Second Hand Clothing Sale!

Protecting Our Ocean Planet One Dress at a Time

It was a beautiful sunny day at Bali Crystal Divers for the big second hand clothing sale fund raiser for Project Aware. The first task was to create a spider web of display line around the Santai Restaurant to hang the clothing from. We had hundreds of items of clothing, shoes and jewelry donated by Crystal’s amazing family, friends and staff. There was something for everyone! From baby clothes to leather skirts and a pair of blue shoes (maybe not from Elvis, but close!!).

We even had some tasty home-baked goods donated for sale at the fund raiser. Not only did we have great donors, we had fabulous   buyers! We had buyers waiting patiently under warm sunny skies for the opening time to make the first dash for bargains. We held all buyers to the same start time so that all had a fair chance at all the bargains. Thanks to all who participated, over 11 million rupia was raised for Project Aware. It was an   impressive accomplishment given that prices started at only 1,000 rupia. It was also an opportunity to spread the word about practicing re-use, recycle and re-purpose rather than just throwing things away. Bali is working hard to change this throw-away approach to life and Crystal Divers are doing their best to change attitudes one dive and diver at a time. Nothing went to waste! All the items not sold were donated to another charity organization to support the animals needing help and rescue around Bali. This was a win and good time for everyone involved!!

Read more at Project Aware http://www.projectaware.org/update/bali-crystal-divers-protecting-our-ocean-planet-one-dress-time

Divemaster life

Even though I needed to wake up at 05:45 to be at Crystals by 06:30, I woke up feeling happy and enthusiastic about the coming day.
I had been helping Magnus with Open Water Course for 2 days, first in the pool for the confined water exercises and the diving in Sanur Channel the previous day.
Now it was time for Tulamben and the amazing wreck we were about to see.

When I arrived to Crystal I first made sure all the needed equipment was packed.
Right size BCD’s, eno

ugh fins and wetsuits for all the divers…
Nothing really complicated once you figure out the system, just a routine we make to be sure everybody will have a great day diving.

As soon as the customers were there, we all hop in a minibus and head to the Northeast part of Bali.
The drive took around 2 and half hours, and we had a lot of time to chat and laugh and also sleep a little, as it has been an early morning for everybody.

Once we arrived I started setting up Magnus’s equipment, as that is the way we work.
Divemaster trainees always do the equipment setting up, as it is good practice for themselves, and also that way the instructors will be free to help and guide their students.
In a normal fun dive i would had set up also the guest’s equipment, but now that it was part of their learning, they needed to do it them self.

When everybody was ready, we walk to the beach for the dive.
Magnus gave a briefing for the dive: maximum depths and things we were about to do and see.
Then we get in water and dive for about 40 minutes.
During the dive I kept on counting the divers, so no one would be separated from the group.
There was absolutely no problems with that, as the new open water divers were pretty good on following the leader.

After the dive we change the cylinders, once again the students made their own and I did both mine and Magnus’s.
Then we walk back to our car, have a little snacks and check the menu for lunch.
We needed to wait for an hour to be able to enter the water again, but we didn’t waste time just by sitting bored.
The next dive the students needed to do couple of compass exercises, and they were practicing the use of compass along with me and Magnus.
As soon as our dive computer beeped for us to be able to dive again, we went down to the beach, put our gear on, do the buddy check as in all the other dives and walk in water.

Magnus made the students do their exercises and I took care that the other student felt confident as the instructor focus on the other one doing the skill.
When they were finished, we just continue the dive in Coral Garden, dive site right next to the wreck.
We have a dive pretty much as long as the first one, and during that time we saw a huge range of different fish and coral species.
Always a great feeling getting under water and just focusing on your breathing, not worrying about anything you would at the surface.

After the dives we have a tasty lunch, little ice cream from the shop near by, before starting the journey back to Sanur.
Once back in Crystal we all sat down to have a drink and do our logbooks.
Remembering all the small things from the dive, logbooks are a nice way of going back to the dive for a moment.
Then we waited for the transport for the guests and said goodbye to those new certified divers.
As they left it was also the end of our working day.

I’d say it is a pretty good way of spending a day!

//Lumi Divemaster Traine Crystal Divers