When holidaying by the beautiful beaches and emerald blue sea in Bali, one of the activities that you should not miss out on is the water sports. There is a list of exciting water sports and recreation that might interest you. Among the popular ones are surfing, jet skiing, parasailing, water skiing, wakeboarding, banana boating, snorkelling, sea walking and not forgetting, scuba diving.
Bali is blessed to have spectacular marine life environments; boasting more than 2500 fish species and an immense number of coral and invertebrates, making it a world-class snorkelling and diving destination for new and experienced divers from all over the world. From the protected natural reserves of Menjangan, to the shipwreck of the USS Liberty at Tulamben, to the more challenging waters of Nusa Penida, where manta rays and the rare mola mola are sighted regularly, divers are bound to have an exhilarating and great time exploring the vast underwater world surrounding Bali.
Bright orange-coloured beach parasols and friendly dive masters as well as travellers greeted my sister and I when we arrived at our destination. After going through the list of water sports that they offered, filling in some documents, Q&As, payment, and all, we finally got our scuba gears – to our delight! I informed them of my inability to swim and dive but we were assured that even though we do not know how to swim, we can still dive safely, provided that we have a dive master with us at all times. An experienced dive master is assigned to two divers at a time, per dive. In our case, we had two dive masters; one each.
As you guessed, we were eager to start our fun scuba diving experience but, standard procedures require us to attend a briefing on the safety measures and also, mastering the basics of diving – breathing, hand-signals, and knowing the usage and how to use the diving equipments before we began our dive. After that, we got to know our dive masters, Komang and Erik and after several trials and equipment testing, off we went on the boat, along with two other Japanese women, heading towards the wide open sea and the rest I would say, is history and sweet memories. For the record, we went to a depth of 6 to 20, might even be around 40 meters at some point, if I remember clearly. For safety purposes, we were not allowed to go any deeper than that because we are inexperienced divers.
The dive site is located in an area near to Legian/Kuta beach. As we ventured out to sea on our boat, I could clearly see the huge waves hitting the shore on the other far side of the beach; waves which are good for surfing and there are many surfers surfing there too. Fret not, the waves in our area are relatively small and calm however, the ocean current is really strong – no joke! I shall now let you enjoy the photos and watch the video!
Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia 80229
Phone: +62 361 8951106
Email: info@serangansurfing.com
Ummm, just for your info, there's a 24 hour no-dive restriction observed prior to flying to avoid any potential problems with "bends". And you went diving on your last day in Bali. Hmmm…well, you lived to tell the tale!.
Hi Josh, hmm…I didn't know about that nor I was informed about it either. Well, I'm certainly glad nothing bad happened to either of us. We didn't dive deep though, I guess that helps?
Have you noticed how when you open a bottled carbonated beverage, bubbles appear in the fluid and float to the surface? That's because the gas is in solution in the beverage under pressure.
When you dive, gas is forced into your bloodstream under pressure. When you go up the pressure goes down and the gas is released. But if it's released too quickly and/or there's a lot of gas, it forms bubbles. Those bubbles can be dangerous if they form in your joints or in your brain, for example.
Since you only dove once or twice and ascended very slowly–divemaster at your side–you were probably in no danger.
The 24 hour restriction matters for divers like me. I got back from Bali a few weeks ago where I'd dived 16 times in the space of a week and a half. When means I couldn't even drive up into Bali's beautiful mountain district until I'd let a day or pass to outgas.
You had what's called a "resort dive" experience. I'm sure it was perfectly safe. However, if you want to return to Bali fpr a real dive trip, you should get certified. Typically this requires several weeks of classroom/pool work–which you could do back home in Malaysia–basically two evenings a week. Then you could do the "open water" part in the ocean back in Bali. This usually involves around half a dozen dives with an instructor.
If you choose to do that, go to Pemuteran, on the opposite end of Bali from where you were. Sand beaches, little or no waves, little or no current, and beautiful coral reefs to look at.
Before my wife & I chose a dive operator to use in Pemuteran we scouted all the major operators. For our needs we liked Sea Rovers in the Adi Assri Resort. The owner, Paul Turley, taught a friend of ours how to dive on our last trip there (in September), and she was very pleased with the quality of instruction and the quality of the diving.
A lot of places use the local fishermen's boat, but Sea Rovers has a small fleet of Western-style boats, each with powerful twin outboard motors for safety.
The world-class desitnation there is Menjangan. It's only half an hour away from Pemuteran on Paul's fast boats, and the underwater landscape there is outstanding–and my wife & I have dived in a dozen countries, so that's my basis for comparison.
If does take about five hours' drive to get from the airport in Denpasar to Pemuteran. The upside (from my point of view) is that it's quiet and serene, far from the the tourist-filled scene in Kuta and surroundings. And the drive itself is quite beautiful, taking you through the parts of Bali that are most like the old pre-tourist Bali.
Hope this helps. Scuba diving has become my wife's & my main focus for travel since we got certified, and it has been wonderful for us.
Hi, blogwalking here.
Firstly, that's a damn long comment by Ehkzu. Wakakaa.
Well, I haven't done any diving before. The closest I was to dive is at Pulau Mamutik, at Borneo and I only wore goggles. But still can see them fishes though 😀
Happy weekend!
http://www.theokayarms.com
Dear Ehkzu,
Thank you so much for the explanation and for sharing your knowledge. It is an insightful look into diving and its mechanics. You're right, we had a fun/resort dive experience. That's the only dive we're allowed to do without a certified diving license on our backs, provided that we have dive masters accompanying us throughout the dive.
I am planning to get my diver's license and your suggestions are pretty handy. I shall keep them in mind. Once again, thank you so much for your helpful information. Hopefully, I will be successful in getting my certified diver's license, join the scuba diving club and enjoy exploring the vast underwater world like you and your wife. May we share our diving adventures then, or perhaps even go for a diving trip together in the future.
Happy travels and fun diving to you too! 😀
Hi Armstrong,
Thank you for dropping by and leaving a comment here. I believe what you did was snorkelling and it is fun too! My very first snorkelling experience was at Redang Island several years ago. I was able to see beautiful corals, colourful fishes, a pair of mating sea turtles, a huge and several baby blacktip reef sharks, a moray eel and was even chased and nearly bitten by a triggerfish. What a memorable experience it was. 😀
I miss scuba diving! 🙁
Wow, I didn't know you scuba dived!! Come, share your experience with us! 😀