Weddings, Families, Nusa Penida trips and Mantas!
We are back in business! ...Well we didn’t really go anywhere but the last couple of months we have been SUPER busy!
Here is what we have been up to…..
Wedding
We are so excited to finally announce that Wayan has married his fiancé Georgina! The wedding was a traditional Balinese celebration and we will be writing another blog in the upcoming weeks to fill you in with all of the questions you may have about Balinese weddings! The ceremonies took place over a span of 10 days from the 19th - 28th October of which 5 of these days were public events.
After the weeks were over, they decided they needed a bit of a break and so headed over to Islands Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan to enjoy some downtime before Wayan returns to work. (Of course they enjoyed some dives over there too!)
New divers
A huge congratulations to Bali Dive Coves new Open Water divers - Elisa, Laura, Lily W and Lily K! Everyone did fantastically and we are excited to send the off into the World's oceans! We also would like to say congratulations to Olly on completing his Advanced Open Water course with us this week - we practiced a lot with currents as he is now heading over to Komodo to put his skills into practice.
Special Guests
For the month of October and November we were honoured that so many of Georgina and Wayans (new) family and friends could make it over for the celebrations.
The first of the guests to arrive were Martin, Emma and the stormtrooper! Martin is the guy who is responsible for introducing the world of professional diving at his Dive Center, Buddies Dive Cove in Malta (notice a similarity in the name!?). Then we had Paul F (and wife Wulan) Jacky, Tash, Paul, Claire, Nick and Lily joining us also from the Malta crew! They all enjoyed the beauty of Amed, Nusa Penida and Tulamben.
Next to arrive were all of Georgina’s family - Parents, brothers and sisters, aunties, uncles, cousins, god parents and good friends - the lot! They graced us with their presence for 2 weeks in our sunny paradise!
Wayans new Mother and Brother in law (Lucinda and Tom) enjoyed some great dives with him in Amed and Nusa Penida! It’s not their first time diving in Bali and it won’t be their last!!
We also had best friends Drew, Terry, Helena and Milly over!
Youngest diver, DSD’s and Refreshers
Also in October we saw our youngest diver, 9 year old Phoebe come through our doors! Together with Mum, Sarah and friend Jess (who were part of the wedding party) they decided they wanted to take the plunge in the Bubblemaker and Discover Scuba Diving program.
After a theory session at the Cove, we donned the gear and took our first breaths together underwater! All girls did amazingly and they promised us they would be back to complete their Open Water certifications one day! Later that day, uncle Teddy, together with friends Will and Jesse refreshed their diving skills after a few years of not diving. The next day Lily G also decided she had to give this diving thing a go and successfully completed her DSD experience on the USAT Liberty! Well done guys - great dives all round!
Snorkelling
Scuba diving isn’t always for everyone. Maybe it’s a medical condition which doesn’t allow it or you might be happier staying on the surface enjoying the abundance of marine life! We had a great few days with John, Jo, Madison, Chris, Sandra, Bex and Georgie discovering the stunning reefs of Amed and Nusa Penida. We saw plenty of nemos, trumpet fish, Johns favourite - parrot fish (in facts Wayans job whenever John isn't in Bali is to baby sit the Parrotfish to make sure they are still there for next time!) schools of mackerel, beautiful butterfly fish and plenty more!
Manta rays
We ran 2 very successful trips over to the neighbouring island of Nusa Penida. It is here, at a dive spot called Manta Point which is the only place in Bali to spot the magical Manta Rays. reaching up to lengths of 4-6m they are truly magnificent! Both trips were extremely lucky to have mantas swimming all around them the entire dive!
Refresher and Discover Scuba Diving
This week we had Linda and Daniel come over to us from Australia, Linda is an already certified diver but it had been a few years since she was last in the Water. Daniel had taken part in a few Discover Scuba Diving experiences before and wanted to visit our world once more! They took part in the Refresher and DSD program starting in the sheltered bay of Jemeluk and the next day they both got up at the crack of dawn to discover the beauty of the USAT Liberty at Sunrise!