Letter from the Directors

As we enter into May we come ever closer to the busy high season that fast approaches.  That means different things to different people but to me, it means Mola Mola!  We have already noticed the water temperature at Nusa Penida dropping and that is the first sign that the Mola Mola are on their way.

Normally, the most prolific months of the year for sightings are July, Aug, Sep and the beginning of October.  We have already had a few sightings this year but don?t get too excited yet, they are not here in large enough numbers for us to start getting carried away.

This year we continue to run our Mola Mola day trips and Mola Mola & Manta Madness dive safari?s for those divers looking to get a front row seat.  I am proud to have some of the most experienced Mola Mola dive guides on the island working for us at Blue Season Bali which will make the adventure even more rewarding for you.  As always, our trips get booked up so I advise that you book early; you may even find we give you a better price if you book in advance.

2012 is the year when Blue Season Bali really focused on training more new divers and so far we have seen a lot of interest in our PADI Open Water Diver course special offer.  During this year we are running the course for only Rp3,000,000 as long as you can start on a Monday or a Thursday.  It is a great way to get certified at a very low cost.  There are no differences between this course and our standard open water course; the quality of instruction and the whole experience is unrivalled in Indonesia.

And so as we move into the busy time of year I hope that we will see you once again in Bali to dive with our dive team.  We are here to help you find your perfect diving holiday. We thank you once again for your continued support and hope to see you in Bali again soon!

Jonathan Cross
Managing Director
Blue Season Bali

Critter of the Month: Eagle Ray

These splendid creatures are occasional visitors to the dive sites that we visit around the north coast of Nusa Penida

The spotted eagle ray has a very distinctive long snout that is flat and rounded and often described as looking like a duck?s bill. The head is quite thick and very different from the Manta Rays that gather most days around the Southern edges of Nusa Penida.

Eagle rays can be as large as 3 metres across the wings and up to 5 metres in length, including the tail which has a long venomous spike close to where the tail joins the main body. It can weigh over 200kg.

On occasion the Spotted Eagle Ray will be seen rising out of the water and ?flying?.

The main food for these ?flying? wonders is clams, oysters, shrimp, octopus, squid, sea urchins as well as bony fish.

Spotted eagle rays produce eggs that develop inside their body and hatch within the mother and then feed on yolk. Up to 4 pups are born in each litter, each measuring  17-35cm

The spotted eagle ray is considered as "Near Threatened" by the World Conservation Union so we consider ourselves fortunate indeed when we get to see them.

Internship Programs - Divemaster Internships!

It's been another busy, fun and sun-filled month with the BSB interns for our professional development team. We've experienced the huge diversity of diving in Bali, including the USAT liberty wreck in Tulamben, manta rays and epic drifts around Nusa Penida, muck diving at Seraya Secrets and enjoying the stunning visibility at Padang Bai. Amongst a multitude of activities, our days have included guiding workshops; assisting on courses (we're getting very proficient at playing panicked divers during rescue courses) and working hard to hit perfect scores for the dive skills demonstrations.

We've also been getting clued up on underwater marine life by playing games such as 'Fish du Jour' and the 'dive shopping list' to build up our knowledge of fish, creatures and plants underwater. Our aim as always has been not just to get the interns through the course but to create rocking dive professionals who are ready to do the dive industry proud.

This month, we'd like to congratulate Roger, Natalie, Tino, Nina, Glen and Ninad on becoming PADI Divemasters. Its great to see so many of our divemasters deciding to continue their education by joining the latest Instructor Development Course at BSB. It just makes us so proud...(*sheds a tear). Welcome also to our new DMTs: Katarina from Serbia, Erin from the USA and of course Safri who is now one of four local DMTs at Blue Season Bali. The next couple of weeks will see DMTs Dayne 'Can I?' Pigors and Tegan 'I feel a bit panicky' Randall getting signed off and we'll be spoiling the interns rotten with a dream 3 day trip to Menjangan in North Bali to check out the mandarin fish and the awesome wall dives in the national park.

PADI IDC in Bali

This month has seen another successful turnout for the IDC team with 9 candidates showing up from all over world. Stuart, Ninad, Douglas, Ayaka, Aleks, Eugenia, Glen roger and Daniel have been great fun and the atmosphere has been incredible.

Jon Cross, managing director of Blue Season Bali and platinum PADI Course Director, has been spearheading the IDC this month. As usual, Jon has had a great deal of support with IDC Staff Instructors Robert Scales and Thomas Mckenzie putting in loads of effort and hours.

A special mention should go to our newest PADI Course Director. Congratulations to Ikuma, who becomes our fourth PADI Course Director here at Blue Season Bali. Ikuma heads up the Japanese professional development team and has been hard at work with our Japanese candidate Ayaka.

With another 100% success on this month's PADI Instructor Examination, we congratulate all nine of our candidates and look forward to seeing them teach their very first scuba diving students. Well done, guys. You have worked hard and earned the right to call yourselves PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors!

Technically speaking

If you've been reading the newsletter for a while now, you are getting used to the tec guys being busy here at Blue Season Bali. This past month has been no exception as technical instructor trainers Bazz and Westy have been in the water running all levels of the PADI TecRec curriculum, from Tec40 all the way up to Tec Trimix Instructor.

In between courses, the lads also squeezed in a few exploration dives as part of our ongoing project to map the deep dive sites of North Bali. These efforts are helping us to offer a greater variety of technical diving than has ever been available in Bali.

Special Announcement: We are proud to expand our technical training portfolio with the addition of TDI Extended Range, Trimix and Advanced Trimix courses to our already busy technical schedule. In addition, the guys are now working out the logistics and equipment needs to begin offering both levels of PADI Sidemount training (recreational and technical). We expect these courses to be added to our rotating schedule by the beginning of August, so stay tuned for some special offers right here in the Blue Season Bali News when they do!