Blue Season Bali

Well I’ve been waiting to see my first mola mola and yesterday I was finally rewarded with one. The conditions were great the water wasn’t very very cold probably right around 24° at Crystal Bay on the first dive I got to see a shadow of a mola mola which was in the deeper water and then as the diver I had with me was low on air or we had to start heading back towards the boat. On the way back we got to see a flame angel fish which are always a favorite of mine. They are called flame angel fish because the middle of the fish is reddish orange and then it’s surrounded on the fringe by blue so it looks like a flame hense the name.

On the second dive as soon as we got out towards the canyon which is the reference point for you to start looking for the mola mola’s one of our very experience Indonesia dive instructors started rapping on his tank to let us know that there was something there, sure enough just a little bit deeper than we were was a mola mola being cleaned by some schooling banner butterfly fish and it was amazing as the sunfish made the butterfly fish look as if we were far away because of the enormity of the sunfish. When we got back on the boat the Indonesian dive instructor let us know that it really wasn’t even a very big one only around 2 m which only makes me want to go on Mola Mola dives in Balimore often so that I can go and see a really big one. As I understand it we can anticipate seeing many more mola mola’s as we are now in the mola mola season so sightings of the sunfish in Bali should be regular occurrences on the dives until the end of September. You know I remembered everything about that dive the only thing I forgot was a camera so really my first one doesn’t count as I don’t have proof I quess I will just need to get back out there and do it again!

Yesterday also was the end of the IDC and Blue Season Bali had the most instructor candidates in the IE and all of them passed so the 100% pass ratio for Blue Season Bali is still intact. The next IDC will be in September and I can’t wait to work with Chong as I will be a student learning to be a IDC staff instructor. So now that I have seen a mola mola the last thing I have that I really want to see scuba diving is a whale shark who knows maybe one will be sitting at Manta point watching a manta getting cleaned and have one bump into me while I’m in the water, or maybe I’ll be on a mola mola dive and a whale shark will come cruising through!

It was overcast on the boat trip over to Nusa Penida, and myself and the boat crew had high hopes that we were going to see the majestic mola mola on our first dive at Crystal bay. As we arrived, the conditions looked good from the surface and only a handful of dive companies were there. As I geared up with Wayan we went through how we were going to guide the site and with that, back rolled off the boat into the crystal clear water.

I was pleasantly surprised with the water temperature - a warm 25 degrees celsius - which was nice especially for a hardened nothern hemisphere lad who is used to diving in 10 degrees celsius. As we made our descent with a group of four, 2 lads from Singapore, 1 from Malaysia and 1 from western Australia, everything looked good. Visibility was around 15-20M and marine life was the usual; what you come to expect from a world class dive site in Bali. As we hit 25m ‘Big’ Wayan signalled to me to look in front; he has become so experienced in dealing with these gentle giants he now knows the clanging of tanks to draw attention can scare this very timid species. Now, can I just say in all of my 5 years of diving I have never encountered a better looking fish than this one; the sheer beauty of it overwhelmed me. It was probably about 2m from top to bottom and as the currents picked up he got closer and closer and didn’t seem fazed by all the divers; if anything he just seemed to love the attention we were giving him.

I was so pleased to get at least 5 minutes play time with him before the currents picked up even more and we had to make our ascent. As we all managed to get back safely, which can only be explained as a challenging dive, but to get the opportunity for the first time in 5 years to spend some quality time with such an amazing creature is something i will never forget. This fills me with excitement for the mola mola season ahead.

Bali Diving reports from major Bali Dive Resorts all point to one thing - The Bali Sunfish are well and truly here and in big numbers again!

Over the last week we have had numerous sighting of Bali Mola Mola with the largest group of Sunfish so far being nine sighted at Crystal Bay in Nusa Penida. The water temperature has drastically dropped but the big fish action has just begun!

During the next few months Blue Season Bali will be sending out divers every day to meet with these amazing Sunfish. Our daily dive trips depart from Sanur and give you three superb dives with the Sunfish. It is important to remember that not everyone gets to see the Mola Mola. It is really important to have a good operator who knows where and when to put you in the water and then has professional dive guides who will give you the best opportunity to spend time with the Bali Mola Mola.

Our day trips to Nusa Penida cost USD145 per day inclusive of all hotel transfers, dive equipment, lunch, drinks, towels, insurance and Bali’s most professional dive guides! Call us on 0361 270852 or email us at info@baliocean.com for more information.

What a great day of diving in Bali at Nusa Penida.  We started the day off at Manta Point and were rewarded with 2 or 3 Oceanic Manta Rays that stopped by for a quick clean at the cleaning station.  I have not gotten to the point that I can tell which one is which, Oceanic Manta rays all have distinct looks and if you see them enough times you can tell them apart.  I use to do the night dive in Kona and they had the same group of Mantas coming on a regular basis and they had names for all of them.  The Kona Manta Night Dive is always rated as one of the ten best dives in the world, so I guess that The Bali dive sites should be on the list of best dives in Asia as the Mantas and the Mola Molas if you are lucky can be seen on the same dive trip!

The water temp at Manta Point was 21 degrees according to my Gecko dive computer I notice that all of the instructors at Blue Season are diving Suunto in one form or another I would say that the Gecko is the most popular followed by the D9 then the D6. I saw for the first time today a Scuba Pro dive computer and man you can use that thing as a extra weight very heavy but it has a big face which I like and another feature that i noticed was a graph bar that shows the residual Nitrogen that you have long after you are done diving as well as a no fly countdown clock I like the idea of a graph I would feel more comfortable if for instance I needed to drive over a hill that was in the 1000 meter range, In Hawaii we use to drive home from Hounounou and we would have to cross a 1500 meters halfway back to Kona town it would have been nicwe to have that graph then.  We actually knew a instructor that got bent crossing that little hill when she had been diving alot of days in a row.

At the beginning of the last paragraph I mentioned the temp the reason I mentioned the temp is that the falling water temp means that the Mola Molas will be coming more frequently.  

Tasty is a description you will hear at times when people are describing there encounters while diving in Bali with the legendary Mola Mola, But let us clarify, as in clear up, not butter up, what we mean. Mola Mola Season is coming and i can’t wait!