OW student in Tenggol

I must say that this was one hell of an experience for me. I've never seen in my 15 years of diving and 5 years of teaching such students. I guess the saying that "There are all kinds of people out there in the world" would stay true in my brain.

I was team teaching with Ahmat Scubatex with 3 students. Brandon, Elaine and Lai Yin.

Initially my worry was Elaine cause prior to the pool session I conducted in March, she was basically dipping in water at baby pools....... well maybe 4 ft pools. So the confined water session took me 4 hours... Yes it is now the record. 4 hours of confined water session, though most of it was basic swimming techniques and helping her overcome her fear. But the good thing was Alvin, her "friend" was there to give some encouragement. She managed to complete the 300m snorkel swim and I managed to bring her down to 5m plus complete all the mask exercises..

Phewwwww...............

So naturally i was concern about her and told ahmat that I would be concentrating on her alone. But it did not happen so, though i believe that it was a good reason as well. She was given a chance to learn from 2 instructors instead of 1. Therefore we were using different techniques to educate.

Over the course of 4 days, it was full of drama. From swimming to the shore from the boat docking point , to endless barrage of sand flies and the drama queen, nicknames of obscene and racist levels, load of IOU for ice creams and weird moments.. I would say i had fun, which is the most important thing.

So at the end of the trip, I am adding 2 more Open Water Divers to my list of students. Elaine and Brandon, cause i was the instructor who conducted the last open water dive. Lai Yin will be certified by Ahmat (not because he is better looking that me OK!)

Last but not least to the Pornstar..... stop swimming so fast and stop leaving a trail of dust. I know for sure David will piggyback on you... maybe doggystyle as well.... lol

And stop screaming (moaning) underwater

Lai Yin you owe me 1 ice cream....hahahaha

Brandon you are alright, just do more bungie jumping. If you want you can go sky diving, I'll hook you up.

Elaine, you did ok. Very different from the 1st time you don a scuba gear in the pool.

From left to right: Lai Yin, Elaine, Brandon, Ahmat scubatex

Season opens..... 2009

Finally i'm going on my 1st trip of this new season...

So many of my friends has gone for their trips. While i'm busy sorting our work and juggling the house matters. And how expensive this experience is for me...

But the good thing is i am FINALLY moving to my OWN home..... yes at the age of 26 hahahaha...

Its gonna be after this upcoming trip though..

I'm headed towards Tenggol island again. I closed last season in that island and coincidently i'm headed there for the opening of this season.

I'm headed that to help out a friend who's got his hand full.... literally of students. I've already helped him on 2 pool sessions now. So finally its the ocean....

I'm not gonna take my camera along this time... Won't have the time anyway.. cause i'm actually helping out so this is a working holiday and a camera u/water is not exactly workin....lol

Below are some image from my last trip there.

Update

I've not been updating this for a while now....

In January i went for 2 sessions in the Cheras pool... mephisto was there to accompany me.

Total laps we did as 30.

Recently I finally bought the same type of bag that Johnny had to store his fins... he is using the same fins as i am btw...

Beuchat Mundail Competition

Unfortunately the Beuchat distributor in Malaysia did not carry the bag to store this...
Thanks to Johnny tiresome checking he managed to find a Mares Apnealogy bag which fits our fins... which might i add the only one available in Malaysia.

My bag actually don't look so good. Its yellow and grey.. what a lousy colour.. but that was the only one left........ God why does apnea diving in Malaysia is so slow...

One more thing is that my Freediving Recording project has been put on hold cause of work commitments. But when the east coast season opens i'll definately get back onto it.

1st starting with the pool and MAYBE who knows..... free immersion, no limits??

On a personal note ..
So far i managed to do DNF(Dynamic without Fins) at 30m now.. previously it was at 25m
While my DYN (Dynamic with Fins) is still at 50m... i just need to get past that now.

Interestingly I did some CNF (Constant Weight without Fins) exercise in the pool and manged 5m. Now to do that in the ocean.. that's my next challenge.

Tenggol October 2008

Wow... I finally returned to Tenggol after 6 long years...

Man how i missed the strong currents of Tenggol.

The 1st dive was at Tanjung Gemok, and it didn't dissapoint me as the current was strong and I had a wonderful drift. I was slightly underweight as I gave 1 piece of weight to a diver who had trouble staying down. But other than that I was great fun.

Waters was quite clear, through out the whole trip waters was between 10m to 25m visiblity.

Unfortunately we didn't go to the Highway. I did not insist on it as there were quite a few new divers onboard.

I must return, but this time with twins there. And the Highway is a MUST DO!!!

More pictures of the trip are here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41233&l=c5b61&id=502252887

Online album

I've decided to use facebook to upload all my future pictures from the trips i make.

I recently went to Perhentian Island on Raya.


Water was good as visibility was averaging at 15m. The best surprise was Sugar Wreck. Cause it's usually 5m viz there. But of course there was a trade off... Jellyfish.
But nothing i can't handle.. But unfortunately for terence..lol... he had his VIRGIN experience with a jellyfish

This is the link to the pictures of Perhentian Island October 2008

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37800&l=456c1&id=502252887

Static Apnea at 1.9m

Static Apnea, well sort of larr... I did use my Mundial Competition but stayed between 1.5 to a max of 1.9m for 1.32 min.

But I must say I am very impressed at the sampling rate of this D4. So I can see my entire profile of 1.32 min on every second. Not forgetting there is a graph as well.

Next trip, I've got to see how deep this thing will record.

Fatal Dive Accident

29th August 2008

I just finished Open Water Training Dive 4 with 3 students off Pulau Pinang, Pulau Aur, Johor.
We boarded the boat Phileo and waited for the rest of the divers. When the boat captain did a headcount 1 diver was missing.
The boat went a few round around the island but nobody as seen nor was there any bubbles coming out from the water.

Then it was decided that we go for a search underwater.
I did 5 CESA's the same day, so I volunteered to snorkel & skin dive instead of scuba.
I went towards north while another group went the opposite direction. After swimming for about 400m the divers on the boat shouted that they found him. So i made it back to the boat.

As i went up there he was lying while Vincent was trying to perform CPR. An ugly sight indeed. I went to the front of the boat together with the rest of my Open Water students.

After 20 min of CPR they gave up. And headed towards the Pulau Aur police station to make a report. The whole group was down.

May he rest in peace.