Memorable Dives

In this chapter we write about dive trips which are worthwhile to be remembered. Some of them we did already a long time ago. Others just some days ago. We collect them here to give you an impression (not necessarily representative) about diving Bali.

November 19, 20 Advanced Open Water in Tulamben

My first Colombian customer with his wife from Lituania did his last dive 7 years ago
before he started the Advanced course. So a big part of the course was repeating the
buouancy. He became quite good in this skill so and felt quite happy with his achievement.
He tried out underwater photography, did the deep dive, navigation, wreck diving and he
was all set, while his wife enjoyed snorkling.
Tulamben is a treat for all levels of divers. The fish life is amazing. But sometimes it´s
to take photos without bubbles because there are so many divers around.

November 6, 2010

Two Finnish students did their Open Water dives in Tulamben on Friday (November 5)
and Saturday (November 6). There were waves on Friday which made their first
underwater promenades a bit scary. But the schooling jacks were quite rewarding.
The clearing of the mask was quite hard for one of the students but she did not give up
and became more relaxed during the course. Tulamben is a very good place to do
Open Water dives because of beach entry which makes equalizing easier than
diving from boats above deeper water. Congratulations!
For more informations about studying at Udayana University in Bali click Here.

Triggerfish encounter – Pos 1, Menjangan October, 16 2010

I was diving with a family from Germany. Middle aged parents, in their end forties and girls 13 and 15 years old. Very nice people.
The drive along the West coast was nice. The traffic can be nasty from Denpasar to Gili Manuk.
Then we were finally at our destination – at Pos 1 - a good place for beginners. The water is shallow, there are sandy patches were divers don´t destroy much. And the corals a little further are interesting. There is a lot of fish life, too.
The mood among the family members was good. The parents had not dived for more than 10 years. The girls were hot to try it out.
I took care of the youngsters first. One was very good from the start. The other a bit more afraid. But ready to try again.
Then came the mother. She looked great in the water. Streamlined like a barracuda. But her ears did not let her go deeper than 5 meters. We floated along, weightlessly. Around ten meters away a middle size trigger fish was head down checking something, maybe his nest in the sand.
As I was ready to swim on I got hit above my ear by something that felt like a powerful small fist.
It hurt. I was a second confused, turned round. There he was: the attacker: a triggerfish. I lifted my arms as he charged, kicked with the fins. Slowly I moved backwards crossing the invisible borders of his territory.
The mother swam on as she had not seen a thing.
I was ready to defend her and still rubbed my head. I could feel a small hole. Hard to say in the water if it was bleeding.
On the way back he charged again. But I kept an eye on him and put myself between him and the mother. And kicked with the fins.

Luckily the father did not get attacked.
At the end of the day, when I met a dive master at filling station I heart about a trigger who had taken a part of the upper lip of a diver. Compared to that – I was lucky.

To see how triggerfish attack: CLICK

Jemeluk, November 26, 2009

We did 3 dives this day off Jemeluk, just half an hour East of Tulamben. The most memo-
rable was the one with the many morray eels off Bunutan. We descended to 25 meters. A
big barrakuda was hovering close to us and disappeared in the blue. All of a sudden a
morray eel with a leopard design swam close to me along the bottom. I flippered behind
her to get a photo. But she was already under some corals. Just leaving her tale exposed of
which I managed to take a picture. If you take photos of fish you sure want to focus on the
eyes or maybe on the mouth but not on the tale. We went on, a bit disappointed. All of a
sudden another big morray eel, also swimming freely. A brown one who managed to find
cover somewhere without giving me the chance to take a photo. Then, diving along, I was
looking in another direction, I almost bumped into a big eel, who also got this leopard design. She was relatively relaxed, totally exposed at a cleaning station. At the end of dive another big leopard design morray. Beautiful, too. Of both morrays, I took a lot of photos. The visibility was not great that day, a lot of plankton in the water. We did two other dives, at the drop-off and the pyramids. But Bunutan, with the morrays was the best for me.

Mimpang, June 13, 2008

What, you wanna go diving on June 13? it´s a friday.
Yes, why not. Superstitious?
No, not really.
But, diving Mimpang with all the currents. Just joking. We went diving mimpang on the 13th. And of course we were not the only ones. But we were the first to be in the water.
David, with whom I went diving Mimpang is a bit extreme. “We have to be at seven in the water, he said. That means we will start at 5.15 a.m. I checked the tide tables. The water is very good at seven. Almost no currents, he said.
I was sceptical. Not because of the tide tables and the right time for diving. But because of a lack of sleep and a bad mood at five 15 in the morning.
We made it. We did arrive at 6.30 at the newly built parking at the small harbour in Candi Dasa. Pak Ririg the fisherman who always brings me over to the Mimpang rocks smiled happily when we arrived. He is a reliable boatman with sharp eyes who can spot a divers head two miles away. Nevertheless we brought our orange surface markers to be sure we will not get lost.
Leaving the little harbour in an outrigger boat is tricky and needs a good boatman because there is not much water between the boat and the corals.
We want to see sharks and drop where the white tips got their favourite places. I get carried away by a strong current as soon as I am in the water.
The current brings me to the other side of the Mimpang rocks facing Tepekong. I hope that it will not carry me to the deep blue water where there is not much to see.
I am happy that the current ceases. I take some video of featherstars. Strange creatures – how they cling to corals or rocks. They remind me of plants, maybe some kind of colourful fern.
They look especially strange when they are moving around in midwater, crawling with their many arms, struggling to find another spot to hang on and filter the water for food.
I am looking for my buddy. He has disappeared. Later he will tell me that he saw three sharks. Without the video camera he can easier hold on somewhere.
A squid looks at me suspiciously. I take video, he changes form and colour nervously moving away from me.
I am hovering over a slope. Around me hundreds of blue surgeon fish. They are usual inhabitants of Mimpang reefs.
I head south where – sometimes – sunfish hover in the blue enjoying their cleaning session with bannerfish and angels.
When I arrive at the corner of the reef I feel the strength of the current blowing against me. O.k., I turn back.
A moray eel is watching out of a hole in 27 meters. Great. I switch on the lights. Some banded cleaner shrimp are moving around in front of the mouth of the moray.
It was a good dive. My computer tells me that the water got 27 degrees. O.k. that´s a bit warm for sunfish.

Sitting in the small outrigger boat David and I enjoy the beautiful scenery while having our surface break. I love the rocks of Mimpang.

For the second dive I hope for sharks, again. But they have moved to another place. Next time. No sunfish, either.
Schools of blue fish above me. A porcupine fish crosses my way. I take video.
The way back to the harbour I take video of the rocks called Mimpang. In the blue, at the horizon, Gunung Agung sends us a “hello”.
Entering the bay, Pak Ririg catches a wave and surfs to the sandy beach.

Diving with Mantas in Bali June, 6th 2008

1. dive PED, 2nd dive Manta Point, 3rd dive Crystal Bay

Kirman, our divemaster told the skipper of the speed boat to head towards PED. PED is a temple on Nusa Penidas North Side. A good dive site with beautiful corals and one has always very nice drift diving there. But normally we dive PED as the last dive when we have seen the big guys at Manta Point.
Why do you go to PED for the first dive, I asked.
Kirman smiled. I want to beat the crowd at Manta Point. It is nicer to go there later when the other boats have moved to another site. Maybe we are lucky and we will be all alone.
The surface of the sea was flat like a mirror. Some hundred yards away, a big fish jumped out of the water.
It looked like it was hunted, Jack one of the other divers, said. Jack was from Arizona, Umaha. It is one of the hottest places in the world in the middle of the desert, he explained. Jack was a preacher and a preacher trainer. He had contact to a church organisation in Myanmar.
The military doesn´t like the church, he continued. I understand them, he said, everybody who is individual and all organisations who don´t integrate are dangerous for the power holders. But it is still wrong what they are doing, he said.
We passed “Blue Corner” which is a dive site with very strong currents. You have to believe absolutely in your diving skills if you want to dive there. It is definitely no diving for beginners.

We arrived at PED. The visibility was good. The current was up. Wow, it will be a great dive, I thought happily. We dropped down. Equalizing. The ears popped. In around 25 meters are long spiralling corals. They make great photos when the flash paints them red and the background stays black or when the photos are taken against the surface with a diver hovering above.
A lionfish hangs out under a coral block. After one photo he turns his back to me. A small Napoleon wrasse crosses my way at the end of the dive. He doesn´t like to be a video star and keeps distance.
A swarm of small blue fish attract my attention. I swim towards them and they take refuge in a big coral. When I swim over the coral block they are cautiously looking outwards to me, the strange bubbling alien.
It is time to surface.

Ten minutes later we are on our way to Manta Point. The coast line is rugged with sharp rocks and thundering waves against them. At Manta point the waves are tame which is rare. Backroll and I am in the water wishing I would be out again. It is too cold for diving, I think. May there be Mantas or Whale sharks or dolphins or hippos… I just want to feel warm. Diving Bali is supposed to be warm water diving. Right? Yes, I know that this is not true for Manta Point. And it is not true for Crystal Bay. Sometimes you need a 5 mm wet suit and a hood and gloves. I am still using my fancy two mm what I regret now. But, I want to take video and I am shivering and looking forward to the manta rays. Kirman is leading the pack. Here they are. All of a sudden they appear out of nowhere. The visibility is mostly bad at Mantapoint. I would strongly recommend a wideangle lens to photographers and an ISO setting which makes some takes without flash possible. The disadvantage of the flash are the back scatters.
Videographers should use a camera which is good in low light conditions which is recommended anyway for underwater recording.
The manta dancing is pure beauty and elegance. If I stretched my hand I could touch them. I don´t do it.
Back on the boat: happy faces and still shivering bodies.
Jack shows us the pictures he has taken. They look pretty good.
We are heading to Crystal Bay. Lunchtime.
Kirman is happy when he sees the last boat disappearing towards Bali. At the surface the water is comfortably warm.
We descend happily to meet a line in ten meters indicating a thermo cline. Below it is freezing. Kirman and Jack descend. I stay above the line ready to follow the two guys when they give any sign that they see sunfish. But the Mola Mola are not home.
On the way back to the shallows where we are going to surface I take video sequences of Anthias. Some Angelfish cross the corals elegantly. Bannerfish are circling in the Blue. They look as if they are waiting. They are going to be ready when the Mola Mola will be back.

Sunfish at Crystal Bay – Bali June, 3, 2008

The first sunfish for Michael, this season in Crystal Bay.
Wow, it is not the peak season to see sunfish. But they were there today. Surrounded by cleaner – fish, they were hanging around in about 40 meters.

Kirman, the experienced divemaster spotted the mola mola before the other divers. He is a real sunfish – expert and it is a smart thing to stay close to him when trying to find the ocean dwellers. With 24 degrees the water temperature was not too cold for us and not too warm for the Mola Mola.

Sunfish at the Wreck of the USS - Liberty, Monday April, 28, 2008

Atsuko was diving the liberty wreck in Tulamben. And there was a very rare diving experience for Tulamben. Two sunfish (mola mola) floated leasurely in 26 meters. The divers came really close to the strange creatures who deeply immersed in the cleaning process which took place. There are a lot of bannerfish in Tulamben and angelfish and they are both doing cleaning work on sunfish.
Atsuko was mesmerized.
O.k. the bumphead parrotfish were roaming around the wreck of the liberty. A lot of them. They are impressive guys, the biggest parrotfish one can encounter. But compared to the sunfish they wee just little, just normal guys one meets a lot when diving Tulamben. The sunfish were the beautiful exception.

Looking for sunfish in Tulamben Bali

First and Second May, 2008

When Atsuko had told me about the sunfish she saw when diving in Tulamben at the Liberty wreck I had to go there and try my luck. I decided to take the bike. This was the first time that I did that. I know a lot of divers and guys who work in dive shops in Tulamben and so I did not see a problem to rent diving tanks. Still the luggage I had to transport proved to be bulky on the bike. There was the diving gear and the underwater video camera and a compact photocamera in a housing.

The curves through the Balinese landscape are beautiful. The only thing that turns me off is the heavy traffic with yellow trucks exhausting black diesel fumes. At least on the bike you don´t need too much time to pass them.
When I arrived in Tulamben´s Puri Mada, a nice accomodation complex, one of the dive masters was happy to see me.
Sure, you can have a tank, he said. You came by bike?
Sure, why not. Something different.
Yes, that´s true.

Half an hour later, it was 4:30 p.m., I was in the water.
Wreck diving at the liberty wreck in Tulamben. I think the liberty is the most famous wreck in Indonesia. I don´t expect to see any sunfish at this time of the day. I hope to be lucky the next morning.
It is a beautiful dive. The jacks circle gazing around with their round expressionless eyes. The garden eels move in the slight current. Sweetlips look offended as they always do. Then they turn their back to me. I might be a possible predator and a retreat is always faster when the head doesn´t show in the direction of the enemy. A grouper hovers slowly to the inside of the wreck. The hole is too small to follow him.

I check some soft corals thoroughly if there are pygmee sea horses. But I don´t find one. A bunch of cleaner shrimps is hopping around close to the soft coral. Maybe they mistake me for a customer whom they want to clean the gills and the teeth. I am not in the mood to check it out and take the regulator out of my mouth and offer these hard working fellows a chance to do their cleaning job.
Besides, I like to play those games much more when there is a photographer diving along.

Tulamben night diving. The colors are much more intense than in the day time. The yellow coral flowers look like small suns.
Torpedoformed jellyfish move around with an astonishing speed. They remind of the spaceships in Startrek. The nightly water is much like the black galaxies of the universe.
Some corals – or whatever that might be – looking like bushes move over the ground like strange multilegged animals.
The eyes of small shrimps are visible without the lamp and attract attention.
A big bumphead parrotfish moves around in the sunken ship – seemingly distracted by the lamp.
A pufferfish moves in front of a softcoral. His belly is big and round. I take a foto of a small, thin legged crab who tries to camouflage in front of some coral branches.
When I check how much air I got left, I see a featherstar holding on the the pressure gauge. I detach him and he crawls multilegged through the black underwater world like a strange spider.
The next morning is beautiful. The sunrises in Tulamben are special. Fishing boats on the horizon. Tiny waves lick at the black volcanic stones.
Will the sunfish be there?
It is beautiful to dive in the morning. The big bumhead parrotfish hover in groups – motionsless at around eight meters.
The jacks are there. With them every dive in Tulamben feels more alive. A big predator is circling around the swarm sometimes. This time he is not there.
I try to find the pygmee seahorse again, and again, I don´t find it.

I begin the second dive shortly after 9 a.m. I consider the likelyhood to see sunfish as relatively low at this time of the day.
Maybe they are deep, I think, and follow the slope down to 46 meters. I find an orange surface marker lying in the sand. The rope looks like it broke. I roll the saussage and put it in my BCD.
It is a short dive because of the depth. I do a long safety Stop. The sun is shining. It feels good to warm up.

You can contact Blue Paradise Diving Bali:

081 33 77 55 729 and 0361 87 55 788

mail: michaelhaas75@yahoo.de

PT. Laut Indah, Jl. Danau Poso, Gang Wana Sari 21, 80228 Sanur-Denpasar Bali Indonesia