Indonesia

Indonesia 2018

PADI Certified: Professional Mermaid-Master, HERE I COME!

I am not afraid to admit that after I started graduate school, I lost a lot of the self-confidence I use to have back in undergraduate. One thing in particular was my confidence in scuba diving. At first I was really embarrassed about it and I struggled a lot because of it, but sometimes shit happens in life and you just gotta get yourself situated. Something I noticed about grad school was how unnecessarily "cut throat" competitive it was with a lot of people and being the hopelessly timid person I felt like was no good. I knew I had to shape up and so I decided that the best way to overcome this hurdle was to do something about it, thus the reason (or at least one of them) I choose to go to Indonesia to do the Divemaster scuba course.

I did my Divemaster course through Adventure Scuba Dive Bali and it was one of the best decisions I could have made. First of all, Indonesia is a really awesome place to see cultural diversity and it's pretty cheap (double win). Second of all, Never would I have thought that this course would be so much fun. I think part of the reason I enjoyed it so much was because of the people at ASDB. I met so many wonderful friends that made such a positive impact on my life. I couldn't have asked for a better group of instructors and fellow DMT's (divemaster trainees).

Throughout the duration of this 17 day DM course (yes I know it's short, it was an intensive) I learned so much more than I ever imagined. I think one of the best things about this experience was all of the diversity among the ASDB group. We had people from virtually everywhere in the world teaching and diving together. I found it incredibly fascinating (and entertaining) to hear about everyone's stories and past experiences. I made so many new friends and so many memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life. The times we shared truly were some of the funnest that I have had and someday I hope to be able to meet up with everyone again. I don't usually get so attached to people but by the time those 17 days were over, I felt so close to everyone that I cried almost the whole plane ride back to Aus. Not to sound like a total crybaby, but I can't help the fact that this amazing group of people had made themselves a special place in my heart.

On a separate note, I learned a lot about diving and finally felt comfortable in my own skin (and gear). I gained my confidence back (plus some) and left Indonesia feeling like I could do just about anything. I think the DM course is an important step in someones diving career because it not only teaches you the in's and out's of the sport but it also teaches you to troubleshoot and take leadership in certain situations. For me, it was everything I needed to become a better diver. At the end of it, I ended up collecting my Divemaster AND Master Diver certifications!

Throughout my time in Bali, I went to Tulamben and dove the USAT Liberty, Nusa Penida island, and Padangbai. I would have to say that Padangbai was probably the prettiest on land, but Nusa Penida was the best to dive at. On my dives I saw some pretty exquisite marine life which included manta rays, black tip reef shark, beautiful coral colonies, cuttlefish, octopus, moral eels, parrotfish, sea turtles, and tons of reef fish. Not to mention some underwater statues and a submarine full of tourists (and in their case we were part of the underwater display).

I also reached a new max depth of 132 ft and collected over 30 dives on this trip. I did a few night dives (and found some money tucked into one of the coral colonies), a few deep water dives, and assisted in some beginner scuba courses. This trip definitely taught me a lot and made me step out of my comfort zone, but most importantly, it made me a stronger person.

One last side note, from an environmental perspective, there is something I would like to address. Even though Indonesia is very beautiful, there was so much trash absolutely everywhere. It physically made me ill to look at. I don't think I have ever seen so much on-land litter and marine debris in my life. I can honestly say that on every single dive I picked up at least a handful of trash, sometimes even more (enough to fill my BCD pockets). I am huge into anti-littering and cleaning up the environment so seeing that much shit everywhere really got to me. I mean we would be driving to Tulamben and on the way would just be riverbeds completely covered with garbage. Padangbai was probably the worst when it came to marine debris. One scenario that really stuck with me was at our safety stop in Padangbai, I looked around and saw a couple comb jellies and thought to myself "wow that's so cool, we are surrounded by these little guys", but then when I took a closer look I saw that half of the "comb jellies" around us were actually plastic bags. It was that moment when I realized how true the saying is that "sea animals can't tell the difference between food and plastic", I couldn't tell the difference at first glance either. The take away message from this is that human pollution has gotten so bad and something needs to be done about it. There is no more "out of sight out of mind" because it is ruining our beautiful planet. It's truly heartbreaking to see. If you see something in the water or on land, and it doesn't compromise your health, pick it up. Don't litter and try to clean up what you can. We're all stuck on this earth together so let's try to take better care of it!

~RMW