Open Water Course in Pemuteran - Get Certified in Bali

We travelled to Pemuteran in early April 2023 for a relaxing 2 week holiday. My 13 year old daughter had been doing her SSI open water course online and was due to do her qualifying dives with dive concepts. She asked me to tag along and take photos. Her instructor Jesus was a lovely guy and a consummate professional. He demonstrated considerable patience whilst at the same time ensuring she carried out all her drills properly. Her first day consisted of equipment assembly and carrying out her drills in the pool. Second day was in the bay where she carried out the exercises at 12 metres for the first dive, and after an hour surface time we had a lovely fun dive on Napoleon reef. Jesus carried out a very thorough dive brief before both dives. The reef in Pemuteran bay was fantastic. With lots of very healthy coral and a huge amount of wildlife to observe. My daughter was delighted to see cuttlefish, juvenile white tip reef sharks, pipe fish and a diverse variety of reef fish. Any rubbish we found was recovered and taken back to the boat, although there was surprisingly little compared to what I’ve seen in the past. Our final day was at Menjangan Island, a protected marine park a few miles north west of Pemuteran bay. As on the first day Jesus was very thorough on the dive briefs. The dives were as the previous day except carried at the open water maximum depth of 18 metres. And I was delighted to see my daughter carry out her drills with confidence. Our final dive that day was a drift dive from an underwater cave and eastwards along the reef wall. Which is absolutely pristine. We saw garden eels, morays, along with huge schools of reef fish. After my daughter had qualified we decided to book 2 days fun diving with Dive concepts for the week. The owner Nick (also a lovely guy) told us we would be diving with one of his local Balinese divers called Wayan. Our fist day back was at Menjangan island again. Wayan took us through a thorough dive briefing and we started our day on eel garden. It was a lovely dive and we were fortunate enough to see two octopi. Wayan, being a professional diver was very good at spotting them and my daughter also proved to be eagle eyed as well. Spotting an octopus that both Wayan and I had missed. My daughter and Wayan also saw a turtle although I didn’t see it as it shot off as soon as it saw them. For our second dive we did the underwater cave and the wall again. This area is fantastic for new divers as there tends to be very little current and lots of stuff to see. We were all fortunate to see a much larger turtle right at the end of this dive. For our final days diving we were back in Pemuteran bay. Where we dived on Close encounters and Napoleon reef. We saw several octopi at close encounters which I discovered are rather difficult to film or photograph. Again the reef was healthy and teeming with life. On our final dive we were accosted by an angry Triggerfish as we descended the shot line. The other two divers had waited around to watch us having entered the water before us. After escaping with no serious injury we were about to begin our dive proper when we spotted a large section of nylon fishing net wrapped around the reef. So the five of us spent the first 20 minutes of the dive carefully removing it from the reef, and removing any sea life that had become entangled. Wayan and the other dive guide bundled up the net to take back to the boat. We still had plenty of time for a leisurely dive after that task was completed. It is a shorter days diving in Pemuteran bay as there’s far less travel involved. The atmosphere at the dive store a pleasant and relaxed. There’s a small restaurant that serves a selection of tasty food and drink. And there are rooms to stay in. And a pool to relax in, after a long day diving. When we next return to Pemuteran we’ll definitely book with Dive Concepts again. I was very impressed with the staff’s professionalism and found the people pleasant and fun to be around. Highly recommended.

I did the 3 day course to get open water certified. Anyone thinking about going to Bali to get open water certified, this is the place and company to do it with. My instructor was jesús Gonzalez, a delightful man who has a great passion for diving and absolutely loves what he does for a living. I was so welcomed by the staff and I couldn't recommend it enough.

Great experience. I did my open water certificate in 3 days starting with 2 pool session on the first day, 2 dives at Pemuteran Bay and 2 dives arround menjangen island on the last day. David was my instructor, he was great, super helpfull with a lot knowledge and realy professional, you could tell he has a lot experience in his job. Moreover we had fun in every session and the whole team is super friendly and welcoming. I would defenitly recommend doing a certification at this dive centre and a big thanks again to David for the amazing last 3 days.

I did the 3 day Open Water Course with David and had an amazing experience. I had a great time diving at Menjangan, we spotted a turtle on both dives! David is a great instructor, I always felt safe and well prepared for each dive. Pemuteran is beautiful too, I would definitely go again.

We did the 3-day Open Water course with David and it was an amazing experience! I'd never tried diving before and it was the perfect intro to diving in one of the most beautiful settings. David was a great instructor - good at explaining things, made us feel very safe the entire time, and we had a lot of fun diving Menjangan Island. Highly recommended experience!