Swimming Tips

Posts Tagged ‘Dive’

Brianna is just starting to learn to dive. Preparing for some competitive swimming in the future.

Exerfit is Baton Rouge’s newest fitness center designed for the entire family. Our programs are full of high energy, fun exercises that will have everyone feeling fit and healthy. This is a video of a recent event that Exerfit held. It was a Dash and Dive. For more info please go to www.exerfitbr.com

SELF Magazine fitness section gives you a full-body workout centered around swimming exercises.

The best dive sites in Bali.

By Dive Around Bali.

 

 

Detailed information on the best dive sites around Bali per region..

Nusa Penida & Nusa Lembongan:

 

Toyapakeh: A very nice underwater topography made up of great coral boulders and pillars. The fish life is excellent and the deeper areas offer chance encounters with mola mola and other pelagics. Clear and simple, a great Bali dive site!

 

Gamat Bay: The water of this tiny bay is always crystal clear, and the reef, a steep, rugged slope leading up into the bay, is exceedingly rich in hard and soft corals and fish life. On a bright day this reef simply glows.

Like other sites of Peneeda, currents can be tricky here. Unfortunally, the surface often looks like a washing machine, even if it is just fine under water.

 

Crystal Bay: There is a white sandy base to the reef, covered with anemones and soft corals. Following the north side of the bay into the corner, at a depth of 12 metres there is a cave, which opens to the sky that has bats asleep in it. Most of the time there are reef sharks inside the cave. From the bat cave continue following the wall (the reef is not particularly rich) looking out for lobsters that have made their home in the hard coral. The bay is vulnerable to swell, creating up and down currents. When the current is present there is the opportunity to see white tip sharks, leopard sharks, mantas and eagle rays.

 

SD and Ped: These two sites are also extremely popular for their steep walls and prolific marine life. Drift diving along the steep sloped coral encrusted wall with sponges, hard and soft corals, gorgonians and myriad reef fish is awesome. Larger pelagics such as barracuda, tuna and jacks often put in an appearance here.

 

Malibu Point:
The dive site is small and often tricky to dive if currents are strong but it is one of the better places to see sharks. Also big dogtooth tuna, rainbow runners and mackerel to be found at this spot.

 

Blue Corner on the northwest of Nusa Lembongan is a very popular drift dive location. The current can be strong here and can try to pull you downwards. The dive starts east off the point where the lighthouse is. Descend to the slope that starts at 10 metres where you are swept in a drift towards the corner in a westerly direction. At the corner there is a vertical wall with a depth of around 30 metres plus. The main reason to dive this site is because ocean sunfish can be seen here from April to September, but there are marble rays, eagle rays and other pelagics. This is big boy country.

 

Manta point: The name says it all… This is a limestone rock off the southwest coast of Nusa Penida. The above water scenery is dramatic with limestone cliffs that descend straight into the ocean. This is the place for the big manta’s, but if the manta’s are not present, there is noting much to see accept your buddy. Swells can be really big here, so this site has to be dived at the right time.

 

Amuk Bay: Candi Dasa & Padangbai:

 

Tepekong: Dive site The Canyon is a striking structure of angular black boulders. Explore the canyon you’ll be able to see an area with huge schools of sweetlips, batfish, snapper, bumphead parrotfish, unicornfish and big-eyed trevally, all of which can nearly fill the canyon. Sharks are relatively common in this area, usually white tip reef sharks and sightings of Mola Mola is possible. It is very rare not to have a current here. (note: this site can ONLY be dived under good conditions, it is probably one of the most exiting sites in Bali but probably also the most dangerous one. It is nicknamed “the toilet”.)

 

Mimpang: is remarkably varied, combining wall and sloping reefs. The reefs here are amongst of the richest in the whole of Bali, (reminding of the famous sites of southern Komodo and Rinca). The fish life exceptional, including schooling fish, lots of sharks, and even Molas. A very fine diving area.

 

Gili Biaha: This tiny island is one of the most beautiful of the Amuk Bay sites. A steep drop-off reef, nicely fissured and terraced in places, rings most of the island. There are fascinating smaller species as cuttlefish, octopus, nudibranch, and rich soft corals, gorgonians, and black corals, many with commensals.

 

The Blue Lagoon is the location that less experienced divers are usually taken to first, as the dive  sites in this area are generally much less exposed to the strong currents   experienced at the other sites. However, don’t let this fool you into   thinking that this is a second rate area – it’s not. with healthy  bommies and  terrific  general marine life. More of a macro than a wide angle area, there are frogfish, leaf scorpion fish, moray eels, scorpion & stone fish,  blue spotted stingrays and lots of nudibranchs. Blue Lagoon is popular with   tourists from Candi Dasa who go there to snorkel.  The more correct name for the area is Tanjung Sari and there are a number of sites to dive, not just the bay in front of the resort. The relative lack of currents and maximum depths of around 1-18m offer a pleasant combination of an uncomplicated dive site but with plenty to see.

 

Amed:

 

Amed walls: These sites are actually reef slopes combined with walls at the two sites of quiet idyllic Jemeluk bay. Incredibly rich in fish life and always a possibility for pelagic around. Trevally, dogtooth tuna, spanish mackerel, eagle ray, cruise amongst swarms of smaller reef fish above a gorgonian and barrel sponges covered reef slope and wall that drops to 60 metres.

 

There is also a delightful easy dive on old artificial reefs that where put there by the local villagers. Early proof of how well very simple artificial reef structures work. These are just concrete pyramids, about three metres high, but have a dense coral coverage and attract an astonishing amount of reef fish and act as nurseries.

 

Bunutan: This dive site is something special, but has as most important feature the most hallucinating amount of fish imaginable. Clouds of banner fish, surgeon fish and redtooth trigger fish surround you and actually block your view of the reef. Stingrays are everywhere. Cruising white tip sharks and great barracuda are always there. The start of the dive before you descent to 30 meter where there is a deep reef, is in shallow water at a sandy bottom where you swim trough the biggest field of garden eels you will ever see. There are thousands of them. Then there is the big fish show while you drift with the current for a while before you arrive for the last portion on a very rich hard coral reef flat.

 

Deep Blue: From here on the exploration diving of Amed starts. This dive site is only dived by a very few local dive operators. You will likely be the only divers here. This a drift dive with an amazing diversity and number of fish. Sharks are also relatively common.

 

Japanese wreck: A little bay where the wreck lies of a small steel freighter. It rests in very shallow water and is nicely encrusted with gorgonians and black coral bushes. The actual dive site is the reef next to the wreck and is also very rich with soft corals, gorgonians and sponges and shallow fields of staghorn and table corals. It makes a calm wonderful dive, although this dive site is very easily affected by visibility.

 

Gili Selang: This little island looks like it just broke away from the mainland. This is a very nice dive site and covered everywhere with soft corals – probably the healthiest corals in Bali – but also a lot of fish and a good chance to find turtles, bumphead parrotfishes, tunas and whitetip reef sharks. You dive in a very current-swept area, so this dive is only for experienced divers.

 

Kafe Garam: Amed has some very decent muck-diving that is rarely visited and we would like to keep it that way. You dive from the beach on very fine gray volcanic sand and among purposely-dropped rubbish. Ghost pipefish and mimic octopus, stonefish and even the Ambon scorpion fish can be found here.

 

Tulamben:

US Liberty Wreck: the federal shipbuilding company in Kearny, New Jersey built The Liberty. She was 120 meters long, 17 meters in beam, drafted 7.3 meters and grossed 6.211 tons powered by a 2500 horsepower steam turbine engine. Early in the morning of January 11th 1942, the Liberty was motoring across the Lombok Strait, bringing war material from Australia to the Philippines. At 4.15 am the ship was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-166. Although crippled by the blow, the Liberty did not sink. Two destroyers tried to tow the ship toward Singaraja where it was hoped she could be repaired, however the ship was taking in too much water so she was beached at Tulamben. Over the coming year anything of value was removed.

 

In 1963, Bali’s highest and most holy mountain, Gunung Agung, erupted creating a powerful earthquake that rolled the ship in to deeper water and broke her at the bow and stern. The Liberty now lies almost parallel to the beach, the shallowest part of the wreck touches the sandy slope at 7-9 meters and the deepest part is at 28-30 meters. It’s a lovely, easy wreck dive that is popular for photographers as it is totally encrusted in anemones, gorgonians and corals. Tulamben’s black sand provides an excellent colour contrast for the incredible variety of marine life. It’s quite difficult to list what you will see on this dive because you will come across just about everything in any Indo-Pacific reef guidebook. The variety is amazing with minute angelfish, nudibranchs, pipefish and gobies through to the areas of garden eels, huge schools of big-eyed trevally, sweetlips, batfish, butterflyfish set against hard coral, black corals, sponges and sea fans. Current is rarely present and at most it will be mild. The wreck is great for night dives, particularly if the moon is full. You may see Spanish dancers, flashlight fish, or sleeping parrotfish and will notice the different behaviour of marine life compared to the daytime.

 

Drop-off: The Drop Off is an old lava flow from Mount Agung leading out from a temple onshore. It is located at the opposite end of the bay from the wreck. The dive starts off on a steep sandy slope with nudibranchs, flounder and shrimp (be careful with your fins) at 10 metres. There are big sponges with many varieties of shrimp and lionfish and continuing to the right, the slope develops into a reef with very impressive topography, becoming a vertical wall from 15 metres and descending to below 60 metres. The wall has nice, craggy structure and is exceedingly rich. At a depth of 28 metres you will find a sea fan that is almost 2 metres across.

Octopus, Bumphead parrotfish, scorpion fish etc. Are all quiet common here.

 

Batu Kelibit: Just around the corner from Tulamben bay, this beautiful site consists of steep, coral covered ridges separated by valleys of bright white sand. The best site in the area to see big animals.

 

Coral Garden: Just in the front of Tulamben resort in 5- 12 metres of water is a delightfully rich little patch reef, which is dominated by hard coral, including some large table and fire corals, interspersed with anemones and sponges. There is a little bit of everything here. Blue ribbon eels are a very easy find here. The black sand slope to the deep makes an interesting area for good critter findings. It also is an excellent night dive.

 

Seraya secrets: Notorious muck diving site with seahorse, frogfish, harlequin shrimp and a great number of nudibranch species.

 

Kubu is a small fishing village north of Tulamben that is very rarely dived but is becoming justly more popular. There are two dive sites and the coral reef is extremely rich with an abundance of fish life.

 

There is more diving in Batu Niti that lies about half a kilometer to the east. Batu Niti is a volcanic ridge with a lava flow that drops into the sea. Exploration diving!

 

Menjangan:

Garden Eel point: is one of the more popular dive sites where coral growth is healthiest. Longnose hawkfish can be found on the gorginians here and whitetip sharks are often seen on the sandy bottom at around 35 meters. The garden eel colony is on a slope in roughly 20 meters of water.

 

Pos II (park service guard post), off Menjangan’s most southeasterly point, is usually done as a drift dive in the gentle current along the wall. An explosion of colour from the wall of soft coral can be seen here and thermoclines are present where upwellings of cold waters from the deep are met. This often brings in bigger visitors such as mantas and sharks. Just west of Pos II are a couple of caves at around 18 meters that are worth a look.

 

The Anker Wreck: This wreck is actually named for the anchor that still lies about 6-8 meters from the surface. Follow the anchor chain down the steep slope to the flattened remains of the shipwreck at 35 – 50 meters, which lie across about 60 meters of sand. The Anker is a 25 metre long 19th century wooden ship, that carried ceramics and copper, parts of which can still be seen across the site.

 

 

Further Away, North Bali muck-diving:

Secret Bay is located approximately 3.5 hours drive from the south in a small bay called Teluk Gilimanuk where the ferries from Java dock. It is about 2 km across and very shallow with most of it less than five metres deep. Gilimanuk Bay is the only bay off the narrow Bali Strait, where currents can reach 7 knots. This means that it acts as a catch tank for many larval fish and other plankton sweeping between Java and Bali.

Be prepared – you are diving on fine black and gray volcanic sand and rubble and not on a coral reef! This place is a great place for the rare and unusual. On offer are a number of rare jewels for the macro photographer including gobies, frogfish, dragonets, nudibranchs, seahorses, juvenile Batavia batfish and many other organisms.

Night diving at Secret Bay is a truly magnificent experience! You will see some unique creatures that you won’t see on the day dive. This is a shallow dive site with no rich coral growth and limited weed and coral beds. The water can be cold and visibility can be very low due to the dark mud/sand bottom.

 

Puri Jati (PJ): A relatively new dive site for muckdiving lying west of Pemuteran.

You dive from the beach on very fine gray volcanic sand and some seaweed similar to Seraya, Gilimanuk or Lembeh. There are snails, slugs and seahares and even frogfish among the seaweed. You reach a large flat area with sea grass. There are coconut octopuses, hiding in burrows made with shells and pieces of rubbish. On this flat area (6-10m) you also find seahorses, several types of eels, flying gurnard and with good eyes, some hidden scorpionfishes, mostly lionfishes but also the rare Ambon scorpionfish.

There is also a small river close by where you can take a dip.

 

For more information on your dive holiday in Bali feel free to contact me at Dive Around Bali.

 

Michel De Ruyck

 

Hundreds of thousands of people get certified to Scuba dive every year.  Some of them are doing it for a one-time thrill on their honeymoon.  Others are getting certified as a first step, in many, to a (underwater) world of adventure.  In either case, taking a beginner lesson and getting your Open Water Scuba Diver or Scuba Diver certification is the first step.

All beginner classes are  structured in a similar fashion.  The class has two parts, knowledge development and in-water work.  Regardless of the agency (whether PADI, NAUI, SSI or SDI), there is little variance in this first step.  The most important factor is choosing an instructor in which you feel comfortable.  To get certified as a beginner Scuba diver, you must complete all the knowledge development and pass a final exam and you must “master” your in-water skills. While this may seem daunting, it is generally pretty easy for most people.  And, it can be done in as little as a long weekend.

Your Beginner Scuba Diver Course

Most Scuba shops offer mid-week and weekend courses.  Beginner classes are broken up into three components. The first component is the knowledge development.  This is done using three different strategies (1) self study, (2) classroom lecture and (3) online learning.  Most instructors employ more than one of these strategies to develop a student’s knowledge base.

The second component is confined water sessions. Generally, there are five parts to a confined water session.  However, more than one part can be done in a single day or evening.  Confined water sessions are done at a pace determined by the student’s performance.  Some students excel in confined water, some take more time.  Confined water sessions can be done in shallow lakes or oceans, but, most commonly, confined water sessions are done in ten foot deep, heated pools to maximize comfort and relaxation during the early stages of skill development.

The third component is open water sessions.  These are a minimum of four dives done in a lake or ocean environment.  No more than three training dives are done in one day.  During the training dives, students will show mastery of the skills learned during the confined water sessions.  Divers can reach up to 60 feet (which is the maximum depth for an Open Water Diver), discover marine life and live the adventure that is a Scuba diver!

Learn to Scuba dive online

It is the 21st century and the world has taken to educating itself online.  Scuba is no different.  As mentioned above in the first component of a Scuba class, self study is an integral part of learning to dive.  Traditionally, self study has been accomplished through manuals and text books.  And, while many folks, still enjoy this method, the trend has brought us to embracing online learning for the self study component.  As of this date, in-water sessions cannot be done online … yet.

The Online Learning program needs an Internet connection.  It can be done 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.  You do it at your pace.  Some divers do it all in one session, some divers break it up into several sessions.

Your first class session

O.K., you have finished your self study, and tonight is the first night of class.  What should you do? Relax, it’s going to be a lot of fun.  First off, you should bring all your forms.  Your instructor would have given these to you when you signed up. Additionally, you should have all of your self study complete.  If you are using the online learning service, print off your completion document.  If you are using a textbook, bring copies of your completed knowledge reviews.  Eat something light before class — no carbs.  If you are in the classroom, bring a notebook, paper and some water (in a non-spill bottle).  There will be breaks.  If you are in the pool, you will need to bring your personal gear.  This includes, your mask, snorkel, fins, booties, bathing suit, towel, and dry clothes to change into.  You may want to bring some ear drying formula for after the pool session.  Within a few hours, you will be looking and acting like a new Scuba diver.

Gear for a new Scuba diver

Scuba diving is a gear intensive sport.  From the first day of inquiring about Scuba, you have probably been discussing and researching gear.  As a new diver, in class, you must own a mask, snorkel, fins with boots, and an underwater timing device.  Your gear must be Scuba quality.  If you don’t know what that means, you should talk with your instructor.  However, as a general rule, if it came in a $20 package at the local pool store, it probably isn’t Scuba quality.  Once you have jumped in the pool once or twice, it is definitely beneficial to talk about purchasing the rest of your gear with your instructor.  Owning Scuba equipment increases your comfort, fun and safety.  Additionally, once you own your gear, Scuba diving is far more economically sensible than most other adventure oriented sports.  Of course, like any equipment purchase, you want to buy right and buy once.  If you can’t afford or are unsure of purchasing additional equipment, renting is a viable and acceptable second option. 

Once you complete your classroom, confined water and open water sessions, you will be certified to go Scuba diving with a buddy.  This is where the fun and adventure start.  However, this is not where the learning stops.  A great diver is always learning.  Advanced classes will increase your fun and safety.  Sign up for your Scuba certification class today. Your adventure of a lifetime is waiting for you.

Have fun and dive safe!

Information for this article was contributed from LearnScubaToday.com

Is the breath-holding time the limit or coping with the water pressure? Which is the way, she notices, that’s the pressure gets too much??

For many beginners, swimming can be quite a daunting task, especially for those who have had issues with the open water in the past. While there are many swimming classes out there, they might not have the tailor made techniques needed to ensure that you are on the optimal needed for you to get out there and start swimming within a few months. This is not to say that you need to abscond form these classes out there, as by themselves , they are good enough for you to learn all the basics of swimming and get you afloat. But what about after that?

You cannot be paying everytime you need to improve yourself and to get better, you need to practice and practice on your own time. This brings us to the very first point of swimming tips for beginners. The pool and the ocean is your friend, and you should try to visit them as often as they can. Practicing on your own will ensure that you are in tip top shape at all times and that you are constantly improving in the pool. As time goes by, you will be able to notice a tangible difference in your swimming times and your overall fitness, so this is the very first thing to note. Too often do swimmers get out of their classes and remain transfixed in their room, only sporadically visiting the pool or only coming near the water whenever they are near the ocean.

This is not how things should be – swim as often as you can. Another thing that you should note is finding a buddy to practice with, which can be particularly useful when it comes to self improvement. A small dose of healthy competition is the spur you need to improve one another and it becomes more of a race that is both fun and engaging. It is also the motivation that you will need to keep practicing and go to the pool, as we all know, practicing by yourself can be quite boring and tedious sometimes. Partner yourself with someone with the relative same skill sets, so that there isn’t a great discrepancy in talents, which could mean the difference of someone giving up because the talent marker is just too high for them to keep up with. Last, but not least, always keep a journal of your progress.

Keeping a sort of diary is very useful when it comes to tracking your own personal progress. That way, you are able to sort out what is working for you and what is not. Seeing a plateau in your performance means that you can introduce new skills, a new stroke or even up the ante on your daily practice so that progression will always occur. In the end of the day, swimming should also be fun and exciting. With these 3 methods, you as a beginner, will be able to dive right in and make the improvements you need to be a competent swimmer.