garden eels, Scorpion fish and tonnes of reef fish! The next day they witnessed the stunning Tulamben Sunrise before diving into 2 stunning dives on the USAT Liberty. It was greta having you with us guys!

Jelena had just finished her Open Water certification in Padangbai and had heard so much good about the diving in Amed that she decided to come up for a day and night to check it out herself! Together with guide Gede, they enjoyed 2 fab dives in Jemeluk. We also all came together with other students and divers to have some dinner at one of our favourite warungs - Amed Sea View - yum!

Iris was already based in Amed and after diving most of the sites around there was one place still left unexplored... the Boga wreck in Kubu. Iris was diving with Divemaster Kadek and just the 2 of them headed over to the site. It was a great dive and they got to do some exciting penetration! The next day Iris and Kadek checked out the Amed and Jemeluk reefs. Iris has now decided she will take her Rescue diver course with us! We are very excited to start her training :D

Dinner Party

We decided to invite Geert, Kylie, Linda, Tom and Kate over to have some delicious fish. A majority of Wayans family are fisherman which meant we got some super fresh fish for supper. As some of you know already, Kadek is our Dive-master Chef and cooks up a mean meal! We had satay, grilled and fried fish with a combination of local sauces, potatoes and of course Rice! It was all Delicious!

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Bali Dive Cove's opening ceremony

A Blessing from the Gods

After days of preparation, early morning trips to the local market and lots of craftworks constructing the offerings, Bali Dive Cove was ready for its Opening Ceremony!

A few weeks earlier, owners Kadek and Wayan headed over to their resident Holy Man to decide a date for the opening of the shop. The Balinese believe that the Moon is very important and it affects a lot of what people do here. The date the Holy Man gave us was the 31st of January - as some of you may know this was a Full, Super, Blood, Blue Moon AND the first lunar eclipse of the year! So surely we have some good luck on our side. :) Bali mainly follows a Hindu religion which involves some very important religious rituals. For any marriage, baby born, or in our case, opening a new business, you have to undergo a blessing from the gods and give offerings so that everything will run as smoothly as possible in the future.

Full, Super, Blood, Blue Moon AND the first lunar eclipse of the year!

So the 31st was to be the day of Bali Dive Cove’s grand opening and blessing. The day started with cleaning the whole shop, arranging the final pieces of furniture, a bit of decorating and touching up the paint work. Wayan and his brother had gone to Amlapura to pick up Bali Dive Cove’s new van, as we were also going to do a blessing for the van at the same time. Our families were busy at home preparing delicious Balinese foods - pork and fish satay made with coconut and cooked traditionally over a fire, chopping and mixing the vegetables and cooking tonnes of rice! Our good friend Josh also arrived from Australia especially for our opening ceremony. He came bearing many goodies for the dive shop including our excellently serviced regulators from our friends at Dolphin Scuba in Perth. It was like Bali Dive Cove’s Christmas and birthday all rolled into one!

At 4pm our close family and friends started arriving and we began getting everything ready for the praying. January is known in Bali as the rainy season, so we were really hoping that the rain would hold off until the rituals had taken place! The Holy Man arrived, dressed head to foot in beautiful white, ‘the boys’ were wearing their best shirts and sarongs whilst and the girls wore a delicately patterned blouses known as a kebaya. Blessings were displayed over the building, inside and out, while the Holy Man said his prayers. When the Holy Man was ready, everybody else came to sit beside the building to pray alongside him. For each prayer you offer up flowers in your hands and use the scent of the incense to reach the gods. After each prayer you place the flowers either in your hair or behind each ear, and then at the end the Holy Man offers you holy water and some rice to place on your forehead as a symbol that you have prayed.

After the ceremony, the eating and drinking could commence! More friends and family arrived and we could finally indulge in the food which had taken almost 12 hours to prepare. Bintang was the choice of drink and the babi guling (spit roasted pig) went down a treat! Lucky the rain held off until after everyone had eaten; then, with the monsoonal rain falling, we all moved inside to enjoy the large chill out area upstairs of the shop, with music, laughter and stories.

Scuba diving in Amed

What makes diving in Amed special?

Aside from the fact that Amed is in its own way is a beautiful, unique and peaceful paradise... the scuba diving will live up to your greatest expectations!

What type of diving is in Amed?

Amed offers everything from shallow reef dives, wall dives along steep drop offs, gentle and exiting drift dives, three shipwrecks, fantastic muck dives and some brilliant sites for the keen photographers among you! Most dives here are accessible by shore, just step off the beach in certain areas and within a few meters you will find an abundance of fish and healthy corals. Some of our drift dives are done using traditional fishing boats called Jukungs.

What will I see while diving?

Everything! From little to large, colourful fish and silvery hunters, many pelagic and hundreds of reef fish, nudibranchs and frog fish, and even whale sharks, Mola molas, Thresher sharks and Eagle rays, have been spotted in our waters!

The ‘usual suspects’ will be spotted on most dives. Butterfly fish, colourful angelfish, trumpet fish, curious surgeon fish, anemone fish (including nemo), stunning Lionfish, vibrant blue damselfish, beautiful sweetlips and hunting trevallies.

You are also likely to come across ‘the visitors’ including turtles, moray eels, blue spotted stingrays, nudibranchs, barracuda, mosaic napoleon wrasse, unique bumphead parrotfish, leaf scorpionfish, reef sharks and garden eels.

‘The weird’ - especially if you are out muck diving, sea horses, cow fish, ornate ghost pipefish, heaps of nudibranchs, frogfish, boxer crabs and peacock mantis shrimps.

And ‘the elusive’ harlequinn shrimp, stargazers, cute lady bugs, electric clams, pygmy seahorses, the rare mimic octopus and the rhinopias.

What is the water temperature in Amed?

The sea in Amed is an average temperature of 27-30°C (80-84°f) with lows of 26°C and highs even up to 31°C on some days! Most people decide to dive in a 3mm shorty wetsuit, with some opting for a long 3-5mm and some divers even just in their swimmers.

What are the conditions of the corals?

Generally we are blessed with healthy corals. There is the global issue of coral bleaching but luckily it hasn’t hit our waters yet with such a severe impact as other places. We can see a gradual decline in the amount of coral growth in some areas but contradictory to that, coral at some dive sites are actually growing which is great! There are quite a few artificial structures and reef projects underwater in Amed which are allowing the coral something to grow on and for fish to habitat. Bali Dive Cove have a plan within the next few years to start our own underwater project.

Come and see for yourself!

Exploring the Boga!

Shipwreck diving at night

Last week we had friends Josh, Grace and Tom wanting to go on an exploration night dive on the Boga shipwreck, also known as the Kubu.... How could we say no!

We decided the best option before discovering a new night diving spot is to go suss it out by day. We packed up the dive bus ready to leave Amed at about 3:30pm and arrived in Kubu just a little after 4. After Wayan gave a detailed briefing and checked out the site map, we suited up, buddy checked and jumped in ...(well not literally… it’s a shore entrance… but anyway!)

After a beautiful decent down a gentle slope with subtle corals, we arrived at the dark outline of the bow of the ship which appears almost out of nowhere. We found some Nudibranches and an array of other life to the side of the ship, and swam to the stern of the boat to see the propeller (which is still intact). After a bit of swimming around and exploring, we decided to head back as the current seemed to be picking up a bit. We could tell this by constantly monitoring the conditions and you could start to see the bubbles start to drift. Wayan decided the best option was to use the lines attached to the wreck to assist us on our ascent which lead us up nice and slow. After we surfaced we found out that just after we descended a really heavy rain storm had passed over by which had caused the water to flow down into the sea and had caused the current.

...we waited for the day to end and the darkness to settle in.

After a decent surface interval (as it was a deep dive) and some drinks and snacks, we waited for the day to end and the darkness to settle in.

The local workers had carried our new tanks down to the entrance and after another briefing it was time for our main adventure. It’s always very exciting when we get to do something new so you can imagine the atmosphere surrounding us! There was a tiny bit of current pushing us on the decent but nothing like the first dive - whenever you are doing a night dive, whether or not it is a new site or one frequently dived, you always get that feeling that you are in a completely different place and have no idea where you are! The wreck again appeared out of nowhere and we were left free to explore - we found some really cool glowing fish under the stern (still to find out exactly what they were) and lots of moray eels. Half the team decided to explore further inside the wreck while the other preferred to search the exterior. As we were swimming up the slope we had lots of critters to play with - all in all in made for a very exciting afternoon/ evening!

After returning back to the shop, the boys were waiting to get all of the equipment washed and sorted which left us free to go to one of our favorite restaurants just opposite the dive shop - Warung Osin, for some yummy local food and of course Bintangs!

Heading

Saving our seas

Becoming clean

Teaming up with our diving neighbours to clean our underwater world.

Most of the year in Bali, we are blessed with beautiful sunny days and cloudless nights but for about 4 months of the year this isn’t the case. From December to about March, it's known as Bali's rainy season. During that time we will often get beautiful sunny mornings and even some stunning sunsets peeking through the clouds, however it will usually rain at some point every day. This can be for quite a few hours, including powerful thunderstorms; sometimes, the rain is so heavy it causes flash flooding and pulls a lot of the trash which has gathered up in the mountains out into the sea.

Most of the year in Bali, we are blessed with beautiful sunny days and cloudless nights but for about 4 months of the year this isn’t the case...

This February we had quite a few of these flash floods which sadly deposited a lot of rubbish onto some local dive sites. Something had to be done….

Last week, our friends from up the road at the Bali Dive Resort and Spa in Tulamben set up an event for a underwater clean up. The storms had dumped a lot of rubbish on their house reef and so they put out a call for assistance from the local dive community, and divers came from all over to lend a hand. This particular reef is not a spot where we often dive ourselves, but rubbish affecting our beautiful marine environment is an issue that impacts us all.

Bali Dive Cove was able to kit up four volunteers for the effort - there was owner Kadek, our trusty diver and driver Tapik, plus our trainee divemaster Josh and one of our advanced students. Everyone met up at the resort’s house reef in the morning for a briefing on who was going to be cleaning where, and of course a reminder of standard, safe diving practices. The resort provided everyone with air or nitrox; then we were handed gloves and large mesh bags and off we went!

Everyone paired off into buddy teams of two. The reef is bookended by two small rivers, which is where the rubbish had come from, so about half of us went left and half of us went right. The depths and bottom conditions varied: we found plastic sacks and rags tangled around buoys and mooring lines or embedded in the sandy bottom; in other areas, we were carefully untangling plastic fragments from delicate coral in just a couple of metres of water. Within an hour, most teams had gathered one or two large sacks of rubbish and the reef was starting to look its healthy self again. The colours were all from fish and coral, not plastics!

Those of us who had been working at shallower depths were able to dive twice, bringing out full sacks of rubbish and going down again for another go. By the time we all emerged from the water, we were a little tired but immensely proud: together, we’d cleaned no less than 140kg of trash from the sea!

Together, we’d cleaned no less than 140kg of trash from the sea!

The resort arranged for the waste to be sorted, recycled and disposed of properly, which is not always an easy thing to do in Bali. They then treated all the volunteers to nasi goreng (fried rice) for lunch - a staple of Indonesian life, and satisfying after a big morning in the water!

It’s great to be part of a community that pulls together to protect and look after the beautiful marine environment that we all share.

Good job team. See you again next for the next one - whenever and wherever it’s needed!

What we have been up to...

Becoming a PADI resort, courses, new staff, Divemaster news and more....

Bali Dive cove is now 3 months old! We have been off to a smashing start already having some good friends coming to visit and enjoying some amazing diving! A lot has happened over the last month - here are some of the highlights….

PADI Resort

Bali Dive Cove are proud to announce that we have become a PADI Resort! This means that we are now part of a world class leading organisation which will help us with developing our future in our diving career. We are very excited to continue working with them, using their resources and benefiting from their support systems.

Divemaster

We also wanted to take this opportunity to say a HUGE congratulations to our Divemaster Trainee Josh who has just finished his PADI DM course with us! He has been a fantastic candidate, showing great development with his diving and theoretical skills. He shows great passion for the underwater world and already a great understanding of the diving industry. He has decided that he will continue his education to complete his instructor course! We wish him all the best - and who knows - maybe one day he will be teaching you!!

HUGE congratulations to our Divemaster Trainee Josh who has just finished his PADI Divemaster course

EFR Courses

Last week we decided to refresh some of our Emergency first response skills. Made, Wayan, Kadek, Gede and Nengah worked hard revisiting how to perform CPR, apply bandaging, learning how to control serious bleeding and more. After creating rescusie sally (which we popped her head twice!) you can imagine the fun we had whilst learning!!

Fun dives

We also had some great recent dives with Justyna, Daniel, Sean, Denise and Karl. We got very lucky with great visibility, seeing hundreds of Bump head parrot fish on our early morning dives, big turtles on the Pyramids in Amed and some amazing sunrises. We also enjoyed some beautiful dives on Tulamben drop off, coral gardens, Japanese shipwreck, Emerald and Batu Kelebit.

Courses

After some of his friends enjoyed some diving with us a few months ago, Bram decided to get in touch with us to start his diving adventure :D Over the weekend he arrived and completed his PADI Open Water course with us. He was extremely relaxed and took to the diving with ease - everytime we turned around to check on him he had the biggest smile looking back at us with 2 ecstatic OK signs - this image with stick with us forever! Karl and Denise started doing a few fun dives on the Liberty and in Amed and enjoyed it so much that Karl decided he wanted to continue and enrol in his PADI advanced course. After some exciting night, deep and navigation dives, Karl decided he wanted to learn a bit more about underwater photography and the creatures and critters around the area and continued with his Photography and Naturalist dives. He now walks home with a new diving ticket which will open up even more of the underwater world to him!

he had the biggest smile looking back at us with 2 ecstatic OK signs - this image with stick with us forever!

Party

Naturally a few weeks can’t go by without a ‘small’ celebration! Kadek had whipped up an amazing meal for us with grilled Balinese chicken and irresistible spring rolls! This was enjoyed with the local liquor - Arak and some gin provided by Justyna and Daniel! Lucky we weren't diving the next day as the fun lasted late into the night!

New staff

We are pleased to introduce our newest team members Made and White. Made has come to us as an already made PADI advanced Open Water diver and over the next few weeks we will be completing his rescue course and beginning his Divemaster training. He has already been joining on many of our fun dives and started learning the art of guiding under the direct supervision of our staff. You can read more about them in an upcoming blog.

Discover Scuba Diving

Last week we had an amazing group from India who came all the way up to Amed from the south for a day of great fun! They had never tried Scuba diving before and with a mixture of snorkelers and divers we had a great day in the Water conquering some fears and achieving amazing new experiences with them! Well done team - hope to see you back for some more soon!

Everything you need to know and more....

...about Clownfish

Clownfish are one of the Scuba divers favourite fish as they are so colourful and also make for a stunning photo! There are 28 known species of Clownfish in the world. They are also referred to as Anemonefish, or False Anemonefish and were made famous from the Pixar Animation Studios movie ‘finding Nemo’. Luckily for us, they are not on the list on endangered species!

What is a Clownfish?

Clownfish are small reef fish which are normally between 5 and 12 cm long (2-5 inches). They are brightly coloured usually orange with three white stripes but this can vary between species. They also appear in pink, yellow, red, brown and black.

Where do they live?

They are mainly found around the Indian and Pacific Oceans, in warm waters and near coral reefs. They are also found in Australia and Japan. You will always find Clownfish living in a Sea Anemone (or very nearby) which is a bottom dwelling creature that they inhabit.

Why do Clown fish always live in anemones?

Of over 1,000 species of anemone in the world, the Clownfish is only able to live in 10 of them. Both the anemone and the Clownfish benefit from living together. The Clownfish eat the leftover food from the anemone, such as bits of fish. They also remove the dead tentacles from the anemone and help to increase the circulation of water around it. This helps to oxidise it and make more food available. The Clownfish uses the venomous tentacles of the anemone too, as protection from predators.

Why doesn't the Anemone sting them?

The Clownfish have immunity to the venom of the Anemone through a layer of mucus covering their bodies which protects them. For some species, they are born with this and with others, they develop this over time by slowly exposing certain areas of their body again and again to the tentacles to later build up this protective layer. Initially they will be stung but over time they become immune.

What do they eat?

Clownfish eat meat and plants. They will eat the leftover fish from the anemone and also the dead tentacles. They also eat different types of algae, small crustaceans and plankton.

What eats Clownfish?

They are prayed on by larger fish such as eels and sharks.

Their habitat.

Clownfish will live in small family groups. They consist of one female, and the rest are male. The female is the dominant fish of the group. Here is where is gets interesting…. if the female dies, the next largest, more dominant male will have a sex change into a female. He will then become the new leader of the group. Once they change into a female, they can’t change back into a male.

if the female clownfish dies, the next largest, more dominant male will have a sex change into a female.

By nature, they are very territorial and aggressive. If you get too close they will try to bite divers and other fish, especially if there are eggs involved. Another Interesting fact is that Clownfish can communicate with each other by making clicking and popping noises.

How do Clownfish mate?

They are hermaphrodites which means they they are born with both male and female sex organs. All Clownfish start their lives as males.

When they want to reproduce, it will be the males job to prepare an area near the anemone, either a stone or some drifting objects such as wood. He will clean the area and then proceed to court the female with a display of extended fins, chasing and sometimes biting. He will eventually chase her to the nest and then she will decide if it is ready for the spawn.

All Clownfish start their lives as males.

When she is happy with the area, she will lay a few hundred to a thousand eggs, depending on the species which are between three and four mm long. Fascinatingly, they only lay their eggs when there is a full moon! The male will then swim over the eggs, releasing sperm to fertilise them. The female will then leave the eggs and the male will do most of the baby sitting. He will keep the eggs oxidized, keep predators away and will eat any eggs which are damaged or infertile.

Fascinatingly, clownfish will only lay their eggs when there is a full moon!

Journey of a baby Clownfish

The eggs will take between six and ten days to develop and will hatch a few hours after dusk, a huge number of eggs will be hatched. When they are born, they will be barley a centimetre long. They will float away and spend roughly ten days drifting. They will use the oceanic currents to migrate to new places, even travelling 250 miles or more!

At the beginning, they will be a clear or transparent and they will develop their famous bright colours as they grow. They will then settle to the reef floor and search for a host anemone. When they find one, they will stay inside the anemone until they are larger, when they will go out to find food. They normally don’t go further than a few meters from the anemone.

In the wild, Clownfish can live up 10 ten years!

My Rescue Diver

Read this great review written by Iris who decided she wanted to learn how to help others and improve her own diving skills! Thanks Iris!

"The most amazing learning experiences I’ve had throughout my PADI adventures so far and can highly recommend the experience.. so far the most challenging of all the courses but has the highest rewards as it really tests your water experience"

That's the quote I read on the Bali Dive Cove Blog when I was looking for a dive school in Amed for my Rescue Diver. I read and heard similar ones before, well, there must be some truth in it ... So I decided to do it: I´ll become a Rescue Diver!

I took the EFR already back in Germany, so I had "just" the Rescue Diver Manual, 2-3 days of practice and the Final Exam ahead of me Let's go reading! I started to read the Rescue Diver Manual to get familiar with the hazards of Scuba Diving, how to prevent them and how to act, if they happen. A lot of it I knew already from the PADI Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Nitrox Diver and Deep Diver, a lot was more detailed and I learned a lot more new, very helpful things to help myself and others.

My Instructor Jordan and I went over the quizzes and she explained everything very patiently, when I had questions or was unsure. English lessons included for free!

Let the practice begin! Jordan showed me every step of the scenario and we practiced before I had to do it by myself. Lucky for us, Dive Master in Training, Tom (thank you, Tom!), was so nice to play my poor victim A.K.A ‘Nemo’.

In two days I had the chance to be every kids hero and find Nemo, and also rescue him. We practiced search patterns to find our lost friend, I learned how to calm stressed divers, bring unresponsive divers to the surface, be aware of the danger zone next to panicking divers and still help them and how to tow tired divers to the shore.

Once we practiced bringing our diver to the shore and after calling for help, I practiced how to give proper CPR and Emergency Oxygen to patient Nemo. Quite a lot for two days and I was sooo hungry afterwards! (Luckily there was a tasty lunch waiting for me!) But I could not have been happier, after finishing the Final Exam and my Emergency Action Plan and be finally certified as a Rescue Diver!

Most challenging and most rewarding course so far, quite some work and sooo much fun. I´m very happy I picked Jordan for my Rescue Diver Course and decided to stick a bit longer at The Cove: now, I´m going to be a Divemaster!

Despite the serious topic, Jordan managed to make the course also a lot of fun and having her and Tom by my side made me calm in every situation, so I could stick to the Rescue Rule

"Stop, breathe, think, act!"

Read more about the PADI Rescue Diver Course here

Book now

News from the cove issue #10

We have had some great weeks at the end of April/ beginning of May. We were lucky enough to have a great educational talk on Corals, some excellent courses and of course - fab diving!

Coral Biology Talk

We were honored to have Beto who was diving with us for a few days come and present for us a talk about Coral Biology at Bali Dive Cove. His 1 hour presentation educated us and a few other guests about how coral grows, different types, what its made from and also the threats which are affecting corals and reefs worldwide. We also learnt about ways in which we can make small steps to help protect our Oceans and beautiful Corals - thanks Beto! He also got some fab underwater photos while Muck diving, with his Olympus TG5.

Rescue Diver Course

Congratulations to Iris on becoming a PADI Rescue Diver! Iris had already completed her CPR and First aid course back home in Germany and was eager to learn how to transfer those skills to the water. This 2 day course was certainly hard work but also very worth it!

Even from the first demonstrations, Iris was able to efficiently rescue tired and panicked divers both on the surface and underwater. We also spent a lot of time learning how to deliver effective rescue breaths to non breathing patients while bringing them into shore.

We hope that she will never have to use her rescue skills in real life but Iris is now a competent Rescue Diver!

Have a look here at what Iris had to say about her course.

Discover Scuba Divers

We have been thrilled to have so many people coming to the Cove to discover the beautiful underwater world! Congratulations to Felix, Michael, Clement, Karl, Christina, Serina, Jamie, Rich, Michael and Joe for completing your Discover Scuba Diving experiences with us! All of you took to scuba diving with great enthusiasm! We are sure we will see some of you again soon to complete your PADI Open Water Courses!

'Cannot speak highly enough of these guys and girls and wish them every success in life. Thanks for everything and I hope to be back again soon for my next dive experience!' - Rich Tripadvisor

'Upon recommandation of 2 people in our hotel we visit Bali dive cove. I was very scared in the beginning because is was my first time. The dive location was the US marine wreck. J made me very comfortable, because she first did an excellent briefing and took me by the hand. Step by step a lot further into the deep water. IT was amazing! I enjoyed extremely. The friendly smile of Iris makes us relax. Many thanks for this beautiful day and experience. You people are the best! - Tripadvisor

Refresher Course

We also had Madi coming through our doors, together with dive buddies Karl and Christina who were completing their Discover Scuba Diving program, Madi, who hadn't dived in a while took part in a Refresher course. All aspects of diving came back to her really fast and she enjoyed two wonderful dives on the Liberty Wreck.

Read more about the fantastic diving on the USAT Liberty.

Fun Divers

In the last weeks we saw Jack and Lauren, Prescilla, Tiffen, Beto and Dean who are all already certified divers who enjoyed some amazing dives around Amed and Tulamben.

Here are some of the fantastic pics taken by Beto on his Muck Dives.

'I went to Amed with no expectations and I found Bali Dive Cove as the best dive center I could spend my time with. Since the very beginning I felt a very nice vibe. The way the treat their guests is perfect! No rush, long dives and a lot of personal attention from the crew. You will really feel like another part of the team.

Regarding to the diving, the crew has a very deep knowledge of the dive sites and the surrounding marine life. They are incredibly good in spotting such a small creatures!! But what I probably appreciated the most was to have no rush even between the dives. If I have to go back to Amed I will totally repeat with Bali Dive Cove.

Thank you very much for everything guys!' - Beto, Tripadvisor

We have had a fantastic and busy couple of weeks and are super excited for the upcoming high season! Here is a Sunrise photo taken from the Beach right in front of Bali Dive Cove!

Divemaster diaries - part 1

Meet Divemaster candidate number 5! We started day 1 off with his PADI Rescue diver course....

Tom Is originally from London in the Uk but has been travelling around for quite a few years already. He started diving in 2015 with his PADI Open water course in Fiji. After a few years of sucking the scuba tanks Tom discovered the world of free diving and started moving his passion of the underwater world in a different direction. He is now a free diving instructor and wanted to advance his scuba diving abilities to become a PADI Divemaster.

Day 1.

Today Tom takes part in the first part of his training - the PADI Rescue diver course! He has already completed his first aid training through his freediving courses.

After already finishing the online learning for the rescue course before his arrival, we started straight away with testing this knowledge and briefing all of the in-water activities. We also had Jim and Kate joining us to refresh their rescue skills and act as our victims!

First test was the buddy check! Tom learnt quite quickly to make sure his air is turned on!

Which one of you turned off my air!!

We start with a self assessment in the water making sure that you are able to ‘rescue yourself’ before other people! After we were happy Tom can look after himself we started learning about tired and panicked divers and how to react correctly to both and bring them to safety.

Next we went over how to rescue our victims when we aren’t already in the water. Practicing wading, shore and boat assists. Then towing our victims to safety.

The final part of today’s rescues were learning how to rescue someone who is having problems under the water. Our victims were panicked, out of air and overexerted (lucky not all at the same time!!).

After the intense water session we headed back to the shop for some food and refreshments while debriefing what had happened in the water. When the debriefing was over we left Tom alone for a while with the Rescue diver final written exam.

Of course he passed with flying colours! Now Tom has some homework to complete an emergency action plan and we will see him tomorrow for more excitement!!

Divemaster Diaries part 2

Finishing off the Rescue course and the beginning of the PADI Divemaster.

Tom showing off his new PADI bag!

Day 2 of training and we are in the classroom practicing some of the in water exercises on dry land.

Our water sessions started with learning how to search for missing divers. We started with learning the different search techniques then followed by a mini scenario where we sent off two of our ‘victims’ to go and get lost and Tom and his other buddy Kate had to go and find them! Using their recently learnt compass skills and new techniques they efficiently found their friends!

Next we had to learn what to do if the divers you just found would be unfortunately unresponsive. We learnt techniques of how to lift properly to the surface and getting them positive when they were there.

Next up was leaning how to deliver rescue breaths to an unresponsive diver - one of the most valuable skills you can learn as a rescuer. This exercise (known as rescue excessive 7) takes the longest to master and needs practice! Luckily we had plenty of victims so we had lots of practice with and without pocket masks.

After we bought the victim to the shallows we have to learn how to properly exit them. This is definitely the funniest part of the course as you get very close to your dive buddies!

The last part of the water sessions was pulling everything together in the final exercise and scenarios to make it as real as possible and put all of toms skills to the test!

‘’The most amazing learning experiences I’ve had through out my PADI adventures so far and can highly recommend the experience.. so far the most challenging of all the courses but has the highest rewards as it really tests your water experience. My instructor Jay was the best and so professional and very clear with me as I found some of the activates hard at first but they made me feel so at ease with the water and all the exercises. ‘’

Tom managed to remain very calm and applied everything he learned in his training with ease!

• [x] Step 1 - Rescue - complete!

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Day 3 and 4

Today we started really early in the classroom going over the first chapters of the Divemaster manual. This isn’t just going over answers it’s more of a discussion with Tom and his Instructor.

After that Tom was put to works! Helping the team get equipment fitted and organising tanks etc for our divers. Today Tom is coming along on an Open Water Course to observe and go over his basic skills again. Even though he dives a lot, he doesn’t practice the skills daily!

The course started off in the classroom where we watched some videos and went over the knowledge reviews and quizzes for the course. We had great water conditions, the sun was shining and it was warm! We went through 4 out of the 5 confined sessions with the student Linda. It was a great opportunity for Tom to see all of the skills before his skills circuit session.

He got to observe how we handle problems underwater and what some of the common student issues can be.

When coming back to the shop, we had some lunch and a debriefing then it was back to the books for Tom!

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Day 4 brings us a something new, today Tom will be assisting Wayan in some guided diving. Once Tom is certified as a Divemaster one of his main roles will be guiding already certified divers.

Geert who is already an advanced diver and also a keen photographer is going to one of Amed’s famous muck diving sites to find some weird and wonderful things!

Muck diving is definitely one of the hardest dives to guide because you really have to find some weird and wonderful things!

They headed to Melasti for their dives. First up was the equipment set up which Tom helped with and then listening intensely to how a proper briefing is given as this is an important part of diving. He learnt where the emergency equipment was so he would be prepared in case something happened.

Next up in the training are the swims and skills circuit!

My Divemaster Course - week one

After successfully completing her Rescue diver course Iris has decided to become a PADI Divemaster - here is how week one went!

So, I happily decided to go for the PADI Divemaster, after I finished my PADI Rescue Diver Course at Bali Dive Cove. You want to know, how this one was? Read my previous post about my PADI Rescue Diver Course here.

I´m looking forward to 274 pages of reading the Divemaster Manual, watching videos, going through knowledge reviews with my Instructor and 2 final exams I also have to complete stamina exercises in the water, workshops, skill circuit, mapping a dive site, learning how to supervise dives and assist in courses, much more and of course DIVING ❤

Sounds a lot, but I´ll take my time and do the course over the next 4 weeks. I don´t want just to be certified, I want to be ready for my coworkers, Instructors and of course my future guests!

[Divemasters] support the instructor to make their jobs easier and give them more time to take care of students. They listen and pay attention, take care and organize to make everyone feel great. That´s EXACTLY what I want to do!

Let´s start reading! I suddenly catch myself grinning like a 'Honigkuchenpferd' (that´s the German version of the Cheshire cat) as I read chapter 1. The Divemasters in the book help their guests with little stuff and make their days! They support the instructor to make their jobs easier and give them more time to take care of students. They listen and pay attention, take care and organize to make everyone feel great. That´s EXACTLY what I want to do! Of course, it´s going to take some time to be able to anticipate the needs of guests and get used to the instructors way to do everything and habits, but I´ll get there!

Before I can assist, I have to finish chapter 1-5 and talk through them with Jordan. I enjoy our sessions very much, she´s a very good mentor. Patient, very helpful and fun. I can learn a lot from her 10 year experience and she also takes my questions, thoughts, concerns, ideas and celebrations about baby steps serious.

Meanwhile I can join my very first muck dive and fall in love with nudibranchs (what´s that, you ask? Amazing creatures! (Check them out here) I also participated in Fun Dives and watching Discover Scuba Divers taking their first breaths under water. A wonderful feeling to see someone exploring a whole new world! And of course, being myself and also a Divemaster in Training, I try to help with small stuff, like hair ties and head bands, tea and coffee with and without milk and sugar, taking sunrise pictures , and try to make the day even more enjoyable.

Here is an Ornate ghost pipefish we saw while muck diving taken by Beto!

One of my sunrise pictures from the USAT Liberty in Tulamben.

Let´s go swimming! To be a PADI Divemaster I have to be in a reasonable shape and prove my stamina. We´re going for a swim. And be “we”, I mean “I”, because Jordan has to take my times and of course, cheer me on, as I swim and snorkel swim until my legs burn and my heart pounds. Even more, when I hear my surprisingly good results. After the swim, I took a relaxing 15 minute floating/water threading and enjoyed my very well earned every day lunch, mie goreng (fried noodles), my favorite choice, and then, a wonderful nap….

See you next week for more!

My Divemaster Course, week two

Iris' second entry about her Divemaster training. Well into her training by now, this is what she has been up to!

My second week begins and I´m reading and reading 115 pages to get the 5 chapters in my head. For me writing helps to remember, so I go shopping, office supplies it is! :-D It´s so much interesting stuff to study and I love talking about it with Jordan, discuss, think, understand and learn.

And of course I get to dive! I ask myself why sunrises have to be so early, but as soon as I see the pink clouds over our wonderful Indian Ocean, Mount Rinjani on Lombok in the background and the rays of sunshine in wonderful colors, the reflection in the waves, as the sun rises and we go down, I am wide awake and sooo happy I got up at this time. SO worth it EVERYTIME! As a plus I get Banana Pancakes between the dives and a nap after the second one.

After I finished the knowledge review of chapter 5, I´m allowed to assist in PADI Courses. I join the Instructors in the Discover Scuba Dives, make sure that one guest doesn´t get to shallow and feel like a very happy watchdog as I stay above him to be ready if he´s ascending accidently. The next guests likes to stroll around, so I try to keep him with the group, showing him on my computer how deep we are to get him a feeling of depths. And he sticks to the group after this – yes!

As the guests discover Scuba, I discover my love for the adorable Pufferfish <3 and learn, that they can just “puff” 9 times in their life, because it´s so exhausting! So better give them space and admire them from a safe distance.

Lucky us, our guest Beto, who works in Coral Conservations gives us a presentation about our Oceans, especially corals, what they do for us and what we can do for them. Did you know, that most sunscreens are killing the corals? I think I´ll do the PADI Specialty Course Project AWARE to learn more about how I can protect our environment.

After finally finishing chapter 8, I take the first exam and get a good result. Studying pays off ☺ I start reading chapter 9 of the Divemaster Manual, the longest and for me most challenging one, because it´s a lot of physics, medical stuff and technics. My lovely Mentor literally draws pictures for me, so I understand everything. And I have my Study Buddy Gede on my side, studying together is much better and we can enjoy Burgers together, as soon as we are done. Once more I´m so glad I picked Bali Dive Cove for my Divemaster Training!

And then it´s the day: we have two guests and one consumes his air faster, so when he´s at 100 Bar the Divemaster tells me to take him for the way back. We buddy up, wave Goodbye to the others and turn to see the other side of the Liberty Wreck, our most famous dive site. Slowly we make our way back, explore within our air limits, watch a school of 16 Bumphead Parrotfish at our safety stop and head back to the shore. I´m sooo happy and proud, when we ascent exactly in front of our place at the shore – and honestly I´m also relieved I found the way for the first time all by myself! (Just turn right 10 kicks after the seven stones with the orange anemone and the Clark´s Clownfish, pretty easy… ☺ ).

Thinking of becoming a PADI Divemaster? Click here for more information.

News from the Cove - Issue #2

The latest from Bali Dive Cove

Ciao for now

Bali Dive Cove say a temporary goodbye to owner Wayan and his fiance as they go and visit England for a few weeks. The shop is left in the capable hands of Kadek and Gede while they are gone!

Introduction to Scuba

Huge congratulations to Lucile who completed her Discover Scuba Diving experience with us on Monday. We took her to Tulamben to explore the famous USAT Liberty shipwreck. She was an absolute natural in the water and we hope that one day Lucile will continue her diving adventure and become an Open Water diver! Another star we had through our door was Nam who is our first diver from Vietnam! He was super excited about trying Scuba Diving. Nam had driven all the way up from Sanur to Amed for his experience! He was very confident in the water and after a bit of time at the beginning to work on control and relaxed breathing he was away like a fish enjoying what Amed has to offer! Nam is very keen to try Scuba diving again - we hope so too!

Coming back for more

We also saw the return of Dita from Jakarta who discovered what the underwater world was like at Night, we saw all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures! She then dived again on her favorite spot - the pyramids. We hope to see you back again soon Dita!

Night dives, spanish dancers and plenty of awesome memories!

Ben and Laura from Germany were with us for quite a few days last week. They enjoyed three fabulous days diving in Amed and Tulamben. The highlight of the dives was seeing the BIGGEST Spanish dancer (largest Nudibranch in the world!) on our night dive! We also enjoyed many hours together enjoying the view of Mount Agung from our sofas while discovering the taste of the local liquor - Araq. It was great to have you guys here - check out a short video of your night dive.

welcome Marisa and Klaus

On Tuesday we welcomed Marisa and Klaus to Bali Dive cove for 2 dives in Amed. They enjoyed the beauty of Amed Pyramids and Jemeluk drop off. Tomorrow they will wake up at the crack of dawn to witness a stunning sunrise and dive with the Bump Head parrot fish at the Liberty Wreck in Tulamben. We hope you enjoy it guys!

EFR cards

The certification cards for the Emergency First Responder course have finally arrived which is exciting - we know the post here is a bit temperamental so we are excited that something from Australia (PADI’s head office) has finally arrived!

News from the Cove - Issue #3

Events from the last few weeks

Whilst Wayan is still enjoying the surprisingly sunny weather in England, here in Bali we have been busy busy moving into our high season! Lots of happy fun divers, new PADI Open Water divers and a few first time experiences breathing underwater! We also enjoyed our Holy Galungan and Kuningan days.

Galungan and Kuningan.

On the 30th of May we celebrated one of Bali's most important ceremonies called Galungan. On this day, our ancestral spirits visit our homes. It is marked by a praying in the Temples in our homes and then in the big family temple. The ancestors are here for 10 days and then on June 9th they leave again and we pray again in the home and family temple. The next Galungan and Kuningan will be in December.

New Open Water Diver!

Congratulations to Zoe who completed her PADI Open Water course with us this week. She took to the water like a fish. Videos and confined were completed on day 1, then day 2 we enjoyed two shore dives in Amed putting all that we had learnt from day 1 into practice! After the dives Zoe passed the final exam with flying colours. The final day was an early start. Being picked up at 5:15 (yes in the morning!) to witness the beautiful sunrise at Tulamben followed by 2 awesome dives on the Liberty. It was a great way to end a perfect course!

Discover Scuba diving

Well done to Adrien, Elisabert, Sophia, Simone and Luca on Discovering the underwater world. They all enjoyed diving the famous shipwreck of the Liberty with the team. Lots of fantastic fish were seen and 5 VERY happy people who have experienced a new hobby! We hope to see you all again for your PADI Open Water Courses!

Fun and deep dives around Amed and Tulamben

We had some awesome dives with Marisa, klaus, Brett and Damien. Everyone experienced the beauty of the Liberty, some as early morning sunrise dives and others at a bit more of a relaxed time! We had some beautiful drift dives, reef dives, wall dives with heaps of life and beautiful corals. Our friends from Pulau weh Karina and Nicolas come to visit. Nicolas completed his exciting Deep Adventure dive on Tulamben Drop off with buddy Karina. Good luck for the rest of your course Nicolas! We also had Manuel, Luca, Matthew and Olga diving from sunrise to sunset! Two dives on the liberty at the crack of dawn and a Night dive just after sunset.

News from the cove issue #4

Weddings, Families, Nusa Penida trips and Mantas!

We are back in business! ...Well we didn’t really go anywhere but the last couple of months we have been SUPER busy!

Here is what we have been up to…..

Wedding

We are so excited to finally announce that Wayan has married his fiancé Georgina! The wedding was a traditional Balinese celebration and we will be writing another blog in the upcoming weeks to fill you in with all of the questions you may have about Balinese weddings! The ceremonies took place over a span of 10 days from the 19th - 28th October of which 5 of these days were public events.

After the weeks were over, they decided they needed a bit of a break and so headed over to Islands Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan to enjoy some downtime before Wayan returns to work. (Of course they enjoyed some dives over there too!)

New divers

A huge congratulations to Bali Dive Coves new Open Water divers - Elisa, Laura, Lily W and Lily K! Everyone did fantastically and we are excited to send the off into the World's oceans! We also would like to say congratulations to Olly on completing his Advanced Open Water course with us this week - we practiced a lot with currents as he is now heading over to Komodo to put his skills into practice.

Special Guests

For the month of October and November we were honoured that so many of Georgina and Wayans (new) family and friends could make it over for the celebrations.

The first of the guests to arrive were Martin, Emma and the stormtrooper! Martin is the guy who is responsible for introducing the world of professional diving at his Dive Center, Buddies Dive Cove in Malta (notice a similarity in the name!?). Then we had Paul F (and wife Wulan) Jacky, Tash, Paul, Claire, Nick and Lily joining us also from the Malta crew! They all enjoyed the beauty of Amed, Nusa Penida and Tulamben.

Next to arrive were all of Georgina’s family - Parents, brothers and sisters, aunties, uncles, cousins, god parents and good friends - the lot! They graced us with their presence for 2 weeks in our sunny paradise!

Wayans new Mother and Brother in law (Lucinda and Tom) enjoyed some great dives with him in Amed and Nusa Penida! It’s not their first time diving in Bali and it won’t be their last!!

We also had best friends Drew, Terry, Helena and Milly over!

Youngest diver, DSD’s and Refreshers

Also in October we saw our youngest diver, 9 year old Phoebe come through our doors! Together with Mum, Sarah and friend Jess (who were part of the wedding party) they decided they wanted to take the plunge in the Bubblemaker and Discover Scuba Diving program.

After a theory session at the Cove, we donned the gear and took our first breaths together underwater! All girls did amazingly and they promised us they would be back to complete their Open Water certifications one day! Later that day, uncle Teddy, together with friends Will and Jesse refreshed their diving skills after a few years of not diving. The next day Lily G also decided she had to give this diving thing a go and successfully completed her DSD experience on the USAT Liberty! Well done guys - great dives all round!

Snorkelling

Scuba diving isn’t always for everyone. Maybe it’s a medical condition which doesn’t allow it or you might be happier staying on the surface enjoying the abundance of marine life! We had a great few days with John, Jo, Madison, Chris, Sandra, Bex and Georgie discovering the stunning reefs of Amed and Nusa Penida. We saw plenty of nemos, trumpet fish, Johns favourite - parrot fish (in facts Wayans job whenever John isn't in Bali is to baby sit the Parrotfish to make sure they are still there for next time!) schools of mackerel, beautiful butterfly fish and plenty more!

Manta rays

We ran 2 very successful trips over to the neighbouring island of Nusa Penida. It is here, at a dive spot called Manta Point which is the only place in Bali to spot the magical Manta Rays. reaching up to lengths of 4-6m they are truly magnificent! Both trips were extremely lucky to have mantas swimming all around them the entire dive!

Refresher and Discover Scuba Diving

This week we had Linda and Daniel come over to us from Australia, Linda is an already certified diver but it had been a few years since she was last in the Water. Daniel had taken part in a few Discover Scuba Diving experiences before and wanted to visit our world once more! They took part in the Refresher and DSD program starting in the sheltered bay of Jemeluk and the next day they both got up at the crack of dawn to discover the beauty of the USAT Liberty at Sunrise!

The Latest from Amed :)

Birthdays, festivals, Courses and more!

Rainy season is coming to an end now in Amed, we are still having a few wet afternoons but generally the skies are blue and the waters are WARM! We have had a good ‘low season’ and here is what we have been up to more recently!

Birthdays Birthdays Birthdays!

Unfortunately we were not able to post about this sooner due to technical issues (Jordan broke the laptop…) but on the 31st Jan/ 1st February Bali Dive Cove turned 1 year old!

On the 31st January 2018, we had our big Opening ceremony. Celebrated with lots of good food (and beer!). On the 1st February 2018 we had our first customer!

So what did we do to celebrate in 2019? On the 31st we closed up shop and headed over to Pura Lempuyang Temple for a big ceremony which is running for a few months for all the Hindus in Bali.

It takes about 2 hours to hike up 1,750 steps of one of the most sacred natural points in Bali which lies at 1,100 meters above sea level. We cheated a little bit and got the ngojek (motorbike taxi!) Which bought is to the first and biggest temple where you walk up the steps carved like dragons to see hundreds of stunning offerings and decorations. Along with thousands others, this is where we prayed first.

After this we began our ascent to the top! After a morning of thunderstorms and heavy rain, we were really lucky that it had cleared up when we arrived. It was sunny but also not too hot . We prayed twice more, once at the top and once halfway up. The views that we got on our ascent were absolutely stunning and made every step worth it! At the top, Kadek collected some holy water from the priest which we will use for the daily smaller rituals at the shop.

On the 1st Feb we headed to one of our favorite restaurants, Amed Sea View for a celebration dinner and obligatory Bintangs!

This month we have already celebrated Kadek and Wayans Birthdays! Cake and beers were enjoyed on both occasions!

Nyepi Day and Ogoh Ogoh

On March 7th it was the Balinese new year called Nyepi also known as the Balinese silent day. There is no road traffic, no working, no WIFI, no lights and minimal noise for 24 hours. Everyone in Bali must stay in their homes/ hotels for the duration. Even the airport is closed for this occasion. Needless to say the Dive shop was closed!

On the eve of Nyepi there is a procession on the streets throughout Bali of statues called Ogoh Ogoh which are made by each village. The whole procession including the ceremony before/after is designed to purify the earth of bad spirits emitted by living beings on the earth - mainly human activities. The following day of minimal activity is like a reset button for the world.

PADI Courses

We would like to say a huge congratulations to Sofia, Jon and Chantal on completing their recent PADI courses. Jon is our newest Open Water Diver. He flew through the course showing great initiative and fantastic understanding of the Underwater world. Sofia and Chantal are now Advanced Open Water divers after experiencing the excitement of Deep and Wreck dives with Instructor Jim. They were also learning how to navigate underwater while working on buoyancy control and how to dive in Currents. The girls both also very much enjoyed their night dives! Sofia enjoyed some of these dives with dive buddy Elliot from Switzerland. Chantal also completed her Enriched Air Diver course so can now stay deeper for Longer!!

Introduction to Scuba Diving and Refresher courses.

On Sunday we had Manuel and Anne taking part in a Discover Scuba diving experience. Manuel had tried diving before but this was the first time for Anna. After a detailed briefing at the Center. They headed over to the USAT Liberty where they went over some basic exercises and then went for a dive, practicing positioning and buoyancy control while enjoying the beautiful fish and corals. After a tea and coffee break, they headed back to the Ocean this time really getting to have a look at the underwater shipwreck.

On Monday we had Oleg who had completed his open water course 2 years ago and so we needed to refresh his knowledge and a few skills to get him back in the water! Oleg loves shipwrecks and was super excited to see the Liberty and what she had to offer!

They were really lucky and saw sharks, turtles, stingrays and more!!

Trip Advisor

We are stoked that we have made it to the top 10 dive Centers in Amed currently with 77 excellent reviews :D We love so much that so many people have taken the time to write such positive things - its a real boost for us! So thank you to you guys for that!

Underwater Clean up

On Saturday many divers from various centers got together to do an underwater clean up. Gede, Kadek and Jim from Bali Dive Cove were among the divers. They split up over various dive sites, equipt with bags and gloves they got busy with the task of cleaning up the ocean! The main thing they were finding was lots of clothes which had been washed down from the mountain from the heavy rains. Gede commented that he picked up more underwear than he owns! All the divers met up for a photo shoot at the end and celebrated their success with a few Bintangs!

Friends from Malta

We also recently had Holly and Joe diving with us. Joe is an Instructor in Malta which is where Jordan did all of her training. They both did their instructor courses with the same Course Director. Holly is an Advanced diver and they both enjoyed a few fab dives in the Amed/ Tulamben area - it was great to have you here guys!

PADI Member forum

On the 12th, the lovely people from PADI came over to Amed to come and update us on what was going on. Including the new online system which is quite exciting for us Dive centers! We met up at Reef Bar for a few hours and a few beers to see what the world of PADI is up to and how we can always improve as a business.

News from the cove - Issue #6

Lightning storms, Eruption, New Advanced divers and great diving!

It’s been another busy and fun week in Amed with Bali Dive Cove! We have been having some seriously epic thunder and lightning storms, a few puffs from the Volcano and some great diving!

Erruption

Mount Agung had apuff the other day - the event was quite minimal but impressive to see!

Advanced Open Water Courses

This week we say a huge congratulations to Francesca, Richard and Jiyan on becoming our newest PADI Advanced Open Water divers!

After a day of fun diving, Francesca decided to further her diving training and signed up for the Advanced course. Together with her Instructor they discovered night diving in Jemeluk bay, advance navigation and buoyancy skills on the house reef and of course explore the depths and secrets of the USAT Liberty on the Deep and Wreck adventure dives! After a total of 7 dives with us, Francesca leaves us as a much better diver!

Richard and Jiyan also came to us to advance their diving. Lead by instructor Jim, they switched out the Night dive for the drift adventure dive to learn more about the currents and the best techniques to dive in them. This dive is best done from a traditional boat called a Jukung as when you drift with the current, the boat will come and pick you up at the end of the dive.

They had a fantastic course and are really looking like ‘advanced divers now’ well done guys!

Fun Divers

Fin, Julia and Ivan have all taken part in fun diving over the last week, Fin did 3 days with us, including 2 days early morning on the Liberty because he loved it so much!

Julia has returned to us after diving with us late 2018 and really NEEDED to see the Kubuship wreck - the one dive we didn’t get to see before!

Ivan is still with us for a few more weeks and has already dived with us in 2018. He plans to leave no dive site unexplored by the time he leaves Amed!

Edwin and Cor from Holland also enjoyed the beauty of the Liberty as a sunrise dive. They were super lucky on their dives and saw, a HUGE turtle, Peacock mantis shrimp, Nemo, nudibrances, big groupers, Bumphead parrot fish and were lucky to see a nice big napoleon wrasse swimming past.

Refresher

Meryl, who is a friend of Ivan decided to get back in the water after more than 20 years of not diving! Needless to say there was a lot of information to go through to refresh her knowledge and skills. After just a few minutes in the water everything came back to Meryl and she was a fish once more!

See you next week for more!

News from the Cove - issue #7

Recently we have had really great water conditions and sunny sunny days! We have been pleasantly busy and have made some new Videos!

Open water courses

We would like to start this weeks blog with a huge congratulations to our newest open water divers, Gabriele, Wenyi and David

Gabriele from Denmark has previously some snorkelling and was ready to take the next adventure! She signed up for the PADI Open Water Course with Instructor Jim to get her certification. They started out on the house reef just outside of the cove but after finding quite a bit of current they came back for an early lunch and then smashed all the skills later once the current had calmed down! The second day they enjoyed dives in Jemeluk bay where they put into practice all the skills they had learnt the day before. Then on the last day they woke up at the crack of dawn to enjoy the sunrise while descending down onto the USAT Liberty ship wreck! Congrats Gabriele, we can’t wait to have you back again!

I’ll be diving with them again This place is amazing, cool and totally chilled atmosphere and so are the people running this place. Also they are professional. All the gear is totally up to date, so is the education tool. Everything is included all you can drink water, juice and then there is lunch included as well. They take care of all, bring you to spots on places under the water. They know when to go to avoid the crowd of people.

I’m really happy that I extended my stay to get my open water PADI dive certificate at their place - ask for Jim (check diving with Jim): best instructor ever!

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Wenyi and David had never tried diving but knew they wanted to become Open Water Divers!

They had completed the theory online before they arrived which saved them some time in the classroom. We started straight off on the house reef with the first confined session - they were really motivated and didn’t let the small issue of the mask get in their way! After a bit more practicing they were swimming around with no masks no problem! On day 2 and 3 they completed their open water dives in Jemeluk and on the Liberty. They came out of it looking like fab divers! David may even be returning very soon to do his advanced course!

Cam and Marc

Cam is already a certified diver but his friend Marc had never dived before so they headed it Jemeluk bay with wayan and Jim to take the plunge! For Marc, he started off in the shallow water practicing some skills while cam was being entertained by wayan, they then had 2 great fun dives in the Amed area. They enjoyed it so much that they came back the next day for more! This time they went to check out the Japanese ship wreck and Amed wall Marc is even thinking about completing his open water certification while he is still in Bali - good luck Marc!

Discover scuba diving

We had Marc and Shana from Switzerland taking part in their Discover Scuba diving experience. They had both dived before just a few weeks ago in Australia so this was going to be a great experience for them! We decided to take them to the USAT Liberty and we all enjoyed a fantastic days diving!

Amazing experience and lovely staff We wanted to go scuba diving in amed and chose this little company for our adventure and we sure didnt regret it. They were friendly and professional from the beginning on and we felt welcome all the time. Thanks again for all the great advices and the amazing day we could spend in amed and of course down at the wreck.

Snorkelling trip

On Friday we had Dharani and Karthik from India come all the way up from Nusa Dua to come and see what Amed had to offer! They had a great day with Gede and Tapik in Jemeluk bay working in snorkelling techniques and experiencing all the underwater fishies!! Thanks for joining us guys!

First timer snorkeling My husband and I are beginners in swimming and it was with quite some doubt that we set out on our first snorkeling adventure. We had nothing to fear. Our guides at Bali dive cove were very patient and thorough with their instructions. They checked all the equipments carefully and picked out our sizes. Everything worked liked magic. And the treasures underneath the sea in Amed - breathtaking corals and marine life. A lifetime experience. I felt blessed to have seen such a wonder. Our thanks to the entire team at Bali dive cove.

News From the Cove - Issue #8

What we have been up to over the 2019 Easter holidays!

This issue is dedicated to our recent students.

Check back soon as we will be publishing another issue, which includes a special feature on Muck diving as well as some FAB photos!

Open Water Course

Our busy BUSY week started off with Linda's PADI Open Water course! Linda visited Bali Dive Cove last year, taking part in a discover scuba diving experience. This year she has returned, ready to get certified! Starting off in the classroom with some videos and theory before heading to the ocean. Confined sessions took place just a short walk from the Bali Dive Cove shop.

Once under the water Linda was completely at ease, with any fears of equalisation problems quickly put to rest! Tom, another student at Bali Dive Cove, joined to assist in Linda's training, as part of his own PADI Divemaster course.

Over the next few days they experienced fab dives in both Amed and on the Liberty wreck. It wasn't all work and no play as Linda, who was in beautiful Bali as part of a holiday, also enjoyed some fun dives during her stay.

CONGRATULATIONS to Linda on her diving certification!

After travelling around Bali, Kirsten came to us in Amed to try some diving, along with her dive buddy Sarah (who is already certified). Kirsten had given diving a go a few years previously but had never become certified. After some discussion with the Instructor she decided to go for the Full certification! As usual this included some time in the classroom, learning and testing her knowledge with quizzes and exams. After just a few days Kirsten was able to dive alongside Sarah and explore the USAT Liberty Shipwreck!

CONGRATULATIONS Kirsten!

Wei-Li already had a certification in Freediving, completing this course in Amed, Bali. This time she decided to try a new diving discipline!

Before arriving in Amed, Wei-Li had already completed the PADI e-learning stage, which meant less time in the classroom and more time in the water! Having existing experience in the water meant that Wei-Li was super relaxed, taking to Scuba like a fish to water! After some shallow water sessions in the bay, we enjoyed two great dives in Jemeluk.

On the final day, the Lobert dive was intended as early morning dive… however, somebody slept in a bit! So it was an almost early morning dive.

CONGRATULATIONS Wei-Li, we look forward to having you back!

Another big congratulations to Laura!

Laura already had quite a lot of experience in the water and thought that it was about time to completely immerse herself in the underwater world! With a PADI Openwater certification being the best way forward.

Having already completed the E-learning stage before arriving in Amed, Laura was able to jump straight into the water at Jemeluk bay, competing the confined sessions.

All of these sessions ran really smoothly, with no skill too difficult for Laura to tackle!

The next day we returned to Jemeluk bay, this time we were able to venture further and deeper, exploring the west reef and the Drop off, which is full of sea life.

The final day consisted of an early morning session on the Liberty wreck, watching the sunrise before diving into the water, where we were met by a stunning Bumphead Parrotfish!

CONGRATULATIONS Laura, we hope to see you again soon :)

Rescue Diver and Divemaster course

A Huge, HUGE congratulations to Tom, who became a certified Rescue diver as well as a PADI Divemaster!!

Tom, who lives locally in Amed started his Divemaster training with us. He has also assisted on many dives, such as with Linda's Openwater course. Before the Divemaster training commenced, Tom had to complete an intensive (but fun) 2 day Rescue diver course!

‘’The most amazing learning experiences I’ve had throughout my Padi adventures so far and can highly recommend the experience.. so far the most challenging of all the courses but has the highest rewards as it really tests your water experience. My instructor Jay was the best and so professional and very clear with me as I found some of the activates hard at first but they made me feel so at ease with the water and all the exercises. ‘’

The rescue course tested Tom with (simulated) panicking victims, unconscious divers and stressed buddies. Preparing him for any and every possible scenario. If something could go wrong, we made sure he would be ready for it!

Of course Tom passed with flying colours. He then moved on to start his Divemaster training.

The Divemaster course ran over the next three weeks. With plenty of courses and fun dives happening, Tom was able to practice every aspect of being a Divemaster.

Take a look at the Divemaster Diary entries below to see what Tom has been up to.

Divemaster Diaries Part 1

Divemaster diaries Part 2

Nitrox courses

Finally a big congratulations to Laura, Wei-Li and Tom who also became certified Nitrox divers!

Following an afternoon session in the classroom to learn the theory and then testing out the benefits of Nitrox the following day on their final dives.

Click here to get in contact to book you own course or experience!