sasdasdaf's SCUBA Blog

Cabilao Photos December 2011

2012-01-05T09:05:00.006+08:00

Here are some highlights of my Cabilao trip. Full set of photos is here.

Dwarf hawkfish. 105mm, 1/250s, f/10, ISO 200

Bubble coral shrimp. 105mm & +7 diopter, 1/250s, f/25, ISO 200

Ornate ghost pipefish. 105mm, 1/250s, f/22, ISO 200

Spotted porcelain crab. 105mm, 1/250s, f/18, ISO 200

Network pipefish. 105mm, 1/250s, f/10, ISO 200

Halgerda Batangas. 105mm, 1/250s, f/18, ISO 200

Backlit leaf scorpionfish. 105mm, 1/250s, f/18, ISO 200

Rock's pygmy octopus. 60mm & +7 diopter, 1/250s, f/16, ISO 200

Dyron Double Macro M77 Lens

2012-01-02T19:18:00.005+08:00

My recent Cabilao trip was the first time I tried supermacro photography with my new Dyron Double Macro M77 Lens. It is a wet diopter that gives 1.3x magnification with a 60mm lens and 1.7x magnification with a 105mm lens. It lives in my thigh pocket and I screw it on the front of my flat port when necessary. In line with what others have reported, it is very difficult to use, especially with a 105mm lens, due to the close working distance and very small field of view. I had a lot of fun with it, though, and was happy to come home with several usable shots. After quite some time of macro shooting, I really appreciated the ability to get greater than 1:1 shots. I think it will be very interesting to stack it with a teleconverter – it will give me a lot of flexibility with various supermacro combinations.

By the way, Underwater Photography Guide's review of the lens is here.

Sola 600 Aiming Light

2012-01-02T19:14:00.003+08:00

I used my new Sola 600 aiming light for the first time on my recent Cabilao trip. People have been raving about it for ages and I am glad that I finally got one for myself. It was a pleasure to use, with a wide and strong beam that had enough coverage for my needs. The best thing about the light, though, is the red mode. I found that the critters were significantly less bothered by the red light, which enabled me to get a lot closer than I have gotten in the past – a real boon for supermacro photography. My only gripe with it is the short battery life. It lasted about 60 minutes on full power, which is only one dive.

Cabilao Trip Report, December 2011

2012-01-02T19:09:00.004+08:00

I just got back from 4 days in Cabilao Island in the Visayas, the Philippines. We were in Cebu for a friend’s wedding and decided to hop over to Cabilao for some diving. I chose Cabilao because it is a secluded island with pristine reefs and is relatively undeveloped. It has a population of 4,000 people and there are only 3 small resorts on the island. We got picked up from Cebu City and a 2 hour car and 1.5 hour boat ride took us directly to Cabilao Beach Club. All diving was with Sea Explorers, which made all the arrangements for us.

The diving topography in Cabilao consists primarily of walls and sloping reefs. The reefs are quite healthy and there are no signs of fishing damage. However, it seems that trash on the island is not well disposed of and it is not uncommon to find discarded food wrappers underwater. The marine life is exclusively macro. It is hard to generalize about the marine life as it is quite varied, but during the course of our stay, we saw frogfish, various pipefish, various shrimp and crabs, various gobies and blennies, octopus, squid, anemonefish, and nudibranchs (only a few). The life was good but not as prolific as say, Anilao. I wish there were more sandy areas that were not covered in corals, which would make conditions more favorable for macro photography.

Unfortunately, our few days on the island were plagued with bad weather – strong winds, intermittent rain, and unpredictable conditions. We made the most of it and dove when we could. I found Cambaquiz I to be the standout dive site. It is a shallow sandy slope with coral outcroppings, which is perfect for macro photography. It is located about 200m from the Cabilao Beach Club dive shop and can accessed either by boat or from shore. It is quite sheltered from the elements, making it an ideal site in bad weather. It is also the default night dive spot for Cabilao Beach Club, which suited me well.

This was my first trip using both the Sola 600 and Dyron Double Macro M77 Lens and both proved to be good purchases.

The resort is secluded and located on a beautifully landscaped plot of land with a private beach. The dive shop and a few chalets are located on the beach, and the restaurant and a few more chalets are on a cliff 52 steps above the beach. The resort is small and personal, with something like 13 rooms. The guests are primarily European. It is very quiet and there is no entertainment other than diving. The employees are very warm and service is good. The food, however, is quite uninteresting.

Overall, I was quite happy with the resort. The macro diving is somewhere between good and great. Perhaps I have been spoiled after diving Anilao several times, but all things considered, I would go to Anilao in the future over Cabilao.

Diving Tai Mei Tuk

2011-08-21T20:58:00.006+08:00

Today, I finally had a chance to dive Tai Mei Tuk. We met bright and early and loaded the boat and headed for Wong Nai Chau, a tiny rock outcropping. We anchored off the island in about 16m of water and my buddy and I were one of the first in the water.

We quickly discovered that the deeper water was surprisingly cold and eerily dark, so we started heading for Wong Nai Chau island. Above 10m was a lot brighter and the vis improved. We spent most of the dive around 5-6m on the rocky slope poking around looking for marine life.

Vis was pretty decent at 3-4m. On our first dive, we saw lots of small crabs, anemones with baby clownfish and anemone shrimp, and we ended our dive accompanied by a small school of curious yellowtail amberjacks. This was one of the fishiest dives I've done in Hong Kong and the amberjacks were the largest fish I've seen locally.

After a break for lunch, we splashed in again at the same site. The highlight of the dive was my buddy spotting a tiny (less than 2cm long) free swimming persian carpet flatworm (pseudobiceros bedfordi). I put my hand out and it landed on my open palm. I spent a good minute or two staring at it and admiring its beauty before placing it on the bottom. As we were ending our dive, I spotted a cute shorthead fangblenny perched on top of a large rock. It was just hanging out, with its dorsal fin out on display.

All in all, an excellent day of diving in Hong Kong. Days like these make me wish I had brought my camera.

Anilao Shootout Winners 2011

2011-06-27T16:35:00.007+08:00

On the recent Underwater Photography Guide Photo Workshop in Anilao, the trip leaders organized an informal competition among course participants. There were 3 categories each for DSLR and compact - macro, behavior, and portrait. My shot of a yawning pink anemonefish won the DSLR behavior category.

There were 2 physical prizes that were randomly allocated to 2 of the 6 category winners - one Light & Motion Sola 600 light and one return stay to Crystal Blue Resort. Both great prizes, which unfortunately I did not win! Still, I had tons of fun and it is nice to have your photos appreciated! The winning shots are here.

Fatality in the WKP

2011-06-15T18:39:00.004+08:00

It is with a heavy heart that I report of a fatality in the Woodville Karst Plain. Jim Miller, WKPP exploration diver, passed away on June 11, 2011. My condolences to all his loved ones and friends. Tragically, his death was caused by human error. I never knew Jim, but I had seen him a few times in and around Extreme Exposure in High Springs, and his name and face were familiar from years of reading WKPP exploration updates. His death is a big loss for the WKPP, GUE community, cave diving community, and greater diving public. It is a reminder that no-one is infallible, not even those at the peak of competence and experience.

I copy below a forum post from WKPP member Todd Leonard. The post explains the circumstances behind the accident and what went wrong.

[quote]
I have some additional info to relay now, some of which has been described in fragmentary form on other forums, but for greatest clarity, I'll just try to present a chronological summary of the dive:

Jim was diving with two buddies Saturday, each using an RB80 rebreather. They entered at a site in the WKP (Woodville Karst Plain) called Whiskey Still Sink. From Whiskey, the conduit proceeds at a shallow depth to Innisfree Sink, and beyond Innisfree it drops deeper to a max depth around 220ft and continues. Thus, their decompression was to be done on the other side of Innisfree. Their bottom mix was 240 gas. They carried deco gas to be used at 120, 70, and oxygen at 20. Given the offset profile, they did their own deco setup.

They began the dive on their 120 bottles, which are suitable for the shallow cave between Whiskey and Innisfree. Passing Innisfree they dropped deco bottles at their respective depths. The first error occurred at the 70ft stop, where Jim dropped one of his 240 bottles -- he should have dropped his 70ft bottle, and it should not have been carried any further into the cave.

After proceeding down to the 120ft stop, the team stopped for their switch to 240 gas (their bottom gas). At this point the second and most serious error occurred -- Jim switched onto his 70 bottle. Part of our standard procedure and a very critical step in each and every bottle switch is to check the MOD sticker on the side of the bottle, which would have made very clear that he was about to switch to the wrong bottle; we don't know why, but this check was missed. We also want buddies to watch each others' switches carefully enough to confirm the correct bottle is in play, but this secondary check was not performed and the error was not caught. Following the switch the team dropped their 120 bottles, and proceeded into the cave.

They continued into the cave for a little less than an hour (with Jim breathing his 70 bottle), and turned the dive as planned. Not long after the turn, Jim experienced a seizure. His buddies tried unsuccessfully to help him recover from the seizure, and Jim drowned.

After a prolonged exit the team was able to bring Jim back to the basin at Innisfree, and shortly thereafter a pair of our support divers brought him back to the surface.

So, that's the crux of it. There was a significant error, a critical error, plus missed opportunities to catch and correct those errors.

Jim was a very experienced and responsible diver, and known among his friends for his exceptional meticulousness. We're profoundly shocked and saddened to lose him, and he'd be one of the last people we'd ever imagine might die this way. This dive was well within his skill and experience levels, and the site was very familiar to him.

- Todd Leonard
[end quote]

Muck Diving Tips

2011-06-13T08:55:00.005+08:00

Steve Fish and the team at Lembeh Resort have released an excellent short video highlighting good muck diving practices on Youtube. I'd say that these diving practices are relevant for all types of diving, not just muck diving and not just for photographers/videographers. Most divers I know or have observed would benefit from following these tips! Since observing various bad behaviors on my two recent Anilao trips, I had been thinking about how to raise awareness of the importance of better diving practices. This video is the perfect instructional tool for that purpose. But awareness is just the beginning. It needs to be followed by concerted action.

Please share this video with your friends, favorite dive shop and/or resort, and anyone you think might benefit from watching it. Let's work together to minimize our impact on the wonderful underwater world so that we can preserve it for the future.

Underwater Photography Guide Photo Workshop Trip Report, May 2011

2011-05-31T19:21:00.006+08:00

I just got back from an excellent weeklong trip to Anilao to attend Underwater Photography Guide's photo workshop with Scott Gietler and Mike Bartick. It was tons of fun and I feel like my photography skills improved markedly throughout the week.

I saw many firsts on this trip: saron shrimp, stargazer (3 of them), ocellated octopus, thecacera picta nudibranch (commonly called the "pikachu"), sawblade shrimp, pygmy cuttlefish, and lots and lots of interesting nudis and flatworms. Other notable sightings include jorunna funebris laying eggs (2 of them), 2 giant frogfish, 2 bobbit worms capturing prey, mating nembrotha chamberlaini, 2 napoleon snake eels, a trumpetfish eating a damselfish, cavorting risbecia tryoni, clownfish eggs, and more than 40 distinct sea slug species. There were several dives where we saw 8 or more species of nudibranch on one dive. Other divers saw flamboyant cuttlefish, boxer crab, xenia mimic nudibranch, rhinopias, mimic octopus, and wonderpus, but I missed these. Anilao is well known for great macro life but the wide angle opportunities were fantastic as well, with some participants getting some excellent reef and fish shots.

Anilao's many dive sites offer a great diversity of seascapes. There are black sandy bottoms (Secret Bay, Mainit Bubbles), white sandy bottoms (Anilao Pier), wall dives (Kirby's Rock), sloping reefs (Twin Rocks, Aphol Reef), sandy slopes (Mato Point), rubble patches (Bethlehem), hard coral forests (Cathedral), and everything in between. I've always enjoyed diving Anilao and the more I see, the more special I realize it is.

Each day would start early with 2 dives before lunch. We would break for lunch at the resort, do a lecture, and then do 2 more dives in the afternoon/evening. Lecture topics included local marine life and how to best photograph it, wide angle photography, taking your photography to the next level, and basic photoshop skills.

Boat and buddy assignments were flexible, and took into account site preferences and diving styles. There were generally anywhere from 1 to 4 divers per guide/boat. Scott and Mike rotated so that they got to spend time with everyone. Dives averaged 60-80 minutes and were never rushed. We often sucked our tanks dry in the shallows, right beneath the boat.

Crystal Blue is a nice and cozy resort. It is located right in the middle of the channel in what is probably the best location in all of Anilao for easy access to the best dive sites. The service from the dive guides, boat crew, restaurant, and resort staff was top notch.

Just one word on conservation: Anilao has done a pretty good job of protecting its marine resources by restricting commercial fishing in the area. However, there are a lot of improvements that can still be made. The boats often drop anchor at dive sites, when it would be much better to have permanent mooring buoys installed. It is still common to see trash from nearby villages and resorts floating in the water. And dive resorts and guides need to do a lot more to raise the standard of diving in the area in order to protect the marine life.

It was really beneficial to spend time with 2 experienced photographers as they gave tips and critiques and were open to our questions. It was also great to dive with like minded folk and to share our passion with others. I'll be back for future trips, that's for sure.

Anilao Photos May 2011

2011-05-31T11:07:00.008+08:00

Just got back from an excellent trip to Anilao with Underwater Photography Guide. Here's a quick selection of photos. Full set of photos here.

Saron shrimp at Cathedral. 60mm, 1/250s, f/22, ISO 200

Giant frogfish at Secret Bay. 60mm, 1/250s, f/16, ISO 200

Stargazer at Anilao Pier. 60mm, 1/250s, f/22, ISO 200

Noumea Alboannulata at Bethlehem. 105mm, 1/250s, f/22, ISO 200

Xeno crab at Secret Bay. 105mm, 1/250s, f/20, ISO 200

Sawblade shrimp at Secret Bay. 60mm, 1/250s, f/20, ISO 200

Yawning pink anemonefish at Kirby's Rock. 105mm, 1/250s, f/13, ISO 200

Cavorting risbecia tryoni at Arthur's Rock. 60mm, 1/250s, f/18, ISO 200

Underwater Photography Guide Photo Workshop

2011-05-12T10:13:00.001+08:00

I am very excited that I will be joining Scott Gietler and Mike Bartick from Underwater Photography Guide on a photo workshop trip to Anilao in late May. I just got back from a short trip to Anilao over Easter and the diving was fantastic as usual. This will be my third trip to the area. I have been studying Scott's website to improve my photography skills for some time, so when he announced this trip several months ago, I jumped at the opportunity. Scott does underwater photographers a great service by publishing his free website that is full of instruction, tips, information, and great pictures. It is also a good source of inspiration as the photos on his site are from a number of world class photographers.

The entire trip is 10 days but I will be going for 7. We will be staying at Crystal Blue Resort.

For some info on Anilao and great photos from Scott and Mike, check out:
Diving Anilao (Scott)
Anilao Underwater Photo Essay (Mike)

Here is a snippet from Scott about the Anilao trip:

[Quote]
Experience more photo subjects than you have ever dreamed of.

Anilao boasts some of the richest reefs in the world. Whether at 100ft or 10ft depth, you will be inundated with photo subjects that will fill up your memory card before the day is over. Almost all species on our critter list can be found in Anilao - such as rhinopia, blue-ring octopus, hairy frogfish, flamboyant cuttlefish & bobbit worms, along with huge schools of jacks, great barracuda, sharks and beautiful soft corals. Anilao is also the nudibranch capital of the world.

Your hosts are Anilao experts Scott Gietler and Mike Bartick. Mike and Scott know the Anilao reefs inside and out, and will show you where to take that perfect wide-angle, macro or critter behavior shot.

$1750 includes an amazing 36 dives, including all meals, nitrox, and transport to/from Manila. This is an awesome deal! You just need to purchase airfare to Manila
10 nights, 11 days, 4 dives a day
Deluxe accommodation in sealed rooms with air-con
Small dive guide to diver ratios, long dives
Nightly photo clinics and workshops to help you improve your photography
We will visit the best dive sites early and often! Most sites are just 10-20 minutes from the resort
May is the best time to dive Anilao, with warm water and great visibility
Prizes for photographing the most critters, the most nudibranch species, best video, and the best macro, wide-angle, and behavior shots
1 week stays may also be available, inquire for prices
Photographers with even the smallest point and shoot camera will feel very welcome here, and will come home with some great shots
we will have several boats, so you can dive the type of sites you like

[End Quote]

In the Name of Conservation

2011-05-04T14:27:00.008+08:00

On my most recent trip to Anilao over Easter, we shared a number of dive sites with other groups of divers from other resorts. I couldn’t help noticing the general poor standard of in-water finesse, situational awareness, and conservation-mindedness. We observed lots of instances of divers crashing into the bottom and kicking up corals, sand, and marine life. All open water divers should have the basics such as buoyancy, trim, body positioning, situational awareness, and buddy skills. Dive resorts and guides need to take responsibility for the actions of their clients. If their clients are unaware, apathetic, unsafe, or lacking in skill, something needs to be done. At the very least, they need to speak up and demand better behavior from their clients. If their behavior does not improve, the divers should not be allowed in the water, lest they cause further damage. It is very short-sighted for resorts and guides to turn a blind eye as the reefs and marine life will undoubtedly suffer and this will impact all of us.

I was so excited to see my first bobbit worm on a night dive at Anilao Pier. I settled down on a sandy patch next to it and was waiting patiently, camera in hand, to try to capture the "peak of the action". Suddenly, a group of divers charged by, like a herd of raging bulls, completely unaware that they were stirring up the bottom and causing a huge sandstorm. I looked over to my guide and we shared a moment of disappointment before being engulfed by the dust cloud. Visibility literally went to zero. When the silt settled (only partially settled; Anilao Pier has a sandy bottom and no current so suspended particles can take hours to fully settle), the bobbit worm was covered in sand and the photo opportunity ruined. I can only imagine the impact on the bobbit worm and other marine life affected.

This is not directed at anyone in particular but I would like to make a general statement. If you don't have the skills (whether motor skills, experience, or situational awareness) to dive in delicate environments, please have enough respect and care for the environment to refrain. It is advisable to dive in more benign environments and gain experience before moving on to fragile sites. Even better - please seek appropriate training to improve your buoyancy, trim, body positioning, fin kicks, situational awareness, and buddy skills. I suggest GUE Fundamentals and there are lots of other classes out there that emphasize these basic skills.

To those who observe this type of unacceptable behavior: please, please, please say or do something. Today, I pledged to myself that I will not observe silently anymore. If you care about conservation of the marine environment, please do something. The reefs will thank you and so will I.

Anilao Photos April 2011

2011-04-26T18:36:00.011+08:00

Full set of pics here.

Coconut octopus at Anilao Pier. 60mm, 1/250s, f/20, ISO 200

Phyllodesmium opalescens at Secret Bay. 60mm, 1/250s, f/25, ISO 200

Gymnodoris ceylonica at Mato Point. 60mm, 1/250s, f/32, ISO 200

Wire coral goby at Mato Point. 60mm, 1/250s, f/25, ISO 200

Pygmy seahorse at Sunview. 105mm, 1/250s, f/25, ISO 200

Wire coral shrimp at Sunview. 105mm, 1/250s, f/29, ISO 200

Xeno crab at Sunview. 105mm, 1/250s, f/25, ISO 200

Sea cucumber crab at Dive 7000. 105mm, 1/250s, f/22, ISO 200

Anilao Trip Report, April 2011

2011-04-26T16:17:00.011+08:00

I just got back from 4 days at Acacia Resort in Anilao. It was my second trip there, the first being in April 2010, and it was equally good - maybe it should become an annual tradition? The trip started out a bit slow on the first day but that changed quickly and I found the macro life to be as plentiful and diverse as ever. Highlights of the trip were coconut octopus, lots of wire coral gobies and shrimp, pygmy seahorse, xeno crab, ornate ghost pipefish, bobbit worm, squat lobster, coleman shrimp, and lots and lots of nudis. It was a great trip for macro photography.

Travel to and from Acacia was surprisingly easy despite it being Easter weekend. It's actually a pretty good time to visit, with calm seas and mild currents. The water was a little colder than expected and I needed at 5mm full suit and hooded vest to keep warm. Acacia was nice and homey as usual. The resort was a little more crowded than usual due to the holiday weekend but it was still quite manageable. I dove off a private boat with Marlou as my guide again - he was a good eye and is a really nice guy. Acacia is currently building a new wing to accommodate more rooms. I hope it never loses its small resort feel.

Anilao, Here I Come

2011-04-13T16:59:00.002+08:00

Ever since I first went to Anilao in April 2010, I have been dying to go back. The abundance and diversity of macro life just blew me away. The reefs are also very healthy and it is great to see beautiful, colorful soft corals and the critters that make their homes there. I am going to Anilao again for a short trip over Easter break. I will only be diving for 3 days (max 12 dives) but the life is so prolific that I expect to shoot a number of good subjects. On my list for this trip:

Halimeda ghost pipefish
Coconut octopus
Coleman shrimp
Blue ringed octopus
Bobbit worm
Wire coral goby
Wire coral shrimp
Xeno crab
Stargazer
And lots and lots of nudis and flatworms

Winter Diving, Brrr

2011-03-06T21:55:00.004+08:00

Today, we dove off Sai Kung. We started bright and early and headed for Basalt Island. Ben and I were one of the first to jump in. We were told the bottom was around 15m and began to descend. Vis was pretty murky and dark as we were descending and then all of a sudden I crash landed on top of Ben (!?). The bottom was in fact at 6m and the vis was so terrible that Ben had hit the bottom and I had landed on top of him. Not a good sign. After a few minutes of trying to see the bottom and each other, we decided to call the dive. I didn't see any point in continuing as vis was barely 0.5m and we were struggling to see the rocky bottom.

It turns out that 2 other teams had also called their dives and so we headed for sheltered Bluff Island instead. Ling joined our team for the next dive. Surprisingly, vis was around 5m - by far the best I have seen in my limited experience in HK. The macro life was quite good and with the help of Ling's very sharp eyes, we saw a baby cuttlefish, baby crocodilefish, baby scorpionfish, one nudibranch, 2 crabs hiding in one hole, peppermint shrimp, and lots of anemones with clownfish and anemone shrimp. Good thing too, as everyone enjoyed the dive and it made up for the blowout first dive.

Water temps were around 17C. I dove with Xerotherm and 300G undergarments and was comfortable, but my hands got cold. Lots of people were diving wet - they are a lot tougher than I am!

Manta - Ray of Hope

2010-12-15T16:00:00.003+08:00

I recently came across Manta - Ray of Hope. It is a short, well produced documentary highlighting the plight of the manta rays, which have been heavily fished for their gills. The gills are used in "traditional Chinese medicine" and are in high and increasing demand in China and East Asia. Manta ray fishing is less high profile than shark finning but no less destructive and unsustainable. If nothing is done to protect the mantas, their time on this earth may be limited.

Having had the opportunity to dive with and interact with manta rays close up in Bali and Kona, I can say that these experiences were indeed very special and magical. I feel very fortunate to have been able to observe these giant and majestic creatures in their natural habitat, and the memories will stay with me forever.

Please watch the video and help educate the public on this important issue. Only by reducing demand for manta products, will the future of the mantas be secure.

Ocean Sky Diving, You Suck

2010-12-15T15:22:00.005+08:00

I have been very keen to play with the Nauticam D7000 housing as I have been seriously considering upgrading to the D7000. Nauticam's local dealer is Ocean Sky Diving. I called them a couple of weeks ago and they told me that the housing would be available today. I called them again today and the lady who answered the phone said that they had them in stock. When I walked in, the lady took me to the camera area and promptly directed me to a D700 housing. D700, not D7000. No shit you have the D700 housing in stock, it was released more than a year ago. And of course, they did not have a D7000 housing in stock. All she could do was shrug her shoulders sheepishly in admission that she got the model numbers mixed up. She didn't even say sorry!

Note to Ocean Sky Diving: if u can't count your zeros and can't tell one camera model from another, maybe you should be in a different business. Is it so much to expect the authorized dealer for Nauticam housings to be familiar with the FREAKING MODEL NUMBER of the housings? Thanks for wasting an hour of my time and I am glad that the walk in the rain was worth it. Customers have options and I sure as hell am not going back to Ocean Sky Diving.

Diving Beaufort Island

2010-11-28T18:29:00.002+08:00

Today, I dove Beaufort Island, off Aberdeen, with SCDC. We dove the northwest side of the island, the same place that we dove in early October. We dropped in to about 15m to find 2m vis and 21C water. The temperature was just right with the Xerotherm and 200G Thinsulate. We made our way shallower, towards the island, for almost 15 min before deciding that the life was actually getting more sparse as we got shallower, and we turned around. As we passed 11m, the marine life became much more plentiful. There were lots of bright orange sponges and tons of whip coral. We saw a playful baby cuttlefish, a few baby scorpionfish, lots and lots of wire coral gobies, a huge banded coral shrimp, baby filefish, and a rocky area infested with peppermint shrimp. Some of our group saw a blue ring octopus! The marine life was very nice indeed and the only unfortunate thing, I thought, was that we only saw baby creatures as anything larger had probably already been caught.

After one dive, we stopped by Po Toi for a big seafood lunch before heading back to Aberdeen. What a beautiful day of diving!

Diving Sai Kung

2010-11-21T22:25:00.002+08:00

Today, I dove Sai Kung with SCDC. It was a joint trip with HKUC, another BSAC club. I was quite excited to dive Sai Kung as I've heard that the visibility can be up to 10m and seen impressive pictures of the area. We shared a van for the 1 hour ride to Sai Kung. The boat ride was also about an hour, to our first stop at Basalt Island. It must be a popular spot as there were 2 other dives boats there before us.

Basalt Island was nice, with lots of orange anemones with anemonefish and tiny bubble shrimp. We also saw a huge banded coral shrimp, a crab, and a baby scorpionfish. The vis, however, was quite disappointing at about 2-3m. The vis was poor enough that most of us voted to switch sites for the 2nd dive. We motored over to nearby Bluff Island. Unfortunately, the vis was not much better and the area where we dove was covered in sea urchins. The seascape was mostly rocks and hard coral, as opposed to the soft coral on the 1st dive. The highlight of the 2nd dive was a very cute baby moray eel.

I was surprised to find that the water was in the low 20s, maybe 21-22C. Much respect to those diving wet. My Xerotherm and DUI 200G Thinsulate were just right but I'm afraid that if I gets colder, I'm going to have to bring out the 300G. Apparently it goes down to 13C in the depths of winter!

Green water, 2-3m vis, freezing temperatures - what a fun day out! It was bright and sunny, the water was very calm, and the company was great. I'm hoping to join SCDC next weekend in Aberdeen - stay tuned.

Kona Manta Ray Night Dive Photos

2010-10-30T16:46:00.005+08:00

Here are the highlights of the Kona manta ray night dive. I shot about 50 pictures and 10 keepers. Shooting conditions were not easy with surge, darkness (making it hard to autofocus) and lots of plankton in the water but it was a hugely memorable experience.

Full set of pictures here.

Amazing Kona Manta Ray Night Dive

2010-10-25T10:41:00.002+08:00

I was on the Hawaii's Big Island recently for a good friend's wedding and had the good fortune doing the Kona manta ray night dive. It's a world famous dive in a shallow bay where giant manta rays have been coming for years at night to feed on the plankton. Every night, boats take divers and snorkelers out to the bay, shine powerful lights to attract plankton, and hope for mantas to come. A normal night apparently brings 2-5 mantas but there are unfortunate nights where none come out to play. The mantas range in size from 2-6m wingspan and are quite a sight to behold.

We went out with Fair Wind. We started out by meeting at 5.45pm at the dock. There were more than 20 of us (all snorkelers except 3) so it took a while to do the paperwork. Then we boarded the boat for the 10 min boat ride to the manta area. Fair Wind specializes in snorkelers, which is a good thing as there are not many divers in the water. I heard that some nights the water can be really crowded.

The snorkelers got in and hung on to a large makeshift float with bright lights on it, while the divers submerged and started looking around. At first, there was not much life except a few reef fish and a couple of hunting morays. We caught a glimpse of 2 mantas fly by but they did not hang around long enough to get a good look. After 30 min of circling the area and not seeing much, I was just about resigned to not seeing any mantas that night... then suddenly 2 large mantas swam by and started doing acrobatics right in front of us! I began snapping pictures like crazy. The video guy's lights really attracted the mantas and they began doing somersaults and fly bys right before him. At times, they came so close that it really seemed like they would crash into us, but they would always turn away at the last moment to avoid a collision. It was incredible to watch such large creatures move so quickly and with such grace.

We got to spend about 30 min with the 2 mantas before I was low on gas and had to surface. Just as I was ascending, one manta came straight at me with its mouth wide open. I managed to fire off one shot of its gaping mouth before it swooped up and over my head, bumping my camera in the process. What a rush! The dive absolutely lived up to its reputation of being "one of the top ten things to do in your lifetime" (Travel Channel)!

I got back on the boat to find most of the snorkelers seasick. Some had even left the water before the 2 mantas showed up. I know the divers had a great time but maybe half of the snorkelers did not as they had bobbed in cold, choppy seas for 30 min without seeing anything.

Unfortunately, I did not have any time to do any other dives in Hawaii. That will have to be for next time...

I'll post pictures up in a few days' time once I have had time to edit them.

HK Underwater Photos

2010-10-02T21:56:00.004+08:00

I came across an EXCELLENT album of underwater photos taken in Hong Kong. It belongs to a local underwater photographer by the name of Jackson Wong. Some of the stuff that he's managed to catch on camera blows my mind and is not stuff you would expect to find in HK - blue ringed octopus, bobtail squid, dragonet, and sawblade shrimp for example. The pictures are really outstanding and could hold their own against the best from anywhere. Props to the photographer. The album is here.

Intro to Hong Kong Diving

2010-10-02T18:30:00.006+08:00

Yesterday, I did my first couple of dives in Hong Kong. I had been introduced by HK-based GUE instructor Graham Blackmore to one of his recent Fundamentals students, Catheryn. Catheryn introduced me to her diving club, the very active South China Diving Club. SCDC is a BSAC club that has been active in HK for years. They also apparently do a lot of drinking and social events but I have not been able to join them due to work.

Finally, I was able to join SCDC on a dive as yesterday was a public holiday due to National Day. We met at 9am at Aberdeen Boat Club in the southwest of HK. We had about 10 divers on a large boat that could fit a lot more, so it was a comfortable ride. The winds were blowing quite strongly from the northeast, so we motored to a sheltered spot on the western side of Beaufort Island, a 45 min boat ride from ABC.

My expectations were pretty low as everyone I had spoken to had warned me of the poor vis (sometimes down to 1m) and lack of marine life. But I was optimistic given that I have enjoyed diving in some pretty inhospitable places, such as Pulau Hantu, quarries, and rivers.

I left the camera at home as it was my maiden dive trip in HK and wanted to spend the time evaluating the conditions. It turned out to be the right decision as vis was too poor to get any decent shots.

After a briefing and setting up our gear, the teams splashed in. We dove in 2 flights, with one flight keeping a lookout on the boat while the other flight was in the water. After about an hour, the first flight returned and it was time to go. I was buddied up with Wing, a trimix diver who has been diving for many years. But today we would be doing some easy, shallow dives. Our first dive was to the north of the mooring point, with a max depth of around 16m. When we descended, we were greeted by murky green water and around 4m of vis. Good thing I brought my HID light! The bottom was rubbly and barren until about 13m, where there were lots of car-sized boulders covered in beautiful orange sponges. We mostly hung around the 11-13m depth where most of the soft corals were. The macro life was surprisingly good, and we saw several crabs, a couple of wire coral goby (my favorite!), and 2 cowries. The highlight was seeing a very cute white baby cuttlefish the size of my pinkie finger nail.

We had a short surface interval and lunch on the boat before diving again. This time, we headed south from the mooring. Funnily enough, there were no orange sponges at all and the bottom was covered in smaller rocks and nasty sea urchins. The visibility had deteriorated to 3m and the current had picked up a little. After a few minutes of not seeing anything interesting, I feared that we might have headed the wrong way... until we started to notice lots of peppermint shrimp (another of my favorites!) hiding beneath many of the rocks. Slowly, we began to notice more and more macro life - 3 morays, 3 banded coral shrimp (including the largest one I have ever seen with a 1 inch diameter body), crabs, hermit crabs, a tiny nudibranch egg ribbon, and lots of wire coral gobies. The dive turned into quite a prolific one and a test of our powers of observation. As anyone who likes macro life can attest to, this is the best kind of dive!

Back on the boat, we packed up and headed back to shore, arriving back at ABC at 5pm. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the dives. I was heartened by the fact that everyone said that the vis is about as bad as it gets in HK. I really look forward to diving some of the better vis spots. It's a real pleasure to do some decent dives in my back yard, all within a day's work.

Lembeh Photos

2010-07-19T00:20:00.008+08:00

Full set of pictures is here.

Bubble shrimp at Kelapa Dua. 105mm, 1/250s, f/22, ISO 200

Flamboyant cuttlefish at Jahir 2. 105mm, 1/250s, f/22, ISO 200

Pair of coleman shrimp on fire urchin at Makawide. 105mm, 1/250s, f/25, ISO 200

Emperor shrimp hitching a ride on a nudibranch at TK3. 105mm, 1/250s, f/20, ISO 200

Pregnant mantis shrimp at Runu Point. 105mm, 1/250s, f/22, ISO 200

Candy crab at Nudi Retreat. 105mm, 1/250s, f/22, ISO 200

Pair of wire coral shrimp at Nudi Retreat. 105mm, 1/250s, f/32, ISO 200

Lembeh Trip Report, July 2010

2010-07-17T23:55:00.006+08:00

I just got back from 6 days at NAD Lembeh. Silkair flies direct to Manado, and a 60 min car and 30 min boat ride later, I was at the resort. NAD is a small resort with only 12 rooms. It is quite rustic and local. The rooms are quite basic but I appreciated the small ecological footprint as the energy and water needs are kept to a minimum. The food is local and quite good. Dive sites are all within 15 min boat ride from the resort and the boats are comfortable and fast, with drinking water, snacks, and fruits on board. Nitrox is available at a small additional charge.

The macro life in Lembeh is quite amazing. Highlights of my dives were seeing 4 mimic octopus on one dive, mating mandarinfish, wonderpus, coconut octopus, flamboyant cuttlefish, hairy frogfish, pygmy seahorses, 3 tiger shrimp on one sponge, coleman shrimp, emperor shrimp, and lots of wire coral gobies and shrimp. The blue ringed octopus and stargazer remained elusive. I saw a huge solar powered nudi and a couple more that I had not seen before, but the nudi life is better elsewhere. As good as the marine life was, I felt that it was noticeably worse than when I spent a day diving Lembeh in December 2008. I was told that efforts are being made to conserve the area (divers are now charged a nominal conservation fee to dive the area) but more needs to be done to preserve the treasures of Lembeh.

The main attraction for me with NAD was the opportunity to take a photography class with Mike Veitch (his website is here). Mike is a well known nature photographer and runs NAD with Simon Buxton (his website is here). After a discussion of what I was looking for and reviewing some of my photos, we started the class, which consisted of theory, 4 dives, and a critique of my photos. My main focus was composition, ambient light, selective lighting, and using snoots. The pace was leisurely, with the class unfolding gradually over 3 days, interspersed with regular dives where I would practice what I had learned. I found the class extremely helpful and it was great to have an experienced photographer like Mike to answer my questions and bounce ideas off. I definitely plan on returning when I next hit a plateau.

Photography Trip to Lembeh Straits

2010-06-30T18:22:00.003+08:00

My next diving trip will be to the Lembeh Straits in North Sulawesi. When I last went to Manado in December 2008, we spent most of the time diving Bunaken and only one day diving Lembeh. It was on that trip that I got hooked on underwater photography. Ever since then, I have been wanting to go back to Lembeh. This time, I will be staying at NAD Lembeh. I will be spending 2 days getting photo instruction from Mike Veitch (his website is here) and the rest of the time hopefully practicing my new skills.

On my list of things to photograph:
Bobbit worm
Blue ringed octopus
Flamboyant cuttlefish
Mandarinfish
Stargazer
Hairy frogfish
Lots and lots of nudis!

Bali Trip Report

2010-05-27T17:54:00.005+08:00

After spending 8 days on a diving safari all over Bali, I feel like I know a little something about diving in Bali. Bali is a big island with small roads. I spent a lot of time in the van driving from place to place. Notable was the 5am start from Sanur to Menjangan (a 4 hour drive). There wasn't a lot of downtime at all considering all the traveling and the logistics of the dive sites (more on that in a moment).

Diving in Bali is highly varied with pelagic cleaning stations, wall dives, reefs, black sand, wrecks, and everything in between. Each area is dove differently - by the end of my trip I had dove by speedboat (Nusa Penida), large fishing boat (Menjangan), shore (Puri Jati, Tulamben, Seraya), outrigger boat (Amed), and medium sized fishing boat (Padang Bai). The marine life is also highly varied, featuring pelagics (mola molas, mantas, sharks), schooling fish (jacks, rainbow runners), reef fish, and all manner of macro critters. I can't think of many places with this much variety all within a few hours' drive.

Here are my opinions on the major diving areas:

Nusa Penida: Famous for Manta Point, a prolific manta cleaning station, and Crystal Bay, a mola mola cleaning station. We saw 7 mantas for 70 min on our dive at Manta Point. Mola mola season is July-October so we did not see much at Crystal Bay. Nusa Penida, contrary to current practice, is not a place to take beginners. The currents can be highly unpredictable and very strong. It can also be very cold (low 20s C). Go to Nusa Penida to see the mantas and mola molas, which are very special, but there is not much else there.

Menjangan Island: The biggest let down. I had heard all kinds of hype about the beautiful reefs and walls of Menjangan. I would rate Menjangan as very mediocre reef/wall diving. The underwater seascapes can be quite beautiful with large fans and barrel sponges, but there are not many fish there at all. Combined with the remoteness of the location, I would not recommend visiting Menjangan.

Puri Jati: Completely barren black sand area. There is NOTHING there except a few anemones, anemone critters (porcelain crab, shrimp, clownfish), lionfish, and garden eels. It is, however, a relatively common place to see the mimic octopus, which made my day.

Tulamben, Seraya, Amed: These three areas are within 10 min drive of one another in northeast Bali. The wreck of the Liberty is the main attraction in Tulamben. It can be dove from shore and starts at 5m. It is home to large schools of bumphead parrotfish, jacks, and many other fish. All three areas are black sand muck diving heaven. This is where I saw the majority of critters on my list - harlequin shrimp, coleman shrimp, wire coral shrimp and gobies, snake eels, boxer crab, pygmy seahorses, etc.

Padang Bai: Padang Bai is mostly white sand and artificial reef diving. The dive sites are close to shore and are full of trash. The marine life can be good but hit or miss. I saw several rare nudis and clown frogfish here.

I dove with Bali Scuba. They are a bit of a paradox. My dive guide Komang was excellent and responsible. He was always on time and the transfers were flawless. Bali Scuba HQ is rather disorganized, though, and nobody at the office seems to know what is going on. For an outfit that sees as much volume as they do, they don't get a lot of photographers and I was rather annoyed that nobody could advise me on lens choices for the various dive sites.

Our dives generally followed the same profile - descend to 25m and make our way back up to the shallows. Dive times regularly exceeded 60 min and I never felt rushed. Komang knew the dives sites well and has a good eye.

The infrastructure in Bali is quite poor in the north, so bring everything you need and don't count on being able to buy anything.

Would I go back? Most definitely, but I would focus on Nusa Penida (for mantas and mola molas) and Tulamben, Seraya, and Amed for macro stuff.

Custom Wetsuits Revisited

2010-05-27T01:13:00.003+08:00

Two thumbs up for Acronman. I wanted to post a quick note to mention how much I like the 5mm custom wetsuit I had made by Acronman. I used it on 27 dives in Bali. While the fit was slightly tight in places, the quality and warmth are indisputable. The workmanship is great and the suit is very comfortable. I sent it back for slight alterations today. I liked the suit so much that I placed an order for a custom 3mm suit as well. I expect these suits to far outlast off the rack commercial suits.

Bali Pictures

2010-05-26T23:20:00.008+08:00

I am finally done processing my photos from Bali. Full set of pictures here.

Huge manta at Manta Point. 12-24mm at 12mm, 1/100s, f/5.6, ISO 200

Schooling jacks at the wreck of the Liberty. 12-24mm at 12mm, 1/80s, f/6.3, ISO 400

Mimic octopus at Puri Jati. 105 mm, 1/100s, f/14, ISO 200

Coleman shrimp on a fire urchin at Seraya. 105mm, 1/250s, f/22, ISO 200

Goby on cowrie on whip coral at Seraya. 105mm, 1/250s, f/20, ISO 200

Honeycomb moray getting cleaned at Seraya. 105mm, 1/200s, f/14, ISO 200

Bobtail squid digging itself in at Seraya. 60mm, 1/250s, f/16, ISO 200

Pregnant porcelain crab at Amed. 105mm, 1/200s, f/18, ISO 200

Diving Padang Bai

2010-05-23T18:55:00.004+08:00

We dove Padang Bai today on my last day in Bali. Padang Bai is a popular beach area in East Bali with the dive sites very close to shore. We used a fast jukung and dove Jepun, Turtle Neck, and Blue Lagoon. All had white sandy bottoms with patches of coral. Jepun also had various wire structures sunk as artificial reefs. We must have had back luck as the water was freezing and the vis was terrible, between 5-15m. We saw a few rare nudis, nudis mating, a cave full of peppermint shrimp, and lots of reef fish. One thing I noticed was the water was full of trash like plastic bags and snack wrappers. I hope they do something about the trash or the marine life is going to keep deteriorating.

Diving Amed

2010-05-22T17:05:00.004+08:00

We dove Amed today by outrigger boat (jukung). The sites have sandy bottoms with patches of hard coral and concrete blocks and formations as artificial reefs. The first dive was great with 9 pygmy seahorses on one seafan - the highlight of the dive was when two of them interlocked tails. We also saw 2 emperor shrimp on one sea cucumber. The artificial reef served its purpose well with lots of anthias and reef fish making their homes there. The next two dives were less good. We saw frogfish, white eyed morays, millions of lionfish, and a huge hermit crab trying to take over a shell that was occupied by a conch.

Diving Seraya

2010-05-22T16:40:00.002+08:00

Yesterday, we did 4 dives at Seraya. Seraya is a small area of sloping black sand in front of Scuba Seraya resort. The locals have set up a small station with shade and running water as a base for day trippers. The seascape is quite sparse except for some patches of coral and some artificial reefs. The macro life is amazing - it is as though that there is something hiding under every rock. On our dives, we generally headed down to 25m and made our way up the reef. I saw lots of critters on my list - harlequin shrimp (2 pairs), coleman shrimp (2), wire coral shrimp and gobies, a snake eel, and a boxer crab. We also saw bobtail squid, an army of peppermint shrimp, various nudis, cleaner shrimp, tons of lionfish, and a huge honeycomb moray getting cleaned. It was one of my most prolific shooting days with over 400 shots.

Diving Tulamben

2010-05-20T21:15:00.003+08:00

We started today with a dawn dive at the USS Liberty, a well known cargo ship sunk during WWII. Tulamben has one main road parallel to the beach and dive shops line this road. The wreck is dived from shore as the top is in 5m of water and the bottom around 30m. From where I am staying at Paradise Hotel, we walked along the beach to the wreck, geared up on shore, and waded into the water. Porters carry your tanks for you. The Liberty is best dove in the early morning or at night to avoid the day trippers, who arrive around 10am and leave around 3pm.

The seascape is sloping black sand with patches of anemones and coral. The wreck is huge and lies on its side. It is covered in marine growth and is very fishy. The first thing we saw was a school of 20+ bumphead parrotfish at 8m. They must have been sleepy as they didn't mind us getting very close. We did a tour of the wreck (which took a while due to its size) and caught a huge school of jacks right in front of us. With this much life, it is no wonder that the Liberty is as famous as it is.

We did the next 2 dives in the sandy area surrounding the Liberty to avoid the crowds. The area has some seriously good muck diving. We saw wire coral gobies and shrimp, xeno crabs, nudis, anemone shrimp, pipefish, clownfish, and a leaf scorpionfish.

There were lots of divers during our night dive on the Liberty. It's a big wreck so that's mostly ok but there were times when there were a lot of lights going on at the same time. This time, we didn't see much apart from a few nudis, sleeping reef fish (including several large groupers), and sleeping bumphead parrotfish. They were still enough to get some shots but I thought it best to let them sleep in peace.

Critter List

2010-05-19T19:30:00.006+08:00

Underwater Photography Guide recommends making a critter list for macro photography so here's mine (in no particular order):

Spanish dancer
Ceratosoma nudibranch
Janolus nudibranch
Sawblade shrimp
Saron shrimp
Jawfish
Halimeda ghost pipefish
Robust ghost pipefish
Ornate ghost pipefish
Harlequin shrimp
Coleman shrimp
Coconut octopus
Mimic octopus
Blue ringed octopus
Bobbit worm
Emperor shrimp
Tiger shrimp
Boxer crab
Flamboyant cuttlefish
Snake eel
Mandarinfish
Wire coral goby
Wire coral shrimp
Xeno crab
Stargazer

Diving Puri Jati

2010-05-19T19:13:00.003+08:00

Today's objective was to find the mimic octopus. We did our first dive at Khayanganyar, a small stretch of black sand beach in front of an abandoned house. It didn't seem like a well known site as we were the only ones there and were sharing it with pigs and chickens. We did a shore dive, where we geared up on the beach and walked into the water. The seascape was a gently sloping black sand bottom with minimal vegetation, only the odd anemone and debris pile. We didn't find any mimics but there saw a pair of white eyed morays, millions of garden eels, a cuttlefish, and a big angry crab. The next 2 dives were at Puri Jati, also shore dives near a fishing village. Puri Jati is classic muck diving at its best - it always appears that there is nothing to see but in reality there is a ton of macro life. There were lots of lionfish, clownfish, anemone shrimp, puffer fish, dragonets, banded coral shrimp, and a porcelain crab or two on every anemone. I saw a beautifully decorated snake eel and caught it on camera. Apparently, there used to be a lot of more life but since they cleaned up the garbage, the life decreased. There was a tree stump that was home to 6 lionfish, 3 puffers, and a wrasse cleaning station. On the 3rd dive, I heard my guide furiously tapping his tank to get my attention. He'd found a mimic octopus! It stayed with us for about 10 minutes and I got about 90 shots before it disappeared into a hole in the sand. After our 3 dives, we made the beautiful 2 hour drive along the north coast to Tulamben.

Diving Menjangan Day 2

2010-05-18T21:19:00.002+08:00

I did 3 more dives at Menjangan - POS 2, Bat Cave, and POS 1. The dives were similar to yesterday's with sloping reefs and large sea fans. The seascapes were quite beautiful but I noticed that there are not that many fish. I discussed it with my dive guide but he had no explanation. Given that fishing is not allowed in the area, I thought the fish life should be healthier like in the Similan Islands. I had a sync cord malfunction on the first dive and some complications with my camera settings on the second, so I did not manage many good pictures. We did a dusk dive at Pemuteran to look for mating mandarinfish but luck was not with us and we did not see any. The dive was not wasted, however, and I spent 70 min shooting clownfish, hermit crabs, strange looking shrimp, and a scorpionfish. Better luck tomorrow at Puri Jati.

Diving Menjangan Island

2010-05-17T18:09:00.002+08:00

Today's dives were at Menjangan Island. Menjangan is a small, uninhabited island off the northwest of Bali. "Menjangan" means "deer" in Bahasa. The island is a marine park and is protected from fishing. The van picked me up at 5am for the 3 1/2 hour drive. From the jetty, we boarded a small fishing boat for the 25 min slow ride. My dives were at Garden Eel and POS 2 (2 dives). The sites were wall dives with coral gardens on the top, with some sandy patches here and there. The reef life was pretty healthy, with hard and soft coral, reef fish, and some macro life such as nudibranches, flatworms, and shrimp. There were some massive sea fans that looked healthy. Highlights of today's dives were a devil scorpionfish and several nudis and flatworms (but only one that I had not seen before).

We decided to postpone the night dive at Pemuteraan after hearing some reports of bad conditions.

Diving Nusa Penida

2010-05-16T18:30:00.002+08:00

Today, we dove Nusa Penida. I had high expectations as I had heard so much about it. We departed from Sanur beach and took a 45 min fast speedboat ride to Nusa Penida. The ride was bumpy due to seriously large swells in the channel. Our first dive site was Manta Point. It is an area with large boulders and a small underwater mound that is a manta cleaning station. The bottom is around 12-15m and the top of the mound is around 6m. Vis was quite poor for the area (so I'm told) at about 10m and rather cloudy. The water was also quite surgy, with side to side movements of up to 2m (!). At first, a shy manta or two showed up, just doing fly-bys with minimal photo ops. After a few minutes of hide and seek, the mantas seemed to lose their inhibitions and started popping up everywhere and posing for photos. I probably got within 2m of them a couple of times. We counted 7 large mantas and they stayed with us until we surfaced 70 min later. Not the best conditions but one hell of a close encounter.

Our next two dives were at Crystal Bay and Bed. Crystal Bay is famous for mola molas but it is not mola season at the moment. We actually saw one in the distance but it quickly sped off before I could get any photos. Apart from that, both dives were quite forgettable.

Bali Trip

2010-05-05T18:59:00.003+08:00

Next week, I will be going to Bali. We are spending 5 days in Ubud and then I am spending a further 8 days diving. It is rare that I have this much free time to dive! Leon hooked me up with Bali Scuba, which Living Seas has used for the last 4 years for Bali trips. We organized a dive safari with dives in Nusa Penida, Menjangan, Puri Jati, Tulamben, Seraya, Amed, and Padang Bai. I will be staying at 3 different places in the course of the 8 days: Sanur, Pemuteran, and Tulamben. Pictures and a dive report to come.

Custom Wetsuits

2010-05-04T21:30:00.002+08:00

Today, I went to see Acronman to get measured for a custom wetsuit. I have been looking for a 5 mm wetsuit for some time but none of the stock sizes fit me. After freezing my nuts off in Puerto Galera and Anilao in April, I decided that it is time that I get a custom wetsuit. They measured me in about 10 minutes and although the typical turnaround time is 1-2 weeks, they agreed to do a rush job (at no extra cost) in time for my Bali trip next week. It cost me S$360 for a 5 mm suit with fleece lining and ankle zippers. I will pick up my suit on Friday. Fingers crossed that it fits.

Underwater Photography Resources

2010-05-04T21:22:00.003+08:00

Since I picked up underwater photography, I have been reading about and researching the topic extensively. Here are a few resources that I have been using that I find extremely helpful:

Underwater Photography Guide by Scott Gietler. Scott maintains a free online guide to underwater photography that covers many topics that from beginner to advanced. I especially like his dive destination guides. His photos are excellent and very inspirational.

The Underwater Photographer by Martin Edge. Now in its fourth edition, this book covers all aspects of underwater photography and is an easy read. I just got my copy and am in the process of devouring it.

Wetpixel forums. Many, many useful discussions on all kinds of topics. Several prominent and world class underwater photographers are frequent contributors. There are so many skilled photographers on wetpixel that I get a lot of inspiration from perusing their photos.

Decisions, decisions

2010-04-29T13:17:00.002+08:00

So I just quit my job a few days ago and I have an unexpectedly long 3 months before I start my new job. Now that some of the excitement has worn off, I am considering which dive spots I should hit during my break. Right now I am thinking of either (1) a few days each in Bali and Anilao or (2) a longer trip to just Bali. I have been to Bali several times but have never dove there, and the more I research Bali, the more attractive it looks as a diving destination.

I hope to also squeeze in a long weekend or two doing some tech dives in the South China Sea.

Anilao Pics

2010-04-12T00:36:00.006+08:00

I have uploaded the pictures from my Anilao trip. They are at the following links:

Anilao pics
Slugs and flatworms. The ones from Anilao are numbered 33 to 86.

Anilao Trip Report

2010-04-10T21:07:00.006+08:00

I just spent 4 nights at Acacia Resort in Anilao. Anilao is south of Manila, about 3 hours' drive in normal traffic. The resort fits about 30 people and is quite a new resort (opened in 2008). Like all the other resorts in Anilao, Acacia does mostly weekend business from Manila. It's best to come during the weekdays - I was the only guest for the first day and one of a handful of guests on the second day. The rooms are simple, modern, and clean. The food is quite good and varied with a mix of local and international fare. The resort is named after a huge and ancient acacia tree that sits in the middle of the property - see pictures below. Overall, the resort is pretty, comfortable, and well equipped to handle visiting divers. The one annoying thing is that there are occasional power outages. We lost power 3 times during my stay, for not much more than an hour each time, but it can be disruptive for photographers who need to keep their equipment charged.

Diving is done from small banka boats with minimal shelter. They are crewed by 2 boatmen and one dive guide. Marlowe guided me on my 12 dives. He is patient, has a good eye, and is motivated to find interesting marine life. The macro life in Anilao is amazing - I saw more nudis than I have ever seen, by a wide margin. For context, I photographed more than 60 nudis on 12 dives (and passed on a number of others). Other interesting life includes various crabs, shrimp, octopi, scorpionfish, frogfish, etc. I did not have any luck with coleman shrimp (I was told that fire urchins are seasonal), mimic octopi, blue ring octopi, or stargazers, but I'm very happy with what I saw and photographed. I used a 60 mm lens for 7 dives and a 105 mm for 5 dives; that mix is about right for what I saw.

The dive sites are typically 15-25 min boat rides away from Acacia. Visibility ranged from 5m to 20m with an average of about 10m. Dives usually start with 20-30 min at 15-25m and end up in the shallows in a few meters of water. Most of the dives are leisurely, with little current or surge. The dives tend to be quite long (average over 60 min). The water can be quite cold from November to April. Personally, I will dive dry in the future during those months. We were getting cold after about 45 min and quite chilled during the surface intervals.

I'm very happy with my trip and intend to go back. My time there was very peaceful and laid back - but I'm not sure how it is during peak season on the weekends.

Thanks to Miko for making the arrangements and loaning me his gear.

Nudibranch Madness

2010-04-10T19:44:00.011+08:00

Today's dives were at Dari Laut, Bethlehem, and Sand View. Dari Laut is the steel structure of a floating restaurant that was sunk many years ago. It is home to many tiny and rare nudibranchs. Bethlehem and Sand View are both sandy dives, where we spent our time moving slowly and staring at the muck. I used the 105 mm lens on all the dives. The highlights of today's dives were more nudis, whip shrimp, whip goby, and a very strange nudi threesome. A very nice end to a good week of diving.

Nudibranchs Galore

2010-04-09T19:29:00.011+08:00

Today, we did 4 daytime dives - Sand View, Koala, Kirby's Rock, and Cathedral - a nice combination of soft/hard coral reefs and sandy mucky bottom. There are so many nudis here that it is getting a bit ridiculous. Several times today, I passed over nudis that I had already photographed so I could make time for other things. "There's a nudi. Let me clear my mask. Oh, there's another nudi. Let me check my depth. Oh, there's another nudi." Ok, I exaggerate a little, but there are a LOT of nudis here.

I used my new 105 mm macro lens for the first time today, on two dives. As expected, it was hard to autofocus in all except the brightest light. My focus light was borderline effective. The autofocus tended to hunt a lot, especially with small and moving things, like pygmy seahorses. But, it was brilliant at capturing the real tiny stuff. I actually prefer the 105 mm to the 60 mm for shooting nudis. I took the 105 mm only after discussing with my guide what to expect on the dive. The funny thing is, when I switched back to the 60 mm lens, autofocus and composition suddenly felt like a breeze. The 105 mm is a fantastic lens but it has its limitations. I am doing 2 more dives tomorrow morning with the 105 mm lens... really looking forward to it.

Highlights of today's dives were whip shrimp, pygmy seahorses, emperor shrimp, the biggest frogfish i have ever seen, and lots and lots of nudis.

Anilao Continued

2010-04-08T21:14:00.006+08:00

Today's dives were just as crazy as last night's. On our first dive at Mainit Point, we saw at least 10 nudibranchs of different varieties. Mainit Point is a healthy sloping reef made up of lots of hard and soft coral. I've never seen so many nudibranchs in my life. The funny thing is they all seemed to be in a hurry; I've also never seen nudibranchs move so fast. We ended the day with 2 dives at Secret Bay. Secret Bay is as different from Mainit Point as can be - it is true muck diving with nothing but a crappy sandy bottom. Highlights of today's dives were millions of nudis up close, hairy squat lobster, zebra crab, xeno crab (alas, no good pictures), 3 ornate ghost pipefish, and 2 playful octopi.

Crazy Night Dive

2010-04-07T21:32:00.009+08:00

I did one night dive in Anilao and I'm hooked. As far as crazy stuff underwater, that dive takes the cake, and I've seen some pretty crazy things underwater. There was one rock where we saw an ornate ghost pipefish, a crab, sleeping clownfish, a lionfish, and banded coral shrimp all within 2 feet of one another. Then there was the crazy octopus trying to made a fortress out of 3 seashells, which I photographed for 15 min. And how about the 6 inch long nudibranch? One of my strobes died 20 min into the dive, which made me yell %!&^!*^$%, but still, I've never had so much fun in 4m of water.

The Alma Jane

2010-04-07T13:20:00.003+08:00

I forgot how nice a dive the Alma Jane is. The Alma Jane is a metal frame of a wreck in Sabang Bay, about 40m long and with a max depth of 30m. We saw, among other things, huge snapper, trumpetfish, common lionfish, and 3 kinds of shrimp within a 2m radius: scarlet skunk shrimp, banded coral shrimp, and my favorite, an army of peppermint shrimp. We spent 30min on the Alma Jane before scootering inland. Vis was terrible (less than 10m) but that's ok when the focus is on macro life.

This afternoon, I am transferring to Anilao. I am doing my first dive in Anilao tonight, a night dive.

Hello from Puerto Galera

2010-04-06T13:10:00.003+08:00

Puerto Galera hasn't changed much since I was last here in May 2008. A few dive shops have changed hands. Some of the buildings in Sabang look a little different. The El Galleon looks a bit nicer and it seems like the food has improved. The diving is still the same, that is to say, still a good time. Yesterday I did 2 dives to about 45m - the first one on Sabang reef, surfacing right in the middle of Sabang bay, and the second one at Fishbowl and ending up in the Canyons. This morning, I did a 60m dive at Blackfish corner in Verde Island. The currents there are always exhilarating - at some points, I struggled to move forward with my Gavin on full pitch while kicking. We ended up on a very healthy sloping reef all the way up to 6m. Not many people dive there and as a result, the marine life is healthier than elsewhere in PG.

Visibility is not the best at the moment. The water is clear but dark below 40m or so and a bit milky above that. The water is a lot colder than I expected - 27C is colder than it sounds. I went to every shop in town to find a new wetsuit and/or hooded vest but with no luck. I guess I am just going to have to suffer through the cold this week. Note to self: apart from in the summer, dive dry in PG.

Dave has already taken off and Sam is off tomorrow for Sri Lanka. They are hosting 2 one week expeditions to the HMS Hermes, a British aircraft carrier sunk in WWII. After tomorrow's dives, I will be moving to Anilao to do some macro photography dives.

Next Trip

2010-03-30T12:32:00.004+08:00

I have made last minute plans to go diving next week. I am spending 3 days at Tech Asia in Puerto Galera and another 3 days at Acacia in Anilao. My time with Tech Asia will be spent doing Tech 1/2 scooter dives to get my tech fix, and my time with Acacia will be mostly muck and reef diving and macro photography. I have been to Tech Asia many times in the past and it will be nice to catch up with Dave and Sam after not having visited in almost 2 years. It will be my first time in Anilao and I have high expectations for the quality of the macro life, after hearing so much about it in articles such as this one. I will be taking my 60 mm and 105 mm macro lenses. Fingers crossed that I will be able to photograph stuff like coleman shrimp, emperor shrimp, nudis, bobbit worms, seahorses, stargazers, etc.

I will report back during/after the trip.

Ikelite housing port upgrades

2010-01-25T11:41:00.003+08:00

Ikelite recently announced 2 upgrades to their housings - the addition of 2 port locks (for a total of 4) and a threaded mounting point for a focus light. The 2 new port locks are a welcome addition as it has long been noted that the old port locking mechanism is flimsy and does not inspire confidence. The threaded mounting point is also nice as it simplifies mounting a focus light (previously had to be mounted on a strobe arm). I sent my housing back to Ikelite last week for upgrading. After transit time and 3 week turnaround time, I'll probably get my housing back in March.

Read more about it here.

Nikon 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens

2010-01-25T11:32:00.003+08:00

My wonderful friends bought me a Nikon 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens for my birthday. This lens is highly specialized and will be awesome for shooting nudibranchs, slugs, and intricate details on other marine life. I'm not sure when I will get to use it yet as I have not yet planned my next diving trip, but I am really looking forward to it.

I will need to buy the Ikelite flat port to go along with the lens.

Similan Islands Trip Report, November 2009

2009-12-02T20:00:00.002+08:00

I just got back from a trip to the Similan Islands. We also visited Richelieu Rock, Koh Tachai, and Koh Bon, which are within a day’s travel to the north of the Similans and not technically part of it.

The Boat
We spent 4 days and 3 nights aboard South Siam Divers 4. South Siam Divers is quite a big operator with 2 day boats and 2 liveaboards. The boat was quite large, sleeping more than 20 and with room for 70 divers (!) on the dive deck. In my opinion, the right maximum number is probably something like 40 to avoid overcrowding. There was a large deck, sundeck, a small saloon, and 6 bathrooms on board. All were adequate. Each day, new divers boarded the boat at 10am, while divers leaving the boat departed at 3pm – I would have preferred no overlap as the boat got quite crowded and chaotic during those few hours. The boat was quiet and stable compared to what we have out here.

The Food
I had high hopes for the food on board given my experience with the Black/White Mantas and the fact that it was Thai food. I was quite disappointed. Most of the food was bland and dumbed down for foreign tastes. There were only 3 meals a day with no snacks offered in between. On the second night, I got a mild case of food poisoning, with stomach discomfort and diarrhea. Thankfully, it went away about 12 hours later. Out of our group of 9, more than half got food poisoning or stomach upsets. Divers from other groups also got sick. We couldn’t trace it to one particular source, so I suspect the food is either not fresh, not clean, or both. This is really unacceptable and is something that has to be fixed immediately.

The Diving
All the dives were around the Similan Islands except for one day, when we made the overnight trip to Richelieu Rock. There were generally 5 dives offered each day, with a maximum of 4 dives allowed per person. The fish and reef life was very healthy as the area is a well maintained and policed marine park. I was surprised to find lots of varieties of edible fish that weren’t at all afraid of divers. I’d never seen so many glass sweepers in my life – the schools were so thick that sometimes you couldn’t see what was behind them. Apart from the general reef life, there were a few rare and interesting creatures like longnose hawkfish, ornate ghost pipefish, leopard sharks, and McCosker’s flasher wrasse. We were disappointed to not see any mantas at Koh Bon, but I was told that they are more common from February to April. I actually found the dives at Richelieu Rock, Koh Tachai and Koh Bon the most disappointing as we went through all the hassle to find that the marine life was no different from that in the Similan Islands. My entire trip, I didn’t see more than a handful of nudibranchs, which was surprising given what I had heard about the place. Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun shooting with my 60mm and 12-24mm lenses. I did a bit of experimenting with camera settings, strobe technique and placement, and close focus wide angle.

As the boat mostly caters to tourist divers, the style of diving is rather hurried, with the dive guides rushing from attraction to attraction. We preferred a more relaxed pace and it took a few dives to get the message across. There are lots of dive boats operating in the area. At one point, there were almost 10 boats within sight. Yet, the boats are run quite smoothly and none of the dive sites seemed crowded.

Would I go back? Probably only during the February-April peak season and on a different boat that had better food and was less mass market.

Similan Islands Pictures

2009-12-02T18:17:00.008+08:00

Full set of pictures here.

Videos from Thomas' Memorial Trip

2009-10-19T19:59:00.002+08:00

2 videos from Thomas' Memorial Trip showing the placement of the plaque and mementos:

No self control = more toys on the way

2009-10-14T23:13:00.004+08:00

I have jumped on the crazy underwater photography train and left the station. I just placed an order from the helpful folks at Reef Photo in Florida for two full sets of 5"x8" Ultralight arms and a BigBlue 5W LED aiming light. My stuff should arrive in a couple of weeks' time, giving me plenty of time before my Nov 26 trip to the Similans.

Pulau Aur Macro

2009-10-05T16:28:00.006+08:00

I tested out my new 60 mm macro AF-S lens with 2 strobes, Ikelite DS-160 and DS-125. I tried shooting with all settings on manual for the first time. It was loads of fun but it became clear that the learning curve is going to be pretty steep. The macro lens is fantastic. I can't even begin to describe what an upgrade it is from the 18-55 mm kit lens. It has a close focusing distance of 2 inches, which makes capturing close ups of nudibranchs much easier. Marine life was pretty good this trip with several sightings of rare nudibranchs. I don't have photos of all of them because I got quite a few wacked exposures while experimenting with camera/strobe settings. By mid afternoon, it was getting darker and my camera was having some trouble autofocusing on subjects that were too close up. Next on the to buy list: aiming light.

Here are some photo highlights from the weekend. Full set of photos here.

Memorial Trip for Thomas

2009-10-05T15:54:00.003+08:00

Last weekend, we did a trip to Pulau Aur on the MV Quest in memory of Thomas. The folks from Living Seas made a marble plaque with a poem written for Thomas. The first 2 dives of the day were used to scout for an appropriate place to lay the plaque. The third dive was dedicated to lowering the plaque to the sea bed and putting it in place. We then laid some parting gifts and said our goodbyes. It was an emotional dive, with some divers fighting tears. But an appropriate one given Thomas' love for the sea and the desire to to say goodbye in a significant way.

Rest in peace, Thomas.

Photos and video of the memorial dive to come later.

I made it to the GUE website again

2009-09-27T22:09:00.002+08:00

The trip report I wrote about last year's Manado trip made it to the GUE website. The link is here.

More toys

2009-08-31T19:34:00.003+08:00

After a lot of deliberation, I finally committed to getting a macro lens. Today, I ordered a Nikon 60mm f/2.8 micro lens. I also ordered the Ikelite flat port to go along with it. They should be in my hands within the next few days. My next opportunity to use the lens will be the 1st weekend of October aboard the MV Quest in Pulau Aur.

Pulau Aur pics

2009-08-30T23:29:00.009+08:00

Just got back from a weekend in Pulau Aur. Apparently, it is now standard to leave from Mersing instead of Tanjung Leman, which adds and hour or two to the travel time each way. Highlights of this trip were lots of clownfish, friendly cuttlefish, 2 bumpheads (but only from a distance), and lots of banded coral shrimp.

Full set of pics here.

Farewell, Uncle Thomas

2009-08-21T10:10:00.006+08:00

Photo courtesy of ZJ Wen

A friend of mine, Thomas Yong, passed away of natural causes.

Thomas was a mainstay of our Pulau Aur trips. Aur was his favorite place and he used to go there to get away. He joked with me once that if he kept a logbook of his dives, it would read "Aur, Aur, Aur, Lang, Lang, Lang, Aur, Aur, Aur..." because he dove there so often. He would say goofy stuff like that all the time and make us laugh. He carried a 6ft long SMB that had "Uncle Thomas" written on it in marker pen that would always elicit lewd jokes.

Thomas loved the outdoors and fresh air. He used to sleep in a sleeping bag on the front porch of the Diver's Lodge cabins. He would sleep through the bright lights, talking, and blaring music. I always wondered how he was able to do that. To Thomas, diving was an opportunity to partake of nature's wonderful treasures. It brought great joy to him (and us) to find and observe beautiful, rare, weird critters on our dives. It made him sad to see pollution, unsafe divers, damaged coral, and unsustainable practices. I remember him telling me how much he enjoyed the marine life in Pulau Hantu, which to me was the ultimate testament to his love of all things aquatic!

Everybody in Aur knew him personally, including the boatmen, the makciks in kitchen, and so on. He was the guy who got along with everyone and made them laugh. When the bumboat would arrive at Aur at 5am, everyone would rush to their rooms to catch another couple of hours' sleep. Thomas would typically stay behind and help load the supplies onto the island, not because anyone asked him to, but because he liked to help. He told me once how he helped the boatmen carry a refrigerator up the ladder. Just because.

Thomas was a wise man. He often shared with me various aspects of his philosophy on life. He talked about living healthy, working hard, being generous, not wasting, keeping a positive attitude, and maintaining perspective. He always saw the brighter side of life. He was always the first one up in Aur, doing jumping jacks on the porch, greeting the day with a smile and laugh. He was a lot older than most of us but his energy and attitude outshone us all.

Thomas spoke of a magical diving destination that was pristine and unspoiled by the human touch. He described it a diving paradise, where the marine life was abundant, diverse, and free to live unthreatened in its natural habitat. It was Thomas' happy place. I'd like to think that he's spending the rest of his days there, in this utopia, keeping a watchful eye over us.

Farewell, Uncle Thomas. Things just won't be the same without you.

My Love Affair With My Drysuit Continues

2009-05-13T11:48:00.005+08:00

Oh, one more thing about my drysuit - zipseals rock! I got zipseals on the wrists as I've seen torn seals ruin a dive and it's a pain to change permanent seals. It took me a few minutes to set up the zipseals for the first time but they were a breeze to use and at no point did I get concerned about their integrity. I intend to keep a spare set of zipseals handy in case of any issues.

Local Dives at Pulau Aur

2009-05-13T11:22:00.005+08:00

I spent Easter weekend in Pulau Aur doing some leisurely recreational dives. I took advantage of the benign conditions to test out my new 30/30 drysuit and 12-24 mm wide angle lens. The drysuit was a pleasure to use even in the sunny and humid conditions. The suit really does breathe! And it fits perfectly and is a joy to dive. Gone are my fears of overheating while diving dry in the tropics. There is something to be said for the freedom and ease of diving wet but I think I am slowly being converted.

As a trial run for my wide angle lens, we did a short dive at Diver's Lodge House Reef where Leon, Antia, Dagomir, and Alvin posed for photographs. It was a blast shooting them but surprisingly tiring, as I found that it was easier for the models to stay put and for me to move around them. I was breathless by the end of the dive. Here are some of the highlights (Photoshopped courtesy of Dagomir):

I've been translated to Spanish!

2009-04-28T09:15:00.002+08:00

I've just been translated to Spanish! BUEX liked my blog "Observations" and asked for consent to translate it to Spanish and post it to their website. I can't read Spanish but I thought it was cool! You can find article here.

Cabin Fever

2009-03-13T14:16:00.002+08:00

Local diving in the South China Sea is seasonal with diving season running March-October and monsoon season November-February. The first few months of the year are always tough for me as I tend to have a dry spell due to the monsoon and work. This year is no different. Local season (Pulau Aur or Tioman) opened last weekend. I was traveling last weekend and for various other reasons, all my other weekends this month are full. Next potential diving weekend is 4-5 April. Fingers crossed. I'm going to be in Bali 9-12 April but I don't think I will have enough time to go diving.

GUE website

2009-03-05T10:27:00.003+08:00

I made it to the GUE website! See here.

Sometime in late 2008 I was contacted by a guy from the Northeast USA by the name of Dima. We have common friends (I used to live in the Northeast). He had volunteered to help GUE set up a new section on their website called "News and Stories" that would showcase reports and write ups from GUE members. He asked me if I wanted to contribute something and of course my answer was YES! This was just before our big GUE Dive Extravaganza to the South China Sea in October 2008 so we agreed that I would report on that trip. I took copious notes in my wetnotes during that trip to make sure I didn't forget any interesting details. It look a while for GUE to go through its processes but the report has now made it to the GUE website.

For Sale

2009-01-29T20:23:00.009+08:00

I have the following items for sale. All prices in US$. Other currencies accepted. All prices negotiable. I will mail them anywhere in the world at buyer's expense.

DUI Thermalmax 300G jumpsuit undergarment. DUI stopped making these a little while ago. It is essentially made of the same material as DUI Actionwear (i.e. fleece, not type-B thinsulate) but in the shape of a 400G thinsulate. The outer shell is spray resistant. It has been on about 5 dives and is in like new condition. It is a very warm undergarment. Size S. $125

Ikelite 6" dome port for lenses less than 4.0", item number 5503.50. It has been lightly used on maybe 20 dives. It is in excellent shape with no scratches on the lens. The picture below is a stock picture and not a picture of the actual lens. $125

My Beautiful Drysuit

2009-01-28T21:25:00.007+08:00

After much drama, my drysuit finally arrived. Gideon measured me during the October GUE Dive Extravaganza and placed the order shortly after that. The idea was to get it in time for my mid-December Manado trip and definitely in time for my New Year's trip to Perth. DUI got my suit made and delivered to HK in time for Manado... then we discovered that they had made me a TLS350 and not the 30/30 that I had ordered. We tried to get them to rush me a new suit in time for Perth, but alas, it was not to be. I borrowed Leon's suit for Perth.

So, my suit finally arrived 3 months after placing the order.

After trimming the seals and trying on the suit today, I must say that DUI and Gideon did an outstanding job. I used to own a TLS350 so I am familiar with these things and know how they are supposed to fit. It fits PERFECTLY. I was afraid the turbosoles might be too small, but they fit PERFECTLY with Xerotherm socks and DUI 400G booties.

And the most amazing thing about it? I put on my Xerotherm undergarment and the suit, and I didn't overheat walking around my apartment. Seems like it really does breathe.

The suit is made to Explorer spec, including the following:
Old style zipper
Swivel inlet valve
Apeks high profile dump valve
Tough duck overlay
Cloverleaf crotch pad
Halcyon balanced p-valve
2 Halcyon explorer pockets
Zipseals on the wrists only
Turbosoles

I can't wait to get it wet. The price and the wait was worth it.

Observations

2009-01-14T18:18:00.006+08:00

I was going to call this piece “Top 10 Pet Peeves” but (I think) it turned out to be a more constructive piece so it deserves a more constructive title. I guess “Observations” isn’t the most exciting topic but I figured that the observations themselves are already controversial enough that I didn’t need an attention grabbing title.

1. Divers who don’t understand the risks involved in the diving that they do.
Diving is an activity that can kill you if you don’t know what you’re doing. I’d argue that the probability of something untoward (that causes an emergency) happening on a dive is very small. This is evidenced by the large number of dives that take place around the world every day without incident. However, the consequences of something untoward happening on a dive are high, often leading to permanent disability or death. I don’t have any issues with divers taking risks as long as they know and understand what they are getting into. I have a big problem with divers who think they understand the risks but really don’t. Generally, awareness among divers is low because the general level of dive education is poor and agencies like PADI propagate bullshit like “anyone can dive”. This leads to complacency and an inability to (a) identify the major risks (b) quantify the likelihood of them happening (3) quantify the magnitude of the consequences. If you haven’t been taught properly, then you don’t know what you don’t know.

Let me give you an example. I know divers who carry rich deco gases regularly on recreational dives because they “accelerate the decompression”. The whole point of recreational dive profiles is that they don’t require mandatory decompression, much less accelerated decompression. So the benefits from carrying these deco gases are little to none. What are the additional risks? The main one is ox tox from breathing a rich mix. We know that reactions to high PPO2 mixes are unpredictable and catastrophic (i.e. you drown and die). What I am saying is the chances of getting bent on a recreational profile are so small that they don’t justify the additional risk of ox tox from accelerated deco. Or as George Irvine used to say, you can fix bent but you can’t fix dead.

Another example is people who dive deep air because they think they can “tolerate” narcosis. The cost of a clear head is the price of helium, and the benefit of diving helium is you live to dive again. In other words, the benefit of diving deep air is it’s cheap, and the cost of diving deep air is death.

Yet another example is people who dive wetsuits in the cold because they have the preconceived notion that drysuits are uncomfortable and a hassle. Well, the cost of a drysuit is a few thousand $, and the benefit is you don’t get hypothermia and you live to dive again.

I’d argue that a complacent recreational diver on a 20m dive on a single tank of air may be taking more risks than a fully informed and well trained technical diver doing a 70m dive with doubles and 2 deco gases. This is because the technical diver has planned his/her dive carefully, established objectives and procedures, made sure that he/she has sufficient gas, and has the situational awareness to anticipate and mitigate issues before they happen. The recreational diver probably just put on his/her tank, jumped in, and followed the divemaster around until he/she hit 50 bar.

2. The fact that scuba agencies perpetuate the fallacy that “anyone can dive”.
Mainstream open water agencies like PADI like you to believe that anybody who can pass a “diving medical” can dive. This is of course in to their benefit because the more people who dive, the more money the agencies make. But there are most definitely certain types of people for whom diving is contraindicated – obese, unfit, and those with certain types of health problems. A minimum level of fitness and wellness is required to deal with things like stress, gear, choppy seas, wind, rain, etc. If one is barely fit enough to dive in unchallenging conditions, it doesn’t take a lot of complications (like changing weather, current, thermoclines, bad vis) to place one outside one’s comfort zone. Not to mention that adipose tissue is slow to offgas. Diving is not very difficult, but make no mistake – scuba is not forgiving of screw-ups.

Even worse are the technical diving agencies that tell you that anyone can technical dive. Technical diving is more difficult, stressful, and tiring than recreational diving. Not everyone should be diving and fewer still should be technical diving. It wasn’t that long ago that PADI was telling everyone that nitrox was a voodoo gas. When the technical diving market became more developed and PADI smelled a profit, it introduced technical diving courses through its affiliate DSAT. DSAT is the “anybody can technical dive” affiliate of PADI.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to pick on PADI in particular and I don’t have a problem with most things PADI. An agency like PADI has its place – it’s great for reaching the masses at a relatively low cost and for introducing lots of people to the wonders of the underwater world. In fact, I learned to dive through PADI and lots of my good friends are open water instructors. The problem starts when the focus is wrong and greed overshadows more practical concerns. Which brings me to my next point.

3. Open water classes as loss leaders.
I sometimes see open water classes being advertised at prices that makes one wonder how the instructor could possibly make a decent return on investment. Teaching an open water class is not easy. It takes, among other things, time, effort, patience, and people skills. A significant investment is required to even qualify as an open water instructor. Add the cost of insurance and profit sharing with the dive shop, and instructors take home very little for themselves.

This is because many instructors and dive shops treat open water instruction as loss leaders. They make little to no profit from open water classes and hope to hit you up with equipment rental and purchases, dive trips, and future classes (don’t even get me started on PADI Specialties). To maximize their little profits on open water classes, they need to minimize their costs and increase the volume. So they cut corners, teach to the minimum standards, and cram in lots of students per class. The end result is less competent divers who are less comfortable in the water and more prone to screw-ups. This is part of the reason why the dropout rate among open water divers is so high.

When I got my open water certification, I didn’t know a yoke valve from a DIN valve, had trouble fitting a regulator to a tank the right way up, and swam with my pressure gauge/depth gauge/compass (console) dangling a couple of feet below me. My instructor encouraged us to progress on to advanced open water immediately following open water (can you say $$$?). I became an advanced open water diver at the age of 17 with 9 dives under my belt. What had I been taught about essential diving skills such as gas management, dive planning, situational awareness, and buddy skills? Not much at all.

The better way to get open water instruction is to pay a bit more for a good instructor who will take the time and make the effort to train his/her students well. It may cost more up front, but leads to more competent divers who are more likely to enjoy their diving and become long term divers. And this is better for the industry in the long run as it rewards those instructors and dive shops who have higher standards and weeds out those who don’t.

A more general point is that nickeling and diming in diving is a loss making proposition in the long run. I like saving money just as much as anybody, but it is definitely possible to be too cheap to your detriment. Don’t nickel and dime on important stuff like instruction, safety equipment, and gases. A good example of being too cheap is reducing the helium in one’s mix and “tolerating” more narcosis in order to save money. Think about the cost savings (a few $) vs. the potential cost of making a judgmental error due to narcosis (drowning and death). A good place to save money is on equipment purchases. Certain pieces of equipment don’t break and can be acquired second hand at big discounts (e.g. backplates, wings, reels, spools, etc.) I have so much second hand equipment that I can’t even keep track of it all.

4. Divers who blame their equipment for their lack of skill.
Inexperienced divers love to blame their tanks for bad trim, their drysuits for bad buoyancy, their leaky masks for lack of awareness, and their faulty compasses for poor navigation. While using unfamiliar or sub-optimal gear can obviously affect one’s performance, I believe that very simply, if you can dive, you can dive. Chris Le Maillot said this to me on the first day of Cave 1 class, when I blamed my poor trim on the fact that I had never dove double AL80s with a drysuit before. Of course, he was right. It was my lack of skill and ability to compensate for changes in gear that was causing my poor trim, not the tanks.

I have lots of other examples. I used to blame my gear all the time until I realized that it was personal deficiency that was causing my problems. The first time I dove double LP95s, I went very head down. The first time I dove a 400G undergarment, I lost buoyancy at 6m at shot to the surface. Of course, I wouldn’t have had these problems if I hadn’t introduced the new gear, but it’s also the case that if I had had better diving skills, I could have compensated for the differences.

On the flipside, my buddy Leon bought a drysuit and I dove with him the 2nd or 3rd time he used it. He wasn’t perfect and his gas consumption did go up, but he wasn’t half bad and had no buoyancy or trim issues. Leon has good diving skills and putting him in a new and unfamiliar drysuit was no sweat. The same goes for my recent trip to Manado – I dove with my housed SLR + strobe for the first time. It was a huge and unwieldy package but didn’t add a lot of complication because I was already a competent diver. And because I was already a competent diver, taking good pictures didn’t add much task loading.

George Irvine once wrote that due to standardization of gear and procedures, the only change that he needed to make going from diving the caves in Florida to the ocean in the Northeast was to put on a pair of thick gloves. I’ll be damned, but George was right. I used to cave dive in Florida and when I dove in Lake Michigan in 4 degrees Celsius, the only things I did were change my undersuit (200G to 400G) and put on a pair of gloves.

5. Pontificating nobodies or “stick to what you know”.
A resort divemaster once disapprovingly told me that my 7ft hose was fine for technical diving but wouldn’t work for open water recreational diving. When I asked him why the difference between technical and recreational diving, he repeated that it wouldn’t work and then changed the topic. This guy had probably never seen a technical diving rig in his life and didn’t know a damn thing about a 7ft hose, yet he felt that he was god’s gift to diving and had to share his opinion with me.

I’d much rather stay silent on a topic I know nothing about than speak up and show my ignorance. When on charter boats and diving with others, I don’t offer my opinion on others’ diving skills, habits, or equipment unless asked. People often have a good reason for doing things the way they do.

6. Divers who rely on divemasters to lead them on dives.
Lots of divers think that a divemaster is required on all dives. I get a lot of quizzical looks when I tell people that most of my dives are sans divemaster. “But isn’t that dangerous?” they say. Divemasters give people a false sense of security, as if diving with a divemaster is automatically safer than without one. PADI divemasters only need 20 dives to begin the course and 60 for certification. PADI certifications don’t expire and there are no guidelines on divemasters having to train in conditions similar to those they plan to divemaster in. In short, how do you know that your divemaster is (a) experienced (b) reasonably current (c) comfortable diving in the conditions that he/she is diving in and (d) knowledgeable about the local diving sites/conditions? If something goes wrong, are you relying on the divemaster to get you out alive? Don’t even get me started on instructors.

Remember that open water certification certifies divers to dive with their buddies in open water. The standards don’t say anything about requiring a divemaster to be present. Properly trained open water divers should be perfectly comfortable planning and executing open water dives. If you’re an open water diver and you don’t feel confident enough to plan open water dives, one or more of the following is true: (a) your training was lacking (b) you are rusty (c) you don’t spend enough time/effort building the skills necessary to dive safely (d) you are competent but due to past overreliance on divemasters, you don’t realize your competence.

This is not to say that divemasters are not useful. Knowledgeable and safe divemasters add a lot of value by giving you information on the dive site, weather conditions, entry/exit procedures, boat procedures, and marine life, and leading divers on underwater tours. Just don’t trust your life blindly to any random divemaster.

7. “Wow you are really experienced. Are you a divemaster?”
Why do people assume that just because I like diving that I have interest in diving professionally (i.e. making money from diving)? PADI’s website states that “PADI Divemaster training develops your leadership abilities, qualifying you to supervise dive activities and assist instructors with student divers”. Which part of diving for pleasure has anything to do with wanting to supervise dive activities and assist instructors with student divers? As mentioned previously, people tend to equate being a divemaster with competence, and on the flipside, associate competence with being a divemaster (or instructor).

The other one I hear a lot of is “are you a commercial diver?” Commercial diving is a serious job, where divers lay pipes on the sea bed, salvage shipwrecks, build structures, and do other things in poor conditions and zero vis. Most of the time, it doesn’t even involve conventional scuba. It’s often done offshore in the middle of nowhere (think oil rig). What does this have to do with diving and looking at fishies?

8. Being told to surface from all dives with a minimum of 50 bar (or 500 psi).
What’s this about? 50 bar isn’t even equivalent to 500 psi (50 bar is closer to 750 psi). Is the safety margin larger in the US because American divers are less safe? What if I’m using a big tank and my buddy is using a small tank? 50 bar in my tank is more gas than 50 bar in my buddy’s tank.

I’m all for rules of thumb to simplify dive planning, but they need to make sense. Applying a blanket rule like returning to the boat with 50 bar doesn’t work because in some cases it’s too conservative, and in other cases, it’s too aggressive. On shallow dives, it can be too conservative because it doesn’t take a lot of gas to ascend from a shallow depth. More problematic is on deeper dives (say 30m) because it’s too aggressive. 50 bar as a rule of thumb doesn’t take into account the time required to ascend, minimum deco stops, or emergencies. What happens if at the end of the dive your buddy has a catastrophic failure, losing all the gas in his tank, requiring gas sharing? Is 50 bar enough to get both of you, sharing gas in a flustered state, through your minimum deco stops and to the surface? Simple calculations would show that the answer is no, but most open water divers aren’t taught how to make these calculations anyway.

Conclusion
Reading this, you may think I am an angry man and have nothing nice to say about the diving industry. That’s just not true. I’ve seen and experienced enough to know the good from the bad and I’m trying to save others the hassle.

Diving has so much to offer and one can get the most of it by being fully educated and exercising some caution. Look hard for a good instructor. Ask around and get various opinions before you make a decision. Find an instructor who puts your safety first and has the patience to not cut corners and make sure you learn the requisite skills and gain comfort in the water. Discuss with your instructor his/her approach to instruction, teaching style, and standards. If your instructor isn’t passionate about diving and doesn’t dive extensively for fun, move on. If anything in your interaction isn’t to your liking, move on. If you don’t get the feeling that your instructor is reliable, competent, patient, and dedicated, move on. A good instructor may cost more, but in the diving industry, with few exceptions, you get what you pay for.

If you’re looking to get into technical diving, look for a mentor or two who is willing to take you on and show you the ropes. Someone who is willing to teach you and help you gain experience. Not the high and mighty I’m-a-fancy-technical-diver sort but the sort who remembers what it was like getting into the sport and is keen to help less experienced divers. Some sacrifices may be required. If you have a chance to be a safety diver, hump tanks, blend gas, or otherwise be helpful, take the opportunity. Don’t expect to receive without giving back.

Perth, January 2009

2009-01-04T19:01:00.005+08:00

I spent New Year’s week in Perth and Margaret River and for the last 3 nights stayed with Justin and Belinda. Justin and the Perthboys have come twice now for our annual GUE Dive Extravaganza and we’d discussed organizing some diving when I visited.

I got to Justin’s house on Thursday night. Friday morning we made the 10 min drive to Fremantle to get on a charter boat for a 2 dive trip to Rottnest Island. The dive boat, apparently quite typical for Perth diving, was huge, with 40 people on board comfortably.

Our boat, the Lionfish IV

Among our group were Justin, Belinda, Richard, Andrew, David, Peter, and a couple visiting from Sydney, Steve and Laura. We made the 45 min boat ride to Rottnest and did our first dive at Jackson Rock, a craggy limestone reef with lots of scenic swim throughs. I did the dive in Leon’s TLS 350 (my 30/30 still hasn’t arrived yet) and a set of borrowed AL80s, my first dry dive in more than 2 years. It took some getting used to but slowly the skills came back to me. Vis was good, probably 10-15m, and there was lots of light as our max depth was only 14m. The bottom was covered in kelp and sea grasses, which moved back and forth in the surge and gave the disorienting impression that the bottom was moving. The marine life was decent, with a fair number of reef fish, a few crayfish, and a large octopus hiding under a rock. Water temp was around 22 degrees C and was quite pleasant on a warm and sunny day.

Bay at Rottnest Island

Lunch was served during the surface interval and the boat anchored in a bay at Rottnest Island. Our second dive was right off Rottnest, at Philip Rock, which was similar to the first site but shallower still, with a max depth of 7m. The highlight of the dive for me was watching Justin catch 2 crayfish; one of them made the cut and made part of our dinner that night. A snack and watermelon were served as we made our way back to Fremantle.

Dinner that night was at Justin’s house and I got to meet most of the Perthboys and their significant others over wood-fired pizza and a few drinks. A great time was had by all.

We spent Saturday doing a tour of the coast and river, and eating amazingly fresh seafood. Saturday night we met Robo down at the Swan River for a night dive. At about 8.30pm we started gearing up and walked down to the water’s edge. We dove nearby a restaurant, among a few moored private boats. It’d been a while since I’d been in such poor vis (maybe 2-3m) and I spent part of the dive straining to see the bottom. At one point we came across a huge silt cloud created by another diver that left me completely disoriented, trying to find my bearings. It didn’t help that there were quite a few really weird looking jellyfish (I later found out they were harmless) floating around. Even so close to shore, the life was quite impressive. We saw prawns, crabs, scallops, starfish and a couple of flathead (all edible except the starfish).

Justin, Belinda and the Perthboys were great hosts, sorting out the accommodations, food, diving, gear, and gas beautifully. Thanks again for the warm welcome. Hope to dive with you guys again soon. Stop by anytime, we have pretty good diving in our part of the world too. :)

Lovely hosts Belinda and Justin

My New Toys

2008-12-23T11:41:00.007+08:00

After having so much fun with photography in Manado, I placed a big order of camera gear from B&H Photo. My new toys should be arriving shortly:

First up is an Ikelite DS-160 strobe with TTL cable. It's the new and improved version of the DS-125. It has more power and a 5W LED tracking light.

Next is a Nikon 12-24 mm wide angle lens. This is good for wrecks, seascapes and land use.

This Ikelite 8" dome port will allow me to use the wide angle lens underwater without vignetting or distortion.

Manado, December 12-17, 2008

2008-12-17T18:52:00.005+08:00

I just got back from a 5 day trip to Manado. There were about 20 of us from Living Seas. We stayed at Cocotinos resort, on the west side of Manado Island. Our trip included 3 full days of diving and 2 half days (the first day and the last day, where we did 2 dives each). All in all, I did 14 dives. The last dive of the trip was my 500^th dive. All the dives were at Bunaken or Manado, except day 4’s dives, which were at Lembeh. The boat ride to Bunaken takes 45-60 min. Lembeh is an island off the east coast of Manado Island. It takes a 2 hour bus ride and 30 min boat ride to get there.

Photo courtesy of Antia Lamas Linares

Cocotinos is a nice resort. It is quiet and secluded, which can be both good and bad. It’s good for hardcore diving but there’s nothing else to do nearby. The staff are very friendly and helpful and go out of their way to please. I haven’t had someone wash and hang my gear for me in recent memory. The dive guides have excellent eyes and try hard to spot interesting marine life. The food is quite unexciting, except for the BBQ and roasted suckling pig, which were excellent. The ride to Lembeh from Cocotinos is quite a pain. Since I prefer muck diving, I may stay closer to Lembeh in the future.

This was my first trip using a camera and strobe. Wen was kind enough to loan me his Ikelite DS-125 strobe. Shooting pictures came to me more easily than I expected. Since I already have the buoyancy and trim skills, adding an additional task was not too difficult. It was quite tiring though, maintaining fine buoyancy control to get good macro shots. I shot with the 18-55 mm kit lens, mostly on the long end as most of the subjects were tiny. The lens wouldn’t focus on anything closer than maybe 30 cm away. A macro lens would make life a lot easier.

Lembeh is an absolute macro photographer’s heaven. I would have liked to spend more time there. For the life of me, I can’t imagine why Lembeh still has such fantastic marine life. The water is polluted, smells funny, and has plastic bags and candy wrappers floating around. Maybe it is the volcanic soil. We saw lots of incredible things, like 9 lionfish of different varieties on 1 rock. It’s hard to believe that some of these things are actually real. I was getting crossed eyed looking so hard at the tiny, wonderful macro life.

I saw lots of firsts on this trip – mushroom shrimp, porcelain crab, squat lobster, orangutan crab, sea moth, electric clam, emperor shrimp, pygmy seahorse, the list goes on. I photographed at least 12 types of nudibranches.

To top it all off, the company was great as well. Living Seas runs good trips and the divers are serious about their diving and partying.

Best of Manado

2008-12-16T17:21:00.012+08:00

All shots taken with Nikon D40 with 18-55 mm lens, Ikelite housing, single Ikelite DS-125 strobe on TTL. Most shots taken at the long end of zoom range.

Full set of pictures here.

!@#$*%^ DUI

2008-12-05T10:30:00.002+08:00

I was quite excited to hear that my drysuit had arrived in Hong Kong a few days ago. Then yesterday, as the HK distributor prepared to ship my suit to me, he discovered that DUI had made me a TLS350, instead of the 30/30 that I ordered. Bummer.

I won't have the suit in time for Manado, which is OK. But I really need the suit in time for Perth on 29 December. DUI is doing a rushjob to get me my suit in time. Fingers crossed. And I hope it fits too.

Xerotherm

2008-11-10T20:43:00.003+08:00

In anticipation of my new DUI 30/30 Explorer suit arriving, I ordered a Xerotherm undergarment from Fourth Element. I got the whole set, which is made up of a top, bottom, vest, and socks. The cost was £115 plus £5 shipping, which I thought was quite reasonable. It arrived about 5 days after I placed the order, which was outstanding. The construction is high quality and it fits great, in part due to its stretchiness. Best of all, it is washable without any degradation of its insulating properties.

I will test it out in Manado in December. Granted, Manado in not really cold. In January I will be diving the Xerotherm and a DUI 200G undergarment in 22 degree water in Perth. I know this isn't really cold either, but my days of diving real cold water are over. Until I find a very compelling reason to do so, I will be diving relatively warm water only.

Stage Leash

2008-11-07T18:29:00.004+08:00

I get lots of questions on what a stage leash should look like. The picture above shows one of mine. The clear hose is just garden hose. Low pressure hose works as well and has a smaller inner diameter. The rope is nylon rope. It should be tied such that there is not much free play on the rope, so that it does not spin around.

The stage leash should be tied such that the bottle sits on the edge of your butt, but not hanging into your butt crack (if you know what I mean). If it hangs into your butt crack, it will get in the way of a proper frog kick. If you have a big butt, you may need a longer leash, but there shouldn't be much variation from leash to leash.

GUE Dive Extravaganza, October 14-19, 2008

2008-10-20T23:52:00.011+08:00

I just got back from Living Seas' GUE Dive Extravaganza 2008. It was an awesome, awesome trip that I can safely say set the bar extremely high for everyone who attended. I have taken away so many precious memories that I can now die a happy man. Yes, the trip was that good.

In what has become an annual affair, Gideon and co planned a liveaboard trip the MV White Manta to visit the wrecks of the South China Sea. This was the most ambitious trip to date, with 5 full days of diving and only GUE trained tech divers on board. Including Gideon and Leon, there were 6 Tech 2 divers and 7 Tech 1 divers, plus 2 support divers. Just about everyone had taken a course from Gideon in the past or otherwise had some association with him. Putting the G in GUE were visiting guests – 4 from Australia, one from Thailand and one from China. The rest of the divers were local to Singapore. Also on board were 5 X-scooters, including mine.

We boarded the boat in Singapore at 6.30pm on Wednesday. Shortly after, the boat departed for the overnight trip to the first wreck. We had a quick briefing followed by an excellent Thai dinner. Then we moved on to setting up our gear and analyzing our tanks, which had already been filled. Gideon spent some time giving a scooter briefing to those interested.

Thursday morning some unexpected circumstances delayed our progress and we tied in to the Aur Tanker around noon. It was a bright, sunny day and the seas were flat with no current. The Aur Tanker is an unidentified tanker, named as such due to its proximity to Pulau Aur, a nearby island. Apparently all identifying features of the wreck have been removed and nobody seems to know much about it, apart from the fact that it has been down for several decades. A sketchy briefing revealed that the ship was upright and had 2 superstructures, one at the stern and another at midships. Teams started splashing in at approximately 30 min intervals. Leon and I were the second team to go in, passing Jim, Vie and Matt, who were decoing on the line. We were tied into the midships superstructure, which was around 42m. We spent the dive scootering around the deck at around 48-50m, orienting ourselves for future dives. Vis was about 10-15m. We estimated the wreck to be around 150m in length with a bottom around 63m. There were numerous blast holes which allowed a few minor penetration opportunities. The fish life inside the wreck was plentiful, with lots of large snapper, grouper and barramundi cod hanging out. Around the wreck were the usual suspects, including jacks, barracuda and batfish. Leon called the dive when he depleted his stage, so we switched to backgas, moved our deco bottles around, and started on our way up. Deco was uneventful apart from the slight current at 10m and up.

Dive 1: Aur Tanker
Max depth: 55.3m
Bottom time: 23 min
Runtime: 63 min

Since we started late, there wasn’t enough light to do a second dive on the Aur Tanker. We motored to nearby Pulau Lang for a night dive. Around 7pm, we splashed in, with everyone diving stages of 32%. The dive was very relaxing with lots of marine life – several moray eels, crabs of various shapes and sizes, banded coral shrimp, sleeping parrotfish, one very flamboyant cuttlefish who seemed to enjoy the attention, barracuda, and pufferfish. The teams averaged around an hour each before surfacing. We had a leisurely dinner and started the overnight trip to the Repulse.

Dive 2: Pulau Lang
Max depth: 16.9m
Bottom time: 67 min
Runtime: Same

Very flamboyant cuttlefish, photo courtesy of ZJ Wen

We arrived at the Repulse around 7am and quickly tied in. After a quick breakfast, Gideon gave us a briefing on the history and orientation of the Repulse, with insights from a 2004 expedition that he was a part of. The Repulse, a battlecruiser, was the pride of the British Navy and saw action in both WWI and WWII. It joined the HMS Prince of Wales and several destroyers (together, known as Force “Z”) in 1941 to attack Japanese naval forces around Malaya. However, the convoy was attacked by a large number of Japanese aircraft, and without air cover, both the Repulse and Prince of Wales were sunk by torpedoes. Its sinking has been described many times so history buffs can read more about it elsewhere.

The Repulse lies mostly upside down, resting on its port side at about a 45 degree angle from being completely turtled. We were tied in slightly ahead of midships, on the underside of the wreck, near a large torpedo hole (where the flag is in the picture). Leon and I were the last team to go in, passing a team decompressing on the line as we scootered down. The wreck became visible around 15m, despite the shallowest point being around 35m! We spent a minute orienting ourselves on wreck, before dropping down to the deck and heading for the bow. We passed the pair of 15 inch guns, sticking out majestically from the sand. There was a thermocline at 51m, below which vis declined noticeably. We spent several minutes at the bow, looking up to see the entire height of the ship against the backdrop of blue waters and the blazing sun. Around 8 minutes into the dive, we started heading back, and along the way spotted a large marble ray and an accompanying cobia. We followed them all the way back to the stern but didn’t have enough time to explore. We headed back to the line, taking note of several follow up areas along the way, and began our deco. The wreck continued to be visible until our 15m stop. The view on deco, where we could see the wreck stretching out in both directions into the limits of the visibility, was incredibly grand, and is something I will not soon forget. This dive, our first on the Repulse for this trip, was one of the most enjoyable open water dives I have ever done. The dive had everything – great vis, no current, beautiful wreck, marine life, and scooters.

Dive 3: HMS Repulse
Max depth: 51.5m
Bottom time: 25 min
Runtime: 65 min

We broke for lunch and a surface interval while our tanks were being filled. On our second dive on the Repulse, we decided to extend our bottom time by breathing down the stage fully and using some of our backgas. As we scootered down the line, it was apparent that the vis has worsened. The thermocline had moved to about 45m, with vis of about 20m above and a milky white 10m below it. We scootered to the props this time, spending some time admiring the huge prop shafts and rudder. We did a tight swim through around the props and emerged on top of the wreck, a little ways down. Not having had enough of the view of the bow, we scootered to the bow again and took in the grandeur again. Finally, it was time to go and we headed back to the line. There was a mid-sized turtle (apparently, a resident) lazing around the top of the wreck. Deco was long and boring, with a slight current on the line.

Dive 4: HMS Repulse
Max depth: 52.2m
Bottom time: 35 min
Runtime: 88 min

After dinner, Gideon measured me for a new 30/30 drysuit. He then gave an overview of drysuit diving to those contemplating first time suits.

I awoke at 7am on Friday to frantic calls of “Whale shark! Whale shark!” Laziness got the better of me and I didn’t get up. Apparently, a curious whale shark had surfaced near the boat and was swimming around nearby. Later, after the first team had returned from their first dive of the day and the second team was still in the water, the whale shark returned. Everybody grabbed their masks and fins and jumped into the water. It was a baby whale shark, around 3.5m in length. It hung around checking us out for about 20 min, providing lots of photo/video ops, before descending into the depths.

Whale shark near the surface, photo courtesy of ZJ Wen

On our first dive of the day, we again went to the bow and props but spent some time checking out various entry points along the way. Another large marble ray (the same one?) was lying in the sand near the props. The thermocline and layer of milky vis was still there, but vis had improved somewhat since the previous dive. Deco was uneventful, and the whale shark returned around our 3m stop. We scootered alongside it as it circled the boat once before disappearing for good.

Leon and I scootering with the whale shark near the surface, photo courtesy of Vie Panyarachun

Dive 5: HMS Repulse
Max depth: 55.8m
Bottom time: 21 min
Runtime: 61 min

We spent the surface interval watching video of the morning’s dives and the whale shark. Around 3pm, teams started splashing in again. Another team borrowed our scooters for an excursion to the props, so we did a swim dive. Vis had deteriorated once again, with vis below the rising thermocline less 5m. We investigated several entry points without traveling too far from the line, due to the poor vis. On the way up, we checked out the torpedo hole before completing our deco.

Dive 6: HMS Repulse
Max depth: 50.0m
Bottom time: 22 min
Runtime: 59 min

That night, Gideon gave an overview of what to expect in Cave 1 to several divers who are signed up for the course next year. We left that Repulse that evening and arrived back at the Aur Tanker around 3am.

Saturday we did 2 dives on the Aur Tanker. We were again tied into midships superstructure. Vis had deteriorated since our first visit there, with vis less than 10m. We dropped off the starboard side and scootered to the bow. We came off the bow and followed the anchor rope around for a while, eventually coming to a concrete block. The anchor was nowhere in sight. We made our way back to the bow and investigated a couple of entry points before returning to the line.

Dive 7: Aur Tanker
Max depth: 60.0m
Bottom time: 21 min
Runtime: 65 min

On our second dive of the day, vis had worsened once again, to about 5m. The entire wreck was covered in a milky white layer. There was also a mild current that picked up as our dive went on. This time, we went around the props and rudder and found a huge hole and lots of wreckage near the stern. The hole was full of large snapper. We did another long dive, depleting our stages and breathing some backgas. We saw 2 large lionfish and schools of baby fish on our way back. As we were leaving the Aur Tanker, Leon tried to untie the boat from the mooring line at around 15m, but failed as the current was pulling the line taut. My first thought is that he should not have been doing such strenuous activity on a Tech 2 dive. By the time I signaled for him to stop, he had been fighting with the line for some time.

Dive 8: Aur Tanker
Max depth: 58.6m
Bottom time: 30 min
Runtime: 84 min

Leon felt some slight pain in his elbow shortly after surfacing. He was quickly put on O2 and monitored. Shortly after, about 45 min after surfacing, I felt some odd pressure in my left rotator cuff. It’s hard to describe the feeling. It wasn’t really painful, rather, it felt like pressure deep inside the shoulder joint. Not wishing to take any risks, I went on surface O2. After about 30 min each on O2, the feeling had subsided for both of us. Looking back at our profiles, I don’t think we did anything wrong. We certainly didn’t deviate from any of our planned profiles. What we learned is that we should probably be a little more conservative when planning multiple days of tech diving, and most definitely refrain from any strenuous activity during/after technical dives.

We did a shallow night dive, followed by 12 min at 6m and a 6 min ascent, all on O2. Thomas and Wen came along to keep an eye on us. The feeling did not return for either of us, so that must have done the trick. It was a good night dive, where we saw several nudibranches, flatworms, 2 baby lionfish, a big angry red crab, a large moray eel, and a baby stonefish.

Dive 9: Pulau Lang
Max depth: 11.0m
Bottom time: 59 min
Runtime: Same

Late that night, we took off for the Maritime Fidelity. We arrived at 7am and tied in to the wreck. The Maritime Fidelity is a bulk carrier that used to carry fertilizer. It sank in 1999 in about 45m of water. During the dive briefing we were told that we were tied into the port side near the bow. So we were surprised to arrive at the stern after about 20 seconds’ scootering. Vis was quite poor, around 7m or so, so it was difficult to get oriented. It turns out that we were tied into the port side near the stern. We did a tour of the wreck, from stern to the bow and back to the stern. We checked out a huge cargo hold (now empty) and the machine room near the stern. We spent the short deco surrounded by batfish.

Dive 10: Maritime Fidelity
Max depth: 40.0m
Bottom time: 30 min
Runtime: 53 min

Team shot before our last dive of the trip, photo courtesy of ZJ Wen

With that, the trip was over and we started heading back to Singapore. We spent the few hour trip eating, telling diving stories, and putting away our gear. We were back in Singapore by midday, and everyone headed their own ways, back to reality.

Group shot, photo courtesy of ZJ Wen

Things I learned:
1. We need to encourage more females in the region to pick up tech diving. As much as I like you guys, spending 5 days on a boat with 15 half naked men is not my idea of fun.
2. Scooters rock! The scooters are great enablers, allowing more varied and safer dives.
3. It’s probably a good idea to dial up the conservatism after multi day deco diving, especially for Tech 2 level dives.
4. I should use sunblock. A peeling bald head is not very attractive.

Thanks to:
The Living Seas crew for planning a great trip.
Gideon for his tips and watchful eye.
Leon for being a reliable buddy as always.
Thomas and Wen for the thankless jobs of gas blending and diving support.
The crew of the White Manta for the good food and service.

Pictures and video to come in time.

GUE Dive Extravaganza - preview

2008-10-04T16:20:00.002+08:00

I am really looking forward to Living Seas' upcoming GUE Dive Extravaganza, Oct 14-19. This trip has become somewhat of an annual event, with expectations building with each passing year. This time, Living Seas has managed to round up enough GUE trained technical divers to fill the entire Black Manta.

The boat departs from Singapore on Tuesday night and returns on Sunday evening. The tentative schedule is:
Day 1: Seven Skies
Day 2 & 3: Repulse
Day 4 &5: Aur Tanker

The Seven Skies and Repulse are great dives. I haven't been on the Aur Tanker before but am looking forward to it. I will be bringing my scooter and will be diving to Tech 2 depths on all the dives.

There was a bit of drama at work with the possibility that I might have to pull out of the trip at the last minute. I think the worst is over and there is a very high likelihood that I will be able to get away.

Boracay Trip Report

2008-08-04T21:09:00.003+08:00

I just got back from 4 days in Boracay. It was my first trip there.

General thoughts:

It is a pain to get there. We flew through Manila, caught a SEAIR prop flight to Caticlan (45 min) and a short boat ride to the resort. Our flight was delayed 45 min due to heavy rain in Manila.
Boracay is beautiful but attitudes towards conservation have a long way to go. The beach is nice and the water is blue but there’s litter everywhere.
If you plan to go during the middle of the year, be prepared for rain and rough conditions. It rained pretty much the whole time we were there.
NAIA is still an awful airport.
NAMI is a beautiful little resort with wonderful personalized service. It is, however, very far from everything else.

I did 2 dives with Blue Mango . Blue Mango is located on the far end of Station 3. Dustin Pratt runs the dive shop, while his father runs Blue Mango Inn next door. Dustin is Fundamentals trained and teaches tech for DSAT. The shop has a bunch of backplate and wing systems for rent but a limited number of regulator sets with 7 ft hoses.

On the first day, we did a dive at Laguna, an area with big coral patches interspersed with sandy areas. It was a mild and relaxing dive with no discernible current. Interesting sights included a large octopus hiding in hole, a huge cuttlefish, 2 schools of razorfish, 2 lionfish, lots of clownfish, banded coral shrimp, and a tiny lobster.

The next day, I returned for a high speed drift dive at Laurel. We were flying for about 30 min before the current slowed down and Dustin shot a bag. The ascent and safety stops were a pain, with major washing machine currents. When we hit the surface at 50 min, the swells had really picked up and the boat was nowhere to be seen. We had drifted further than expected and were in the middle of a channel. We drifted for a few minutes, while holding our SMBs high and dodging 6 ft swells. The third diver in our group was less experienced and began to show signs of panic. We tried to calm her down and started kicking slowly back to shore. After about 10 min, a passing construction boat stopped by and picked us up. As we made our way back to shore, we met up with our boat, which had been looking for us some distance away. It was a mediocre dive with a rather inconvenient ending.

It's hard to judge the quality of the diving in just 2 dives but I'm quite positive so far. I'd dive with Blue Mango again but I'd like to be more involved in the planning so something like what happened on the second dive doesn't happen again.

Boracay, Here I Come

2008-07-25T18:34:00.003+08:00

Next Wednesday, I am off to Boracay. We are staying here:

http://www.namiboracay.com/

Of course, I can't go to the beach without diving. I have been in touch with Blue Mango about doing some diving. I was attracted to their site by this page, which talks about DIR diving. I spoke to Dustin at Blue Mango, who told me that they dive to 50m using 50% and 100% for deco. However, helium can't be found on the island so I guess they use air for backgas.

I'd love to do some tech diving but I'm not doing deep air. Instead, I am sticking strictly to recreational depths. In fact, I am bringing only my single tank reg set, wetsuit and other personal items as they rent backplates and wings.

X-Scooter Rocks!

2008-07-07T22:10:00.006+08:00

So I finally took my X-scooter out for its maiden trip this past weekend. We went to Pulau Aur for the weekend. I did 3 dives with it on Saturday and 1 on Sunday. Much of the time was spent adjusting the tow cord and getting the weighting/balancing right. The weighting/balancing is about 98% there, with my scooter still having a slight tendency to float nose up.

Using the scooter was a real blast. I was surprised at how much more maneuverable it is compared to a Gavin. Leon and I were doing loops and corkscrews all over the place. I wouldn't even dream of doing that on a Gavin. The downside is of course that it is a little squirrelly and is fatiguing to use over long distances.

On one dive, we scootered from Crocodile Rock back to the pontoon (about 8 minutes or 300-400m). On another dive, we scootered around until we found the old, sunken pontoon in about 30m of water.

Here are a couple of pics of me taken by Leon:

DSS Thumb Loop Part Deux

2008-06-27T21:14:00.003+08:00

After I bitched and moaned publicly that the DSS thumb loop didn't fit the old Halcyon warmwater Goodman handle, Tobin from DSS was so kind to send me a smaller offset plate to rectify the problem. I fitted the new piece to my Halcyon enclosed 10W lighthead. It looks like this:

Fitting it was a breeze and it looks great.

DSS Goodman Handle Thumb Loop

2008-05-26T20:41:00.003+08:00

I just installed a DSS Goodman handle thumb loop to my Halcyon 18W light. You can buy it here.

It came nicely packaged and with instructions. Here are the illustrated steps:

1. Remove bulb and ballast from Goodman handle.

2. Unscrew reflector from Goodman handle.
3. Screw the offset plate into the reflector. The screws came too long so I used a metal file to file them down. If they are too long, they stick into the barrel of the reflector, getting in the way of the bulb.
4. Screw offset plate into the Goodman handle. Notice how the reflector is offset from center.
5. Voila! Here's the finished product. Seems pretty robust. Unfortunately, it might be a few weeks before I get to try it out.
Btw, I was rather annoyed to find that the DSS thumb loop does not fit the older Halcyon warm water Goodman handles. The handle is simply not wide enough to fit the thumb loop. Should I offload the thumb loop or should I buy a new Goodman handle? Decisions.

Hibo Wall

2008-05-13T21:00:00.005+08:00

Here's the profile of our Tech 2 experience dive on Hibo Wall:

GUE Tech 2 - May 2008

2008-05-09T21:31:00.003+08:00

My team just completed our Tech 2 class with Gideon Liew at Puerto Galera. The class was hosted by Tech Asia. Leon and I are still here until Sunday evening but Gideon and Michael already took off. We are doing an additional 2 days of diving before heading back to Singapore.

Leon and I arrived on Sunday afternoon from Singapore, after each paying about S$150 in excess baggage on our Jetstar flight (note to self: good example of the false economy of flying budget airlines). Michael arrived in PG a couple of days earlier and Gideon had just finished teaching another Tech 2 class, also with Tech Asia.

Throughout the class, the Tech 2 configuration that we dove consisted of double AL80s for backgas, one AL80 stage (with backgas), one AL40 with 50% and one AL40 with oxygen. On days 1 and 2, we used nitrox 32% in all the bottles, as we were not diving deep. We would start each dive with the stage and 50% chest clipped and the oxygen bottle on a leash. At some point along the dive, once we had switched off the stage, we would move the stage to the leash and the oxygen bottle to the front for the deco.

The class officially started on Monday morning. We did a series of shore dives in front of Tech Asia. We went down to about 12m and spent several dives doing valve drills, s-drills, and Tech 2 ascent drills (which consists of 1m/min stops, gas switches, and bottle movement). The current picked up at one point and we had to move to a more sheltered spot. After several ascents and descents, we did 2 scenario dives, where we laid line and simulated a dive, complete with simulated failures. All in all, we spent 5 hours in the water and exited at about 3.30pm. Since we were already wet, we jumped back in for our swim tests. We finally broke for lunch at 4.30pm… what a start to Tech 2! Fatigue and hunger were setting in and it was a relief to get some food and water. We reviewed video of our dives and debriefed over lunch. We all had definite points for improvement but overall our performance was decent, which was encouraging. We finished the day with a lecture on gas management and a late dinner.

Day 2 consisted of a series of drills and scenario dives again in shallow water. We spent about 3 hours in the water before getting out in time for lunch. The day was spent on dive debriefs, video review and the bulk of the lectures.

On day 3 we were using 21/35 for backgas and actual 50% and oxygen in our deco bottles. We did 2 Tech 1 type scenario dives at Sinandigang, which is a sheltered reef in a small bay. We did them back to back as we had plenty of gas with us and they were short dives. We got out in time for lunch. The afternoon was spent on dive debriefs, video review, and a lecture on contingency planning. After dinner, we did the quiz as a team.

Day 4 was 2 experience dives to 50m, using 18/45 for backgas. On these dives, I tested out Gideon’s Evolve wing, which I liked very much. I had to shift gas side to side a lot while using my Explorer wing due to the changing weight of the bottles on the left side. The morning’s dive was meant to be at Sweetlips Corner, but the current was counter to what we expected, and we ended up with a long sandy swim and at Marcus Cave instead. We attempted the same dive after lunch but the current had really picked up and there were washing machine currents at Sweetlips Corner. The team was at risk of being split up so Gideon called the dive early.

Our experience dive on Day 5 was a 63m dive for 25 min at Hibo wall. Hibo is about a 30 min boat ride from Tech Asia and consists of a small ledge around 18-21m, a sloping reef to about 30m, and a relatively steep wall down to about 88m. We had a nice drop and found the wall pretty quickly. There was a slight current that kept us moving along the wall. After breathing the stage down, we switched to backgas for a few minutes before calling the dive. We ascended along the wall through our deep stops and did a gas switch at 21m. By then, we were on top of the ledge and the current was quite strong, so we drifted and shot a bag. Total deco from 21m and up was 45 min. It felt like ages because we spent it all in blue water. On the boat, Gideon shook our hands one by one and congratulated us on passing the class.

PG is a great location for tech training. Deep sites are within a few minutes’ boat ride from shore. The currents can be unpredictable but there are always reasonable dive sites available; current and unpredictable conditions can sometimes be a boon to tech training, anyway.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that Tech Asia is a well run outfit well suited to supporting technical training and dives. They are knowledgeable about local sites and conditions, the staff and boat crew are very well trained and take their jobs seriously, and they are a nice bunch of people. This is why I keep going back.

After I completed Tech 1, I said that I was content diving in the Tech 1 range and wasn’t interested in Tech 2. After 4 years of diving in the Tech 1 range, my dives were approaching the Tech 2 range and further training was needed. Tech 2 was the perfect class for me because it made clear the skills, planning, knowledge, and mindset necessary to undertake more aggressive dives. The more GUE training I take, the more I realize that everything comes back to the fundamentals. With about 50 Tech 1 dives apiece, our fundamental skills were generally good and therefore we were receptive to the training and lessons that Gideon taught us.

Thanks to Gideon for not only having the knowledge and experience to be a qualified instructor, but for having the skill and teaching style to educate effectively. Gideon is a great ambassador for GUE.

GUE Dive Extravaganza, April 24-27, 2008

2008-04-27T22:13:00.007+08:00

I just got back from another GUE trip on the Black Manta, organized by Living Seas. The whole Living Seas crew (Gideon, Leon, Matilda, Andrew, Thomas) was on board and as usual, they planned a good trip. We departed Singapore on Thursday night and got back on Sunday evening. Thursday night was spent traveling and we arrived at Pulau Aur in the morning.

Leon and I are going to be buddies on our Tech 2 class that starts in a weeks' time, so we spent the first day doing drills in preparation for the class. We spent most of the first day doing ascent and descent drills, including lots of gas switches and bottle movement. We did drills solely during the first two dives and got pretty fed up after more than 2 hours in the water. For the third dive, we did a relaxing dive at Raynor's Rock, with 3 bottles just for the ride. The fourth dive of the day was again spent doing drills. Somehow, we managed to squeeze a fifth dive in, a night dive a Turtle House. We had slight current on all the drills dives, meaning that we had to face into the current and maintain our position relative to the line.

Day 2 was at the Seven Skies. Recreational divers did 3 dives and the technical divers did 2. To conserve backgas and minimize gas filling, we dove stages for the day's dives. Backgas was 18/45 and we used 50% for deco. There was a mild current and vis was quite poor (maybe 10m) due to lots of white particles in the water. A 2-3m white manta was circling the wreck for most of our dive, and all the divers saw it at some point or other. It was even around when some people did their second dives. We did a tour of the wreck and found a big hole in the front area, where the wreck was cut off. We made a mental note to return there on the second dive. The dive ended up being shallower than planned, but we stuck to our original deco plan of about 25 minutes.

On the second dive, we made a beeline for the hole. I tied in a reel and went in to explore. The area was huge and full of pipes. It did not go very far horizontally, but went quite deep. We stopped around 53m and it looked like the bottom was close to 60m. By the time we turned around, the silt and rust dislodged by our bubbles had reduced visibility markedly. Yet, I found the darkness and stillness peaceful and relaxing. I miss cave diving. The profile below is that of our second dive on the Seven Skies. We spent slightly longer at depth and completed 30 min of deco.

Leon checking out a crack

Day 3 was at the Maritime Fidelity. It was my first trip to this wreck. We arrived early in the morning but it took a while to tie in to the wreck. The Quest was also present and they had the same issues tying in. Eventually we tied 2 lines into the middle of the wreck. Vis was quite poor (max 10m) and there was a decent current on the wreck. On our first dive, we went into current towards the bow. There wasn't a whole lot there, but we spotted a big hole on the way back, which we went in to explore. I am not sure what was in there, perhaps a boiler room, but there were lots of pipes and machinery. The dive was a lot shallower than planned so we cut the deco short and spent about 10 min breathing 50%.

On the second dive, we pulled the lines and went towards the stern. We entered a huge cargo hold and poked around for a while. The rest of the dive was spent looking around and staying out of the current. We shot a bag and drifted for the 10 min deco. On the way up, there were tons of schooling batfish and we had a close encounter with a school of barracuda. They circled us several times, getting closer with each pass and giving us the eye.

With that, the trip was over and we motored back to Singapore. It was a fun trip and great preparation for Tech 2.

They Don't Call it Pulau Hantu for Nothing

2008-04-20T15:33:00.004+08:00

I just got back from an eventful day of diving in Pulau Hantu. Because of my ridiculous work schedule of late, I missed 2 prior opportunities to do some training dives with my Tech 2 team. Today was a last ditch effort and our only chance to dive together before the actual class in May. Michael flew all the way from Korea just to do this morning's dives - kudos to him for taking one for the team and putting up with the crappy conditions.

The last time I dove Hantu, the vis was so bad I could barely see my gauges, much less my buddy, so I approached today with some apprehension.

The day started at the ass crack of dawn and I made my way down to Living Seas, where I met up with Leon and Michael. We loaded all our tanks (1 set of doubles, 1 stage and 2 deco bottles each) and gear into Leon's borrowed car. We drove over to the Singapore Yacht Club, where the boat was waiting. I've got to say, loading and unloading tanks and gear has to be the least fun part of technical diving. It took a while to get all of our stuff on the boat and soon we were underway. The sun was up and it was VERY warm and uncomfortable on the surface.

It took about 30 min to get to a nice and secluded spot in Hantu. On the way, we analyzed all the tanks and found them mostly safe for consumption, but 2 tanks had to be toppped off with air. We anchored in about 12m of water. Then we jumped in in full Tech 2 gear - doubles, 1 stage and 2 deco bottles. The tanks were borrowed from various people and some of them had less than optimal setups (like small bolt snaps, bad inner tube, or stage kits that were too long or short - this made bottle handling interesting).

Vis was pretty bad, probably around 2-3m. The green water gave me flashbacks of my quarry exploration days in the Northeast US. Hey, at least the water wasn't brown. There was also a slight current, which forced us to be in wing-on-wing formation throughout the dives. We shot a bag and used the line as a visual reference. We spent about 2 hours in the water, mostly doing valve drills, s-drills, gas switches, bottle rotation, and ascent and descent drills. My first attempt at bottle rotation turned out to be anticlimactic - moving the bottles wasn't difficult but highlighted the importance of trim, buoyancy, and situational awareness. We all got the drills done but our buoyancy could have been better. We were varying by about 2m, instead of the 1m that is the standard for Tech 2.

It was a day of failures. It started on the boat when one of the deco bottles had a faulty valve that wouldn't take a regulator, so we dove the bottle without a reg. Leon's primary light failed first, followed by Michael's. My E/O cord was playing up and my light would go off if I put too much pressure on the cord.

After about 2 hours in the water, it was time to go. We packed up our gear and got way too much sun on the way back. This was followed by my favorite part - unloading the boat and humping all the tanks and gear back to the car.

Let me see:
Bad vis - check
Green water - check
Manual labor - check
Current - check
Unpleasant surface conditions - check
Faulty gear - check

Another great day of technical diving!

Success

2008-03-29T18:01:00.002+08:00

After going to several scuba shops, I finally found some lead shot at a fishing store. Dive Xtras recommends using lead shot to fine tune the weight/orientation of the scooter. The scooter comes with velcro weight pouches that attach to the inside of the nose and the motor area. Then I tested out the scooter in the pool to check the weighting and length of the tow cord, freaking out some kids and swimmers in the process.

The leak test, weighting, and tow cord adjustment all went well. Now I will have to tweak the weighting slightly for salt water, but so far so good.

My Scooter

2008-03-29T13:15:00.008+08:00

My scooter arrived earlier this week. So, today, while I could not join my buddies on a weekend dive trip due to work commitments, I have been quite productive.

Here is my brand new, never-been-wet, piece of art:

I am now off to find some lead shot to weight the scooter. I plan to test it out in the pool later today.

Scooter Art

2008-03-19T16:40:00.002+08:00

I don't know about you, but I think the shark teeth and eyes in the picture below are the coolest thing ever. So much so that I just ordered a pair of those decals from this website.

My scooter is currently in Los Angeles and (slowly) making its way to me. That's what I get for free shipping, I guess. I am waiting impatiently and checking Bax Global's website every few hours to see if there's been any progress.

Finally Did It

2008-03-14T16:26:00.002+08:00

After all these years of dreaming about buying a scooter, I finally bit the bullet and placed an order for the X-scooter. Dive-X is currently offering free shipping with subscription to Wreck Diver Magazine. And with the weak US$, I thought it was about time.

I ordered the travel package, which comes with a hard case and compass mount. I don't know how long it will take to arrive but I'm hoping a couple of weeks.

RB80

2008-02-22T16:53:00.003+08:00

See below for some very interesting RB80 class reports. Both were taught by David Rhea (who is one of only two instructors who can teach the RB80 class). I'm a long way away from wanting or needing to dive an RB (I don't like to say never but I will probably never have a need for one), but these reports are very informative anyway. They just prove that the more advanced the training, the more important the fundamentals.

From reading these reports, all I gots to say is RESPECT!

Graham Blackmore's report
Clare Gledhill's report

Scooter Time

2008-02-20T17:48:00.003+08:00

After much deliberation and agony, I've finally decided to commit to buying an X-scooter. I've decided that the X will suit my needs best. All the diving we do around here is from boats and none of it is really close by, so a small and light scooter is ideal. To be honest, I am suspicious of NiMH technology (I still use an SLA primary light) but I figured that if I got a full size scooter, I would never use it.

I plan to use the X for diving in the South China Sea and the occasional trip, if I can figure out how to transport it without costing an arm and a leg. Having a scooter will make offshore and deep wreck diving a lot safer. We are planning on making a group order soon; this will give us a better price as well as create a community of divers who can share parts, spares, etc.

Tech 2 Update

2008-02-20T17:36:00.003+08:00

So we have finally nailed down our Tech 2 class and booked the flights. Tech 2 will run from 4-9 May, followed by a scooter class until 11 May. The instructor is Gideon Liew and the class will be conducted at Tech Asia in Puerto Galera. I am really looking forward to our class! It's been quite a journey leading up to Tech 2 and at this moment I'm not interested in diving beyond the Tech 2 range, so it might be the last class I do for a while. With Tech 2, I should be well prepared for most of the diving in this region.

Our team is planning on getting together in March and April to do some training dives, most likely in Aur or Tioman. In the meantime, I am practicing swimming for the Tech 2 swim test.

Here's another Tech 2 trip report.

Puerto Galera, Philippines trip with Tech Asia - January 1-6, 2008

2008-01-06T22:55:00.002+08:00

I just got back from another trip to Puerto Galera with Tech Asia. This makes it my fourth trip in 3 years; I seem to be settling in to a routine of visiting Tech Asia twice a year. Some people ask me why I keep going back. It’s a long list of reasons, but if I had to summarize, it’s because Tech Asia is a squared away dive operation. They have the experience to get things done efficiently, correctly and safely. They take care of all the logistics flawlessly. And they follow DIR principles, so everyone is on the same page. Nowadays they even rent Gavins. I could go on, but why not just go check it out for yourself?

This trip, GUE Tech 2 diver Serko came with me. He was my buddy on all the dives. We rented Gavins for all 7 dives. The dives were done using 21/35 for backgas and 50% and 100% for deco. Profiles were generally 25-30 min at 45-54m, followed by deco of 25-35 min. Because we had scooters, all the deco was done by ascending slowly up the reef. This wouldn’t be possible without the scooters as the currents can be strong and unpredictable and most times we would just do blue water ascents.

The water temp this time of the year was a lot colder than I remembered. I froze pretty badly the first day with my old beat up wetsuit so I ended up buying a new one. The weather was perfect for a light drysuit like a 30/30.

I flew into Manila from Hanoi, where I was on vacation. Serko met me at Manila airport and we took a 2 ½ hour car and 1 hour boat ride to PG. By the time we got in, it was after midnight. We stayed at El Galleon, as usual. El Galleon is simple and clean and convenient for diving with Tech Asia.

The first day, we did a scooter introduction workshop, covering basic procedures. We then did a 30m dive on a small wreck in the bay, followed by a long scooter up the beach. The second through fourth days were similar, with one dive in the morning and one in the afternoon.

We saw some pretty interesting things this trip. Some of the highlights were a pair of pipefish that looked like this, a black and brown patchy seadragon, 2 huge reef sharks in a cave, and 2 banded sea snakes. This was in addition to the usual stuff like lionfish, trumpetfish, snapper, batfish, bannerfish, sweetlips, puffers, etc.

All of our dives were longer than 60 min and were spent entirely along the reef; this was very different from the typical wreck diving that we do with 25 min bottom times and 30 min of blue water deco. It’s amazing what the scooters allow you to do!

No underwater pictures from this trip and my hands were full with the Gavin.

GUE Tech 2

2008-01-06T22:32:00.000+08:00

Leon and I are now confirmed for Tech 2 in Puerto Galera on May 3-7, inclusive. Tech Asia will be hosting the class and Gideon Liew will be the instructor. We may follow Tech 2 with a scooter class.

More GUE Dive Extravaganza

2007-12-24T16:52:00.001+08:00

Here are some additional resources on the GUE Dive Extravaganza:

Trip Report from Living Seas
My crappy photos (yes, I know they are too dark)
Video from Sean Cox

Next trip: Puerto Galera from January 2-6, 2008! 4 days of trimix diving with Gavins thrown in! Trip report to follow.