Success

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

GUE Dive Extravaganza, October 19-21, 2007

Last weekend I was on the MV Black Manta for a weekend dive trip organized by Living Seas. Living Seas is home of GUE instructor Gideon Liew and he and his crew organized the first GUE Annual Dive Extravaganza 2007. The Black Manta is a large and pretty luxurious boat for this part of the world. We had somewhere in the region of 25 divers and we all settled comfortably in the cabins, dive deck, and saloon areas. Living Seas had been working on this trip for several months and organized all the logistics, including delivery of helium and oxygen bottles and the gas mixing. Over last several years, in no small part due to Gideon’s efforts, a sizable group of GUE trained divers has formed in the region. It’s remarkable that Living Seas was able to fill just about the entire boat with GUE trained divers. We even had 2 guys visiting from Australia and one from Shanghai. Probably the best thing about it was the fact that many people on board knew or had dived with one another; it was great to dive with old friends and make new ones.

We boarded the Black Manta at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal around 6pm on Friday. The first stop was the Seven Skies and it took an overnight sail to get there. We stayed there until late afternoon, then went to a shallower reef for a night dive. Saturday night was spent traveling to the Igara. Sunday we did 2 dives on the Igara and headed back to Singapore in the afternoon. By the time we were done with immigration it was evening.

Saturday we arrived at the Seven Skies around 9am. I’ve described the Seven Skies before (here and here) so I won’t describe it again. The current was ripping when we arrived and it took several tries to tie in to the wreck (trouble tying in seemed to be the theme of the weekend, together with strong currents). We staggered the groups’ entry into the water to make entry and exit smoothest. My team, stage diving 18/45 and using 50% for deco, went in last. By the time we were to go, other teams had already surfaced and reporting a whale shark sighting! We quickly jumped in. The current was indeed very strong and we pulled ourselves hand over hand down to the wreck. And whaddya know, the whale shark was there! It was a nice specimen, more than 5m long, with 4 cobias and a bunch of remoras hanging out with it. We enjoyed some time on the bottom with the whale shark but the real treat was having it hang out with us for almost our entire 20 min deco as we were flapping on the line like flags. At one point it looked like it started coughing and later we joked that it looked like it had swallowed a remora by accident… hilarious stuff that I will share once my buddy’s video has been edited. Despite the enjoyable whale shark sighting, I asked for the deco to be cut short a few minutes as were really getting tossed around by the bouncing boat at the 6m and 3m stops. This was no big deal as our bottom time was spent shallower than planned.

The whale shark hung out for most of the day and others saw it again on their second and third dives. We did another dive on the Seven Skies on 18/45 and 50% in the afternoon when the current had died down a little.

We then motored to a shallower site to do a night dive. It was a nice, relaxing no-deco dive. The highlight was disturbing a congregation that consisted of a HUGE marble ray and a bunch (almost 10) of big cobias. There was a lot of commotion as they sped off into the distance.

Sunday morning found us on the Igara wreck. See here for a previous description of the wreck. Again, we had some trouble tying in due to the ridiculous current. This current was something I’d never seen before and I came up from the first dive drawing comparisons to the highest flow areas of Ginnie Springs. Yes, it really was that strong! Several divers on board jumped in and went part way down the line before calling the dive due to the current. We dove 21/35 and 50% and spent our dive averaging 39m off the side of the wreck to get shelter from the current. We ended the dive crawling across the top of the wreck to get back to the line and again flapping line flags on the deco. Deco was uneventful but the current got even stronger at the shallow stops to the point where it was difficult to turn around and see my buddies. No problem there, being last in line, I rested my fin against my buddy and kept time so I knew when it was time to move on the next stop.

During the surface interval, the line tying us to the wreck snapped and had to be tied in again. We were the last team in the water and pulled the line as we arrived on the wreck. By this time the current had died down significantly. Our short deco was uneventful as we shot a bag and drifted.

With 5 good dives, the trip came to an end and we started the long ride back to Singapore.

The weekend was a lot of fun. It is remarkable how smooth things go when planned properly. Despite challenging conditions, everything went according to plan and everybody had a good time.

Thanks to Gideon and the Living Seas crew: Leon, Matilda, Andrew, and Thomas for the hard work organizing the trip, sorting the gas logistics, filling tanks, guiding dives, and generally taking care of the trip participants. If anyone is considering GUE training in the region or anywhere else, I’d highly recommend considering Gideon.

My Housing Arrived

I picked up my Ikelite housing for my Nikon D40 yesterday. Today I took it into the pool to mess around with it. Two things became clear to me while messing around in the pool: (1) underwater photography is going to be a lot of fun and (2) underwater photography is going to be a bitch to learn. I had another realization yesterday in the camera shop: underwater photography is going to cost me a lot of money.

The clear housing was good for peace of mind as I could see that the camera was dry the entire time. When the camera is enclosed in the housing, it's difficult to see what button is what, so familiarity with the camera is going to be key. I would also imagine not wanting to mess with the settings too much while underwater.

Here's a self portrait I took today:



I am quite looking forward to trying the camera out on my next dive trip, which will be on the Black Manta, October 19-21, where we will be going to the Seven Skies and Igara.

Nikon D40 Housing

I just ordered an Ikelite housing for my Nikon D40.




I chose Ikelite because it's my first underwater housing and I didn't want to spend too much and go high end (like Aquatica). Considering the camera costs under US$600, it was hard to justify getting a US$2,000 housing. For a first timer, it's also nice to be able to see through the housing to spot leaks early. Besides, Aquatica only plans to release their housing for the D40 late this year.

The downsides of the Ikelite are that it is not as durable as a metal housing, is kind of large, and has a 60m depth limit.

The housing arrives in 7-10 days. I'll only get to test it in the pool as my next dive trip is not until October.

Underwater photography is a bottomless pit. Next, I'll have to invest in different lenses, dome ports, and strobes (ouch!).

You can read more about the housing here.

Tech 2 Trip Reports

Here are 2 recent reports of Tech 2 classes with Gideon. I've been studying these with interest. As the time gets closer, I hope our team is able to get together to do some of the Tech 2 drills, especially the bottle handling drill.

Dev's report

Graham's report

GUE Tech 2 Update

So I had an e-mail discussion with Gideon and spoke to Leon and we have tentatively fixed dates for Tech 2 for May 17-21, 2008. We will most likely do it at Tioman as it is easy to get to, familiar, and has good logistics. It's still a long way away but I like to plan things in advance and Gideon gets busy quickly. May 19 is a public holiday in Singapore so I might get away with taking only 2 days off work. Woohoo!

GUE Tech 2?

Until recently, I was quite happy with Tech 1 and diving in the 50m range. I used to find deco longer than 30 min quite unbearable and didn't have any ambitions of diving deeper.

Lately, however, things have changed. I think it started with the recent trips I made to the Repulse and Seven Skies and PG. The wrecks have lots to see in the 50m range but the bottom is closer to 60m. I've been getting urges to want to see what's down there. There are also lots of deeper wrecks (like the Prince of Wales) that I'm interested in. I've also been pushing the depth limits of Tech 1 and diving with 2 deco bottles (50% and 100%) lately.

I am now interested in doing Tech 2. This year is pretty much out of the question due to my new job and schedule. I've been in preliminary discussions with Gideon Liew about doing the course in May 2008. Possible locations are the east coast of Malaysia or Puerto Galera.

Let me know if you or anyone you know is interested.

Anyone for a Wreck Penetration Course?

Here is a copy of an e-mail I posted to several groups when I got back from my last trip to Puerto Galera. I'm really interested in taking an advanced wreck penetration course from Sam in PG. Despite being cave trained, I see a lot of value in this class as I believe there are a lot of wreck-specific things to be learned. Anyone interested?

I wanted to gauge interest in doing a wreck penetration course sometime with Tech Asia from Puerto Galera. They teach a 4 day wreck course in Subic Bay in the Philippines where there are numerous warships in 30m or shallower. Instructor is Sam Collett, IANTD instructor, who I can assure you is an excellent diver and experienced in both wreck penetration and instruction.

The course is pretty hardcore with 7 dives and >10 hours of bottom time, most of it inside the wrecks. Therefore, I would prefer GUE Tech or Cave trained buddies. If you are neither but have good buoyancy and skills, that is fine too.

Flights from Singapore to Clark are pretty cheap from Tiger Airways.

The course itself is US$600 for instruction. We will have to cover the costs of Sam traveling from PG to Subic Bay with all the tanks and gear (US$400 to be shared among course participants).

Other costs include accommodations (inexpensive), food (ditto), and gas (nitrox 32% and 100% for deco).

Sam will take a minimum of 2 and maximum of 3 students.

I am very interested in this class but am not sure if I will be able to get the time off this year. Otherwise, target is early next year.

Anyone interested? All it takes is a long weekend.

Lightcord on the Inside or Outside?

The right way to rig your canister light is with the lightcord on the outside. Another way to express is it is to have the switch on the inside. The reason for this is when the light is on (as it should be for most of the dive), you want the switch to be pointing backwards. Your right side backup light can sometimes bump the switch boot backwards; you want it to bump the switch in the "on" position. The first picture below is the correct orientation of the lightcord.

My, What a Big Light You Have

I like to use Halcyon's Pro 14/18W light. Sometimes I get asked why I use such a big light canister when newer, lighter, smaller technology is available. The picture below shows the Helios 9 (left) and Pro 14 (right) canisters, both made by Halcyon. The lighthead is on an E/O cord so I can move it between the canisters. Yes, it is as heavy as it looks.


From my experience, old technology is sometimes better than new technology. The Pro 14 uses sealed lead acid (SLA) batteries while the Helios 9 uses nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries. There are lots of reasons to prefer SLAs:

1. Reliability. SLAs have been around forever. They are still used as car batteries. They charge simply and reliably so you know what kind of burntime you are going to get from your light. This is important for cave diving and other diving that is dark (deep, night, poor vis). I used to use my Helios 9 in caves but it kept going out at the worst possible time. It's a real hassle to call your dive short because your light died. The Helios 9 is notorious for being difficult to charge. When I try to charge mine, it tells me it is fully charged even though I know that can't possibly be the case. I have to disconnect and reconnect the charger for it to resume charging. I have to repeat this ad nauseum to get a good charge. In places like Mexico and the Philippines, the power supply is not even and NiMH batteries have difficulty getting charged fully. For this reason, Chris and Danny of DIR-Mexico use SLAs exclusively.

2. SLAs are easy to find and are cheap to replace. The Pro 14 battery costs substantially less than $100 and you can even make it yourself from two 7amp batteries. SLAs can tolerate abuse and if they get slightly wet, just dry them off. My Pro 14 battery is from 2001 and I still get more than 5 hours from each charge. NiMH are not cheap and are a pain to put together. Get them wet, and they get fried.

3. Sometimes it's nice to have a big and heavy canister. The long hose routes nicely under the Pro 14 canister. When diving dry, especially in aluminum tanks, the extra weight is appreciated.

Besides, carrying that monster of a canister makes me feel like a real man.

I take the Helios 9 with me when I am flying somewhere and I care about the baggage weight limit. Otherwise, I carry the Pro 14. Some places (like Tech Asia in Puerto Galera) have Pro 14 batteries handy so I leave my battery at home when I visit them. It's the best of both worlds.

So far, I have not had any issues with the E/O cords. Some people report them to be finicky.

Convert Your Apeks TX/ATX/XTX 40 into a TX/ATX/XTX 50

The only difference between a TX/ATX/XTX 40 and a TX/ATX/XTX 50 is the external adjustment knob that allows you to adjust breathing resistance. Well, one other difference is the price. The ones with the adjustment knob cost a lot more. Some feel that the knob does not justify the extra cost, so they get the 40. I did this for my single tank reg setup, which was cobbled together from a DS4 first stage and 2 TX40 octopi (they have yellow faceplates, otherwise they seem identical to regular TX40 second stages).

Graham Blackmore from Hong Kong has ingeniously decided to manufacture the adjustment knobs as a retrofit to convert your 40 into a 50. You can get them from his website here. I bought 2 of them to fit to my single tank reg setup. Following the instructions on Graham's website was surprisingly easy and it barely took me 5 minutes to retrofit each second stage. Which is a miracle, if you have ever seen my DIY skills.

Does the second stage below look funny to you? If it does, it's because it says TX40 on the faceplate but has an adjustment knob. Truly a work of art.