Bali Dive Sites — Diving Helpers Club
Diving Helpers Club — Tulamben
One of the most famous wrecks in the world is the USAT Liberty at Tulamben here in Bali. But apart from an awesome dive what makes this place very unique is the Diving Helpers Club.
The Diving Helpers Club was founded by Pak Kari Yasa in 1978, the club provides a porter service to all divers diving there anywhere from your hotel or car along the kilometer of beach which is home to 3 awesome shore dives. Each diver or dive centre pays them a small fee for this service. The income is then pooled and split equally at the end of each day, 20{2ab15f113b077567805133d7319191ae2634a01a8c0d1dd8eae53a19b41080a1} goes to the club itself. The money accumulated by the club then pays for community based provisions such as new gamelan instruments, so part of the money is shared by all.
The men of the Diving Helpers Club patrol the site in small boats to stop any illegal fishing, ensuring that the wreck stays home to over 400 species of fish.
The ladies of the Diving Helpers Club carry your equipment and scuba tanks on their head! Often carrying two tanks at a time, not easy for most of us using our arms, but to have the balance of carrying on their heads is amazing, especially when the beach is pebbly and they are only wearing plastic sandals.
Some macho men get a little indignant when they see the women carrying the tanks. This is their job and you are going to pay for the porter service whether you carry your own tank or not. However helping them lift the tanks on to their heads is always appreciated. And please take out your integrated weights!
They don’t mind you taking photographs of this amazing balancing act, so you will get some great topside photos as well as underwater shots.
For more information on the wreck itself check out Diving Indo’s blog