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On Jemeluk Beach, chimes from the temple join the clinking sound of scuba tanks. It’s morning in Amed, a little fishing village in northeast Bali. Mount Agung looms vast in the distance, and jukung boats like spiders dot the shore. On this side of the island, it’s sleepy, not like the popular beach clubs captured by influencers. Known for its variety of difficulty in dive sites, Amed attracts both advanced and beginner divers from around the world.
The most popular—USAT Liberty Wreck—is unique amongst wreck dives as you can access it from the shore. And Jemeluk Bay, like a swimming pool, shallow and sheltered, offers The Pyramids, an artificial reef system teeming with life. Built in the 1990s, this man-made structure is one of the most successful examples of ecological restoration.
Above the shore, on a road that hugs the coast, stands a plastic mannequin suited in dive gear. He unabashedly advertises ‘Dive Shop’. If you file past him, up stone steps, beyond a set of Ganesha statues through a jungle garden, perfumed in incense, you’ll find it.
Tucked behind a collection of Balinese sofas that host divers awaiting instruction is a schoolroom and office that displays a giant fish and seahorse made of beachwood. Here you might meet Pendi, shop manager, or David and Liza, shop owners. They’re busy, organizing trips: pairing the right people with the right groups, asking for gear sizes, training levels, food preferences, and favorite juice selections. Today’s flavors: watermelon, pineapple, or my favorite—lime.
David has been diving for over twenty years, and in 2011, he and his wife, Liza opened Adventure Divers in Amed, Bali. They chose the spot because of the rich culture, small population and dive site diversity.
“For the advanced divers, Bunutan, is a stunning drift dive with stronger currents. Pyramids, you don’t see many people. Liberty Wreck is a wonderful dive, but a popular dive. It attracts people from all over Bali. It’s the most famous, the main draw; there are others, but not on the main tourist map.
“We also don’t dive from the traditional boats and work with the local community. When you take the local fishing boats, it adds a rustic charm and makes the experience more authentically Balinese. We partner with local fishing as it’s important to give something back. In that line of thinking, we train local staff instead of just being an expat team, which gives people opportunities to grow professionally. That’s important to us.”
Compared to other dive operations in the area, Adventure Divers is a small enterprise with a dedicated staff that prioritizes diver safety over profit. One diver describes why she came back to Adventure Divers to get her Advanced certification. “They really make sure you know your stuff. They won’t pass you like other shops if you don’t know what you’re doing. That’s a reassurance.”
“We are customer-centric,” says David. “Quite a personal experience and owner-managed. We ask all our divers for feedback, and to be honest, because we want to hear it. We try and match our divers based on experience and ability rather than lumping people together and having a mismatched group. We think it’s unacceptable to mix experienced divers with inexperienced divers.”
He goes on to say that “Group sizes are small. A lot of the time we might have one guy with one person because they didn’t fit with anyone else, because more or less experienced. It doesn’t help the profit margin, but you succeed by meeting or exceeding expectations.”
When asked what he tells his students most, David says, “Stay open-minded. Diving is an escape from everything else that is happening in your life.” He adds, “If you’re panicky, focus on your breathing. And try to get back in the water. Not every dive is fantastic, because you can’t control the circumstances. It’s like being on safari. The longer you spend there, the more chances you have of seeing things, like having an encounter with some majestic underwater creature.”
When asked why we dive, David explains that “For most, it’s for the wildlife, and the other is for the sensation of being weightless, underwater. Some courses are a battle—an inner battle—you have to overcome the fears, but the reward is substantial.”
The best way to book with Adventure Divers is contact them on Whatsapp: +6281353136113 or WeChat: adventurediversbali. You can also email: adventurediversbali@gmail.com
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