Ped

Overview

Ped is a drift dive on the north coast of Nusa Penida, part of the long reef that runs along the island's north shore. nusapenida.org, a Nusa Penida dive guide, places it between SD Point and Sental and says it takes its name from the village of Ped and the Pura Dalem Ped temple, which is visible from the sea. Scuba Junkie Penida, a Nusa Penida dive centre, lists Ped with Sekolah Dasar (SD), Sental, Pura Mas Gading (PMG) and Buyuk as its north-coast sites, and says the north coast is essentially one long sloping reef whose site names refer to reference points on land at the start of each dive. Dive Concepts, a Bali dive operator, calls the site Pura PED. Scuba Junkie Penida lists Ped and Pura Mas Gading as separate sites, and Pura Mas Gading has its own record.

No source this record uses gives a map point for the site, and a directory pin found during research states no basis, so this record has no map point.

How the site is dived

nusapenida.org describes a drift, wall, pelagic and macro dive reached in 10 to 15 minutes by boat from Toyapakeh. It says a dive usually starts over a wide, shallow coral plateau and continues along a deep wall, and that on the north coast a single dive can sometimes cross several sites depending on conditions and current. Scuba Junkie Penida says, for the north coast as a whole, that the reef slopes gently to around 12 to 15 metres and then drops off more steeply to 40 metres and beyond, like a staircase in some parts. Dive Concepts says the site starts at 3 to 4 metres at the top of the hill that borders the north of Nusa Penida and goes very deep, and that corals have settled on the rocks in the 12-metre zone.

Depth

nusapenida.org gives a depth of 5 to 40 metres, with an ideal zone between 18 and 25 metres. It says Open Water divers generally stay between 10 and 18 metres over the coral plateau and Advanced Open Water divers between 20 and 30 metres on the wall. This record uses 5 and 40 metres from nusapenida.org alone. Dive Concepts gives no maximum depth.

Level

nusapenida.org rates Ped for all levels: it says the shallow plateau allows dives for beginners, and even discovery dives when conditions are calm, while the deep wall is best enjoyed by advanced divers, and that when the current picks up or swell arrives from offshore the deeper dives call for solid drift-diving experience. Dive Concepts says the site is for everybody when it is dived at the right moment of the tide. Because the sources tie the level to the zone and the conditions, this record sets no single difficulty and no certification requirement.

Current

The sources describe the current differently. nusapenida.org gives it as moderate and sometimes strong, says most dives are drifts along the reef with a fairly comfortable horizontal current, and says sudden changes of direction or down-currents can appear when the water accelerates along the wall, especially during the cold season. It calls the site generally more accessible than Crystal Bay or Blue Corner and advises always diving it with a local guide. Dive Concepts says it prefers to dive the site at high tide so that beginners do not meet too much current, that at the right moment of the tide the current is very weak or absent, and that drift divers find what they want at low tide. Scuba Junkie Penida says north-coast currents vary from non-existent to a fast drift that can carry divers past more than one site, usually run east or west, and at some points push into or away from the reef. This record sets no current strength.

Marine life

nusapenida.org says green and hawksbill turtles are very common on the plateau, often several on one dive, and names fusiliers, sergeant majors, surgeonfish, batfish and napoleons on the reef. It says barracudas, tunas, giant trevallies and sometimes thresher sharks appear along the wall when conditions are right, and names nudibranchs, shrimps, crabs, ghost fish, frogfish and paperfish for macro. Dive Concepts names the pufferfish family, including giant pufferfish, with angelfish, scorpionfish, boxfish, clownfish, batfish, nudibranchs and mantis shrimp.

On the ocean sunfish (mola mola), nusapenida.org calls Ped one of the good sites to see it during the cold season, usually between July and October and in some years into November, along the deep wall. The same page reports one encounter with a great white shark of about five metres at 22 metres on 12 March 2025, credited to a divemaster named on the page, and calls it extremely rare; it is a single dated report, not something a diver should expect. No source gives a measured sighting rate for any animal.

Conditions

nusapenida.org gives visibility of 20 to 30 metres and a water temperature of 22 to 29 °C, dropping to around 18 to 22 °C at depth during the mola mola season, and says the site can be dived all year. This record takes the visibility and the temperature range of 18 to 29 °C from nusapenida.org alone and sets no season. Scuba Junkie Penida gives usual north-coast visibility as 15 to 30 metres.

Sources and lineage

nusapenida.org is written by Blaise Jaeger, whom the page describes as a PADI Master Scuba Diver who has dived Ped since 2017 and opened Nusa Penida's first PADI dive centre in 2017; the page promotes an instructor of the Dune Penida dive centre and was updated on 1 July 2026. Scuba Junkie Penida describes the north coast as a whole, not Ped alone. Dive Concepts' Ped page shares most of its wording and its species list with the same operator's Pura Mas Gading page, so its descriptions read as describing the north-coast slope in general rather than Ped alone. Nobody has verified this record in person; it was researched and written by an automated process from the sources named here.