Blue Season Bali is proud to announce the opening of our latest Bali Diving operation based in the Menjangan National Park in North West Bali.

In conjunction with The Menjangan Hotel Blue Season Bali is operating a full service PADI 5 Star Dive facility, running daily dive programs to the Menjangan National park and beyond.

The Menjangan is a peaceful retreat located in the heart of an unspoiled national park on the stunning north west coast of Bali. It is the largest resort with 382 hectares within the boundaries of the Bali Barat National Park and offers guests the chance to get close to nature and relax in exquisite surroundings. The Menjangan’s elegant accommodation, delicious cuisine and exciting nature-inspired activities combine to offer guests a unique and revitalising holiday experience. Menjangan is a world away from the stresses and strains of daily life; it is a true haven of tranquility in direct contact with nature.

The Menjangan offers a unique opportunity to dive some of the countries best wall diving along with an exceptional shore dive that offers Mandarin fish as the highlight. Come and join us for some world class diving.

If you would like more information about diving with Blue Season Bali at the Menjangan then please contact us by email – menjangan@blueseasonbali.com or you can see our new website – www.menjangan-diving.com

Here I have a story that I would like to share with everyone. This something that happened to me during my IDC with course director Thomas Barret aka Bazz.

I really had a hard time during my idc as my theory bit is bad ( honestly it sucked really bad ). Although my fellow power rangers in my group ( aka fellow candidates ) helped me out tons, but I was still very weak.

Then bazz ( CD Thomas Barrett ) had a heart to heart talk, and mentioned the online theory by PADI. I thought that it might help a bit so took his advice and did it. To my surprise, it was filled with many illustration and also videos. It was like a breathe of crest nitrox for me. My scores for the theory suddenly began to sore really high. It was a shock to me and my fellow candidates.

And then, everything in the idc began to be so easy for me. My usual score for physics was about 20% then after the theory online , it went up to an average of 85% and the same went for the others.Even in the IE I got so many 100%. If bazz did not recommend this earlier, honestly I would not have gotten through and become the professional as you see before you now.

So the moral of this story is, if you are worried about your theory or if you are really weak in it. You should take the online theory by PADI. It has really changed my life and made me a better diver and teacher.

I would highly recommend that you take this.

Again thanks Bazz for everything. You changed my life and I will always remember the super Course Director at Blue Season Bali, who is. Thomas Barrett.

As a Divemaster intern at Blue Season Bali, you shouldn’t expect 4 lazy weeks. Workshops, skill sessions, exams and of course a lot of diving. And although it’s hard working, it can be rewarding as well.

About a 2 weeks ago we did a day trip to the beautiful island of Nusa Penida, just of the coast of Sanur. Our first stop was Crystal Bay, famous for it’s visiting Mola molas, but usually only in the season which lasts from July till September. The Mola mola, or Sunfish, is the heaviest known bony fish in the world and can weigh up till about 2,000 kg. Now it is not only its size that makes this fish so famous among divers. Its shapes and appearance are far more striking. The German translation of its name means ‘swimming head’, and if you’re lucky enough to see a mola you’ll know why. This circular shaped giant has extended dorsal and ventral fins which makes it as long as it is tall.
With no expectations and only little hope of finding a mola outside the season, we back-rolled ourselves in the water. After 20 minutes the first people saw a big shadow in the blue and started to use their tank bangers to get our attention. And finally, there it was, a 2 meter Mola mola appeared from the deep and showed itself to a few lucky divers. But once all divers were alarmed, this giant was already on his way back…

Three days later during another day trip to Penida, we were once again very lucky. At the dive site PED our instructor Phil was banging on his tank, which usually means the divemaster trainee does something wrong. However, as we turned ourselves to Phil an even bigger Mola appeared from the blue while he was being cleaned by tens of butterfly fish. This sighting was even more special to me since there were less divers. And after the first Mola, I had even less hope of finding another one. But as silent and mysterious it appeared, after a minute or so it gently swam back into the deep, leaving a handful of trainees speechless in the water (though that isn’t quite as difficult while diving).

I couldn’t wish for a better birthday present that day!

Niels Rijneveld

Ours dives today took us out to Nusa Penida on board Bali Ocean 2. The first dive was at Manta Point for her Peak Performance Buoyancy Adventure Dive. She performed amazingly, having no problem hovering, getting close to the bottom, and using breath control to change her position in the water column. Manta Point also didn’t disappoint, with four mantas seen during the dive, some as close as 3m.

The second dive of the day was at Crystal Bay, where she did the Navigation Adventure Dive. She is a natural at navigation, navigating better than some skilled divers many times her age. She managed to do both the navigation and kick cycle counting while navigating a square back to the start location. We then took her on a tour of the area and she was able to use natural navigation to get us back to the start location, telling us that she recognized certain coral heads because they looked like dogs, cats and crocodiles!

The final dive of the day was at SD for the Fish ID Adventure Dive. A light current here kept us moving along over the beautiful coral and past the abundant fishes, which she was drawing and IDing while controlling her buoyancy without any problem. We saw parrot fish, wrasses, fairy basslets, trigger fish, Moorish idols and many others.

Overall, it was a wonderful day diving here in Bali and a great experience to see how enthusiastic children can be about learning something that they truly enjoy.

START EM YOUNG!

Brad

Divemaster MAX

As divers we love the water, we love the experience and all we think about is getting wet. What about those people that are a little bit frightened of the water? Its hard to think that they are missing out on a whole other amazing world. That’s why it’s our job to make them comfortable in the water. We want everyone to have the opportunity to experience what we do every day.

Four days ago we met Bryan who was coming to Blue Season Bali to his Open Water Diver Course. His wife Bev wanted to join the experience, however was a little apprehensive about getting in the water. Once Bryan qualified as an Open water diver – CONGRATULATIONS BRYAN – he just couldn’t get enough of the diving and decided to join us on both a wreck and navigation dive to the world famous Liberty Wreck at Tulumben. Bev joined us on the trip and watched on the beach as the divers entered the water. She then saw the smiles as her husband and the other divers surfaced and came back to the beach. The photos said everything – schools of jacks, nudibranches, Oriental Sweet Lips and reefs teaming with life, and then there was the wreck. Check them out on our facebook page.

Bev just couldn’t resist and turned up this morning to do a try dive here at Blue Season. We were so excited to see her here – getting here was the hardest part – and we all know how hard it is to do something you dread – NICE ONE BEV!! It was now up to us to change the fear in her face to excitement. From getting the pool and not being able to put her face in the water, 20 minutes later Bev was throwing a Frisbee around in the deep end with full scuba gear on, She was controlling herself in the water and when we surfaced had the biggest smile on her face. She had some competition though, we were all beaming!!! Thanks Bev – you made our day!!!

Yep, we love the water and want everyone to feel the same way!!! All you need to do is get here – we will do the rest!!!!

Excited Emma

In the water you can manhandle almost anything relatively easily, even on the surface taking off a giants scuba gear is fairly straight forward. The fun part comes when you have to get them out of the pool. Now your on your own, no instructor, no boat crew, nothing. You can see where this is going. The scene in the pool was one of me trying to keep one of Romans arms on the pool side while flailing about in vain to reach his other arm so that I could pull him out of the water with out giving his head a through dunking. Needless to say the other Divemaster Trainees where extremely helpful pointing out various flaws in the scenario, even to go as far as to make the comparison of a penguin trying to pull a whale onto the shore. The real killer was when I saw the 5ft 3 Japanese frame of Junko looking on and laughing with the rest of them.

Roman did survive being dragged from the pool despite some minor bruises and a few mouthfuls of water. The rescue course was in fact more fun and informative then I anticipated but it did leave one lasting piece of advice. If you even do have to rescue a diver, just hope that its not the big guy.

Little Mikey

Arriving in at Blue Season the first item on the To-Do is checking the dive roster that tells you all the information you need for your day; where you will be diving, who you’ll be diving with, etc etc.

Once you know the agenda for the day, and the morning briefing has been conducted, you can begin gathering all the necessary equipment and items for the dives. Organizing guests dive bags, loading tanks, and getting the lunch menu are just a few of these things. With an enthusiastic group of Divemaster Internships all pushing in the same direction this can be completed in a matter of minutes!

After everything is prepared breakfast is in order. A minute walk down the road is a quaint italian-style bakery. Croissants and baguettes are a plenty but my personal favorite is the focaccia with rosemary and a chocolate chip cookie (30 000 rupiah).

Breakfast ends and the guests begin to arrive. It is exciting meeting people from all around the world, sitting down and having a coffee or tea and talking to them. Such a diverse group of people come through the stone-laden Blue Season gates, and it is never tiring getting to know these people.

We get all of the red-tape mumbo jumbo out of the way and then the excitement really begins.

One group leaves in ELF 1(transport bus) to go hop on a boat to go to Nusa Penida for a day of beautiful clear waters. Another hops in ELF 2 for the journey up to Tulamben and the USAT Liberty wreck, a drive that takes you through some truly stunning and breathtaking scenery of traditional Balinese rice paddys. And another group stays behind at BSB and works in the pool with a family of DSD’s, who’ll later go for a dive in Sanur.

The rewards of being part of the Blue Season team are everlasting, when you see the guests faces, dive amazing sites, and meet wonderful people that become life-long friends, 5 30 in the morning is a time you begin to look forward to.

Awesome Kevin

After packing the right number of tanks, all our gear, first aid, oxygen and of course the lunches, we were off. As we were driving to the site Phil informed me this would be my chance to guide. I was a little nervous, not actually knowing what or where I was guiding!

Phil led us interns for the first dive as so that we could get a chance to see what the site was like. We were the only divers at the beach. We geared up at the bus and had a small walk down to the beach where we enjoyed a beach entry. There is a cave on the reef and we made our way over a sandy bank to reach it. After some exploring the entrance of the cave and the wall surrounding it we went around the corner to enjoy the reef which was covered in Gorgonian Sea Fans and huge Barrel Sponges. We spent some time on the largest gorgonian fan down there but unfortunately no pigmy seahorses were to be found. We finished the dive and broke for lunch. Lunch was interesting as everyone was left eating Nasi without spoons! Oops!

The second dive it was my turn to guide. I was to lead Ursula, Roman, Christine and Max. Phil was there to supervise. After working through my briefing using the trusty instructor slates, the divers I was leading were given ‘scenarios’ to test how I would cope. I was also asked to find three types of marine life for their interest. This I found particularly daunting as I have never managed to spot small critters for guests and didn’t know what could actually be found on the reef.

I descended, led them to the reef wall on the far side of the sand channel and was starting to relax, maybe it wouldn’t be too bad I even managed to find a couple of Nudibranches. That was until we went around the corner and realised a strong current had formed. We were down at around 18m when the southern current picked up and started to moves us in the opposite direction we wanted to go. When it picked up enough so that whirlwinds of sand started appearing Phil took control of the situation telling us to swim back towards where we came from and keep low to the ground slowly moving up the reef. We all managed to use tank bangers as leverage and move against the current. We couldn’t just swim with the current, we had to finish where we had started. It was all a bit of an adrenaline rush.

Of course, I was not let off the hook from coping with the ‘scenarios’. At the five meter stop I had Christine with a faulty regulator as well as Roman who had finished his air and needed to breathe off my alternate for the ascent. I believed the second scenario to be true, we had quite a swim and Roman is not good with air in the best of conditions. We surfaced a few meters from where we had started; and once on the surface Roman showed me his SPG with over 50 Bar left in!

The day had ended with a little adventure and an unplanned scenario but diving which such experienced divers had allowed us to deal with the unplanned current and I will be a stronger dive master for having experienced and seen how to deal with it. We had the two and half hour journey back to sleep off the excitement before we got back to BSB to wash all the gear.

Natasha

The program gives one lucky person the opportunity to become a PADI scuba diving instructor for free during seven months in beautiful Bali (view prize description).  This will be a life changing experience for someone- why not you, why not that friend who loves diving, why not your sister?  Someone will win this experience; all you need to do is enter!

Details about the first annual Best Dive Job in the World competition are available on our website at www.bestdivejob.com.  Once again, someone will win this prize.  Why don’t you go ahead and change your life?  All you need to do is enter yourself, or let your friends know so they can win!