PADI IDC Dive Resort Oceans 5 Gili Air Blog Posts
“When will the Indonesian borders be open for tourists?” or “Is Indonesia open for tourists?” is the most asked question from people who like to visit us. During the last 2 years lots of countries in the world have put themselves in lockdown. Reasons behind …
What is Muck Diving? Muck diving in Lombok is not that famous. When people hear about muck diving, people will think about Lembeh Strait and Bali in Indonesia or the Philippines. But Lombok has amazing muck dives sites. But what is muck diving and why …
“Do you have to be a strong swimmer to start scuba diving?” is one of the questions people ask who like to scuba dive for the first time as scuba diver.
The Gili Islands are located on the North West side of Lombok. And these islands are popular for scuba diving and snorkeling. The crystal clear water, the amount of fish life and the amount of turtles around the islands are famous all around the world. There is a reason why the Gili Islands are called as “the turtle capital of the world”.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Gili Islands were a popular holiday destination for western tourist. And the tourist visited them for 4 till 7 days. They came to the Gili Islands for relaxing, yoga, cooking classes, the beautiful beaches, horse riding or snorkeling.
One of the other main activities on the Gili Islands is diving. On every island, Gili Air, Gili Trawangan or Gili Meno, are diving centres. These dive centers offer diving courses and fun divers for tourists who are interested to scuba dive.
But most of the tourist never dived before. And they like to experience scuba diving around the Gili Islands. “Do you have to be a strong swimmer to start scuba diving” is one of the questions when people pop in the dive shops.
There are a few answers for this question:
The people can start scuba diving at 3 different ways; as a:
The answer to question, ““Do you have to be a strong swimmer to start scuba diving?” is NO. Being a strong swimmer is not a requirement of one of the entry level scuba diving programs/courses.
The PADI Discover Scuba Diving program and the PADI Scuba Diver Course the students do not even to have swimming skills.
The PADI Open Water Diver certification has swimming skills requirements, but doesn’t mention that the students have to be strong swimmers.
Oceans 5 recommends that everyone who likes to become a diver or participate in a Discover Scuba Diving program has diving skills. Part of the program or diving course takes place on a diving boat, and for safety reasons it is a great if all the persons on the boat can swim.
“What does a scuba dive instructor earn?” is one of the most asked questions by people who like to become a dive instructor, by people who are like to live on a tropical island, like Gili Air, or by people who are taking a gap-year. …
Why would you like to work as a divemaster in Indonesia? Indonesia is a beautiful country. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Sulawesi, Java, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. Indonesia is the world’s largest island country and the 14th-largest country by area, at 1,904,569 square kilometres. With about 270 million people, Indonesia …
Oceans 5 presents a weekly beach clean up, that will take place every Friday at 16:00. The beach clean up is a result of the rubbish that end up at the beaches on Gili Air during the rainy season.
Everyone, young, old or diver, non-diver can participate in the beach clean up. The beach clean up takes place in the harbor of Gili Air. Oceans 5 Gili Air provides for all participants bags and gloves. After and during the beach clean up all rubbish will be sorted for recycling. The collected sorted debris will be taken to a special recycling centre on the main land Lombok.
By creating a weekly event Oceans 5 likes to create awareness for the debris problem in Gili Air. Tourists who are arriving on Gili Air expecting beautiful beaches and crystal clear water. When the opposite happends it will results in bad advertisements for Gili Air and the tourist industry on Gili Air. If Gili Air want to stay as a tourist destination, the island has to adapt to the needs and expectations of their tourists. Everybody on Gili Air, locals, western and tourists have to work together to keep Gili Air clean and attractive for visitors.
“Creating environmental awareness is the starting point to generate a substainable stable economy for the future generation of Gili Air.” Quote Owner Oceans 5 Gili Air, Sander Buis
While plastic has many valuable uses, people have become addicted to single-use or disposable plastic — with severe environmental consequences. Around the world, one million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute, while 5 trillion single-use plastic bags are used worldwide every year. In total, half of all plastic produced is designed to be used only once — and then thrown away.
Researchers estimate that more than 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced since the early 1950s. About 60% of that plastic has ended up in either a landfill or the natural environment. An some of this plastic ends up at the beaches of Gili Air.
About 270,000 tonnes of plastic float on the surface of our oceans and many more drift between two waters. Their impact on marine life is well identified: turtles, birds or marine mammals often die after ingesting plastic residues from can bags or packing rings that we dump into the environment. Every year, plastics kill 1.5 million animals. However, the impact of plastics on reef-building corals had been ignored until now, perhaps because of their alleged distance from plastic sources. However, analysis of plastic debris in the oceans has shown that it can carry many bacteria, including some pathogens that cause coral disease
Oceans 5 dive resort opened their doors in April 2010. Quickly they became a PADI Instructor Development Centre. By focussing on their quality of teaching they received in 2014 the PADI Career Development Centre status by PADI and the DDI Instructor Training Centre status by DDI.
In 2017 Oceans 5 partnered with the Gili Shark Conservation. Together the create programs for a substainable tourism destination.
Oceans 5 Gili received another PADI Award PADI Career Development Centre Oceans 5 has won in 2020 the PADI Award for Outstanding Contribution to Diver Education. PADI Regional Manager Neil Davidson presented the award last year, during his visit to Gili Air in Indonesia. PADI …
Top Tips For A Healthy Diet & Lifestyle After being diagnosed with TTP most people make positive changes in their food and lifestyle. Find out what your body needs to stay in good health and avoid getting overtired, this is the time to look after …
Why not starting your PADI IDC at the Gili Islands in Indonesia? With so many different locations offering PADI Instructor Development Courses (IDCs) it can be overwhelming to know which location is best for you. Nowadays you can become a PADI Diving Instructor in almost any country around the world. But how do you pick the best place to begin your career as a diving instructor?
We know that the PADI IDC is a big investment. But we strongly believe you should decide where based on which location and centre is best for you and your future, not on price. Selecting the right place to do your IDC will help you kick start your life as an instructor and ensure a return on that investment. Here’s a few questions you should ask yourself when choosing where to do your PADI Instructor Development Course.
Do you want to be diving in warm or cool waters? Is the water fresh or salt water? What is the visibility like? Are conditions calm or are there large swells? Is there strong current? Will you be diving from the shore or on a boat? Do the boats come back between each dive or are you out all day?
These are all questions you want to ask when selecting a location for your IDC. Diving varies greatly around the world. It’s important to consider what type of diving you enjoy and what conditions you want to be learning to teach in. We will be honest, we prefer tropical climates, but we understand that’s not for everyone.
Gili Air in Indonesia is the whole year open for diving. The water temperature is between the 27 and 30 degrees Celsius. In the dry season the visibility will be around 30 meters. During the rainy season 15 meters.
Most of the dive sites are suitable for all level of divers, from beginners till advanced. And all dives are drift dives. This means we don’t have to dive back to the boat, but the boat will pick us up.
As well as considering the conditions you like to dive in, it’s also beneficial to complete your Instructor Development Course in conditions similar to those you plan to work in. At least when you first start teaching. For example, if you plan to teach in Northern Europe where it’s often low visibility and requires a dry suit, you might not want to do your IDC in warm, crystal clear tropical waters. Before, during and after your IDC you have the opportunity to network and build connections in that location. You will also already be familiar with the dive practices specific to that area. You can then gain valuable experience in familiar dive conditions before moving on to a location.
In addition to the PADI Instructor Development Course, you often have the chance to complete further training to enhance your skills and employability. Have a look at what additional courses different IDC locations offer you, for example team teaching, Instructor Specialities, Master Scuba Diver Trainer Programs. All of these can help stand out from other new instructors and are often offered at special rates for IDC candidates. If you know you want to work towards becoming a PADI Staff Instructor, and perhaps Course Director, check out whether the IDC location or Course Director offer these opportunities.
PADI Course Director Sander offers a variety of extra training from free prep workshops to Instructor Specialities, MSDT training and even Disabled Divers International (DDI) Instructor training.
The diving around the Gili Islands gives Sander the opportunity to teach you all different kind of instructor specialties. If you are interested in wreck diving, Sander can take you to the wreck “Glenn Nusa” located at the North West side of Gili Trawangan. Would you like to know more about diving with disabled persons, remember that Sander is a Disabled Divers International Instructor Trainer Examiner. He can teach you all kind of different teaching techniques when you are diving with disabled persons. Or would you like to become sidemount specialty instructor, a self reliant diver specialty instructor, drift diver instructor or more, Sander will help you.
One factor to consider is how experienced is the Course Director who will be teaching you. But experience is hard to quantify. It’s not just about the length of time someone has been a Course Director or how many IDCs they’ve taught. It’s also good to know where your Course Director has worked, do they experience teaching a variety of courses in different conditions?
Your Course Director plays a pivotal role in your development as an instructor. So it’s important you find the right one for you. Not only will you spend a couple of weeks training with them, but they will continue to be your mentor throughout your career. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with your potential Course Directors. They are there to answer your questions. If you don’t feel comfortable or reassured corresponding with your PADI Course Director, then it’s probably a sign to look for a different one.
Not only does our Course Director Sander Buis have over 15 years of experience, he has also dived and taught in a huge variety of conditions. From the strong currents of Indonesia to the open ocean off Mozambique. Sander doesn’t teach you to pass the PADI Instructor Examination. He teaches you to become a confident scuba dive instructor!
To learn effectively, you need to be in the right environment. A spacious classroom, quiet areas for independent study and easy access to the water are all beneficial to your training. Does the location you are considering have adequate and spacious facilities?
At our PADI IDC centre we have dedicated facilities specifically designed for teaching IDCs with air-conditioned classrooms, areas for independent study, large swimming pools and specific IDC boats. We strive to ensure you can train in a comfortable and relaxed environment. Oceans 5 Gili Air can offer accommodation onsite at our IDC location, or we can support you in finding different options offsite.
You’re going to be living in this location for at least a few weeks, so you want to like the town, island or city you’ll be based in. Do you prefer a quiet tropical island, or do you like somewhere with more amenities and activities? As well as the actual PADI IDC centre, have a look at the location in which it is situated and make sure it suits your personality.
Oceans 5 Gili Air is a beautiful coconut paradise island. You can find Gili Air at the North West dide of Lombok. Gili Air is part of the island group Gili Indah, or the Gili Islands.
Gili Air is famous because we don’t have cars and motorbikes on the island.
The PADI Instructor Development Course is a big investment, not only financially, so it’s important you pick a location and Course Director that is right for you personally. Take time to consider what you want and need during your IDC, and when in doubt, go with your gut. It’s normally right.
With a passionate Course Director Sander, Oceans 5 Gili Air offers an IDC location to suit everyone’s tastes and career aspirations. Choose from an extensive range of additional training including Speciality ratings, MSDT programs and even DDI Instructor training.
You’ve just passed your PADI IDC and Instructor Examination and are eager to start teaching people to scuba dive as a PADI scuba dive instructor. Massive congratulations by the way! Having finally recovered from the celebrations, we’re guessing that you’re now excited to get going with your …