there are lots of dive centers around that will gladly guide you thru.
you can choose to do it on mainland then go to island or do everything at the island.
where's your location?

snorkeling can just opt for those redang packages where it includes everything for a single price.

ooh nice. resign from your job and go pro in scuba.
anyway i don't know any dive centers near equine park, but i do some that there are a few around sunway mentari court there and also one at 1utama.
i'll pm you the name of those dive centers.

yea its best to get advanced before going to Sipadan but i don't think there's any restriction for OW divers. just that the divemaster will keep an extra eye on them and they can't go too deep unlike the advanced divers. wall dives can be quite scary as you can't see the bottom.

Kyu, i don't know about doing online courses but i think we haven't have that in malaysia yet. correct me if i'm wrong.
i think its still best to get a proper dive instructor to guide you thru your first OW cause at least if you don't understand anything, you can clarify it straight away.
there are many dive centers around in kl that will gladly help you to get the OW license. where's your location?

zaff1984, it's not that easy to dive at Sipadan. they only allow a limited number of ppl per day to dive there. some divers don't even get to dive at the island if its the peak season. so be sure to plan your trip before hand and tell your dive center/hotel that you plan to dive at sipadan after your course.

theory isn't hard at all. PADI's OW and Advance are very easy.
you just have to sit thru all the videos and the slides and do all those questions in the book. then at the end there will be a small MCQ test. it depends on your instructor whether he's strict or not. but most of them will let you pass as long as you get most of it correct. no worries.

^yea July is peak season.
should be able to. the last time i went was in July as well and i was really lucky as they gave me permit to dive at sipadan for 4 days! i think usually one or two days is no problem.

we actually got quite a discounted price during Matta fair.
was something like RM2k+ for 6D5N inclusive of meals, equipment rental, transport to and from airport, accommodation, and best of all, unlimited shore dives!
so happen we got the permits to dive at sipadan for 4 days but we only took 2 days to dive there cause me and my bf were more interested in macro stuff than turtles.
2 days of seeing turtles at every dive can get pretty boring.

Cause Redang is more for snorkeling as the resorts are also better and more families and tourist visit there for snorkeling. The dive sites at Redang aren't that great if compared to Perhentian.

Perhentian is like diving haven in West Msia for foreigners. The accommodation are mostly basic, budget and cheap, unlike Redang Laguna or Berjaya Redang. Although they do have some decent accommodation there but most of them cater for divers hence they have better and more dive centers compared to Redang. Dive sites are Perhentian is also better than Redang imo.

^Taking pictures underwater requires you to be stable and not move so much or else your photos will not turn out as nice. Hence, being stable needs you to have good control over your buoyancy. I'm not good with my buoyancy as well so I'm still practicing while my bf is the one handling all the photography. When we are not stable, then we might hit the corals/marine life and that's how it affect the underwater world.

You can just email or call up the dive centers and ask for the price. Normally it's just slightly more expensive than usual package pricing. Even if they don't list it on their website, they usually cater for solo divers.

If you're looking for a dive center to learn diving, same advice as scubamy, talk to the instructors first and then only decide. There are lots of dive centers around Klang Valley who just wanna make money and don't provide any quality in their training. Do your survey properly (get recommendations from other divers, check out diving forums, etc.) and don't rush into it. You don't want to pay for a license and don't learn anything important in the end.

As for those who are looking for certification in Sipadan. I would strongly recommend that you get your certification completed and done before you step foot on Sipadan. You can always go to Sipadan and enjoy the marine life there after you have done your OWC. After getting advanced certification is even better as Sipadan are mainly wall dives and currents can be quite strong at certain dive sites. Hence bouyancy is very important. And new divers might not have enough experience to enjoy it. You might be trying to control your bouyancy to not go over the depth limit and don't see much in the end.

Just my two cents.

Which resort/dive center are you talking about?
Free wifi depends on the hotel you are staying at. Some provides them some don't.
Also, don't expect free wifi at kampung areas like Pulau Dayang. Telephone line also don't have.

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Added on January 28, 2011, 12:34 pmHave fun! Bali has many beautiful dive sites. Hope you see some amazing marine life there and snap pictures of it.

This post has been edited by munkeyflo: Jan 28 2011, 12:34 PM

As long as it's between March to September, it'll be find.
The dive operators will still be open during that time. It's holiday period! Consider peak season. That's the time where they can make more money than usual days. Of course they will be open.
I know lots of dive centers will organise trips during Raya holiday as well because it's public holiday. So far I don't think there's such thing as balik kampung and close shop for Raya for dive centers on islands.

As for too crowded, that might be the case cause it's public holiday + school holiday.
My sister went to Redang once during Raya holiday. She planned to go diving but ended up just lepaking on the beach cause everywhere too crowded.

Plan to go there in the future. Saw some nice rates during MIDE last year.
Haven't been there though. Please do share your experience after you've dived there!

If you are planning to go to redang, most of their dive centers
operate together with the hotels. So maybe you can check with the hotels. Snorkeling will be a big problem cause you might be seeing more ppl than fishes. Diving maybe still ok but do expect more divers than usual also lor.

^
1. As long as it's not during monsoon season, it should be fine.
2. Usually your dive packages will come with equipment rental, just more expensive than dive packages without equipment rental. However, it's advisable to get your own mask, fins and wetsuit or else might not feel comfortable in rented ones.

See whether you want branded or not so branded.

Mask cheapest I got was RM70 and it's my favourite so far. Compared to all my other masks.
Fins also depends on what type of fins. Beginners usually don't have to get fins as it can be quite expensive. Around RM150 and above.
Wetsuit I prefer to get my own cause I don't like shorties. I prefer more protection on my legs and hands cause I scared the coral kacau me. Cheapest is RM350, usually around RM500 and above for good ones.

You can just go for rented gear for your first few times to know what type of gears you want. Then check out MIDE in July or so and get some gears there.

If you wanna invest more into this hobby, then you should think about getting the full sets as it's better to be familiar with your gears especially underwater.
But beginner, I suggest just get mask and wetsuit first. Oh you can also just wear a rash guard and surf pants if you don't mind. Malaysia waters still okay, but oversea dive sites might have very much lower temperature so wetsuits are needed.

Can check out http://scubatexpro.shops.com.my/ as well. He sells pretty valuable stuff. I got my RM70 mask from him.

Klang Valley kinda big. Can specify more? If Subang then I know.
Also, you looking for courses, trips or buying stuff?

^Berjaya resort in Redang.
Everything they do for you. They give you each a water bottle and an apple for each dive.
They even washed, dried and packed my dive gears into my bag when we dived on the last day as we had to bath before checking out at noon.

But then again, we were the only two divers during those few days so we had extremely good VIP treatment. Whole fishing boat was ours. During inter-dive breaks, just lay on the deck and suntan, very nice. I don't know if it's during peak seasons though. Their per dive prices isn't that expensive either.

My family has Berjaya Vacation Club membership so we book thru there. I'm not sure what other ways you can book but one thing is that you should expect higher priced rooms at Berjaya resorts compared to the others. Can try ask in the Redang thread, I'm sure some of them know how to book rooms for Berjaya.

Another hotel would be Laguna Redang, the few times I went there also just walk to boat and dive only. But I think we have to set up our own equipments.

The time I dived in Bali also had VIP service, they will do everything and carry everything for us. Actually now that I think of it, it's the best I've had so far. Most of the places, we had to set up our own equipment on the first day. Then we have to carry our basic equipments - mask, fin, wetsuit, cameras - on our own to the boat.

If I'm not mistaken, Sipadan/Mabul also pretty good service.

I can't really remember cause my bf prefers to set up his own gear (and mine ) so most of the time he would ask others not to touch his gear. And since he sets up mine as well, most of the time I'm just sitting there doing nothing, just gear up and dive.

Btw. Anyone dived in Labuan before? Any dive centers to recommend and rough price per dive? I'll be going end of november for diving.

Yep. I'm into wreck diving. I love wrecks. Lol.
May I know who did your friend dive with? How was the vis?

My bf got his online for quite a good price. I can't remember which forum he got it from already but I know the seller personally bring it back from Switzerland or something.

There is mask for short-sightedness. I myself is short-sightedness.
When I first started diving, I went and get myself a pair of mask where they could change the lens to suit my power. It was around RM350-400, can't really remember. Did it at Sunway Mentari. Most of the dive shops do it and they have ready stock for these things, unless your power is super high like 800 and above or something.

But after a while, I gotten myself power-free mask as I prefer to wear contacts. Cause I would be blind on when I took off the mask and it would be hard to get a clean and dry towel to clean my specs so I can see properly. So I didn't like that and stick to contacts now.

However, if you choose to wear contacts, it's better to get dailies, as usually dive trips will do about 3-4 dives per day and you wouldn't really have the time to remove/change it every dive. I read somewhere that someone suggested to get two pair of contacts and change between it every dive as we have to soak the contacts for about 2 hour before wearing it again. As for the water sipping in to the mask, get the correct mask that fits your face, like someone else said, expensive doesn't mean good. It does sting if it goes in, but I just close my eyes very tightly, relax, wait for the sting to slowly go away and blink a lot with tears washing the sea water away.

Ah that explains it. I always have a problem with my fins floating. I can't seem to put my feet down even when I'm kneeling.
Guess I have to find new booties. Thanks for the info.

Btw, I'm using Atomic Aquatics split-fin (http://www.atomicaquatics.com/splitfins.html).
I find them easy to use as I don't have strong leg muscles. When do frog kick, will speed up quite some distance without much energy.

I bought for quite cheap, around RM350+ during MIDE. Mine was red color so more expensive.