Divemaster life – living legends
Great diving experience this week!
I’ve been at Crystal Divers for almost 2 months, I’m having really great time, meeting very nice and interesting people and the best scuba experience ever! At this moment I’m about to complete the Dive Master course. Part of the courses are, theory lessons which gives you the mandatory knowledge to be a professional DM, water skills and practical application which make you getting confident with what will be one day my daily duty and last, but not least, assisting Dive Instructors during their courses and sometimes we just go for fun dives as well!
I have been studying and diving almost with all the instructors and the divemasters, any day spent with each of them it’s always been fun, safe and professional. I spent the pass two days diving as assistant with two legends of Crystal Divers…
and probably two legends of diving in Bali!
They’re the only two Crystal’s instructors I never dive with before: but this moment came! I was really excited to finally spend the day with them! These guys have thousand and thousand dives logged in their logbook: if counted together it’s more than 15.000!!!! They basically spent more time of their life underwater than on-land
I was really looking forward to see how these guys behave underwater, what’s their approach with costumers, how they spot fishes…basically how they do the thing they most love to do, scuba-diving!
I’m talking about the two “living legends” Magic Toto & Amin!
Destinations of the two days were: Tulamben, wreck dive to see Liberty (US Navy cargo ship from WWII, sank in 1963 after been torpedoed by Japanese submarine in 1942) and Padang Bai the next day to see some cool underwater creatures!
Both days started with a nice ride to the diving sites: during the trip Toto and Amin entertained our guest whit amazing stories about their diving adventures and about life in the beautiful Bali. Me and the costumers were extremely entertained by them I was impressed about the passion and joy they’re transmitted us!
All the dives went very well: we seen many different type of fishes and coral, met Mr.Frank the Barracuda, white tip sharks octopuses, dozens of tiny nudies and many others beautiful creatures….oh…and I’ve finally seen pygmies!!! YEAH!!!!
During the dives I was almost their shadow underwater. I wanted to stay close as much as possible to them, learning from their movements and their behavior. I was totally amazed by them! They look like fishes: it seems they’ve got gills! They know each dive site we’ went diving like their own pockets.
Diving with these amazing guys was an experience that I recommend to every diver: both experienced and beginners! They transmit you love for diving, for underwater life and for life in general. Their smiles are very contagious…and that the best way to start every day!
…oh….and watch out for special fish when you’re next to Magic Toto….you might be able to see the Picacku fish 😀
//Roberto Divemaster trainee, Crystal Divers
Divemaster life – Rescue course
What a day! Can’t believe how much fun learning can be.
A couple of days ago me and Jill (not just a great divemaster trainee but also an amazing friend) helped Andre with a rescue course in Sanur. An experienced diver called James had decided it was time to learn about taking care of others in any kind of dive emergency. Me and Jill were being the victims for all the skills he needed to learn.
I’m telling you: so much fun!
The day started out when I, Andre and Jill arrived to Crystal Divers at 08.30.
Andre made a briefing for us, so that we would know what was about to happen later.
Basically it was more or less panicking and being tired, being out of air underwater, cutting ourselves or being overexerted.
James would had to recognize the situation and handle it the best way he knew.
Half an hour later James arrived and we all packed ourselves to a cozy green bemo, and drove 5 minutes to the beach.
A small taxiboat took us to the real boat, where all of our gear was waiting for us with another divegroup from Crystal.
Me and Jill checked so that everything was on board, and afterwards started setting up our gear and weightbelts.
Because the other group was doing 2 dives and we were only doing one, we let them enter the water first.
While waiting them to get ready, Andre briefs James about the skills.
Me and Jill help the other group find their fins and other small stuff, so things would be as easy as possible for them.
When we got in water, Andre keept signaling us how to act.
We were practicing panicked diver and overexerted diver for several times, and me and Jill really started running out of air for
real as we needed to breath so shallow and quick.
But I’m telling you, it was so much fun seeing how he managed the situations with both Jill and me.
Before we were done with the underwater skills, James needed to organize a find-a-missing-diver-situation.
We all went up, and Andre told me and Jill to go down to a certain spot we had decided earlier.
We went down near to a Jackline on the bottom, and when James and Andre arrived, I was acting unresponsive.
James needed to get me to the surface, and with a little misunderstanding the skill was getting too realistic…
When I did my own rescue diver, we did Rescue 7 skill right after this one. That skill is the one where the rescuer keeps giving the victim rescue breaths while taking off his/her gear off and towing him/her back to the boat. Once James had got me to the surface, I kept on acting unresponsive, evenhtough we were supposed to be done with the skill. After a few moments I started hearing worried voices ”Lumi? Lumi, are you okay?”, but first though it was part of the game.
When I finally response Jill was pretty horrified and said that it wasn’t a funny joke. Yeah, sure, but I wasn’t trying to be funny. Sorry Jill! 
Once everyone was okay again, it was time for surface skills. Mostly same as underwater, but much more exhausting!
Definitely no need to hit the gym after all the jumping in water…
After all we all were so to say okay. I might have fallen off the boat just by being clumsy, normal me, but no big injuries done.
In any case, we had our amazing rescue diver James taking care of the ”small” leg-covering scratches!
Amazing day and 4 smiling, happy divers coming back from the dive!
//Lumi Divemaster Traine Crystal Divers
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
