SCUBA DIVING IS THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD!!!!

my girlfriend and I can vouch for that! we just became official PADI Open Water divers. But there's a downside....it's NEVER enough! lol. I just came back this evening and we both already craving for our next dive trip!

**...must...dive...**

wan tag along also. end of the year would be ideal as i'm taking annual leave at the end of the year.
i wanto get a open water 1st.

year end the east coast is closed ,monsoon. probably u nid consider further like sabah to learn if it's end of year.




later u will realize ur pocket burning very fast, no matter how much save its never enough lol. when u dive u want gear, when got gear u want dive,then the circle repeat.



anyway, im going redang this thursday nite,decided this morning and manage to get a room @ pelangi.. 1st of may, say HELLO to all the chicks!

anyone know any pulau aur dive center???. looking for diving package

agree with kim seng.

just a tip for newbies learning to dive. u should ask around whr to take up your OW diving, especially with divers or divemasters. Recently, a group of newbies took up diving in sipadan for OW course. this was actually my friend's sport club (from a particular bank). i did advice her to take it up from the neighbouring dive center, but the organizer being a newbie in diving insisted to start OW in sipadan.

unfortunately, later i found out that the whole group (about 20 pax) took up diving with a divemaster and a rescue diver. (and they didnt even know it). for the first confined water dive, they were put with 6-8kgs of weight and practically forced to sink (9m) in mabul islands. prior to their 3rd OW dive to sipadan, they didnt even know what an rdp table was and how to calculate it.

i m an advocate for safe diving practises, and i do enjoy watching newbies getting excited abt diving. but, diving has its risks and limitations and a newbie be aware of them, thus begin learning the correct basics in the first instance.

now Lang Tengah 4 days 3 nite diving course @ 1350.00 included with stay, 3 meals a day & boat transfer from jetty.

Perhentian Besar...4 Day 3 Night...RM950 PADI + Free transfer + Free accommodation...must buy meals voucher RM80 per day

just came back from my redang trip.

1st of May -> Not so much of what i expected, mostly family trip.
all auntie with bikini or full of tattoo and smoke, no hot chicks

went for shore dive but with a spoiled mask so terpaksa end the dive earlier,
under water full of open water student
conclusion, from boat view full of orange/red/purple life jacket, under water full of legs and bulu kaki

2nd of May -> still lotsa snorkeling, sea of life jacket and legs inside water,manage to dive in pulau kerangga and black coral garden,nothing much special.still the same conclusion with lotsa life jacket n kaki inside water

3rd of May -> wake up 6,30am and leave island at 7am just to see bumhead fish, with a lot of luck we manage to see them inside a group (sleeping gua)

and bonus is manage to capture photos of it + sea turtle

people still leaving redang island and in a sudden it turns quiet again.

4th day, end of this diving trip and went back to KT.

edited : will post photo later, a buddy bought along G10 with casing to take photos

This post has been edited by akRia: May 5 2009, 08:48 PM

the price i give was on public holiday..
it would be cheaper if it is not

Am going to Sipadan/Mabul next week. Will be staying at Seaventures and Borneo Divers Resort. Wonder if anyone is going to be around those dates? Would be awesome to meet up.

Also going to be going to Langkawi after that? Gonna be my first time, heard so much good stuff abt it. Are there any good dive spots in Langkawi?

Geez...that's practically suicidal. I made it a point to take it in a confined pool and went at it again and again...till i'm comfortable and have all the basics 2nd nature to me.

For anyone thinking of taking up diving....don't think about saving a little money....don't do it in a rush or just because it's cheap. If you think you can't cope with being underwater or slow in learning....take the course at a dive center that trains you till you are practically a fish.

For your information, no resort will actually do the OWC in Sipadan Island itself. It has always been like that for as long as I can remember. It is just not suitable as there is only barely enough beach until you meet the drop-off.

You must have got your facts wrong.

Indeed I am all for safe diving practices, but I believe if you go through reputable dive resorts/companies it should be okay. Do not book your OWC just because it is CHEAP. And always always make sure you are going to be taught my a DIVE INSTUCTOR and not some divemaster or rescue diver or whatever else they claim to be.

there is only 2 operator in Pulau Aur. And both are Singaporean owned.
try searching for Planet Scuba Singapore. They own 1 resort there. The owner is a SDI instructor trainer and a friend of mine.

6th Night Free on Mabul / Sipadan in Nov / Dec 09

Dive The World has a juicy carrot in the form of a 6th night free if you book 5 at Borneo Divers Mabul Resort on Mabul near the sought after Sipadan diving heaven.

As an added bonus, let's include a free night dive on any one of the nights too.

7 days 6 Nights Borneo Divers Mabul Resort
Price: US$ 1,061 per person sharing
Includes 1 Night Free!
Save US$ 424 per couple
Bonus: 1 free night dive

Diving Includes: Dives, boat rides, experienced English-speaking divemaster(s) for maximum 6 divers (max. 12 divers per boat), one free self-guided sunset dive per day on the house reef, tea / coffee, juice, drinking water, tanks, weights and weightbelts.

Diving excludes: Marine park fees are approx. US$12 per person per day, are payable on arrival. Dive equipment can be rented on arrival too.

Accommodation (based on 2 share) includes: Bed, breakfast, lunch and dinner, Tawau Airport - resort return transfers.

Destinations: Sipadan Island, Mabul and Kapalai. There are 3 dives a day. When park guest permit numbers allow, this will mean a 2 dive trip to Sipadan and a third dive around Mabul or Kapalai. Alternatively it will be a 3 dive day around Mabul or Kapalai. No diving on day of departure.


For more information: http://blog.dive-the-world.com/2009/03/6th...dan-in-nov.html or contact Dive The World www.dive-the-world.com

This post has been edited by lyndiane: May 7 2009, 02:05 PM

Nope bro...this was a reported case to PADI office by a friend of mine who is a OWSI. i am a dive pro as well, and i hate it when these unreputable dive pros makes a bad name out of diving. not only tat, they are risking newbies to scuba and thinking they r qualified to dive when they dun have enuff training to get thru in the first place.

for this incident, it is not becos is cheap, but becos a newbie wants to learn scuba diving in sipadan. also, becos the instructor wans to take the biz, he allowed them to do so. also, if u ask a newbie, many do not know tat a divemaster CANNOT teach a student, except for DSD or scuba review. some take it for granted, others just do not seem to ask.

fmy advice to divers who wan to do sipadan, ur skills need to be intermediate (at least independent enough to dive) and has clocked enough dives to be relaxed n good buoyancy (preferably around 30 dives or more). for one thing, when u go sipadan, u need to go there and watch the fishes / admire the beauty. and not let the fishes watch u while u struggle to get ur diving skills in line.

Please remember that to u need a permit to go to Sipadan, no one is excluded: divers, non divers, snorkelers, even the Sabah Parks staff themselves have to have a permit to enter Sipadan Island - (I just recently talked to a Sabah Parks staff last week and he confirmed this). Remember that Sipadan is a protected area/marine park hence the strict regulations. The quota of 120/person daily cannot be exceeded in any way. Because of the high number of divers who come all this way to dive Sipadan, PRIORITY is always given to divers instead of non divers because the demand is higher than the supply. Trust me, it is close to impossible to get a permit if you are not a diver. And obviously because of this reason, permits are NOT issued to students who are merely looking to get qualified as a diver. OW courses are ALWAYS conducted on either Mabul Island or Kapalai island. After they have succesfully completed their OWC and are certified, only then will they be allowed to go diving in Sipadan (that is, of course if they get dive permits for Sipadan by then).

That is how it works.

PS: All permits to Sipadan has to go through Sabah Parks. They control (and approve) the permits in order to give everyone a fair chance to dive in Sipadan. Remember there are about 12 resorts around the area and only 120 permits available on a daily basis. That means on average one resort can only send 10 people to Sipadan everyday. If you have 30 people staying in your resort, they will have to use the rotating system in order to have everyone dive in Sipadan. Plus, even the resort have no SAY on who gets to dive Sipadan cos like I said, everything is controlled by the Sabah Parks authorities.

Hope this makes it clearer why they do not give permits to OWC students to do the course in Sipadan


This post has been edited by lyndiane: May 8 2009, 12:53 PM

although im not sure they offer OWC not,but they do have advance open water. have a friend who did her advance there under NAUI. sipadan is beautiful but the price is like going oversea for a malaysian.

visit own country's island but paying at ang moh price, i would rather pay and go manado, at least im really going oversea.

its like the pulau aur and pulau dayang case, because they are nearer to singapore,they basically charge at singaporean rate even for malaysian.

ahhh...that confusion eh...for the case which was reported, the OW students got into sipadan after the half baked course in mabul.

lyndiane - r u from sabah? seems tt u r pretty familiar wit sipadan permits.

Yup, I am indeed from Sabah. Most people who are in the diving industry know about the permit situation in Sipadan. It is just as as frustrating for the locals as it is for the people who have to travel half the world to dive Sipadan too


This post has been edited by lyndiane: May 10 2009, 11:02 PM

tell me about the permit. some of my divers are really pissed off abt diving in sipadan due to the permits. i mean logically, a msian cant even get to dive their own country's island, and have to get in line with foreigners to get permit. i have been diving in sipadan since 2002, but now this permit thingy really makes me no mood to dive there liao. i spent my last trip in nov diving mabul instead.