I think I saw some of u guys at bnj booth signing up yesterday. What u guys got ?

I was in discussion when I glanced thru. Walked over and u guys left. When leaving for Tioman? Abc or salang ?

Im a BnJ regular. ABC is their main DC while salang is a branch. The boats and EQ mostly departs from ABC then towards to salang to pick up divers.

I personally prefer ABC as it's much bigger compare to salang and less crowded. The dive center at ABC has more facilities as well with a small swimming pool for divers. As mentioned, ABC has access to tekek. U can take island teksi from the marine park to the main town if you do not wish to walk (RM10 per person for return ride).

They usually open at the mentioned time and does not require an appointment. Perhaps u went yesterday? Most Dive shops that participated in last weekend's MIDE usually close on Monday or longer to rest and restock their shop after the show. They should be operational by the end of this week.

Its off season now at Andaman sea. I dove there once in the month of July. Strong current and bad weather (just my luck). We opted for the said dive sites u mentioned but ended up diving only King Cruiser. The rest of the day we had to dive near Aonang for protection from the elements. Some dive shops did mentioned before hand that they will not go to mentioned site during off season.

I suggest you adhere to dive shop's recommendations as they know the local condition and where best to/not to dive during this period of time.

This post has been edited by N0eL: Aug 2 2016, 04:46 PM

Whether you are taking a course or doing fun dive with a guide, always proceed with a reasonable doubt. Some instructor/DM have no concern for safety and do whatever it takes for better tip or whatever reason they may have. Eg. taking you beyond your training capability or diving at a dangerous dive site.

That video clearly shows its the inexperience of the instructor. Having giving the students too much weight and performing a negative entry. By right, it's not advisable to take a panic diver up to the surface so fast unless its a life threatening situation. He needs to calm down the panic diver before proceeding to ascend. If instructor didnt caught the diver's fin and prevent him from bolting up, it might cause AGE.

From what I noticed, they stayed at surface before going down. What I meant is they swam down head first during the descend and being overweight at the same time. Can tell clearly during the descend seeing the bubbles travelling up from reg to their legs. That maybe the reason the cameraman's eardrum popped.

Try my best to convince new divers that damselfish is deadly territorial and will atk anyone that swims into their area.

Hahahaha. They mean no harm at all. If you have the time (deco, safety stop), u may have a staring contest with them. And just when u look away, they will bump u on the leg claiming victory of the contest u just lost. Cutest thing underwater ever.

@KiraTomaru
Often times, I find course materials and dive books over dramatize everything. Perhaps for safety reasons and making sure divers take the course seriously. I always tell OWC students that I envy them for being able to experience being underwater for the first time. You won't get that sort of enthusiasm anymore after that. So I suggest u just wait for the day of ur course and have fun. Take whatever comes your way. No text or research can compare to actual experiences.

IMHO, AOW is a fun dive course that does not require much dive experience. The course may actually build beginner diver's confidence and interest in diving by opening more oppurtunity(dive sites) to them.

It has almost 0% of failure as there are not much skills evaluation and there is no exam. Students just need to experience the dives to pass the course. I would highly recommend peak performance bouyancy as instructor will fine tune student's trim in water. Wreck and night dives will also qualify u to be competent to dive more sites.

Do not get dittered by the word "Advance" as its just a marketing tool. If you have fun during ur OWC, you are ready for AOW.

This post has been edited by N0eL: Aug 11 2016, 05:57 PM

BWRAF

Incase u forgot, Before Wan**** Consider a F***

Have fun ~!!!

As I know, Oct is off season at Lipe and may not have any dive centre opened for business. They usually close around July and open for business mid Nov early Dec. Do check before heading there.

Good to know. Lipe has some amazing formation of soft corals, but lack of marine life based on my last visit.

U may also op for sidemount speciality as it provides enough redundancy for you to be diving alone. But whatever courses u take, it all comes down to confidence and experience. Most of the time, you may only be allowed to dive alone along the shore. Unless u have ur own boat that allows to transport urself to better dive spots.

Tank gets more buoyant as the pressure decrease (become positive at around 160 bar), more obvious when you ascend to shallower depth. Make sure to carry enough weight to compensate for that. Attaching your weight at different position may help with better trim. You may change the position at different stage of the dive if possible . You r likely to be on a head down/ leg up position towards end of the dive. Putting weight on a lower position of the body may help, or use a negative pair of fin. Note that the more weights u carry, the harder for you to control your buoyancy. Work and train to reduce it as much as possible. Weight of your bcd matters as well together with all the accessories attached to it.

Wetsuit is a source of buoyancy as well, i advice negate it in tropical water. Unless u get cold easily, op for a neutral buoyant suit. Just protect your upper body and head if u dont mind the discomfort of the hood. Best possible situation is you should be slightly negative at the start of the dive and neutral when doing your safety stop. If u cant maintain ur depth at 5m end of the dive, u r too light and try doing ur safety at 6m. Carry more weight for ur next dive. This goes without saying that you should always purge excess air in your bcd when u ascend. Make sure there is no trapped air in your bcd.

Happy Diving !!

the more weights u carry, the more air u need to add into your bcd at lower depth. This means you are more likely to be effected by the change of depth when you dive.

If you have more air in your BCD, it means it will expand more when u ascend making you much more buoyant than when you have less air in it. You will have to adjust your inflator much more often when you are overweight making it harder to control your buoyancy. Your tank will become buoyant much faster due to the extra air u need to use for your bcd to compensate for the extra weight u r carrying. You will also need to kick harder in order to move thus increasing your air consumption.

Being neutrally buoyant does not mean u r at the same weight regardless of how many you carry. You will still require more force in order to move forward when u r heavier. A U boat cannot move using the same force of a DPV even though both of them are neutrally buoyant at the same depth.

I just got back from Labuan Bajo few days ago. Glad to tell you that it's dry season now and the sea was flat. Went to 6 dive sites mainly on the northern and eastern side of the national park. It isnt manta season now unfortunately but we managed to caught up with some of them at Toko Makassar (manta point). Good viz at around 30m with average temp of around 26-27c. Saw napoleon wrasse, flamboyant cuttlefish, GT, sea snakes, morays, turtles, blacktip sharks, mantis shrimps etc etc. Highlight of course the mantas spanning at around 2.5m wing to wing.

However there are current for all the sites we went. Most dives we hid at the back of the pinnacles or swam against it at the beginning. Majority of it we have to get in via negative entry. Definitely need to work your legs. Be sure to prepare reel+SMB, a pair of stiff fin and reef hook. I would advice to be abit negatively buoyant than usual in order to stay closer at the bottom due to the current. Wear 3mm if you prone to cold water and a pair of long dive pants to protect ur knees when the current push you along the bottom.

La Prima Hotel. Its about 5-10 mins car ride from town and the jetty. I would suggest to go for mobile internet rather than relying on wifi. Was using telkomsel SimPati with 4G coverage. Despite being at a remote area, the connection is much better than any of our telcos here at KL.