Saturday 31 March 2012

100% AWARE


AWARE month is now up and running at Trawangan Dive. For every diver we certify we will be donating money to Project AWARE, and each of our divers will recieve a free Project AWARE card! We are also running events through out the month of April making our customers 100% AWARE. 
Keep up to date with all the latest right here:

James teaching

Event Guide for April

Events during April


Supporting the cause

Instructor James!

Trawangan Dive Team!!


Thursday 22 March 2012

Trawangan Dive Aware Program in Support of Environmental Conservation


Trawangan Dive is supporting 100% Aware program from the Project AWARE Foundation, further strengthening the dive centre’s ongoing commitment to global environmental conservation activities. This is a voluntary program that encourages PADI dive centres around the world to promote the work of Project AWARE, a non-profit organisation that relies on financial support from environmentally concerned divers. 
Trawangan Dive has donated money towards the Project Aware foundation. Not only does this benefit the foundation but also our customers! For the whole month of April for every student who completes a PADI scuba diving course with Trawangan Dive will receive special limited edition Project Aware PADI certification cards, which stand out from the traditional cards held by others!
Student divers will also be welcome to make their own voluntary donations to complement those made by Trawangan Dive, and the dive shop will continue to organise other regular activities in support of Project Aware such as their popular monthly Beach Clean-Up & Dive Against Debris, Biorock Reef Restoration program and in-store collection of signatures for shark protection!
Trawangan Dive is very pleased to be donating money for such a worthy cause, as a dive shop it is our responsibility to lead by example and to keep working closely with Project Aware. 
For further information about Project Aware visit: www.projectaware.org/
For further information about Trawangan Dive visit: www.trawangandive.com
or email us at: info@trawangandive.com

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Diving at Shark Point


Shark Point is one of the most popular dive sites around the Gili Islands. Situated on the North of Gili Trawangan it is one of the most varied and interesting dive sites. The site starts with a  sloping reef  going down to 30 metres with a series of ridges of valleys which leads you to deeper water. Being a sloping reef  means it is available to all levels of diver certification. It has an abundance of marine life, with Turtles almost being a guarantee to see! About 25 metres deep within the ridges is where white tip and black tip reef sharks are to be found. Along with Jacks, Barracuda, Angelfish, Snapper and Blue Spotted Sting rays are all commonly seen.

Dive Sites around the Gili's

Phils group was the first to Descend, they all got into their equipment whilst Phil gave the Pre-Dive safety check. Once everyone was ready to go they did a backwards roll entry into the crystal clear Gili water! After clearing their masks at the surface they slowly descended down the slope to reach the depth of 30 metres! It is safe to say Shark Point lived up to its name during this dive and certainly didn't disappoint! 
About ten minutes into the dive Phil came across two white tip reef sharks which they were only about one metre away from!! The group also came across a blue spotted sting ray and a big group of snappers! Nearing the end of the dive in about 12 metres of water before coming up to do the safety stop, three or four turtles were seen feeding away at the coral, it was the perfect ending to what was to be another great dive at Shark Point! 

Philip (centre) with his Dive students!

Boarding the boat

 James Wells Instructor Extraordinaire!
Getting into their gear!

Backwards roll entry into the water


Snapper


Two White Tip Reef Sharks!!

Getting Closer!






Blue Spotted Stingray

Turtle in the shallows
Passing the equipment up to the boat crew
Back to Trawangan Dive!
Divemaster Jan!

The only way to end the day....in the Trawangan Dive Pool Bar






Thursday 1 March 2012

Biorock Reef Restoration project with Gili Eco Trust


Since 2004 Trawangan Dive has run a Biorock® Specialty course as well as gaining further knowledge and experience in reef survey techniques and coral gardening. Certain areas of shallow water corals around the Gili Islands have suffered damage by combinations of coral heatstroke, disease, land-based sewage, global sea level rising, over-fishing and direct physical damage. A revolutionary new technology called Biorock® can make this possible.


Gili Eco Trust
The reef restoration project is coordinated by the Gili Eco Trust which works closely with the DKP (Indonesian Marine Conservation and Fisheries). Head of the Gili Eco Trust is Delphine Robbe who oversees the Biorock project around the Gili Islands and here at Trawangan Dive for more information visit www.giliecotrust.com. Since 2004 when the first Biorock® reef was installed many development and research students from Indonesian and other Universities around the world have come to study the Biorock® reef restoration project as part of their Thesis or Masters Degree.




 The Biorock® Process involves a submerged steel structure that applies a safe low-voltage electrical current. Small pieces of live broken coral are then strapped to the structure and have been shown to grow at 3-5 times the normal rate while coral survival under higher water temperatures and pollution increased by 16 to 50 times. The Gili Islands are the second largest Biorock® site in the world, currently home to 63 Biorock® structures and have hosted International Reef Restoration Training Workshops. 


Attaching live broken coral
Our hope is to continue these projects and make the Gili Islands a global centre for coral research and re-growth. This course is currently taking place right now with five students from around the world. The course itself takes 2 weeks to complete. During their training they would learn about coral biology and environmental threats, be trained how to coral garden, survey, conserve, maintain the exciting Biorock® and finally design, weld and submerge their own Biorock® structure to place around the Gili Isles. This program is tailored to you allowing you, it allows you to chose the time frame and the PADI courses you want to do. This can be from the Open Water course through to the Instructor levels as well as a multitude of other specialities. If this is something you are interested in or for further information please email us at info@trawangandive.com we'd love to hear from you! 2012 Program dates: 1st-15th April 1st-15th July 1st-15th October.







Moving the BioRock into the water

Collecting live broken coral




BioRock Shaped as a Turtle

Growth after one year!