While things around the resort calmed down a bit after Easter, our instructors Dion and Yvonne have been busy teaching right across the spectrum of PADI courses for the past few days. They’ve been introducing first time divers to the underwater world, explored shipwrecks and worked with our divemaster trainees to perfect their skills both underwater and on land. And they even managed to re-introduce a guest to the underwater world after a 13 year break who was most impressed by the number and size of turtles on our walls (picture by Alex Schade).
13 years is a long gap between finishing your Open Water certification and next going fun diving, but for our guest Will getting back in the water – the pool for a refresher in this case – was a lot like getting back on a bike. He might have been a little rusty at first, but really enjoyed his dives with Dion and was pretty impressed by our walls covered in marine life.
What sparked the renewed interest? Will is travelling with his brother Julian who has just started his Open Water course this week. Together with another couple, the group is being taught by Dion and assisted by our newest divemaster trainee, Marissa.
Marissa started her course with us in Lembongan and transferred to Bunaken a few days ago. We started her off with the Wreck speciality course, which was also joined by Tristan who is nearing the end of his divemaster course already (how time flies!). Over the past couple of days, they explored the local shipwreck, located near Manado, mapped it, learned to lay lines and, finally, took a look inside the wreck’s cargo holds. A busy start to Marissa’s time here with us!
Last, but not least, Ismail joined us from Jakarta, wanting to take the first steps towards technical diving. A fairly new diver, he spent a few days learning to dive in Sidemount configuration as well as taking a look at some of the book work ahead of him, leaving with a much better idea of what’s involved in technical diving training.
What makes Bunaken such a good place to take a diving course? First and foremost, we have arguably Asia’s best wall diving on our doorstep. On top of that, the resort features a 3m deep pool, designed for teaching diving, that’s simply perfect. It’s a very chilled out environment in which to learn (reading in your own personal hammock, for example), too and supportive instructors! What’s not to like?
