We also got a quick glimpse at technical diving (tec for short) by trying out double tanks and other tec gear, and boy was it difficult. I’ve done a fin pivot (see a demonstration in Youtube) approximately a million times in my own and rental scuba gear, but the buoyancy/weight balance of the tec set was so completely different I didn’t even get close. On the other hand, the additional mass made it somewhat easier to control my depth. That may sound a bit odd to someone who has never dived, but it goes like this:

[a long explanation follows]

Whenever I’m underwater, there are two forces that affect my depth, namely gravity and the buoyant force of water supporting me. When these two are in balance, I can float around in same depth for as long as I want. However, the buoyant force is a bit complicated to manage.

As we know from elementary physics, the buoyant force of water depends on the volume of the object, which in this case is a breathing human. When I breathe in, my external volume changes somewhat. I then displace more water, become more buoyant than with my lungs empty. It may not sound like a big deal, but breath control is actually the most effective way to do depth changes in two to three metre range.

Now, throw in around 10 kilograms of extra weight (compared to my standard equipment), and the situation changes somewhat. The weight has to be countered with extra buoyancy, which in turn makes my breathing relatively less significant to my total buoyancy.

[a long explanation concludes]

Anyway, the experience was fun, and I was still able to control my depth with breathing well enough. The experience was fun, but right now I’m not sure technical diving is my choice. I still find a lot of interesting stuff within the limits of recreational fun diving, so there’s no incentive for me to go there – at least not yet.

Tomorrow we’ll be having a compressor and equipment maintenance workshop. Should be fun!

So, here’s what we got:

That’s mine…

…and this is Eeva’s. Note the slate pocket on the right thigh.

And all this for 700 US dollars. Assuming these last five years, that’s 20 cents per head per day. Just in case you wanted to know.

And our deep throat inside the shop mentioned the IDC course director praising our exam results to other instructors on the course. Seems like he’s pleased with our results on the DM course.

This seems like an excellent starting point for the IDC, which starts tomorrow with some pre-course workshops. Let’s try to keep up the good work.

Oh, we also got the new bike:

Don’t you be messing with me, boy!

The original plan for us was to do our IDC in April, which would have given us more than enough time to do the required hundred. We both had some 30+ when we arrived and we’re somewhere around 80 right now. Given that the IDC starts in two days and I’m still overexhausted from last week, I’m going to have a hard time reaching the three-figure mark before IE.

Luckily, BSB is a 5-star Career Development Centre, which allows its instructor candidates to fulfill the requirements out of order. This means I can take the IE with only 60 dives, sail through it and do the remaining dives afterwards.

What a relief. Now all I have to do is stop telling myself that I should somehow match the performance levels of my beloved wife. I guess it’s an equality and pride thing for me to bring in as much competence as she does. Yes, yes, I know it’s stupid, but still something I need to work on.

In other news, we finally have to change our bike. The current one seems to have a bad alternator and a bit of cold start trouble, giving me leg cramps from all the kick starts. Let’s hope we get a better one as a replacement.

There was also an exam to see where we come from, but I didn’t find the results very conclusive. I aced physics, failed equipment and passed all the others, but many of my mistakes had more to do with the English language than actual knowledge. I sure hope the instructor examination (IE) doesn’t have that many trick questions.

Anyway, the IDC should start next week. More on that later.

One of the reasons for yesterday’s productivity was weather. By the time I had finished the swims, it was raining so hard I could spot pikes swimming on shoulder height. At the same time there was a power cut, so all we could do was to study. The rain caused a bit of a problem by reaching our terrace-like outdoor office (regadless of the roof and straw mat walls), so I had to tuck myself in the corner and face the wall in order to keep my paperwork dry. I have to take a photo of the manuals at some point to illustrate what I was dealing with yesterday.

Finally around seven the rain gave up and we could go home. I grabbed us some McD’s, we ate it in candlelight and crashed to bed. It’s been a while since I’ve slept this well.

And my youngest brother is here with his GF and they’re starting their OWD course tomorrow. Something tells me we’ll be assisting on that, which would also be nice.

And I almost forgot the best news of the day: we have a bottle of Ardbeg on us, kindly brought in by Andy. Bestest!

First, we had some excellent diving in Tulamben, simply brilliant. Sun was shining, we had good bottom times and saw lots upon lots of stuff (barracudas, the usual little fish, moray eels, a white tip shark!! and lots more). Then it was back to Sanur, and party.

In case someone was misinformed, we’re on an island that’s surrounded by beaches. The closest one is five minutes from our place, and is framed with restaurants, bars, scuba/snorkel places and the like. There are also wave-breakers with gazebos on top, like made for having drinks with friends in the evening. Which is exactly what we did. We bought a bag of ice, some beers, some gin and rum (with tonics and cokes), some snacks and a few candles. We also bought some plastic cups and some lime fruit to go with the gin & tonics and rum & cokes. Forgot the Leatherman ™ at the Bedroom, but made do – Divemasters need to be able to improvise with even the non-existent tools we had…

There were a few of us, sharing drinks and laughs and stories and taking silly pictures (several of them are censored and will never appear online, sorry). Lots upon lots of merriment was had by all. Nobody wanted to take off to the discoinferno of Kuta. We stayed out until about twoish in the morning, and slept in the next morning.

On Sunday we had a day off, and that was all good and deserved. We managed to get out of bed for lunch and dinner, but otherwise it was a pretty much horizontal day. And come Monday, we went snorkelling with some guests and had a good training day.

We might be making the outings on the beach a tradition of sorts, methinks.

Melon butterflyfishes are plentiful all around

Starfishes can also be found every here and there

Small shrimps live in anemones, seeking shelter from predators

Triggerfishes eat coral and sometimes attack your fins

How do you say “oriental sweetlips” in plural?

More manta rays starting from this photo

Nudibranches come in all colours…

…like this…

…and this…

…and like this. Besides these, there’s about a million more.

All this and much more can be found from Indonesia alone. Just imagine how much stuff there is to see arond the world.

I could be there socialising with them, but I have something else in mind tonight. While it’s brilliant to have nice people around me, I also need time for myself. This is one of those moments.

The more I think of it, the more I like what I am, what I’ve been and what I’ve accomplished so far. There are not many things I would change from my past, even though several of them may have had been better left undone. All of it has lead me to this place and moment where I find myself on the light side of the Force. Peaceful. Calm. Content.

Life is simple and sometimes rather busy, but I’m way happier than back in my Corporation days. I may not have the wealth, the power or the glory, and for what may be the first time in my life, I don’t care. There may be a time when I do care again, but right now I’m happy with what I have. I’ve found my peace, my safe haven. My happy place.

All that work and stress is finally paying off, and I’m enjoying every moment of it. Life is good.

Tomorrow we’re doing more guiding practise in Tulamben, and Sunday is again a day off. We’ll be having a beach party on Saturday to celebrate Eeva’s birthday and our first anniversary. Feel free to join us

Monday and Tuesday: Diving in the sea, possibly doing speciality courses

Wednesday: Skill demonstration practise in the pool

Thursday: Theory exams, studying

Friday and Saturday: Diving with or without guests, practising guiding or other divemaster stuff in real-life situations

Sunday: A day off, but we can go diving if we want to

…and I’m guessing we’ll be following this guideline for quite a while now.

Since I had some neck and shoulder tension from yesterday, I decided to stay at the dive centre today (instead of several hours in the bus, probably making the tension worse).  I think I made a good decision, since I got to teach my first skin diver course as part of the student’s pool session. Since I am not certified to do that yet, we had to have an instructor looking after us all the time, but I was the one doing the actual explaining and demonstrations.

Which was nice.

Our article got published in the paper version, too. Here.

(Sorry, only in Finnish.)

So what’s up? There’s the sun tanning us up, and the rain cooling us down every once in a while. The art shop outside our homestay (a.k.a. Enny’s) has live music every night except Sunday, so we fall asleep to covers of Sting, Bob Marley and lots of others. There’s a coconut palm growing behind our bathroom window, which only has a grille, so we can look at trees while washing. There are too many gekkos to count, but only one of them is pink. (really cute and quick too, so no pictures, sorry).

Our daily commute is 5 minutes on a scooter and then depending on where we dive either 10-60 mins on a boat or 3 hours on in a wheezing minivan (to Tulamben). We get to dive almost every day, and when we don’t dive there’s the centre’s swimming pool to satisfy the need to get wet. All in all, life’s pretty sweet.

Today (that would be Saturday as I’m writing this) on the second dive of the day we saw two turtles swimming off on the reef. Apparently they’re pretty rare hereabouts, judging from the enthusiastic comments later back on board. We rode some pretty strong currents today, and I can feel the effort it took in my muscles.

Also we’ve been taking good care of the random Finns who come to Blue Season to dive. Of course we’re talking with the other customers too, but somehow it’s nice to talk in your mother tongue with people. And I suppose it can’t really hurt the business either…

Long days mean short nights and I have to take what sleep I can. Diving again tomorrow.

edit on Sunday:

We just came back from the boat, this time we’ve been thoroughly bumped on the way back. Saw some manta rays (pictures to follow, keep checking the gallery) and some turtles and I managed to drop my brand new mask into the current. My language was very foul for a while. Will try and replace it as soon as possible. Otherwise things are just peachy. I’ll also try and get some rest, this stuff takes its toll too.

Of course we ran out of batteries while taking the photos, but I guess we’ll have a chance to take some more in the near future. I have to exchange my fins to a different model since the ones I got don’t fit properly, but otherwise all seems to be well. More diving to come tomorrow, so we’ll see how they perform in actual open water.

Reports will follow.

The exams were about assisting student divers, guiding certified divers and conducting training programs independently as a divemaster. I scored 100 per cent in the first two, but misread a question in the third and got “only” 95% from that. Anyway, a pass is anything over 75%, so no problem there. These were the easy ones, we’ll get down to business when we start studying physics, physiology, decompression theory and so on.

Yesterday we also got our new equipment and it’s waiting for us in the office until it’s paid for. If everything goes well, we’ll get to try it all out today in the pool. Right now I’m waiting for the dive shop to produce a bill for me to pay. Otherwise we’re clear to go, and I’ll snap some photos if we get there today.

First of all, it’s actually quite hard work in relatively rudimentary conditions. We typically get up at 5:30, have breakfast from the fridge (no cooking equipment) and arrive at the dive centre at 6:30 the latest. Then we pack up, help the centre staff haul all the equipment to the van, wait for the guests to arrive and head out for a dive.

The Bedroom in all its glory – a bed, a cupboard, a fridge and a toilet

It takes from forty-five minutes to three hours to get to the dive site, depending on which one we’re going to. Some coastal sites can be reached by car, but most of the time we take a boat directly from Sanur.  Usually we do two or three dives and practise some skills during them, have lunch on board or in a beach restaurant and head back to the dive centre around two o’clock or so. After the return trip we wait for the equipment to arrive, service our own stuff and usually give a hand to the staff with air tanks and such. If we’re not exhausted enough after this, there’s always some studies to do in the afternoon.

Returning to Sanur after dives

Finally, if time allows, we take some time to relax, surf the net and spend time with the dive centre staff.  There’s nothing waiting for us in the Bedroom, so we’re in no hurry to get back there. Usually we grab some dinner around seven, take a quick shower and hit the hay at nine. Rinse and repeat.

This is what we have to put up with day in, day out: fish

And yes, it sounds worse than it actually is. We commute by bike, go diving on a boat, get a lot of sun and fresh air on the way and the general philosophy of the whole industry is to have fun. We’ll also stay pretty fit just by attending the training, there’s a million places to eat in, and we actually get to do something we like. Right now it’s the best job/training/whatever in the world, but I’m sure it will be worse some days.

Still, why didn’t we do this any sooner?

And that’s pretty much what we’ve been doing. Monday we just settled in and took a look around the town (basically one road with a T cross) and got the necessities. Tuesday we got the orientation going, met pretty much everyone at the dive centre (later on known as BSB for Blue Season Bali), got our luggage which was left behind already in Helsinki (thanks again, Finnair and their outsourced ground staff), and fixed transportation (a scooter of about 100 cubic centimetres) as well as telecommunication. Numbers given on request.

Wednesday, pool day. Talk about starting by jumping into the deep end… literally. Figuratively it was true too. There were some skills we were supposed to demonstrate I had never done before since I did my open water course with another company, not PADI by whose standards we’re now studying. All things considered it wasn’t that bad, but I would’ve wanted to shine, of course…

Thursday, Tulamben. Up at 5.30 am, gear all together at 6.30 at the centre, and then two hours and some change up north with a wheezing minibus. The views were amazing, as was to be expected. Bali is a volcanic island, and there is a functioning volcano. We drove up and around it to get to Tulamben, where off the black beach lies the wreck of USS Liberty. It’s one of the easiest and safest wreck dives in the world, and probably one of the most famous too. We went there to learn new species of fish, and how to identify fish we don’t already know. I did my very first swim-throughs there too, and saw a humongous barracuda slumbering under the hull. (by humongous I mean about 2 m long, looks like a hauki [pardon my Finnish]) And yes, we learned new fish species. Two dives on that day, and back on the bumpy bus.

Friday (that’s today as I’m drafting this offline, we don’t have the net in the Bedroom which suits us just fine) was a three dive-day. Off the Sanur beach to south-east there are three more islands, one of which is called Nusa Penida. Off Nusa Penida there are lots of reefs and sloping, coral-clad walls with currents blowing past them. When in season, the Mola Molas a.k.a. oceanic sunfish come to Nusa Penida to hang out and reproduce. Now is not the season, but there was plenty to see nonetheless. Scorpionfish (in the picture), frogfish, stonefish, heaps upon heaps of the usual suspects (different angels and butterflies) and a huge napoleon wrasse. We just drifted along the current, letting it do most of the work.

As I’m writing this it’s almost nine pm, and we’re pretty much ready to call it a day. Tomorrow we’re going – surprise surprise – diving again. It takes forever to upload the photos, but eventually they’ll get there – just be patient.

To be continued…

We’re so bloody busy with the internship program we hardly have the time or energy to write anything. Just for you to know that we’re still alive even if you don’t hear about us every few days.

As I anticipated in the last post, our luggage isn’t, but it should be on its way already. If we’re lucky, it lands in Bali in a few hours and will be transported to us defore dusk. Until then we’ll just have to cope without a few things.

Speaking of few things,  we couldn’t go diving even if we had the time: I did take our certificates out, but it doesn’t really help as long as our swimming gear and Eve’s contact lenses are somewhere on their way.

Anyway,  here we are. First impressions on food, traffic and the diving centre are all good, the locals are friendly and so on. Our accommodation, the Bedroom, only has a bed, fridge, shower, toilet, fan and (at least) one cockroach, so we won’t be spending a lot of time there.

Now we’re off to find some food, and in the afternoon we’ll start studying first aid and do some shopping.  Seems like there’s a lot to learn, but that’s why we’re here. Let’s get busy!

Well, when I say everything, I don’t mean to say that our luggage would be in the plane or anything. When we were boarding the plane, the ground staff told us our bags were not received (whatever that means). All in all, we might have to wait a few days to get our stuff to Bali. Good thing we took our log books with us instead of leaving them to the airline company. I’d hate to miss dives because of such rotten luck.

Oh, the flights? I can tell you, Cathay Pacific is great. The plane is spanking new, with individual seat back monitors, on-demand shows and AC sockets for each seat. Yep, freakin’ AC sockets! I can play Monkey Island while going towards Hong Kong at 900 kilometers an hour!