Scuba-diving

"Wanna go to Redang?" that was the invitation from my collegue that started off this craze for the sport of scuba. Well, I didn't really join them for diving...I was only snorkelling and when you do it in Redang, basically you are hooked! The place is breeming with life, even on the beach, you have fishes close to 6 inches zipping through your feet. There is this cove within walking distance from the chalet that baby black-tipped sharks (about 2 feet in length) come by. I even spotted a few turtles, and some cuttlefish. Of course, I could have seen a lot more but hey, it's just the beginning. I simply have to get my diving certificate.

To keep the story short, I got my dive-certs and has been diving ever since. Of course, since diving is not exactly the cheapest sport availaible, I tried (together with Shuhui) to go diving about once a year. So, here are the place(s):

By the way, just for information purposes, I have actually compiled a few pictures of the fishes and other invertebrates (for lack of a better word) in a site:

Check it out, you won't be disappointed.


the nudibranch that we found in Pulau Hantu

PADI Open Water Course

I did my Openwater Course with Vincent Dive Center - basically 4 lessons in the swimming pool at River Valley, and then another 4 dives at Pulau Hantu. Pretty much standard stuff, I guess as with most Openwater courses: basic rigging up of the scuba gear, mask-clearing, emergency procedures, hovering, et cetera. The fun part is the actual OpenWater Dive.


Shuhui, my (permanent) dive-buddy.

It has been said that if one could dive in Pulau Hantu, one could anywhere else. We had to use a rope to descend into the murky water. Pretty scary, 'cos we have no idea what we're getting into the 20m depth. The place is so murky that I could not even see my buddy. I thought the worse thing was during the navigation drill, where we had to swim some distance away from the group and find our way back just using a compass. Boy, were we scared when we couldn't see a single person besides our buddy after just a few seconds. It's amazing that George, our instructor, could actually find stuff for us to see, so that we didn't get too bored just going through the motion of the course. We spotted a scorpionfish, some mackerels, and a nudibranch (yes, the man actually found one!).

Dive gear

Ain't got too much money to spend on expensive stuff, but these are pretty much of a satisfactory standard, at least for me:

  • Tusa Imprex dive fins
  • Tusa Liberator dive mask
  • Go Sport 3mm booties
  • Ikelite RCD dive torch
  • Billabong wetsuit
  • Sealife Reefmaster RC underwater camera


just a few of the divers: (l-r) Khoon Wong, Mark, me,
Shu Hui, Penny

PADI Advanced Course

The pool lessons are getting slightly on the tougher side, especially since I have yet to master the art of "hovering". This is when the diver has to remain at neutral buoyancy, i.e. to remain motionless in the middle of the pool for a length of time, minimum 3 minutes. The instructor will even put his hand like 3 inches above the head and tell you not to touch it until the 3 minutes is over. I found out why this is so important - during the actual dive there is this thing called the safety stop (where we have to hover at 5m for 3 mins) to prevent from getting decompression sickness - divers have been known to get all sorts of weird ailments due to this, can even cause death.

Since the course also involves night, deep and drift dives, Singapore waters is out of the question, thank God! We did our openwater dive at Pulau Dayang, an island about 5 hours away from Mersing. The first thing that struck us was how clear the waters are, about 30m visibility. It's incredible how clear waters can enhance the dive experience by so much.

Just imagine a coral reef and that pretty much sums up Dayang. Staghorn corals are abundant here, as with sea anemones with their resident clownfish. We see many sponges as well as angelfish. Close to the beach where we practice our navigation techniques, we saw a crocodile fish, flounder, and surprise, a lionfish hiding under a log. During our next dive, my buddy actually got too close to a triggerfish (the fish is territorial) and was attacked! We promptly swam away, and thank goodness for the wetsuit we're wearing.

The night dive is a little scary - my first time. Since we set off at 8:00pm, once we entered the water, it was just pitch black except for the light from our flashlights. The biggest problem, I think, is that everyone is just sticking too close to one another that it becomes difficult to move around too much; the fear of the dark, perhaps. Anyway, saw a barracuda, and a stingray as well plus a few crabs. And lots of sea urchins; very dangerous.


a lionfish - the spikes are poisonous

The deep dive is probably the most fun. We didn't spend too much time descending since we are planning to be at 30m for 5 mins before the ascent. When we are are at the said depth, our instructor asked us a few questions to check for nitrogen narcosis, pretty funny esp. when some of the guys actually screw up on simple questions like 3*10 (the answer is 30). Coming up we had an encounter with a group of bumphead parrotfish, i.e. the picture on top of the page. It was a great experience seeing these 20 or so, big fish just swimming by taking up their sweet time and not caring about the divers. Wow....

That's it for the courses. The next time we go diving, it will all be for leisure and fun. Places to visit: Palau, Manado, Maldives, Redang, Sipadan, and maybe a few liveaboards. Great fun...you guys who are not divers should try it, you'll be hooked!

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