Divemaster & Marine Conservation Internship in Nusa Penida

I had an incredible two months with project laut. I came to do my divemaster and felt supported the entire way. Everybody there made you feel so welcomed and really made the whole experience that much better.
It was so much more than just diving. We had ecology classes about turtles, corals, and Manta and rays. All of them run by Joma who was so passionate about what he does. When we did go out on dives, we’d be looking out for hawksbill turtles or helping out with the coral restoration. It was amazing to see the progress from the earlier spiders that had been there for a year and how much it was growing! On dry days we would be updating the turtle database from resent sightings.

Joma and Sita are amazing instructors who made me feel incredibly comfortable in the water. They really looked after every intern and helped us become better divers. At first I was nervous after the drift diving but I left feeling so much more confident in my diving skills and loving drift diving!

I would recommend project laut to anyone wanting to do their DM or even just get some hands on experience with some conservation projects. Not only are you in paradise with incredible dive sights, having that sense of community with everyone made it that much better. I can’t wait to go back!

First off, if you haven’t been to Bali before? Then Nomads is a great excuse to go. This little island is home to some of the best beaches and dive locations in Bali. Nomads is a place like no other, a dive shop on the beach? Life doesn’t get much better. The staff are amazing, super helpful and fun. And the program itself was life changing for me. I would highly recommend this experience to just about anyone who has a lot of love for our oceans, and even those who are wanting to learn more!!!!!

When you combine an incredible place with incredible people every misunderstanding fade away. If the emotions of diving in such a place aren't already enough, you got to know amazing people from all over the world sharing the same passions. Definetly worth all the troubles encountered during the trip, particularly thanks to the other interns in my period there and to joma who always did his best to make us feel at home and guided us in Bali as well during our trips at the main island (gotta work on his fear for monkeys, but I'm sure he's getting better😉)

I spent 3 months in Nusa Penida, diving with Joma and the other members of Project Laut almost every day - we worked together on coral restoration and sea turtles protection, between beautiful corals and tropical fishes. It was a wonderful and productive time. I learned a lot about myself, my limits and strenghts as a diver. Joma teached me how to be confident underwater, giving me the instruments to become an independent divemaster.
I'll never forget the time spent together, he was my best buddy, looking forward to share with him another crazy drift dive.

My experience with Project Laut was unforgettable. I spent five weeks doing the marine conservation internship (having already done my dive master) and learnt so much from the amazing staff there, as well as made lifelong friends.

Nusa Penida has such a large range of dive sites that you get to do something different every day, and I felt extremely supported in my first times experiencing strong drift, coming to love it afterwards.

Project Laut has inspired me and given me the experience needed to continue my career in marine biotechnology, and the amazing staff there made me want to do my dive instructors.

I stayed two months in Nusa Penida, diving every day with Nomads & assisting in the Project Laut internship. I honestly had the best time here and learned so much about marine conservation. Joma's passion for conservation and dedication to monitor the Hawksbill turtles are contagious & inspiring for any ocean advocate! I gained more knowledge in coral rehabilitation since we planted coral fragments on our spiders during shore dives. Also the ecology classes were very interesting. Can't recommend this internship enough!

This internship was absolutely brilliant. I spent 3 months on Nusa Penida with Project Laut completing my dive master and every single day was different. I learnt so much about conservation, both coral conservation and general marine conservation from Joma who took a very holistic approach to our learning. With my background being in neuroscience, all of the marine science was completely new to me. After coral identification classes, Joma then went on to ID coral on our next few dives with me so I really understood what was being taught in the classroom. I particularly enjoyed the building of the coral spiders as it is so rewarding to then plant coral on them and watch the coral restoration process on subsequent dives. The diving in Nusa Penida was beautiful and I will be going back to complete my instructor with Nomads diving later and see the coral restoration project again. Identifying turtles on dives was always really fun and its such a privilege to see them each time. The software we use to ID the turtles was really interesting and a great skill to have learnt.

I can’t reccomend this internship enough, every aspect of it from living on a beautiful island; diving with colourful corals and making friends I know I’ll see again. Joma is a fantastic teacher and the best dive instructor I have ever met, few people have the ability to make you feel as reassured as he does on dives. This really is the best thing I have ever done and I can’t wait to go back.

After previous plans for a DM internship had fallen apart, I found Project Laut and thought this has what I’m looking for, so why not. It turned out to be better than I ever could’ve imagined, and I wouldn’t have traded it for anything. I had been looking for a DMT with an ACTUAL conservation project, not just a dive shop that claimed to do more than they did. Project Laut is not only active in coral restoration, but they’re also the lead project monitoring the species of Hawksbill turtles around Penida. Everyday we are either out diving or at the shop, building coral spiders and tending to our coral garden, or updating the turtle database. Even on dive days, someone always has a GoPro to log any of turtles we may come across (which is often). You can tell how much Joma, the lead instructor, cares about the projects and his passion easily transferred to myself and the other interns.

In terms of the dive training, Joma is an incredible instructor. I started with only 9 dives, all from 3 years earlier, and was quite nervous. From the first dive I felt extremely safe and comfortable diving with him, and I’d be able to voice my nerves without thinking twice. In my 12 weeks I learned so much, and logged over 100 dives! Definitely coming out of this internship feeling confident in my diving abilities. I valued my time so much in fact that I’m continuing my training with Project Laut, starting their instructor course next week.

On top of all this, Nusa Penida is paradise, and I definitely fell in love with the island and it’s people. I’m leaving the internship with a ton more dives, some amazing new relationships, and even some welding skills :)