Class And Trip Of June 2011

 Jiu – Lots of thing to see if you pay enough attention. Nice diving trip. Thanks to Richard & the group. Good food from Seaventures :D

Hsien Huey – Apart from the awesome dive adventures especially diving with barracudas, grabbing rocks too stabilize, I had a great time with the group. And of course, excellent food at Seaventures. Muchas Gracias !

Goh – 1^st time to Sipadan, very happy to meet all the new friends and dive together. Hope to meet everyone and dive together again.

Cheau Huey – My first diving trip without taking exam, ha ha ha. Love all the fishes and micro that we saw. However little sad that we didn’t see the famous whale shark but happy with the bonus of spotting the cute little flamboyant cuttlefish.

Rupert – The best part of diving is the combination of diving, companion with fellow divers and experience shared. Awesome trip where I saw many gigantic sea creatures as big as barrels, cars and lorry, ha ha ha

Yin Fun- First time to Sipadan and it was a memorable one. Happy to see both macro and micro things. Barracuda point was rather breathtaking. Great diving trip with great company and fantastic divemaster.

Leyi – Great to be back to Sipadan and Seaventure Resort. Great company of new friends and diving was fantastic. Just need to practise more on macro photography.

Ka Chin – Wonderful place, food, people and dive sites. Felt younger diving with the younger generation :D

Fong – Great experience with the strong current in between thousands of barracudas. Spotted lots of nudi branch and rare species like pygmy seahorse and flamboyant cuttlefish. Met lots of funny friends and happy that able to manage to dive with only 1kg weight.

Michelle – I like it, it’s is so good !

Jia Yee – Almost wanted to cancel this trip but now I am glad that I joined. This is my 2^nd dive trip after OWD. The awesome experience in Sipadan be it the friends that I’ve met here, the breath taking underwater world or the funny incidents happened during diving. All made me love diving even more. Will come back for more.

Zhenyi – A revisit to Sipadan for me. Proved that it’s still an awesome experience to be. Things that I missed last round, glad that now most of them can be found. Only things that remain unfinished business is a visit to the legendary Elvis (giant moray eel) and some other cool fishes. Thanks to everyone for making this trip a truly memorable one.

Antoine –Enjoyed so much of the diving. So many interesting new things to see and observe fishes, shrimps, weird animals, funny and strange fish. Enjoyed so much. Now want to learn Chinese so can understand better what you all talking about, ha ha.

Scuba Diving, A Family Activity

Recreational scuba diving is one of the most enjoyable sports for family. Its fun when you can dive and buddy with your family members.  Sharing what they see underwater and taking care of each other bonds the family members.

Scuba diving is not a physically challenge sport. It’s also conducive for family with young children to try scuba diving. Kids as young as 8 years old can try scuba diving with the PADI Bubblemaker program.

Usually, beach resort was used for the diving trip. Kids can enjoy playing sand and try other beach activities like snorkelling, canoe or swimming. For the certified diving parent, they can always spend quality time with their family members during surface interval. 

Pointer is not for poking

Many years ago, pointer (proc) was only used by Instructor and Dive Guide. It was used for one reason and only one reason. It’s to get divers attention with the noise by hitting the scuba tank with a pointer. During that time, we have to make our own pointer from hardware shop.

Unfortunately, starting few years back dive shops started to produce and selling pointer to the public. Divers buy and use it for many wrong reasons. It’s sad to see many divers use it to dig corals/rumbles to find micro animals, used it to rest on coral to stabilize their buoyancy, used it to abuse animals and worst of all, photographers used it to ‘move’ animals to a more photogenic spot. Divers also used it to hit their tank to get attention from their buddy. It’s very confusing when they are so many pointers used in a group therefore  it’s very difficult for the Instructor/Dive Guide to get attention of divers when there is a need.

I strongly discourage divers from using pointer during diving. I will not hesitate to confiscate the pointer if I noticed divers using it for the wrong reason. As a divers, let’s be friendly to our underwater haven. 

Traditional or Split Fins ?

 
Choosing fins are very much a preference thing, just like what colour or to have split or non-split fins. Some divers love split fins while some divers hate them. Personally I find split fins is great for going fast in a straight line, but not good when you want to turn and manoeuvre underwater. It's maybe something you would get used to after a while, but I just didn't get on with split fins at all.

Due to the design of split-fins, there is lesser resistance when you ‘scoop’ the water. For that reason, you will go faster and use less air. It’s best to use on flutter-kick and good for surface snorkelling too. Ladies love it because it’s less strenuous underwater.

Personally, I found split-fins is too floppy and almost totally ineffective when doing ‘frog-kick’ and ‘reverse’ techniques. Like most instructors and experience divers who I know, we hardly ever use the ‘traditional’ flutter-kick. I also prefer to feel the resistance and to have more control over the fins. One of the disadvantage for travelling is split-fins usually 1kg to 2kg heavier. It needs a thicker/stronger material for the side of the fins.

So what fins to choose? For beginners, start with a non split-fins first. Once you improved your kicking style and leg muscles, borrow a pair of split-fins and try first before you buy it.

Class And Trip Of September 2010

Tenggol is one of the very few islands in Malaysia with healthy soft corals and abundance of nudibranchs. Nudibranchs are noted for their often extraordinary colors and striking forms. It’s the most popular picture hunt for avid underwater photographers. In the course of evolution, these sea slugs have lost their shell because they have developed other defence mechanisms. Their anatomy may resemble the texture and colour of the surrounding plants, allowing them to camouflage. Some species with especially bright colouring which warns that they are distasteful or poisonous.

The word "nudibranch" comes from the Latin 'nudus', naked, and the Greek 'brankhia', gills.
Nudibranchs have a set of reproductive organs for both sexes but they can rarely fertilize themselves. It’s quite common to see a pair of nudibranchs working together for the ‘next generation’.