that thread is from 2002. most likely the temperature has gone way up. last year in sabah during my dive it was 24 celcius average. this year, 29 celcius average at the same place.

I'm in perhentian now. With mama chalet and free transport to turtle bay divers. Customer fre sly dive center... Staying place clean.
Make 2 dives today. Temp around 30.C. Vis around 8meters. Spot big string Ray. About half of human size. And green turtle. And many others fishers which I dunno the name. Haha.
Sorry, no bring GoPro so, don't have photos to share here. Just Fun diving around. Hehe.

Big sting ray should be Jenkins' whipray.
This big guy always wandering around Perhentian one... He loved stay around De lagoon usually ... been spotted here couple of times edy...

havent they been dead for a while? the last news i could pull up was from 09 reporting as such...

Why wait until you have 35bar? cowboy style diving?

It seemed you have the misconception of 'finish the tank' mindset. First off you need to get the concept right: the tank is not meant to be finished. Finished tank translates to finished life. It does not matter how comfortable or uncomfortable the environment is to you

Secondly, most probably you are just tired from the dive and not exhaling as much air as you did during earlier stage of your dive. The remnant air inside your lung will expand as you gradually ascend, and when you realised you are ascending uncontrollably, you'd try harder to exhale, which in turn will made you pant even more, and before you knew it you are already at surface. Probably it's better to give up and check if there are boat above you. I used to be like that, at a point I'm going down with 6kg and I still helicopter. Last I dive, I was trying to control my breathing and reduce the weight I carry gradually over a few dives, which I informed the dm. Last dive I used 4kg (later dm added another half kg to my tank since she's not entirely confident with me hehe) and did fine with complete safety stop.

Didn't your instructor teach you proper weighting? Conduct a weight check during the end of your checkout dive if you have not been diving for a while. Especially if you gained/lost (body)weight.

how low is low ?

in case of accident uw, i dont think ur buoyancy are related anymore ... hmmmm doesnt work this way ?

Sounds awfully dangerous to try this out unless you have briefed everyone in the team and there are specific signals to show that you are seriously in trouble. Response time to help you will need to be immediate. No longer banging for help. .... 

Try to avoid low on air situations unless you are already doing your safety stop.
In general shops do not like people to finish their air as well because water might go into the tank, or so I've been told.

Generally I find it harder to maintain buoyancy at 3m. I normally stay at 5m and fool around.

Good luck... Still dangerous. Open up soo many risks for no reasons.. Like doing my CESA and reach top, you are out of breath to inflate BCD then hyperventilate so difficult to blow air then legs get tired and cramp.. First and last time I want to attempt that.

There's no need to do an empty tank test... as I've posted to you earlier, every 10 bars of air in your tank weighs roughly 140g. If you find yourself neutral at 50 bars with your BCD empty and lungs at tidal volume, then at 0 bars you'll be roughly 700g more buoyant.

Density of air = 1.225kg per 1000L
Internal volume of AL80 tank = 11.1L
Volume of air @ 50 bar = 11.1 x 50 = 555L
Weight of 555L of air = 555 x 1.225 / 1000 = 680g

You have 0 weight belt needed? What setup are you using? Why lucky use up air fast?

your backplate is aluminium or steel? if aluminium, it's roughly 1kg in weight, and you likely need to use min 1 weight, if you dive in board shorts and rashies, but if steel, likely no need. however, if you dive in full wetsuit, better use 2 weights to be safe (if aluminium, or 1 if steel)

also, depending on your fins, you may need to trim weights again, cos some fins are negative, and some are positive bouyant.

You shouldn't test your response to an accident by getting yourself into one. unless you're training in a controlled environment.

If you wanna improve safety, it's better to relieve the other stressors that commonly mount on the major problem which leads to panic.

Performing only a CESA is simple. But the situations aren't usually so straightforward. OOA, badass current, lost buddy, poor viz, broken fin strap, or something as simple as water in mask can co-exist and may lead to a fatal ascent. With so many things at hand, you'll lose grip of important ones like your breathing.

So instead, prepare yourself by offloading tasks.

Of course, the higher your qualification and the more restrictions lifted, the higher the risks. It is not wise to test those limits without training.

She meant 'there's KK if u're afraid of kidnappings. But even kidnappings in semporna would not deter one who truly wants to dive there'. We've discussed this matter plenty of times before, and the conclusion still stands. Risk is increased in semporna waters, but not that great. In the end it's up to yourself.

Sorry munkey for putting words in your mouth
Not don't train anymore, but don't purposely create an OOA situation just to use it. You can still practice without putting yourself in danger right? (assuming you're talking about CESA and buddy air sharing?)

go where dive?