Change of plans as I got home last night to a message from ProDive. Instead of helping with an Open Water class, I’d be getting up early and joining a group going to Tulamben for the day. I’m rather glad I didn’t go straight out on the beers after dinner!

Prompt on 8:00, the bus picked me up. Which was a shame as it was meant to collect me prompt at 7:40, but the large group of Singaporeans I was diving with were enjoying accidental lies-in! We met up with an American, Alan, at the equipment store and I joined him in a car for the journey north. The bus wasn’t big enough for all of us and the equipment.

Alan was great company on the drive and we talked about a lot of things. One thing he recommended highly was re-doing my Advanced Open Water with another school, such as NAUI or SSI. The simple reason for this is to avoid liability in case of an accident on a dive which I’m purely a spectator/pleasure diver on. A friend of his got caught up in all kinds of mess when someone in their dive group got into trouble. Their legal beagles sued every dive professional in the group, regardless of whether they were operating staff or fellow holidaymakers. His friend had signed up for the dive using his Divemaster card, and therefore was included in this.

Madness, and of course the friend was cleared but still had to cough up for costs (or his insurance did). Thing is, even if he’d used his Open Water card, PADI would be forced to reveal that he has Divemaster status. However, by certifying at a lower level with another organisation and using that card as ID, there’s no need for professional status to be revealed at all. Much cheaper than liability insurance and a once-off purchase.

This kind of waffle passed the time nicely and we tailed the Singaporean bus all the way to the dive site.

As usual, one dive on the wreck and one of the drop-off. Today’s dives were probably the best two I’ve done there. Visibility wasn’t as good as the first time, but we got a good variety of stuff. With a large group (9 divers plus Kadek and myself), I had plenty to do and the whole bunch were great fun. Also, everyone was good with their air so we managed 45 minutes on the first dive and 51 on the second.

Everyone had a great time and I’m diving with the Singaporeans for the next two days as well. Another four dives towards the sixty I need for Divemaster qualification.

I was supposed to meet Alan for a couple of beers this evening, but he didn’t show. In fairness, we were at least an hour later getting back to Kuta then we’d hoped as the traffic was awful. I also thought I had a late start tomorrow until I found out I was diving again – and I’ll be away tomorrow night, sleeping out on Lembongan.

It’ll be worth it if the place we stay has hot showers. I’m packing my Imperial Leather just in case.