Two Fish Divers Lembeh was an amazing place to start my journey of becoming a divemaster! While there were many things to learn during my first week of divemaster training, the peaceful jungle setting of Lembeh provided a relaxing balance.
The week began with learning how to demonstrate different scuba skills. It’s one thing to be able to complete a skill, such as removing and replacing your mask, but it’s a whole other concept to demonstrate these skills. Thanks to the guidance of my dive instructor Richard, I quickly began to recognize that to properly demonstrate a skill is more like a performance, exaggerating each step for clarity while keeping it succinct and moving with ease. It was a bit like learning a song to play on the piano, practicing each step over again until the great feeling of when it all comes together into one fluid piece.
I also spent time practicing navigation while doing search patterns and a mapping project. Selecting a search pattern and then following that route with the help of a compass feels like an extreme scavenger hunt. Mapping the house reef was also a fun way to get more oriented to my environment, as well as more skilled with a compass and search patterns. However, the most challenging part of following a pattern is how easily one can become distracted by the amazing creatures of Lembeh strait, such as the pregnant seahorse or colorful nudibranchs we spotted while navigating.
Luckily, in between practicing skills, there was still plenty of time to experience Lembeh’s muck diving. Having never done muck diving before, it was a unique experience to get acquainted with. Swimming over the sandy bottom, it at first seems unlikely that much lives there, then suddenly there’s a blue-ringed octopus, and a little farther a hairy frogfish, a little farther a flamboyant cuttlefish, and then suddenly you’re hooked. I was most mesmerized though by the mimic octopus we came across. Camouflaged with the sand, it was at first hard to see, but then as the octopus began to spread its striped arms and quickly change color, I couldn’t look away. After some time entertaining us with its color changing, the octopus spread its arms flat and pushed them all to one side as it began to swim away, perfectly disguising itself as a flatfish swimming along the sand. Some of the most incredible creatures live along the sandy bottom in Lembeh, waiting to be discovered.
I’m excited to see what else I’ll discover and learn during the next few weeks of my dive master training! And thank you so much to Richard and Virginia for making my first week great!
Heidi Johnson
Divemaster trainer in Two Fish Divers