On May 22nd, 51 Scuba took a group of Open Water Divers and one Rescue Diver up to Pulau Aur. See the pictures and read about the dive experience!
I love small trips. When you go diving with small groups, people tend to mix around more than in large groups, and as expected, we were fast friends by the time we checked into our hillside chalet.
We woke up at a very nice 8 in the morning, and got up lazily to have our prata breakfast while the divers from the other school were already suited up and practicing giant strides into the water. We took over the platform after they were finished, and we began our first dive, a platform dive down to the sandy bottom, where we did some Open Water Skills.
Andy, on his first Open Water Dive
After a short break, we were back on the platform again, and completing the rest of the skills. Took this opportunity to pull a missing diver on our Rescue trainee, and he performed the rescue without much fuss.
We did a boat dive after lunch, over at Croc Rock, where our Open Water Divers handled themselves pretty well, despite the usual problems with bouyancy and equalisation. After that, it was back to the lodge for a BBQ dinner, beer and great conversation over poker cards.
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Rare Humphead Wrasse
We slept early, and woke up early the next morning to take a boat out to Rayner’s Rock. Viz was bad, and the current was strong. One of our Open Water Divers nearly descended into a crown-of-thorns! But after that little scare, it all went pretty well.
Our last dive was at Lang, where there was a Whale Shark sighting the day before. Alas, we didn’t see any whale sharks, but visibility was good, and we had a very relaxing dive where we saw several endangered and protected humphead wrasses. After that, we headed back to the resort, had a quick shower, and boarded the 11.45 ferry back to the mainland.
All in all, a very good and rewarding dive trip! Congratulations to Paul, Mega and Andy for becoming a part of the dive family, and congratulations to Jia Qing for completing his Rescue Diver course!
Group Photo!