Dive logged #001 - First day at sea

SAPI ISLAND IS A SMALL ISLE WITH STRETCHES OF SANDY BEACH BEAUTIFULLY LAID OUT FOR YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES TO CHILL OUT. A boat transfer from Jesselton Point to Sapi Island will normally take you about 15 minutes. The island has a restaurant which will cater to most taste buds; from local to western cuisines. Apart from that, basic amenities are provided to tickle your comfort zone; a convenient store, toilets, changing and shower rooms. For those of you who prefer the greener side of nature, help yourself to some short jungle treks and experience the life in a tropical island.

There are a number of water sport operators in Sapi Island ready to rope you in for an adventure. Be it Sea Kayaking, Parasailing, Sea Walking, Snorkelling or even Scuba Diving, brace yourself for a heart-thumping good time! For scuba diving enthusiasts, the island boasts 4 splendid dive sites;-

1. Clement's Reef
2. Ron's Reef
3. Coral Garden
4. Sapi House Reef

..and this is the island where you will be learning your confined water and open water dives.

Your first underwater journey will take place at:

Sapi House Reef

• Depth: 1 - 20 meters
• Average: 8 meters
• TARP Rating: 6/10
• Unique Features: The training site with artificial reef balls together with tyres, dragon nets, garden eels, blue spotted sting rays, stone fish, leaf fish, barracuda's and lots of tropical reef fish.

A New Start of 2011

WHAT'S UP? IT'S A NEW CHAPTER FOR ALL OF US THIS YEAR AND I AM AS EXCITED AS YOU ARE TO BEGIN OUR JOURNEY INTO THE UNKNOWN. This time around I am diving with a new crew, Diverse Borneo - PADI 5 Star Instructor Development Centre. I had since joined Diverse Borneo from 13th January as a Public Relations Tour Operator. 2 weeks had passed and what can I say? I just love this place!

It has been 2 months since my last dive over at the beautiful Tunku Abdul Rahman Park. I had the opportunity to visit one of the must visit in Kota Kinabalu, Borneo again on Sunday. I did three dives and nothing beats a fun day out from the office (even though the weather wasn't on our side).

We had about 14 wonderful people joining the trip - 4 of them were doing PADI Discover Scuba Diving, 3 ladies from the great China had fun snorkelling with our professional guides, 2 divers did their PADI Refresher Course, 2 divers did a PADI Referral Course and 3 local KK divers had fun underwater for 3 fun dives. What a day it was!

The dive sites I visited were Clement's Reef, Ron's Reef and Agill's Reef. It was fabulous I tell you. Schooling fusilier, butterfly fish, lobster, puffer fish, nudibranches and all that tropical fishes.

Visibility was expected to be low but it was not the worse. But hey, anybody with an adventure spirit will know how to have fun :).

Wendy and her boyfriend Jeefaas from the Netherlands decided to finish their PADI Open Diver Course with us (after returning from Vietnam) and now moving onto becoming a PADI Open Water Advance Diver. They just can't wait to explore Sapi House Reef at night for their PADI Night Diver specialty course.

After a such long period of time of not having breathing underwater, the excitement was always over my head. Waking up as early as 6 in the morning to help the boys loading and unloading the tanks and gears at the jetty was new to me. Now my whole body is aching. I don't know how the DMs do it but I am sure steroid is not one of them. Have to give respect to the divemasters and instructors!




Not only they can stand this massive hard labour, but they can still have the passion to show you what is there to see underwater. Once the dive has ended, they repeat the first step again and in the end giving you a nice warm smile.

;)

This blog entry is dedicated to all divemasters and instructors where ever you are. I had no idea that the work load is overdose until I tried it myself helping my colleagues :D

Till next time.

Forever blowing bubbles & be active in scuba diving!

Merdeka Sunset & Night Dive

Whilst some of us have other ways how to celebrate our Merdeka, I've never imagine what's like to fly the National Flag underwater.....at night. I've log over 100 dives and every dive was different. And when I come to think of how to celebrate our Merdeka, what is more better than to fly the Malaysian National Flag underwater at our beloved Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park (TARP) in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo. Doing it with style and different I guess! As SCUBA DIVERS living in Kota kinabalu, Borneo, we are able to tell people about the things we've seen underwater where non-divers can't at 15 - 20 meters below the surface. Now, combined with our love to this amazing sport, we can tell people just how proud we are to become Malaysian and to fly the National Flag wherever you are! I had 7 local KK divers joining with me together with Absolute Scuba crew, to get our national spirit dive underwater last 31 August 2010.

It was fun and tired to some divers who dived for the first time at night.

Misol, PADI OWSI, during the briefing

Some of the KK divers listening carefully during the briefing

Ready for some underwater action - sunset dive

"I think we forgot the weights at the Dive Centre lah Misol..."

The plan was, to get good shots as many as possible with the divers showing the Malaysian flag. Unfortunately, my underwater camera housing wasn't equipped with strobes lighting. So the best option to illuminate the shots was to used the flash light of the G10 (which was hopeless) and dive torch.

1st attempt

Group photo

Finally, a good one. Note the flag was the other way round. Haha!

Hopefully next year, we'll fly Sabah and Malaysia flags underwater on 16 September.

"The sea is a pretty big place, and when you start diving deep to areas that no human actually hasn’t been before, you are an explorer, in the best sense of the word." - a quote from an avid scuba diver.

A short clip during the sunset dive at New Light Reef

How did you celebrate your Merdeka?

Till next time.

Forever blowing bubbles & be active in scuba diving!

Project AWARE Reef Clean Up

It was nice to see some familiar faces again during the Project AWARE International Reef Clean Up Day hosted by Borneo Dreams for the 6th time on 2 Oct 2010 in Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Sabah, Borneo.

The weather was clear, zero current and perfect for some underwater clean up action!

This cause was a success with the help from 50 divers, both internationally and locally alike. We had Diverse Borneo came down for extra support on tanks, gears, boat and professional guides. The Sabah Marine Park management and its diving division were great - both waiving the diving permits for this purpose and assisting the participants on collecting marine debris. I can see that the Marine Research Foundation also provided a great dive boat. To top it all again, the Sutera Marina also waived boarding permits and allowed boats from Diverse Borneo and Sabah Parks to board their boats so they can picked some of the divers from there.

James of Borneo Dream


Mark's team in action - Diverse Borneo


Marine Research Foundation's boat. Freaking huge!

On that day, we had successfully collected a total of 129kg of marine debris . Beer bottles, plastic bags, fishing line, helmet, diapers, mask, snorkels, book, to name a few. Half of the marine debris we've collected were 60kg of plastic bags!

And do you know that plastic bags always mistaken as jelly fish by turtles? If they eat them, turtles could die. This is not good consider that sightings of sea turtles are very rare in TARP. Some of the things I saw while cleaning up at the Manukan Island house reef was that, there were too many empty water bottles (your daily mineral water bottle) being dumped underwater. Some of them were even impossible to be picked up as it was too deep inside the coral reefs. Have you tried to bring a bottle full of shredded bread to feed the fishes underwater? And where do you think it will be left once the food has run out? So you get the point now. It's sad that there are still some water sport operators out there does this - have their staff to provide this food bottle to make the sport more enjoyable or use it to boost their sales.

The great Gaya Island

"When entering a protected place where the fish are bountiful and fearless, we react by wanting to do something nice for them, like feeding. This gesture is well understood as a token of friendship by many species, and is gratefully accepted. Inside a marine reserve, however, it may create conflict with those people who want the fish to behave naturally, like ignoring us."

Some people think that feeding is unnatural and can cause sickness in fish. Too much food in the water can cause bacterial growth. The fact is, this naive act can actually disturb the dietary of underwater lives. It can create problem on the eco system. It can make the fishes to depend on us, waiting to be fed.

Nonetheless, this event was great. I had fun for the second volunteering myself in this cause and hopefully there are more to come in the next future.

KK scuba girls, enjoying the reef clean up!

KK divers love to do clean ups!

Kenny our guide

Love your sea, protect the environment, because the backyard is our treasure too!

Ten Ways a diver can protect the underwater:-

1. Dive carefully to protect fragile aquatic ecosystems

2. Be aware of your body and equipment placement when diving

3. Keep your dive skills sharp through continuing education

4. Consider how your interactions affect aquatic life

5. Understand and respect underwater life

6. Be an ecotourist

7. Respect underwater cultural heritage

8. Report environmental disturbances or destruction

9. Be a role model for other divers and non-divers when interacting with the environment

10. Get involved in local environmental activities and issues

If you happen to be in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo and fancy learning about our underwater world or how you can contribute in protecting the underwater environment, contact our local dive operators now!

Till next time.

Forever blowing bubbles & be active in scuba diving!

Usukan Wreck

Diving at a new spot always make me nervous. It was something like how I recall when I first plunged myself into TARP’s water. Meeting new dive crews, getting myself comfortable and trying to get all this excitement processed at the same time was very interesting.

Joanne had groups going to Usukan Bay Wrecks and invited me to come along. I always wanted to dive wreck and given this chance, I didn’t hesitate at all. It was my first wreck and like a virgin, touch for the very first time. The WW2 wrecks are known locally as the ‘The Rice Bowl Wreck’, ‘Upside Down Wreck’ and the ‘Usukan Bay Wreck’. All of these wrecks lie in 26 to 42 metres below surface. I had the chance to explore The Rice Bowl Wreck.

The night before the trip, I couldn’t sleep well because of the excitement. I have seen many pictures and nice video shots of the wreck and when I realized that I am going to dive and see her the next day, the feeling was as almost as seeing your other half naked for the first time.

Morning call, it was 07:00 when the alarm hit. I had all my things ready the night before so I will not rushed before going off. After a nice hot coffee and delicious salad sandwich for breakfast, I was ready to start my day.

I met with Borneo Dream crew at Jesselton Point around 8 in the morning. The team had amazing dive professionals. This was actually my second time diving with them after the Pulau Tiga trip and I am always happy to be greeted with smiling faces.

The journey was about an hour to the site (35nm north of KK) with their RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat). Sea and whether condition was great. Everything was in order and my heart was pounding.

Billy & Richard preparing the shade

"Let us help you guys out!"

The site was quiet and we hardly see anybody else around the area besides local fishermen from nearby village.

Looking for the wreck wasn't that hard for this happy team. They had cool navigation system: GPS Plotter, Sounder and Sidescan Sonar attached to their RIB. Felt like traveling with Batman.

"TO THE BAT-RIB"

To dive at Usukan Wrecks, divers need to have PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification or similar and with experience. I was given a free NITROX short briefed as part of my wreck diving and used EANx30.

Soon after the anchor was dropped to mark the site, Billy geared up to tie a safety line all the way down to the wreck. While waiting for him, we tried to throw Richard away to the open sea and planned on hijacking the RIB. Haha!

Just kidding. Our friendly professional dive guide, Mr. Richard, assisted us with the equipments.

Mr. Billy on Rebreather

"I'm ready"

"Je suis prêt"

About 10 - 15 minutes later, Billy surfaced up and gave us the okay signal to go down. It's time to rock & roll!

I had slight fever few days ago before the trip and going down was not easy. Every inches I went, the pain in my ear was so unbearable. I signaled to Richard our guide to just carry on and don't wait for me. There at 5m and alone, I was waiting for the pressure in my ear to go away. Tried to equalized and go down slowly but only tears came out.

"There is no way I'm going to miss this", I uttered in my head

Luck, luck. Suddenly, one giant force busted out from my ear. The sound of relieve put a smile on my tired face.

Shotline tied by Billy all the way down to 30 - 35m deep

As I slowly went down with only the line as my guide, the wreck's silhouette slowly building up. And oh my, she's freaking huge! I could see Billy was waiting for and I signaled him I am fine. I released my hand from the line and I just hover and witnessed the best damn thing ever. For a moment, I just couldn't decide what to do. Should I take pictures or just stare at her. Stunning soft coral gardens and hard corals are all over her body. She had die hard fans swimming all around: schooling Barracuda, large Groupers, Yellow Snappers, Fusiliers, etc. There were even 3 - 6 giant Trevally below 35m.

Richard & his buddy

Colourized shot

I swam in loneliness and looking at her lying at the bottom. Her death made her freeze in time and welcome every walks of life to ponder upon her beauty.

"Whenever I'm alone with you
You make me feel like I am free again.."

..a song from The Cure was playing in my head.

I just didn't bother to follow Richard though he tried to show me some interesting marine life. Well, there will be some point in your diving trip that you just wanted to be free and see things through your own eyes. But don't get left behind and make sure you know where your buddies are.

The wreck known as Rice Bowl wreck, was torpedoed by USS Dace (Lt.Cdr. B.D. Claggett) on October 14th 1944. Resting position: Upright Length: approx.150m Tonnage: approx.7000 Surface to Deck: 28m Surface to Bottom: 36m


You may find slight surface current between 3m - 10m and that is when the shotline comes in use but once you are down at the wreck, superb viz all the way to 38m and zero current.

This trip was made possible by Borneo Dream sometime around July this year. I can still remember the moment I saw this beautiful wreck and the feeling of mix joy and nervous as I type. The Usukan Bay (35nm from KK) is a less visited place probably because of its distance and market. Knowing its "unpopularity", this gives the place a more unique site to be explored by experience or technical divers.

Her remain has nice punctured entries waiting to be explored inside and who knows what treasures you might find. I have never seen a site that is so full of marine life in a single place.

Over the past years, the wreck has been covered with nice hard and soft corals. You will be amazed to this underwater garden and its attraction did not only attracted us but also to marine life.

More pictures....

Without flash



With flash :)

We spent about 45 minutes below between 33m - 27m deep.

Deco! Nah, my dive comp. wasn't Nitrox compatible. So it was made to believe that I was breathing on normal air.

At the final minutes of the dive, my camera housing began to leaked. Then I thought, of all the place and time, she decided to chose this moment to break!

At 5m safety stop with extra tank for the turbo charged lungs

The end of our 1st dive. Such a memorable trip. We had our 2nd dive but I did not bring down my camera with me as the housing was giving problem. To top it all again, all pictures were taken with accidentally ISO set to 200! But it's better than nothing right?

I must admit, I can't get enough with the 1st dive and if I have the chance again, I will surely dive there again. This trip is by far my biggest highlight of my rec diving!

Till next time.

Forever blowing bubbles & be active in scuba diving!