Blue Season Bali

NOW OPERATING AT THE MENJANGAN!

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 theMenjangan 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

Guiding Workshop-Mystery Rocks

When I saw the dive schedule and found that I was on an intern dive at mystery rocks, it was a bit of a mystery as to where we were actually diving HAHA. I was happy to hear it was a site just past Tulamben. I enjoy the two and a half hour drive as an opportunity to catch up on sleep ummm I mean study my Divemaster manual!!  The location of the site was about all I could find out about this particular dive as most of the interns and MSDT instructors had also never heard of it.

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 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 Nudibranchs. 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 with 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

Yesterday; Phil and a bus load of interns took a trip up to the always impressive Seraya Secrets for a macro workshop one of the highlights of Bali diving. With 3 separate buddy teams, Phil led the first dive using macro guiding techniques asking the Divemasters to record down on their slates the critters name, depth, description and where it was found (gorgonian fan, barrel Sponge etc etc)…

The divemasters over the course of a 64 minute dive recorded the following;

4 x Harlequin Shrimp – 19m Coral Debris

1 x Ornate Ghostpipe fish 8m – Crynoid(yellow)

3 x Crynoid Crabs – between 6 & 12 m Black a white with yellow tips

1 x Crynoid Shrimp – between 6 & 12 m Black a white with yellow tips

10 +Squat Shrimp – next to or on small Anenomes 10- 20m

Longarmed Shrimp – Under soft coral – 15m

Banded Cleaner Shrimp -  under small bommies, cleaning moray eels 15m

Dozens Nudibranches – Shallow water – larger ones found on sandy bottom, smaller Flabellina species found on small rocks

Emporer Shrimp  – underneath red sea worms – 10m

Plus much much more; not bad for one dive!

The aim of the workshop was not just to let the interns see what i out there and to watch Phil their instructor find all this for them but to understand that certain creatures live with a symbiotic relationship with other plants and animals on the reef and how to find particular creatures once again.

Each Divemaster was given a task on the second dive (slight different location) to try and identify again the habitat in which there chosen critter would live and identify it. It was a very successful dive with 5 out the 6 DMT’s locating their desired macro-life they set out for!  (there were no Harlequin Shrimp on the Second dive)!

BSB

SD

SD is named after the school located on the shore, its literal translation means primary school as SD stands for Sekola Desar. The reef at SD is a slope at around a 40 degree angle which is covered in hard and soft corals alike. Big bommies dominate the reef with swirling currents picking you up and over them, however sometimes the down currents become too strong and you may find yourself deeper than expected so good knowledge of conditions is a must for any diver wishing to dive here. Scorpion fish dominate the reef here with some of the largest of the species found on pretty much every coral head enjoying the currents. Blue ribbon eels, moray eels and numerous Nudibranches also cover the rich reef. Along the whole north side of Nusa Penida you will find similar sights to SD but none of them stand out quite as much for the abundant marine life as this site. While you see all the critters and creatures on the reef floor, there is tenfold more life out in the blue. Schooling unicorns and surgeon fish are standard and I have personally seen a school of 50+ titan trigger fish. Mola mola are regularly spotted on this site at depths past 20m during season, but with strong currents that can pick up in an instant it is advised that these depths on this site are left to more experienced divers.

Ein tolles Tauchjahr geht zu Ende – hier ein kleiner Rückblick:
2010 haben wir in Nusa Penida mit Manta Rochen getaucht, in der Mondfisch Saison von Juli bis Ende Oktober viele Mondfische zu sehen bekommen, in Nordbali haben wir wieder viele tolle und seltene Macro Kreaturen entdeckt wie zum Beispiel Karnevalstintenfische, Anglerfische, Nudibranchiate, und Geisterpfeifenfische und Flügelrossenfische. Viele Gäste waren wieder begeistert vom beeindruckenden Uss Liberty Schiffswrack in Tulamben und in diesem Jahr haben wir auch verstärkt Tauchtrips nach Amed angeboten. Die Steilwände in Amed sind einfach total beeindruckend und es gibt von Seepferdchen bis Skorpionfischen und Schildköten so viel zu sehen! In Padang Bai haben wir einige tolle Oktupusse gefunden und sind auch vermehrt in Tepekong getaucht wo man in einer kleinen Höhle Haie finden kann.

Am 31. Oktober haben wir bei Blue Season Bali DEN ultimativen Wettbewerb The Best Dive Job gestartet bei dem ein glücklicher Gewinner die gesamte Tauchausbildung, Tauchausrüstung, 7 Monate Unterkunft, Visum für Indonesien uwm im sagenhaften Wert von 16000 USD gewinnen kann gestartet. Die Reaktionen auf den Kontest waren der Wahnsinn und nicht vergessen – der Wettbewerb geht noch bis 28. Februar 2011 und JEDER im Mindestalter von 18 Jahren kann mitmachen.

Das gesamte Blue Season Bali Team wünscht allen ein Frohes Neues Jahr und alles Gute für 2011!

Wir hoffen du bist auch im neuen Jahr wieder dabei um mit uns gemeinsam Bali’s faszinierende Unterwasserwelt zu entdecken!

Crystal Bay is one of Bali’s main attractions for the diving industry with a world-wide reputation for high quality, unique diving experiences.  Its reputation comes in particular from the Oceanic Sunfish experience where for 3-4 months a year these jaw dropping creatures from the depths emerge on our Bali shoreline. With these pelagics enjoying strong currents, deep water and more often than not, cold cold water the diving at Crystal bay proves to be some of the most challenging in Bali.  The divesite is perfect for Mola Mola encounters as the reef wall start around the 15m mark and drops off into a channel in the bay with its deepest point passing 60m. As the reef bends around to the right as you head east it breaks into the channel between Nusa Penida and Nusa Cenningan and this is the point where you will more than likely witness the power of the Bali currents. The dive site has 3 cleaning stations for the mola mola; the first around 20m as you are making your way down the reef slope. This is where your guide will more than likely ask you to stay close to the reef and maintain your depth as he drops down to the cooler darker waters to see if there is anything of choice to be seen. If not, then its off to the next cleaning station, again at 20 just as the reef wall turns.

The best chance you have of seeing these giant pelagic is to hope for some kind of current, get yourself into a good position on the cleaning stations and hold on and hope. As the up-currents bring cooler water the sunfish intern follow suit and if you’re lucky enough they will appear out of the shimmering waters below.

Even out of season, Crystal Bay has a great charm about it, whilst maintaining its reputation as a challenging site, with regular sightings of Manta Rays, Tuna, Giant Trevellies…not to mention the frogfish, seahorses and copious amounts of critters hidden away

Toyopakeh Wall is one  of my personal favorite dive sites when conditions are right in Bail. When you drop in from the reef slope you have to hope that the current is going to take you in the direction that you want it to, otherwise you are on the reef rather than the wall (not such a bad thing however!)

When the current takes you the right way on this drift you instantly see huge schools of fusiliers and Unicorn fish battling with the currents to stay stationary over the plentiful soft corals that decorate the entire wall, oranges greens and blues cover every possible corner.  As you glide south admiring all the color that the reef offers you will suddenly be hit by whirlpools or current as the undulations and coves in the sides of the rock faces affect the water movement sending you up down and round and round. This site is also common for great sightings of the Mola Mola during the correct season, with the wall dropping down to 40m plus it is common for them to follow the thermo clines and the changing currents and locate cleaning stations along the reef wall.

Even when mola are not in season the wall still has plenty to offer with the largest moray eels, schools of fusiliers and Unicorn fish, large pelagic such as giant trevally and tuna and much much more.

Only recently discovered by Kadek, one of our Divemasters here Manta Point has proven to be a huge success since the few times we have dived it. It is located a little further north than the original Manta Point one and sits in a rocky  bay south of Crystal Bay. At times here, the swell here can get pretty crazy as we all know but that seems to bring in the big boys with sightings of schooling sardines with feeding Tunas and of course the Manta Rays all within the last 2 weeks.

When we first turned up at the site completely by luck we were looking for a simply little bay for guests to snorkel, then we get a shout from the captain of  “Manta upfront” and before you knew it there was ‘another one’ and ‘ANOTHER ONE’ until there were about 20 mantas visible from the surface.

The Dive itself is even shallower than Manta Point 1 with the reef starting at about 5 meters so long dives for those of you into you photography are perfect with all the mantas cruising on the surface, gives great opportunities to get that dream shot!

Phil

Nachdem unsere frisch gebackenen Tauchlehrer die alle am 5.Dezember erfolgreich das Instructor Examen bestanden haben, am Sonntag ausgiebig ihren Erfolg feierten und sich am Montag dann einen wohlverdiehnten Tag Ruhe gegönnt haben, ging es am Dienstag mit den MSDT Spezialkursen weiter.

Am Dienstag waren die neuen Tauchlehrer in Tulamben tauchen um dort ihre Ausbildung zum PADI Wracktauchen Instructor zu machen. Gestern ging es nach Nusa Penida zur PADI Tieftauchen Spezialkurs Ausbildung und unsere Blue Season Bali Praktikanten haben sogar einen Mondfisch in SD gesehen!

Heute ist der letzte Tag der Spezialkursausbildung und danach kann das Abenteuer beginnen und unsere neu zertifiziereten Tauchlehrer können bereits ihre ersten Tauchkurse unterrichten.

Das ganze Team von Blue Season Bali gratuliert allen noch mal recht herzlich und wir wünschen euch viel Glück in eurer weiteren Karriere als Tauchlehrer!

Manta Point is one of Bali’s most popular dive sites with pretty much every dive operator running trips every day. It is located on the Southern Tip of Nusa Pendia so you can find that on some days it is actually un-diveable due to the swell kicking up and it is so exposed (the next land mass south of Nusa Penida is Australia and that’s a fair distance for the ocean to pick up energy)!  Manta Point is famous because unlike many similarly named dive sites this Manta Point has very regular sightings of the oceanic giants.  We say there is about a 85% chance of a sighting and normally if you see 1 you will see 5 or 6….my record is 25 on one 45 minute dive.

The dive site consists of 2 main cleaning stations, one is a large boulder like structure that sits in the shallows at 12m and rises up to only 4m from the surface and the other is slightly deeper at 16m where there is a considerably smaller station. However when the boats descend upon the more popular larger one, you stand a very good sighting of Mantas at the second station as they move away.

During certain seasons, the display that you can see between the competing Males for mating rights is phenomenal. A giant female manta will glide over the station and surrounding divers and boulders dipping, swerving and looping with a trail of males competing for mating rights imitating the female as best they can. Flying in one after another, a truly amazing sight.

Mantas are not the only species to see at Manta Point with Reef Octopus being spotted on nearly every dive, Blue Spotted Rays in abundance and many many Nudibranches. There have even been sightings of a few lost Mola Mola being sighted here!

Phil