SD What?

Due North-East of Crystal Bay, on the North Coast of Nusa Panida is a site called SD. Slated as one of Bali’s top three dive sites,

“SD” is such an unimaginative name for a site so rich in natural beauty. Historically, “SD” stands for Sekolah Dasar’, the Indonesian word for ‘Primary School’, named after  the school building that was located near the beach in front of the dive site.

Not-withstanding the name and although the currents can be quite challenging, on the day we arrived, conditions at SD were excellent for us to be initiated into the world of Drift Diving.

The sea bed slopes gently away from the beach to the first of the two Eastward Drift lines running parallel to the shore-line. The second, a more difficult line, also runs eastward in much deeper water where the sea bed falls away sharply from the first line. Our Drift line was exactly between these two lines.  There was another reason for the choice of this path; there is a known thermo-cline below which the second Drift Line runs. Choosing to dive between the two lines meant that we were just above the thermo-cline so that the water, although noticeably cooler was certainly not uncomfortable, even for the 3mm wetsuits.

It is a sign of a great if not excellent instructor to be able to impart understanding and knowledge to novices without them knowing it because they were too busy enjoying what they were doing to notice that that is exactly what was happening. This was such a dive. Lifted straight out of the text book, we, well, drifted effortlessly towards the exit point. Except for one self inflicted mistake that was totally my fault and which I was able to recover from very quickly, we were oblivious to the challenges of Drift Diving because we were way too busy having such a wonderful time observing the abundant marine life.

The only drawback to Drift Diving is that it ends way too soon. We knew that we were at the end when we watched the inflated and deployed signal tube start to slowly float upward. Our safety stop was spent peacefully tethered to the ascent line or cocooned within the meditative tranquillity of practicing buoyancy control. When we reached the surface, the boat was already in the offing, a testament to good coordination between our diving instructors and boat crew. Within a few minutes we were back on the boat at the end of a successful completion of the A.O.W.C.

16th. March 2014 – 14:30: A.O.W.C. - SD what?

Due North-East of Crystal Bay, on the North Coast of Nusa Panida is a site called SD. Slated as one of Bali’s top three dive sites,

“SD” is such an unimaginative name for a site so rich in natural beauty. Historically, “SD” stands for Sekolah Dasar’, the Indonesian word for ‘Primary School’, named after  the school building that was located near the beach in front of the dive site.

Not-withstanding the name and although the currents can be quite challenging, on the day we arrived, conditions at SD were excellent for us to be initiated into the world of Drift Diving.

The sea bed slopes gently away from the beach to the first of the two Eastward Drift lines running parallel to the shore-line. The second, a more difficult line, also runs eastward in much deeper water where the sea bed falls away sharply from the first line. Our Drift line was exactly between these two lines.  There was another reason for the choice of this path; there is a known thermo-cline below which the second Drift Line runs. Choosing to dive between the two lines meant that we were just above the thermo-cline so that the water, although noticeably cooler was certainly not uncomfortable, even for the 3mm wetsuits.

It is a sign of a great if not excellent instructor to be able to impart understanding and knowledge to novices without them knowing it because they were too busy enjoying what they were doing to notice that that is exactly what was happening. This was such a dive. Lifted straight out of the text book, we, well, drifted effortlessly towards the exit point. Except for one self inflicted mistake that was totally my fault and which I was able to recover from very quickly, we were oblivious to the challenges of Drift Diving because we were way too busy having such a wonderful time observing the abundant marine life.

The only drawback to Drift Diving is that it ends way too soon. We knew that we were at the end when we watched the inflated and deployed signal tube start to slowly float upward. Our safety stop was spent peacefully tethered to the ascent line or cocooned within the meditative tranquillity of practicing buoyancy control. When we reached the surface, the boat was already in the offing, a testament to good coordination between our diving instructors and boat crew. Within a few minutes we were back on the boat at the end of a successful completion of the A.O.W.C.

16th. March 2014 – 13:00: A.O.W.C. - The Anastatoo’ Hover at Crystal Bay.

A short boat-ride North of Manta Point around the craggy North Western edge of Nusa Panida is the shallows of Crystal Bay. Out of season for spotting the famous for Mola-Mola, it was, for me, Crystal by name and certainly by nature. This protected bay was the site where we were to be indoctrinated into the art of Peak Buoyancy.

Like most things that cannot be objectively and methodically measured, mastery over buoyancy, although highly technical in itself, is part black art and part learning to ride a bicycle. No amount of reading pages 211ff of the good book can quite give you a full understanding unless, to quote Bbi-Wan Kenobi, you: “Use the force”.

Hoping to extend our O.W.C. skills, we flipped backwards off the boat into Crystal Bay and went straight into the foetal position at 9 meters, a meter off the bottom, because that felt like the most calming, yoga like, position to absorb and neutralise the opposing forces that want to pull you both up and at the same down. It became clear to me, that your weight, rather than the weight you carried on your weight belt, played a pivotal role in controlling buoyancy at any level. That and practice, which comes over time.

Of all the skills associated with this component of the A.O.W. course, the “Upside-down (which the ancient Greeks call anastatoo) pivot” or our instructor called “Funny Pivot”, both of which are very apt descriptions of the exercise, is the most fun to do. Try this for fun: while riding a bicycle, try crossing your hands on the handlebar so that your right hand holds the left side of the handlebar and your left hand holds the right side. Now try turning left and you will feel something of the sensation of trying to breathe from an artificial air source, suspended head down no more that half a metre off the bottom of the sea-bed, with your feet pointing to the surface eight metres above you; or should that be below you. Funny to do and absolutely hilarious to watch!

16th. March 2014 – 11:00: A.O.W.C. - Manta Magic.

Manta Point off the West coast of Nusa Penida was the site for our Deep Dive. The site had taken on a grey and foreboding appearance to an inexperienced diver because of the recent sad and tragic event that took place on this very spot.

We listened in solemn silence to the pre-dive briefing, all too aware that Deep Dives can have serious consequences if taken lightly.  This is not a negative approach but I saw it as having a positive effect because it sharpened ones situational awareness and placed a very high value and focus on training.

What a thorough training it was. Text-book to the letter and as though we were living the pages of the training manual; pages 79 to 84 to be exact. 

What is not in the training manual (and can never be) is what we saw next. We were barely at 28.4 meters for 2 minutes when we witnessed first-hand in the near distance why this site is called Manta Point. I was reminded immediately of Micheline Jenner’s poem – Manta Magic:

Graceful flight

Wing-tips in sight

Underwater dance

Weaves magical trance

These hypnotic but shy creatures, one of them a rare Black Manta, kept us at a distance but remained in view for us to admire and remind ourselves, why we dive, even to these depths.

Almost abruptly, the technology of Deep Diving reminded us that this depth was unsustainable. The instructor’s alarm went off and we had to seek shallower waters or after 18 minutes we would have to spend the rest of the day snorkelling on the surface. After a mandatory safety stop, we surfaced for our next exercise after remaining at our deepest dive to date for only 3 minutes.

15th. March 2014 – 17:00: A.O.W.C. - Where’s Home?

The purpose of the next exercise was abandon the compass in favour of using natural features, preferably ones that did not move, as navigational references. My training as a Cartographer should have put me ahead of the curve but my eyesight, or lack thereof, let me down.

I totally missed the cue as to where home was. Noticing that my instructor headed off in an arbitrary direction, I assumed that the assessment had commenced and that he had already pointed to the most obvious feature as “home”. Following our instructor and as many natural clues as I could, I noticed that we were moving in a slow left handed arc that was almost full circle.

So when our instructor signalled “where’s home”, I knew it was almost straight ahead at a bearing of around 340 degrees. The only feature that prevented us from seeing “home” was a crest in the sea-bed, covered with a garden of coral. When we glided over the feature, there it was: no place like “home”.

15th. March 2014 – 16:30: A.O.W.C. - East is East…

I find navigation under water to be the most challenging and yet when done well, the most rewarding of my diving experience to date. It was here that I found out how important communication is and how important it was to see properly.

The forward and reciprocals were really not a problem as we had practiced this in the O.W.C.

Navigating a square was a different challenge all-together. At the pre-dive brief it was clear that if I was going to kick my way across the 30m line, it was my buddy who was going to count my kick cycles. Yet my instructor deliberately asked me how many there were to ensure that I was cross-checking with my buddy. Fortunately and instinctively, I was in fact counting in between admiring the view. There were 60 to my buddy’s count of 58 of the 30 meters and it took us 1 minute and 3 seconds. Measurement completed, it was time to focus on navigating the square.

My instructor then declared the start of the square and home to be a large dome shaped coral formation and indicated an anticlockwise direction starting with a bearing of 60 degrees. I pointed the lubber line in the direction of the bearing, set the index mark at North and then took off. Sixty kick cycles later, my buddy tapped on my tank. I turned left 90 degrees to the left, set the index mark over West and kicked off; followed by South and then back East. Sure enough, as if by magic I could see the dome shaped coral formation looming ahead on the last leg and headed for it.

15th. March 2014 – 13:00: A.O.W.C. - Wreck Dive.

Back to Tulemben and the now familiar Liberty wreck. Only this time it was straight down to business as the already O.W.C. assessed tasks were acquired assumptions. After a very brief, briefing, we entered the water now much calmer than before. Visibility was crystal clear and the temperature was just a trifle cooler than stepping into a warm bath.

We headed straight offshore towards the wreck. Once down we were right in the middle of what was left of the stern. The wreck’s coral encrusted ribs arched upward. I was still adjusting my buoyancy when my shoulder scraped against the rusted bulkhead, reminding me why it said in the good book to ensure that for wreck diving keeping ones tetanus shots up-to-date was essential.

We cut straight down the middle of the wreck to the stern heading over the top of a bright sunlit coral archway and entered another world gaining some sense of enclosed spaces and why it was important to stay off the bottom and look overhead for any potential obstructions.

32 minutes later and much, much too soon I might add, it was time to go topside.