He passed with flying colors! Ming just finished his Instructor Examinations in Sanur and with amazing scores. Ming is crazy about diving and a little bit of a nerd he told us, today we asked him about his dives, his buddy Bayu and what his plans are for the future.

Ming practicing his in-water rescue on the surface with Bayu playing the victim
Feeling like a bird
When you love diving you will even conquer the ice-cold waters in Iceland! That’s where Ming says his best dive experience was, 100 meters visibility, feeling like a bird instead of a fish, flying weightlessly in between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. He is 25 years old and made the decision to switch to a career in diving. Whether he wants to climb all the way up the PADI ladder he doesn’t know yet, first, he wants to get some experience and explore diving in new places.
Peanuts, peanuts
Ming is thankful to his Course Director Restuning, she has been teaching these two weeks with a smile on her face so he learned and laughed a lot. The only downside of the course would be his newly acquired peanut addiction thanks to ‘peanut monster’ Restuning, well if that’s the only bad part we’ll take it!

Ming explaining a question during theory sessions
Both Bayu and Ming mention their peanut addiction as the most memorable experience during the IDC so these must have been some awesome peanuts! The hardest part of the IDC was the freezing cold pool says Ming, he needed to wear a full wetsuit and hood but it was still ice cold! The Sanur pool doesn’t get much sun throughout the day so is colder than you’d expect, luckily it’s Bali and once you get out of the pool onto the sunbeds you’ll warm right up!
Ming and Bayu have been great buddies during the IDC, both with their own strengths and always willing to help each other out. ‘Bayu is good at the water skills’ he says, while Ming himself is better at the theoretical part, ‘because I am a nerd’ he laughs.
When asked if he explored Sanur a bit he looks a bit sad, in the evenings Ming studied about 2-3 hours so he didn’t have much time to explore. Hopefully, he’ll have some time after the instructor exams!

Ming and his well deserved Instructor certificate!
Instructor exams
Instructor exams are exciting for everyone, everyone work weeks towards these two days and now everything has to go well. The examiners were all very friendly so that helped to calm the nerves, also Restuning was by his side the whole time to make funny videos and for some extra motivation. He managed to pass with amazing scores! Well done Ming, your Two Fish Family is proud!
Traditionally the Instructor Exams are finished with the IE-afterparty, to the question whether he had a nice party Ming laughs, ‘what happens at the IE party, stays at the IE party’ he says. That must have been a good party…
What’s next?
First, he’s going to do his MSDT-prep in Amed, he will do the specialties Nitrox, deep, wreck, night, drift: ‘all the cool stuff!’
Bayu is happy he’ll come to Amed so they can meet up again, it’s been a long time working together as a team so they have become good friends on the way. After his MSDT Ming would love to explore some new dive sites in Indonesia and beyond, and then find a job in the dive industry. The future is full of possibilities, good luck on your journey Ming!