Langkawi's most frequent dive site is Pulau Payar which is the only marine park on the western side of peninsular Malaysia. There are the house reef, grouper farm, coral garden, shark alley on Pulau Payar itself. Then there's Pulau Lembu and Pulau Kaca which is a nice dive site as this is where our marine department sinks those confiscated fisherman boats and the corals are nicer here at 25 to 40 feet. Last time off course, now I don't really know.

Unknown to most the marine park also includes Pulau Segantang which is quite a distance due west of Pulau Payar. Unless you have the numbers, most dive operators don't take you there. Visibility is better here and marine life is abundant here. This is also where I have seen the barracuda wall and also at one time thousands of sea snappers (jenahaks and siakap merah). At the back of this island is where Perikanan anchors those clay tubes for lobster breeding.

Agreed, East Marine 5 star dive center in Langkawi. The course is expensive but the accommodation is cheaper than Terangganu/Pahang. AB motel, cost only rm60 per nite.

This post has been edited by ArisaAida: May 10 2011, 04:24 PM

Ah I see. Also, seldom see local dive centers organize trips to Langkawi for diving. A bit hard to get a bigger group then I guess.

Haven't dived in Langkawi before so I dunno.
Would be nice to dive in less known areas...

Guys,

Me n my wife interested to take up diving. We already bored with snorkelling

Do we need to know swimming to take the diving course? Do we need to take discover scuba 1st? or straight open water? A bit confuse on the certification.

Thanks

is better if u know how to swim and take discover scuba..in my case, i cant swim and never take any discover scuba b4 im take OWD course

Thanks for the info. I can swim with aids; fins + lifejacket can float..

So i can straight take owd? no need scuba discovery?

in my opinion, yes u can straight take owd.

You don't have to do discovery before you take OWD. It's not a requirement nor do I see any need for it. It's more for those who don't really know what diving is all about and wanna try it out, just like a trial dive

I did two discovery dives before I took my OWD. First one was just for fun. Second was with my bf cause he hasn't tried it before. Then a year after that we took up OWD.

You don't really need to be a professional swimmer to learn diving. As long as you can swim, in your own way, and also keep yourself afloat. That's good enough.

Appreciate the info

Any recomended instructor around Shah Alam/PJ?

This post has been edited by apisgogo: May 11 2011, 01:33 PM

^In a similar boat, except I'm planning to do some proper scuba diving in Mabul in a month and a half.

What's the cheapest way to get the OWD cert? I'm hoping its possible to do the training on weekends or something, in a place near Subang Jaya.

You don't need to do scuba discovery to take owd, however you need to be able to swim without any aid (fins, lifejacket, or any flotation aid) continuously for 200 meters and tread water for 10 minutes. If you cannot swim 200 meters then you have the choice of using fins, mask and snorkel and do a 300 meter snorkel test, but you still have to float for 10 minutes without any aid.

My advice is to take up swimming lesson first if you really cannot swim at all. But if you can do doggy paddle on your own that is good enough. Most instructors only want to make sure that you are comfortable being in the water.

I learn to dive with BSAC which have strict requirement for diving certification and I was so fat that time it was impossible to make me sink. I did doggy paddle for my swim test and it took some time to complete the 200 meters.

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Added on May 12, 2011, 4:07 amNot sure about cheapest way to get OWD cert, but if you only have weekends to spare I suggest you take a referral course which means you learn to dive in swimming pool first then continue your course elsewhere. You can find a dive centre/instructor in Subang Jaya that can train you the skills. This can be done in one day or two days, depends on how fast you learn the skills. Just make sure your instructor sign the forms properly.

Then you can go to any dive centre on any island and do 2 days open water dives with the forms that has been signed by your previous instructor. Just remember if you are flying, allow 18 hours after your last dive before you take your flight. Most dive centre will not allow you to dive on your last day if you have early morning flight the next day.

This post has been edited by scubagon: May 12 2011, 04:07 AM

diving is consider an extreme sports man.. don't go risk your live with the "cheapest" OWD course. you should always have safety first priority always.

IMO don't waste your money to go mabul because you won't enjoy in your early few dives. learn your buoyancy and learn how to do deep dives before going to mabul.

true also....... jus go normal dive site near which dont cost much.... try get use to it first before u go sipadan or other great dive sites...

tat time u will be more enjoy compare to ur first few dive....

Although I don't consider scuba diving an extreme sport, I do agree witht he suggestion above. Mabul and Sipadan are premium dive sites and especially Sipadan is actually rated for advanced divers although experienced OW divers do visit it. In the first few dives or even first 10 or more dives, you will be so concentrated on buoyancy, breathing, depth, finning etc. you won't be able to really enjoy the sights and to waste a trip like that to Mabul. Log more dives first until it becomes second nature like driving or cycling before you take on the exotic dive sites like Sipadan or Mabul or even Manado or Pulau Aweh.

10 dives to get the hang of diving is damn good.

one of the reason i highlighted about safety is because in sipadan/mabul, there's a lot of deep dive and wall dive which you might not be aware of your depth as a new diver (>600m).

when you go too deep, you gonna suck in more air and you'll end up having shorter dives. plus some new divers might get scared and shoot up at a fast rate which will cause lungs explosion

please do read up on nitrogen narcosis, dcs and the haphazards of going too deep

Oh .. i like Sipadan ,, the best dive site in malaysia

Shd plan a trip to visit there ...


Sipadan .. oh.. fantastic place

This post has been edited by 30katz: May 12 2011, 05:08 PM

Safety limit for OW divers is rated at 130 feet deep but why all the way there. One thing I realised is new divers usually like to challenge depth. Anything below 80 feet is already dull and boring. Only photographers goes that deep or there is an attraction at that depth. I tried once near Pulau Sembilan near Pangkor, they were catching fish and I tagged along. So cold and dark down there at 120 feet, so eerrie too. I lasted only for 15 minutes and then 10 minutes to decompress at 20 feet which is so boring just under the boat. What fun is there?

The red spectrum is already gone from 60 feet onwards and then other colours of the spectrum starts to fade to greeninsh or bluish. What we like to see is the colours of the marine life and corals and this is best at 40 feet or less. Pulau Kaca in Langkawi marine park was the best. Small island and can dive around from 50 feet ( sunken boats and groupers ) and then start ascending to 30 feet around vast colourful corals. Swarms of little fishes and clown fishes among them. The sore point is visibility, you have to choose the date properly to coincide with ebb tide.

For those who have dived in Langkawi, they say there are more marine life there compared to Redang or Tioman.

y dont we organise a lowyat member trip to sipadan

My instructor is based in Sunway Mentari. He conducts his lessons in a few areas. He's actually quite well known as well. PM me if you're interested.

I agree completely.
From my yum cha session with my dive instructor and two of my friends who wanna learn diving today. It seems that those crash course at islands are cheaper.
And I would strongly recommend beginners to not take island crash course. I had to experience it the hard way.

Although I admit Sipadan is really awesome but I don't really like seeing a turtle at every angel I turn. Prefer searching for small stuff.
Still prefer Mabul. And other ship wreck dive sites. Wanna try diving at layang layang, but it's so expensive

true..i've dive in Pulau Payar, and i agree marine life is the best, but corals is really nothing to shout about. for those diving only in Tioman/Perhentian/Redang, do try diving Tenggol...nothing but diving here, so really nice if you're a diving freak.