Archive | Life in Bali

Soon to be instructors….

By admin on November 26, 2011 in Diving in Bali, Life in Bali, PADI Instructor Training

So here’s the next status update on this month’s PADI IDC group.

First off don’t leave your cereal in the classroom…unless you want ants for breakfast… Didn’t stop me from digging in. Mmmm

Anyways,

Over the past few days we’ve been getting hit by wave after wave of information, evaluation, positive reinforcement and feedback, resulting in waves of progress. We’ve all individually had to prepare and present 2 separate knowledge development presentations. To start off, we are all given a different question that our group of “open water” students struggled with. We then have to take them through and reinforce values, key points, application to upcoming skills they will face in both confined and open water situations and make sure that by the end, everything is simplistically understandable and crystal clear. We get to use things like the PADI prescriptive teaching guide which makes things convenient offering video’s and other interactive tools. Overall, it’s a great way to get us experienced and comfortable. It allows us to execute lessons to a variety of students while also teaching us presentation structure and how they should be conducted more effectively. So far I’ve scored a 5 and 4.5 out of 5 so confidence is at a high and hopefully I can finish off strong with the final knowledge development! Everyone else’s presentations have been great and quite animated which makes things fun for both us the students as well as the course directors. Definitely no shortage of laughs with the charismatic, creative bunch we got packed into that classroom.

The next thing we’ve been putting our nose to the grind on is our confined water presentations as well as today, we had our first open water presentations. These entail a real life simulation of teaching students to both correctly and safely perform a skill according to PADI standards. You get marked on everything from the briefing, highlighting objectives, describing the value, signals, organization, making proper use of an assistant and most importantly, identifying assigned problems and correcting them appropriately. Finally we must do a debriefing describing what the students did well and what things they need to remember for the future. This may all seem fine and dandy in the pool but when it comes to open water, it’s another story. Today, for example, we all were out in Sanur taking turns being the instructor. I was the last to go and just my luck, as I was preparing for a hover skill using a Jon line attached to a buoy line, a massive mob of seaweed came out of nowhere and engulfed the line. I literally had to get out a knife and saw and rip away for about two minutes until I could finally free up the line. I really wish a picture was taken because words just can’t describe how big this clump of seaweed was and how funny it must have looked as my students watched me tackle this monster. I guess we can say this was a great learning experience of what can happen in a real open water situation with a actual group of students… My hopes are that it never does…

So for the final 6 days of IDC we have one more knowledge development presentation, 2 more confined water presentations and one more open water integrated skills presentation. All this as well as a couple more workshops, a couple more pool sessions and a day out in Penida which I think we’re all looking forward to. Things are busy as can be, but lots of fun too. Finally, 2 days before the IE we have 2 days of mock IE. This is our final assessment to make sure we are ready for the 3 day IE (instructor exams) as well as fine tune any last little bugs in the system. Our group is full of positive thoughts and I can’t wait to become instructors with such a great bunch…Fingers crossed…

WATERBOM!!!

By admin on September 1, 2011 in Life in Bali

Last Monday me and a couple of the boys and gals from BSB decided to make the most of our day off and ventured down to Waterbom! For those of you who don’t know, Waterbom is a water slide amusement park in Kuta and I must say, it is quite the place. We got a little more sleep than usual but still got up bright and early to arrive at waterbom just as the doors were opening. A smart decision to beat the tourist rush and the long line ups (which = more fun). Luckily, last minute I decided to grab my underwater camera to document just how much fun we had. Here it is ladies and gentleman, our day at Waterbom!!!

Lookin like a Diver!

By admin on September 1, 2011 in Diving in Bali, Life in Bali, PADI Divemaster Training

As part of my Best Dive Job prize package the great people of Blue Season Bali in partnership with Aqua Lung have included a full dive equipment package. This included a bcd, regulator, wetsuit, boots, fins, dive computer, snorkel & mask! The whole works!!! Upon my arrival the only dive equipment I had to my name was a snorkel and mask and the snorkel was lost shortly after my arrival during a hectic rescue dive in Sanur. So, the dive equipment package was much needed and greatly appreciated. Here’s a short video of me getting suited up at Divemasters. Check it out!

Feelings on coming to Bali

By admin on August 4, 2011 in Life in Bali

When thinking about coming to Bali I am overwhelmed with excitement and anticipation. The duration of which I have waited since winning the contest has added to the overall built up which makes it that much more exciting that finally I am just hours away from touching down.

Of course my immediate thoughts are related to the eagerness to get in the water and start diving. Everything I know up to this point about Bali diving is through magazines, Youtube videos and other peoples experiences but to finally be able to submerge myself in the underwater world will truly be incredible. Of course I could go on forever about how I can’t wait to dive the USS Liberty wreck or venture around Nusa Penida and see my first ‘Mola Mola’ Sunfish, but for me when I think about Bali, I look at what this experience will be as a whole.

I look forward to the many new foods I will be trying. The many clubs and bars I may not remember the following morning. The exploring and diversity of nature and wildlife I will see. The difference in lifestyle I will be living compared to what I am accustomed to back home. The many people I will meet and make friends with both locals of Indonesia but also tourists from around the world just stopping by to enjoy the many things I myself am there to enjoy. How the spiritual and majestic nature of Bali will impact my life. What I will learn about myself while living abroad and how I will adapt to the culture shock. I’ve always been quite open minded and love experiencing new things and luckily since I’ve had the pleasure of visiting different places around the globe like Africa, Japan, Europe, and the Caribbean I have some experience with navigating my way through foreign countries and learning the ways of the locals by the locals.

Of course, since I am far away from home I will have to be diligent and responsible for not only the wellbeing of myself but also my girlfriend. Thankfully I have the Blue Season Bali team to show me the ropes and teach me the ways. I look forward to taking on the challenge of learning new things both with diving and living. If this contest has showed me anything it’s that if you truly want to achieve something you really have to put your heart and soul into it. Your determination only stretches as far as your motivation and with this opportunity I have been granted, I certainly don’t need any added incentives to truly relish on the experience I have ahead of me.

Everything I’ve heard about Bali thus far from friends, family or friends of friends has been that they never wanted to leave. If that’s the case, then I guess all my friends and family back home will have to come here if they want to see me. The balls in their court!

Coming to Bali

By admin on June 23, 2011 in Life in Bali

As I am writing this blog I have yet to even touch down in the Island of the Gods. That being said, my journey towards Bali thus far has been quite the process full of anticipation, eagerness and frantic scrambling to wrap up my life back home… Since receiving the life changing news about winning The Best Dive Job in the World my life has been anything but relaxing.

The past few months have consisted of quite the variety of things ranging from rewarding and memorable moments with friends and family as well as some emotional ones. In those months however my life has had a certain sense of ease to it knowing that I will soon be living in paradise for the next 7 months.

As I awaited my departure date I looked forward to things like my spread in The Mag, a local Bali magazine, an article in a local newspaper as well as a huge event at a nearby nightclub which was quite the night from what I remember. Of course it was not all fun and games. I wrapped up working my final days as a cook, a job I have had for over 5 years and although I will greatly miss the people and relationships I have built there, I can confidently say I was happy to leave all the frantic cooking and kitchen stress behind.

Luckily the great people of Blue Season Bali said it was ok for my long-time girlfriend Danielle to come along with me so the next step for us was moving out of the apartment we just seemed to finally get settled in. Although moving out is always hard, the thought of starting a new life in Bali was reassuring enough to wash away any feelings of disturbance. From there I basically gave away half my wardrobe sold my car, dirt bike and anything else I could get some cash for. In many ways it was the Kenzo Kiren’s everything must go sale which looking back on, I think many people benefited from.

The next step before departing from Vancouver was to get the proper visas in order. Due to a couple complications I had to go to the Indonesian consulate 3 separate times, however, that part of the process made it that much more gratifying when they finally gave me the stamp of approval. As for the actual journey from Vancouver to Bali, originally our plan was to fly to Japan and spend a week or so visiting some family and reaffirming myself with the Japanese language. Unfortunately those plans fell through so we started looking at flying through Australia.

Both my girlfriend and I have never been to Australia so we thought it would be an enjoyable start to the whole experience of moving across the world but after missing out on a special flight deal we had to scratch those plans too. In the end we caught a wicked deal through Hong Kong. Three movies, a couple TV shows, an onboard street fighter arcade game, a couple airplane meals, a little nap and 13 hours later we touched down in Hong Kong International Airport. From here it’s just a “quick” 17 hour layover before we catch our flight to Denpasar! That part of the journey has yet to take place so that part of the story will have to wait for another day!