Advanced Open Water course

Tuesday and Wednesday assisting Asmui with AOD for Spencer, Nancy and Olivier. AOD much more fun than OWD since the dives are more advanced and little to do on the theory side, and obviously no Confined Water dives. Tuesday out to Nusa Penida, a very lively crossing indeed, the captain even stopped in the trickiest patch since waves were breaking ahead of the boat, a game of cat and mouse in the heavy sea sprinting between the largest waves. Very large Manta cruising around at the cleaning station and lots of Blue Spotted rays around. A cracking drift dive at SD, once Nancy managed to retrieve the weights situation. Wednesday at Padang Bai, been a little while since I was there, average visibility Ok, but quite a severe thermocline - brrrrrrr ! Night dive in Sanur Channel surprisingly interesting, nearly managed to get a snake wrapped around my neck, not a good idea, and saw a huge Moray Eel hiding down there. Since not that much to see here, curious that the latter has not been seen before now - they don't move around.

AOD much more profitable for the certifications.

Kites !

Some amazing kites being flown down at the bottom beach, need to figure out how to get photo off my old style phone, note to self - need iphone. Super large kites trailing a tail perhaps 1m wide and perhaps 15m long, strong warm prevailing winds off the ocean, these things hang up there for hours - kite competition coming up in August.

That's about the size of it !

Black Magic

Regular day at Tulamben finishing an Open Water course, with 2 very nice dives, second one topped off with a medium sized White Tipped Shark. Returning from a beer in the evening around midnight, ran into a very sinister lights out procession going down the street about appeasing the devil and evil spirits. An all male turnout dressed up in ceremonial garb, carrying an effigy of the devil, with someone inside it wrything around, representing some kind of exorcism/appeasement, related to all the offerings that are put out several times a day for the spirits.

Open Water continues

First Open Water dive from Emily Putri, actually conditions in the channel rather inappropriate for an Open Water student so we did the Open Water Dive 1, and then abandonned Dive 2, so looks like it will be a long day tomorrow at Tulamben.

Next Open Water Course starts

So on with the team-teaching again, new student in this time from New Zealand, no great excitements a regular course and the student nailed the water skills without any difficulty apart from finning technique which was a little odd.

Rather dubious encounter with some "dodgy arabs" so to speak masquerading as landlords, so a hasty exit from Lestari and back to hotel until a more reliable arrangement can be found for accommodation.

Thoroughly deserved !

2 days off after the full on events of recent weeks, taking it quite easy, a few jobs but nothing too demanding.

MSDT Dive Safari Day 3

So for the wreck dives proper, first dive building confidence with many swim-throughs and an exercise to set a line on a circa 12m swim-through, go round again to follow it into the wreck and then finally again to gather it up. Each swim through progressively more tricky.

Extraordinary second dive, starting with a little test of working with the line without a mask, then 2 penetrations into total darkness, first a long tunnel around 15 meters, 5 of us in line going into a space about 2m in diameter, down to the end with torches and then about-turn and wiggle back past each other. Next through a tiny opening into the flooded engine room, a large enclosed space divided into various sections, again explore by torch before coming out. We were then split off for remaining air, and some more amazing swim throughs. The whole thing actually more of a mental test than anything else about keeping the obvious fear instinct under control, for something that was actually pretty scary; 9 months ago all of that would have been unthinkable.

MSDT Dive Safari Day 2

Diving at Tulamben, first dive was part 2 of the deep dive speciality so off to the bow of the wreck leaving a strategically placed drop tank behind. Minni located a spot at about 40m after having put up a huge Manta Ray thus a sharp U turn, then the challenge was to try and drink a bottle of Coca Cola, this is tricky as you have to think about replacing the coke with air, and remember to go back onto the regulator in between. Doing this at that depth (5 bar) used a lot of air and put us into decompression territory, so back to the drop-tank (a spare) using a certain amount of self-control to keep things in perspective, and then shared the tank with Dave S back to the exit point. Second dive is the first part of the wreck speciality, practice with the reel and line to mark a course and then a tighter swim around the wreck starting a few swim throughs, in preparation for wreck penetration tomorrow.

Third dive of the day in the evening, unfortunately the torches not so well organised vis à vis batteries, mine died about half way through so second part of the dive spent trying to figure out who was around, not helped by a buddy (dave) who was deliberately winding me up by turning his torch off and hiding !! Later our group split by a charge from some out of control Japanese divers, all safely home in time for tea and medals.

MSDT Dive Safari Day 1

2 dives at Candidasa (Tepekong & Mimpang), more tricky stuff this as it is Instructors and above again. Some massive drop offs underwater, i.e. underwater cliffs, first dive was a deep dive, went over a shelf and descended to 40m, then playing around with raw eggs and a tomato at 5 bar of pressure ~ curious ! Surprisingly the tomato having shrunk to half it's original size at 40m, regained it's original form at the surface perfectly, not so for the eggs which was a destructive test batting the egg yolks around. The pressure more or less flattened a 1.5l PET water bottle. Second dive along a wall was a little more conventional, however our patience was rewarded with a large White Tipped Shark towards the end of the dive, the clever money reckoned she was pregnant.

MSDT resumes

Back in the classroom for MSDT theory day, videos and discussion around standards before going on safari for the practical dives. Note of caution this evening from PADI at the RIsk Management seminar by Richard Evans talking about diving accidents ~ not nice !

First Open Water Course !

Saturday through Tuesday, team teaching with Nico on my first Open Water course, the idea being an assist to see how it works in practice to get through it effectively without to much spurious effort. Saturday and Sunday mornings going through the course work in the classroom, and Confined Water in the pool in the afternoons. Monday, Open Water #1 & #2 in Sanur Channel and final Open Water #3 & #4 at Tulamben on Tuesday. Tulamben quite difficult to enter due to surf today, yesterday another group had to abort diving at Tulamben due to excessive surf.

MSDT in progress

Thursday in the classroom going through the orientation, planning and theory sections etc, followed by second yoga session this week, now Tuesdays and Thursdays, extremely good for the form, pity never discovered yoga before now.

Friday a bit of an extreme diving day, i.e. instructors and above only ! The crossing across Badung Strait became more and more lively as we went further, huge waves crashing in from the west, this became more and more serious, until eventually we had to abandon Manta Point, the waves were crashing circa 20m up the cliffs. Instead the cut through between Nusa Ceningan and Nusa Penida was our sanctuary, ironically: since the gap funnelled the waves higher !! Shelter of the island on the northern and eastern sides provided some great drift dives at Pink Door, Toyappaca and Jack Point. The crossing back was a lively ride, but nothing like the out run.

EFR Instructor Course complete

Spent Tuesday and Wednesday doing the EFR Instructor course which goes back to back with the IDC course, it all fits together with some crafty logic around the IE, which in turn was dovetailed into the Oxygen Provider Instructor Speciality, as it overlaps, and the O2 speciality is a mandatory requirement in certain countries e.g. Australia, so first instructor speciality is in the can. Next we embark on the most commercial specialities towards MSDT accreditation.

Monday recovery day !

Realised I was absolutely whacked after the last 7 or 8 weeks today. Moved into a room in a villa down the road which is cool, went to the beach and crashed out under a skupat for a couple of hours and then off for a Balinese traditional massage.

IE Weekend

Friday nerves jangling with certain people, all IDC candidates in the area (about 30 from Bali and surrounding islands) congregated for the IE with 2 PADI examiners, one from California and one from New Zealand. Afternoon included the introduction/ orientation and assignments session, followed by 2 exams - PADI standards exam and Dive Theory exam. Evening spent preparing the Confined Water and Knowledge Review presentations.

Saturday started with Confined Water presentations in the pool, straight 5's (top marks) for yours truly - very pleased ! Knowledge Review presentations in the afternoon, also high scoring all round, fingers crossed for Sunday out in the Open Water, it was a full moon Saturday so conditions are not expected to be good.

Sunday conditions turned out to be better than expected, lousy visibility at about 3m, but much better than expected and certainly adequate for the job in hand, we went first on Rescue #7, which was good to get it out of the way and relax, after that the Open Water presentations were a breeze. We are now all therefore PADI Instructors !

Our team, with Minni, Holly and Dave from Crystal,

and with Tim and Steve the PADI Examiers

and the whole crowd of 30 candidates;

IDC comes to a close

So all the course work is done successfully, knowledge reviews, confined water and open water presentations, no huge excitements just got to hope that there are no slip ups for the real thing, which actually is quite easily done. Thursday morning was mock exams which we all got through comfortably, so now it is fingers crossed for the weekend and the external scrutiny by PADI directly for the Instructor's exam !