Bali Diving - Puri Jati (PJ)
PJ Dive Sites:
Location
Welcome to the house reef of Blue Season Zen Dive and what a house reef it is! Probably the best muck dive site that Bali offers and only a five minute walk from Zen Resort Bali. If you would like to see strange, small marine critters that you’ve never saw before, even for divers with more than 500 dives under their belts, then this is the place to be without any doubt! Almost no coral, dark volcanic sand and some concrete cylinders to protect the area from fishermen doesn’t sound that interesting but you will realize why this dive site is so great after some diving in this mysterious place.
Mimic Octopus
Macro photographers from all over the world come to this intriguing place to find that special Mimic Octopus (Thaumoctopus Mimicus). An octopus that has the ability to imitate other creatures such as snake eels, lionfish, flounders and many other species to defend themselves from their predators. You have the biggest chance to spot Mimic Octopus at around 9 meters although it’s possible to find them between three and fifteen meters, depending on the swell. It’s hard to tell for divers that they saw either a Mimic Octopus or Coconut Octopus so an experienced Blue Season Zen Dive guide is essential not just to recognize but also to find this unique creature!
Diving Facilities and Conditions
Everything is at your disposal before you start your dive at PJ. There are large bamboo gear benches to put all your equipment into place. Showers, toilets and a change room. Separate rinsing tanks to keep your camera's and equipment in good shape. Also the friendly local helpers will give you a hand to put your gear on or help you when you come back on land. The whole area is covered with trees to make sure that you won't catch a nasty sunburn although it's advisable to put some sunscreen on you as the Bali sun can be very aggressive. There's also a small shop where you can buy snacks although there's lunch and beverages included while you do at least two dives with Blue Season Zen Dive.
In general, Puri Jati has very good conditions the whole year round. The visibility varies between 5 and 15 meters and you'll dive in at least 28° Celsius. Normally there's no current or big swell while diving Puri Jati what makes it easier to take that picture of that pipe horse, hiding in the sea grass!
Dive Briefing
You will be surprised when you walk down from our dive shop as you will notice that all equipment is already set-up and ready for diving! You just have to put on your mask, weight belt and wetsuit. And in case that you need help with putting on your fins, well, our Blue Season Zen Dive guide will help you as it’s our commitment to give you the best possible service you can get. Even above the water!
We put our fins on in the water as diving PJ is a shore entry dive. The best part is that there’s no surface swim. The fun starts almost below your feet! Diving is really easy as we normally go straight north. The first 150 meters looks dead flat but it’s not. It starts at 2 meters and goes down to 10 meters so don’t forget to equalize even though you don’t feel you are descending much . After that you’ll have a 45° angle that slopes down where we usually dive until 15-25 meters. When we reached that depth we choose either east or west, depending that there’s current or not and depends about what you would like to see. After 20-25 minutes we swim back to our starting point. In between we do our 5 meter/3 minute safety stop although it’s more like continuing your dive without thinking about doing a stop as there’s a lot to see at 5 meters. and take our fins of before heading to the showers. The dive-time will be about 60-75 minutes depending on your air consumption.
Dive Sites - Puri Jati
PJ (Zen Beach)
This is the famous muck dive site, this is the place where many photographers come from all over the world to find the elusive Mimic Octopus and many other amazing creatures that populate the area. The area to dive is huge, more than 80000 m², where tiny things, like seahorses and small frogfishes, are scattered; so, patience is the key in this dive site. But at the end this place can be very rewarding.
Diving PJ (Zen Beach) - Fast Facts
Water temperature: At least 28° Celsius
Visibility: 5 – 20 meters
Av. Dive time: 60 to 75 minutes
Current: None to Moderate
Diver Level: Beginner
Big stuff: Barracuda, Giant Herring
Small stuff : Frog fish, Seamoth, Dragonet, Ghost Pipefish, Pipefish, Seahorse, Mimic Octopus, Coconut Octopus, Cuttlefish, Squid, Emperor Shrimp, Anemone Shrimp, Squt Lobster, Box Crab, and much more!
PJ (The Corner)
The Corner is located 250 meters to the west of the main dive site (Zen Beach). Here you will find a coral reef that slopes down to a depth of 30m after a short swim over shallow bottom. Here the coral is not as pretty or healthy as the one found in Menjangan Island for example (due mainly to the local fishing activity), but the amount of reef fish is surprising! And because this place is so close to the sandy slopes of PJ, you can do some muck diving also and go looking for the really small stuff. Reef diving and muck diving in one place!
Diving PJ (The Corner) - Fast Facts
Water temperature: At least 28° Celsius
Visibility: 5 – 25 meters
Av. Dive time: 45 to 60 minutes
Current: None to Moderate
Diver Level: Beginner
Big stuff: Barracuda, Trevallies.
Small stuff : Angelfish, Butterflyfish, Parrotfish, Lionfish, Scorpionfish, Nudibranchs, and much more!
Diving in PJ - Tips From The Pro's
The following key points are vital to have a good dive. In other words, how to make your dive an enjoyable and rewarding dive:
Buoyancy – Try to make sure that you don’t have too much weight but it’s also important to have an extra weight than what you normally wear as the diving here is shallow. Also it’s important not to touch the ground as you never know what’s underneath the volcanic sand. If you want to get better at buoyancy control, try the PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy Specialty course!
Frog kick – Better to dive by using the frog kick style. The sand in PJ is very thin and loose, especially when you go deeper than 10 meters. Use the frog kick if you would like to have a good visibility on your second dive and if you’re not doing a second dive. Think about the other divers after you.
Dive Slow – It takes about 20 minutes to complete 150 meters distance… if you don’t see that much! It happens that you reach that point after 40 minutes because we saw so many things on the way while diving slow. The slower you dive, the more chance to see great stuff!
Look – Open your eyes! Look close, even at things that you don’t expect to see fish in. A coconut shell, a piece of wood, tubes of toothpaste, little pieces of plastic, bra’s! Everything is good to hide for the PJ marine life. A dead leaf is not always a leaf. It can be that Juvenile Batfish that you were looking for!
Equalize – As we said before. Don’t forget to equalize before feeling any discomfort. Even if you think it’s flat. Rely on your dive watch or depth gauge, don’t trust your eyes too much!
Patience – Even if you don’t see that much after 10 minutes. You’ll never know what you will see after that so dive slow and keep your eyes open!
Gloves – Protect yourself! You never know what’s hiding under the sand or you would be surprised how well camouflaged those Lion Fish are!
Dive Knife – Although the area is protected, there’s always a possibility that there are boats in the neighborhood dragging with fishing nets to make their catch of the day. However Blue Season Zen Dive has a 100% safety record, it’s always useful to wear a dive knife just in case. It’s also a life saver for fish stuck in a lost piece of fishing net.
Stay Together – In general you’ll have an average of 10 meters visibility when you dive PJ so it’s important to stay close and follow the dive guide.
Be Grateful – It’s always great to spot a mimic octopus but there are times that you won’t see them. Even though our dive guides are very good in finding the fish you want. It’s possible that it’s not there at that time. We have to be humble from the moment that we enter the underwater world, show respect to this unique environment and appreciate the things that we did see! This is nature after all. Remember a bad diving day is always better than a good day at the office!
Bali Muck Dive Packages
We have great deals for our macro photographers and critter lovers. Please have a look at our Bali Dive Packages 2011. We’re sure that there’s something that suit your needs.
Click here to find out more about our brand new Bali Dive Packages 2011.
Go Digital!
Puri Jati is a gem for Macro photographers so don’t forget to bring your underwater camera or rent an underwater camera in our dive shop to share your fantastic Bali diving experience with your friends or why not going for a PADI Digital Underwater Photographer Course to make sure you’ve got the perfect picture of that Ambon Scorpionfish you've always wanted?
Click here to find out more about the PADI Digital Underwater Photographer Course with Blue Season Zen Dive.
More Muck Diving Bali? Go Dive Secret Bay or how about Seraya Secrets?
Best Wall Diving Bali? Go Dive Menjangan Island!
Wreck Diving Bali? Go Dive Tulamben!
Multi Dive Packages for PJ available now!!! 10 Dives, 20 dives or 30 dives? Have a look at our Bali Diving Pricelist
!!!Click here for Bali's Best Muck Dive Package!!!
Please contact us in case you need further info about diving PJ with Blue Season Zen Dive.
Best Wall Diving Bali? Go dive Menjangan Island!
More Muck Diving Bali? Go dive Secret Bay or dive Seraya Secrets?!
Wreck Diving Tulamben? Go dive Tulamben!
Diving Bali Artificial Reefs? Go dive Pemuteran!
Want To See The Big Stuff? Go dive Nusa Penida!