Tech diving courses are tough and rewarding at the same time, and one of the first rewards is an epic decompression dive to put all skills in place and finish off your course in style with Two Fish Tech in Amed, Bali. One of our favourite places to visit is the shipwreck in Kubu and combine a dive here with the natural amphitheatre that lies beyond.
Combining twinset and sidemount diving
Our recent tech student Ashok spent two weeks with us to train up to the level of TDI Extended Range diver, completing a range of tech diving courses partially in Sidemount and some of it in twinsets. With all skills practiced repeatedly and completed on previous dives, all that remained to do was to complete a well-planned and led dive to graduate.
Planning the details
Like most tech dives, this one started on the previous day with dive planning, making sure gases and logistics are all in place. The first part of the dive would be spent exploring the amphitheatre, a natural structure lying in 50m + beyond the wreck itself. It takes a few minutes to reach that depth and part of Ashok’s challenge was to ensure he would not break the planned maximum depth of 55 m whilst exploring.
Next, it was time to head back up the reef to the Boga wreck itself. Sunk deliberately around 2011, this former patrol ship was donated by the Indonesian government to be sunk here and create an artificial reef for divers. After all, the nearby USAT Liberty is one of the main diving attractions in the area. Whilst original plans had the Boga bottom out in 30 metres, she slid down the slope she was positioned on and now lies in 18 (top deck) to 30 metres.
The main act – the Boga Wreck
The intact propeller is a great place to stop and pause before entering the wreck itself. Sidemount, twinsets and rebreathers fit through the hatches, and divers remain in the light zone with plenty of access to open water. Following the bottom deck, divers pass a car wreck within the wreck on their way to the bow.
Here, there is an excellent opportunity to practice precision propulsion
techniques and buoyancy whilst ascending to the second deck. From here it’s up to the top deck for the remaining minutes of bottom time before starting to complete our decompression stops on the reef.
A great dive to end technical diving training, the wreck often shelters schooling barracuda, midnight snappers and batfish, so there is plenty to see. And if you’re very lucky you might just encounter reef sharks in the amphitheatre.
