Lonely Diver - Chronicles

As with all things in life, there comes a time at some point, a number perhaps, which makes something significant and melodramatic.  Back in 2003, decided to take up diving with much convincing from my friend Boyd. Did a four day open water course at Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, 1^st day was boring as hell as it constituted of endless boring lectures and video sessions but found out they were as important as any other aspect of diving as I found out through out my dive experience. The rest of the course was “fun” as it involved water.

                                      

The first plunge was, let say not what I’d expect from diving. As macho as I wanted to be, I was made to look stupid as I could not descend. It was a struggle. Who in their right mind would consider scuba diving a cool sport. By the time I managed to descend, the pain in my ears was unbearable. To add to my suffering I happened  to land on a group of sea urchins. Supprisingly, I felt no pain as their prickly spine made multiple punture wounds on my foot.  Nevertheless I panicked, looking frantically at my foot to see if it would swell up but it did not. After having passed my open water I did a few more dives after that but it did not enthrall or spur any excitement about diving. So that was it then for diving.

It wasn’t til late 2005, did my passion for diving was reignited again by a chance encounter with SAY and Scian Ray. Two cocky divers I must say, not in a bad way, but because I was jealous about the way they were telling their dive stories and places they had been. From diving in Mabul and Sipadan to Bunaken and Sangalaki, the way they were chatting away ‘bout these places, my mind was already wondering off to diving somewhere.                                        

 So we decided to make a trip to Lankayan Resort. It was this trip that sparked it all. Though my dive skills weren’t up to par and while it was a struggle to control my bouyancy and always having to be the first to ascend up for obvious reasons (swallowing air like fish out of water) it was a turning point. I finally came to understand what macro diving meant and what a nuddybranch was. I was a step up on my underwater jargon. 

                                          

The memorable thing about this trip was on our last dive day, we decided to go on a night dive searching for a single flambouyant curtlefish which was spotted by another fellow diver at the resort at some unmarked site. With Scian Ray’s navigational skills we arrived at the spot and started looking, after like ten minutes or so, we found what we were looking for. She was beautiful, hunting all alone, with her colours constantly changing. As cliché as it may sound, it was a sight to behold. I was hooked on diving.

Soon after that, I was diving in Mabul, Kapalai, Sipadan, Roach Reef, Tulamben, Puerto and not forgetting Silam. Met up with many dive buddies along the way. From the likes of Steven, Sunny, Chris, Eric, Allister, Joe, Josie, Gay and the rest. Sorry can’t name you all otherwise this writing would be all about what to name your babies. I’ve honed my diving skills with them.  

With improved skills I moved on to getting my advanced and graduated from being diver observer to diver photographer. It’s all natural progression I guess. Armed with a Canon IXUS 900TI, I was snapping away like a pro on a catwalk. Captured a lot of memories with this camera though I think its time to move on to DSLR as I am beginning to find my snaps unsatisfying.

                                         

Talking about memories, they have been a lot of memorable ones but nothing will ever beat my night dive in Lankayan. To name a few, I got lost once in Roach Reef at Baracudda sanctuary, rather was left behind. As the rest of my buddies were sounded to what they thought was a school of barracudas, I was left all alone with the ever creeping darkness of the ocean floor, hence the name Lonely Diver plus the fact that SAY and Scian Ray were always going on trips leaving poor me all alone, grudge intended.

There was also this one time on dive in Coral Gardens Tulamben, dive buddies SAY, Scian and Candice, it was an evening dive, it was beginning to get pretty dark and viz was poor. While navigating our way around, we spotted a lone white tip, pretty big, lurking around. What made it scary was it was circling round us as if hunting and we knew that reerf sharks hunt at night, it was funny in way that we started to pull in and huddle together. Safety in numbers, yeah right, I was the fat and juicy one. Scariest moment ever! Kept checking if my legs was still there thoughout the dive. But the dive was rewarded by a school of mammoth size bumpheads grazzing on corals.

                                                 

How great are the memories and how great is my passion for diving. Throughout my dives, I’ve seen many a wonderful things that the ocean has to offer and I have also seen the devastation that we, land walkers have caused, just by our mere presence on land and sea. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t dive at all, its’ just that when we dive we should dive with care. I have seen too many divers hitting and breaking into corals and enthusiastic photographers taking snapshots without care at all about their surroundings. Dive guides eager for tips poking and enticing critters out of their hidding place. All these, in one form or another, do great harm.

I am not critisizing anyone, merely myself. I am sad to admit that I have been guilty on these acts during the early stages of my dive experience.  But with experience comes knowledge, with knowledge comes wisdom and with wisdom I hope to share what I have learnt.    

                                         

If you can’t control your bouyancy try and stay away from fragile reefs, don’t worry just drift, your skills will improve in due course for you to get closer. If you’re taking snaps, be weary of your surroundings; mind where you put your fins and where to grasp. If a snap, no matter how tempting it is, has potential to cause reef damage, fin away. They’ll be plenty more oppurtunities. If a dive guide pokes around which damages reef life to entice something out, do not reward such behaviours.

Hitting 100, was all about reflection on what it means to dive and what it means  to conserve our coral reefs not just for the sake of its beauty but its function as whole, as a nesting ground, as a breeding ground and as shelter for the youngs of the ocean.

This is my reflection, my thanks goes out those who have shared their experience and company, especially SAY and Scian Ray for reigniting my passion. The dive it took to hit 100 has indeed been a journey of self discovery. 

To dive is……… this is your reflection.

                                      

                                                      

Dive 99 – 101, Tengku Abdul Rahman Park                                           

Though I had planned for a much spectacular dive to commemorate hitting my 100^th bottom time, unforseen circumstances had me dive at TAR. To make up on the spectacular I had DM Scian Ray, congrates buddy on passing, to guide me. Poor viz had me strapped on just drifting. There wasn’t much photo opportunistic moments. Undelibrately to make my dive eventful, I decided to test Scian’s ability as newly graduated DM. I ‘dropped’ my new mask while surfacing, Scian immediately recognised my clumsiness and down he went looking for my mask. To be honest, I didn’t realise that it was gone until I saw Scian having to make a quick descent down to 10m in quick fashion to retrieve it for me. You passed my test buddy, truly you are good. Cheers man, still owe you a pint.

                                              

Dive 102 – 103, Tengku Abdul Rahman Park

Post Christmas and Bored, decided to head down again this time with Joe hoping for some opportunistic photo moments. But sadly not to be. While viz was okay, nothing really captured my eyes. I think I’m still hung over.

 

 

Sabang Beach, Puerto Galera, can’t really sum it up in short. All I can say is it was good to dive again. Sabang itself is a small town, full of small resorts and dive operators here and there, all scattered along the beach in close proximity to each other. The area of Puerto Galera has other things to offer other than diving but we didn’t have enough time to venture out of Sabang.

                            

We dived with South Sea Divers, the crew was a friendly and helpful bunch which made our stay even more enjoyable. Scian Ray had forgotten to pack his O ring for his cam casing, but was told that there was a shop in town that sold one. At first we did not believe but, true enuff Ian found one and dinner that night was on him.

 

 

Our dive times were usually around 9am, 1pm and 3pm, quite late for our usual time but it was relaxing nontheless. Wished could have done some early mornings, sunsets and night dives.

                  

We did a total of 11 dives, each one different from the next. One thing I wish I did was to jot down all the dive sights we went. How careless of me to forget. Now makes it quite impossible to describe each and every site. Almost all the dives had one thing in common, strong currents. Man I hate strong currents, its tough to take pics in strong currents. As you  need to position yourself from time to time to get the best angles and it can be hard when the currents are not in your favour or if you’ve nothing to hold on to to stabilize yourself. I took it as a challenge to better myself.

 

Reef life was beautiful. Things spotted included your common nuddy branch to the most ever rarest and shy-ess of two-eyed lion fish. (Yeah, okay, all lion-fish and  all fishes for that matter have two eyes, I get it, so don’t get me started, they are named because of their two spots on their tales).

1^st dive was always the exciting one. Hadn’t time to unpack my camera and check if it was okay to dive with, so I didn’t bring it along. Would have been a  shame if it flooded on my first dive. So this dive was basically a check dive. Put my regulator the wrong way round again. Damn. However, once in water, bouyancy was still okay. Got to feel how strong the currents were. I had no safety balloon but there were plenty around and I was not worried. Called it a day after that. Scian Ray and I went hunting for his O ring.

                                                                               

Walked around town and along the beach. Town itself is small. Row of shops on either side. After walking down a few blocks and going on by directions given to us, we found what we were looking for, a shop that actually sold O rings. For a small town, the local photoshop, you’d be supprised, had about all your underwater camera casing, from your cannon to your olympus casing, though price were doubled to that back home. I guess if you’re desperate, and if you, like Scian Ray had forgotten, wouldn’t really mind coughing up some pesos so the trip wouldn’t be a complete disaster.

 

Second dive the next day, was a shame. Camera jammed on me. I wasn’t able to go into macro setting, so the dive was just about cruising and drifting with the currents. The drift was to fast, so had to spend a little bit of energy to slow down and enjoy the reef life. The following dive, managed to unjam my camera and it was smooth going after that.

 

 

Finally managed to see a pygmy seahorse for real this time. On previous dives before this, everytime I was shown one, I would never be able to spot it. Didn’t realise they were so small and well camouflaged. On one of our dives, down close to 30 metres, got to see one close up. I couldn’t manage to get great shots of it, as my Canon Ixus 900ti couldn’t get a good focus on it. I really need a macro lense. I had spent so much time trying in vain to get a good shot but had to give it up as I was nearing deco. And I did go Deco. First time gone Deco, had to ascend up slowly til the damn blinking ‘deco’ sign stopped. Thought my dive comp was going to jam on me but I was out of the deco zone. Suffered no ill effects. While making our safety stop we were accompanied by a school of batfish in an arrowhead formation. COOOOL…..

 

On our last dive, saw a two-eyed lion fish. Woo hoo….you might think. This is a rare find and a very shy creature. What made it unbearably funny was the fact that I had no idea what I was looking at. I just took a few shots and left. Scian Ray on the other hand took like forever and I was wondering why. Later on he told me and I felt stupid. Hey, at least I got to see one and managed to get somewhat of a good shot of it, enough for it to be recognised as one.

 

At the end of our last dive we had a barbeque farewell for the dive crew. Grilled fish fresh the sea which Scian Ray bought from local fish mongers along the beach. Cheers you guys, diving with you lot has been great. Would definitely dive with you guys again. The shots I took, hope it does justice to Sabang Puerto Galera, and dedicate it to you guys, so enjoy……..til next time we come around……. Theres more in my photo Galery

 

Ps: total dive to date 98, if I had been counting would’ve tried to squeeze in two dives more to make it a century. Sadly not to be this trip. Wonder where I’ll be making my century dive….mmmmmmmm…..

 

So what’s the story with this check dive? My last dive was in was in July 2007, which means no diving since then. So I was checking my itinerary for our up coming Mabul-Sipadan trip, the first dive will be in Sipadan. Hell yeah, Sipadan, most likely first dive at Drop Off.

‘No biggy’. Yeah right!! Sipadan is nice and beautiful and all. Paradise to many divers, an almost endless supply of fauna and flora for you eyes to feast upon and most of all fun. Fun, the word ‘fun’, while it would be on the list of things when I go to Sipadan, SAFETY comes to mind. Sipadan is DANGEROUS. Respect it and it will respect you by treating you with the wonderful things you can expect from a great dive.

Been reading few articles lately on things that can go wrong in a dive, horror stories and experiences from other divers, it gives  the realization that ‘things’ can happen, no matter how experience a diver you are. ‘Shit happens’! You’ve got to realize that.

The best way to overcome it is be prepared when ‘shit’ does happen. Note I said ‘prepared’ and not ‘prevent’. One can never prevent only prepare for what is to come. ‘Murphy’s Law’ applies here. So being prepared and have the calmness and ability to get yourself out of sticky situations, that ‘great escape’ out of harms way, makes great unbelievable campfire stories while those failing to get out of ‘shit’s way, sadly, makes headlines.

To ‘prepare’, I decided to go and revisit Silam, Lahad Datu. So did a gear count on all the things that I would be bringing with me, on my up coming trip, and made sure that they were in tip top condition. I had four dives in total to do all the necessary check routine.

You’d be surprised, how almost 8 months of not diving can make you forget how to attach your first stage to the tank. I had it the other way round. Funny!!!! Anyway did manage to put my gear in the correct position. Checked my pressure gauge was working. Regulator and second stage all okay, off down I went. Yeah, down I went, forgot to weight myself properly. I was a bit heavy but was able to maintain neutral buoyancy easy enough. At least I’ve still got it. Through out my first dive I was practically practicing buoyancy control (well was actually having fun with other things as well, read my blogg to find out more) and was soon into my old rhythm. On my second dive, weighted myself correctly, from then on controlling my buoyancy was a breeze.

On all my subsequent dives,  I was doing other checks as well like making sure my depth gauge was okay even though I’ve got a trustworthy dive computer to tell me at what depth I am but it’s better to have a back up. You’ve never know when your dive computer can malfunction or vice versa. Did your routine run of the mill mask clearing. Taking off my Main mask and putting on my spare mask. I’ll be bringing on a second mask on all my dives from now on, as advised from some of the articles I’ve read plus the fact that I remembered on one of my dives at Liberty Wreck, Tulamben, Bali, we were about to go down when my mask strap broke, it would have been a no dive, save the fact that our dive guide burrowed me his mask and he, just tied the two ends of my broken mask strap and used that instead.

I also checked that my second stage was in working order, you never know when you or some one else might need to use it. Made sure my BCD wasn’t leaking and knew where all the release were, mine only has four. I practiced how to get my BCD off quick enough too.

Bought a compass recently, which made the dive fun as I knew where I was going for sure. It usually takes a while for me to get familiar with my surroundings while underwater. That familiarity requires a few dives or more before I’d be really get comfortable with my surroundings without the fear of getting lost.

True story, on one of my dive trips to Roach Reef, Tawau I actually got lost and separated from my buddies. I really did not get lost but rather got left behind. We were at Barracuda Sanctuary and looking. I was preoccupied with an octopus, curious I was trying to entice it out of its hiding. When we were alerted by a banging noise, which would only meant one thing, some one had spotted a school of barracudas, excited every one rushed away. While I was just preoccupied with this 8 legged sucker of the ocean, I was only ‘fooling’ around for a minute or so, when I looked around no one was in sight. Great! All alone. Lonely diver. Lost in the blue. Heard a multiple banging noises, I knew my buddies were calling out but I just could not make out where it was coming from. It was an evening dive, and I could see the darkness creeping in gradually. Believe me out there all alone, then I was just an open water diver, it was a sight to behold. The sandy ocean floor gradually being gobbled up by pitch black darkness. It was scary. So I did what any sensible diver would do, went up, did my safety stop, and onto the surface. My buddies were like close to a hundred meters away. That made the story that night, as my friends thanked me as they were able practice and act on how to locate a missing diver scenario. Me, well I congratulated myself on my calmness. It was something that I was afraid and hoped that would never happen but it did happen, but I got out okay. We had a great laugh about it that night.

Well back to the compass end of things, practiced a few navigations. I was pretty impressed with myself being able to navigate. It was something ‘new’ to me. Most of all, I knew where home was. If I got lost, it would not matter, this ‘lonely diver’ is armed with a compass. I know it be so easy to get lost into the blue in Sipadan, with a compass I’d know how to get back to the reef, I hope.

Last but not least, just practiced a few underwater shots I went through all the buttons so I’d be able to memorise all the required settings and would be able to bring them up at a moments notice to get that all perfect picture moment. Pics I took are on my photo page.

 

All in all my dive to Silam was great. I had accomplished what I wanted to do. Be one with my dive gear. Be one with the ocean. Be safe. And more importantly be prepared.