Dive Certified

I had barely been settled into my new bungalow when Putu asked me if I had ever been interested in diving. I told him that I was very interested and planned on becoming dive certified while in Indonesia. Putu started to tell me about all the wonderful diving they have around Lovina and it really got me excited. We talked for an hour or so while looking at literature and photos. During this time, I was pondering the notion of doing my dive training here.

I finally decided to do it. When I heard I would be diving on both the east side of Bali one day and the west side of Bali the next day, I thought this is the ideal situation. I’ll have free transport to some of the parts of Bali I haven’t seen, I’ll get my PADI Open Water Dive Certificate and I’ll have a blast in the process. It was a pretty easy decision.

The course was three days and consisted of six dives, classroom work, tests, and a lot of reading and studying on your own. It was like being in school again only the subject was something new and exciting.

I was picked up from my bungalow at 8:00 the following morning by a young man named Sony. I had met Sony the previous night so we were not strangers. Sony drove me about 10 minutes or so to the main dive shop cleverly named Sunrise Dive. I was getting a little antsy at this time thinking about what is in store.

When we arrived, the place was filled with Balinese men, dive equipment and me. Since it is low season in Bali, I was the only westerner and trainee for the day. I was happy with that because I had my own personal instructor. All the attention would be focused on me and my progress and any questions I had. It was a lot more than I had bargained for.

Immediately one of the Balinese men came over and shook my hand and introduced himself. His name was Dewa and he would be my instructor for the next three days. Dewa was a Dive Master/Instructor who had been doing this for around ten years.

Dewa seemed like a very nice gentleman and spoke good English. I could tell right away that he was going to make a fine instructor. He went over the basics of the day with me while I was getting fitted for my dive equipment. After that was finished, it was off to start day one of my training.

Dewa and I got into a big van while two other men loaded our equipment. We headed to an outdoor beachside pool that would also act as our classroom. I was quite happy about this. Given the choice, I’d prefer to have the cool ocean breeze blowing through my hair rather than being stuck in a stuffy old classroom.

We started by reviewing some of the stuff I had read in the provided textbook the night before. We did this for an hour or two and than it was time to take my first test. It was a pretty simple test with the typical a,b,c or d style format. It didn’t take me long to finish so we decided to move onto the next section before we ate lunch.

After we were finished with the classroom work and lunch, we got suited up for some pool training. I watched Dewa as he put his gear together and explained the function of each thing. I then proceeded to put my equipment together, which was quiet easy with very few steps to remember.

This being the first time I would have to totally rely on a breathing apparatus, I was feeling a bit gun shy. The nervousness soon paced as I became more comfortable with breathing through a tube.

Our training in the pool was made up of very simple procedures. Dewa was teaching me the basics and building a foundation for me to grow upon. I learned hand signals for underwater, buoyancy procedures, decompression techniques and many, many more things. It was a lot of fun.

When the pool training was done, Dewa sent me home with more homework. I didn’t mind because I enjoyed learning about this stuff. I also knew what tomorrow would bring. My first open water dive off the Coast of Paradise Island. I was very excited and couldn’t wait until the following morning.