Linda & Co @ Malang Rock, Tioman, Malaysia

On June 19th, 51 Scuba took a group of Open Water, Advanced, and Leisure Divers up to Pulau Tioman. Check it out=)

Question: “Should we go to Tioman or Dayang for the PADI Advanced Open Water Courses?” From the perspective of a dive shop, operationally speaking, Dayang would be a better place; because of its smaller size and hence its dive sites are relatively closely bunched. The AOWD students can do their deep/drift dive at Rayner’s Rock, and the Open Water Students can do their dives at a relatively close-by Kador Bay.  Marketing, and Dayang also tops out for its powdery beaches and seriously turquoise (and better clarity) water conditions.

When Becky and Jeff Kreutter came about to enquire about the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Course held by 51Scuba, we took a bit of time to explain the situation in both sides, and came to the conclusion: Trust us guys, Tioman is the place to go.

Becky Kreutter gearing up for AOWD course

…and so we did, with the Kreutters, Charles Yan (who called on Wednesday from overseas to reserve a slot for leisure diving), Jennifer, Chee Keen, Mabel and Linda van der Bend, our new Open Water Divers!

Chee Keen and Jennifer at Malang Rocks

They must be one of the luckiest batches of OWD students for this trip. For the first dive in Kador on the northwest side of Tioman, the Open water Students saw 1..2…3… a school of 6 bumphead parrotfish! Subsequent dives at Malang Rocks, Pirate Reef and Renggis yielded lionfish, giant pufferfish,  turtles, triggerfish, and even a banded sea snake.

Turtle at Renggis

Also spotted two black tip reef sharks on the outskirts of Renggis, one was dead- lying on the sand. A quick autopsy- head portion appeared partially slashed off with brute force, hanging only by a bit of skin and flesh, fins intact, lying down in the sand. Boat accident? Perhaps. Heartwrenching. No photos though. Swee Hean, instructing the Open Water Divers, led the group in following the turtle in its ascent for air, and descending again to forage about the coral bottom.

Lionfish@Pirate Reef

At the Marine Park dive site, Mabel asked if there were fishies, hanging off the ladder to take a peek before the dive proper, and…

Lotsa Fishies

The Advanced Open Water Divers, in doing their deep and drift dives, came about interesting creatures as well:

Pretty Nudibranchs!

Yellow Spotted Moray

At the mention of stingray, most Singaporeans whould lick their chops at the thought of sambal-laden barbequed, served-on-banana-leaf-tender-and-juicy-steak…

Yummy?

…and maybe after seeing their grace and speed underwater, some might think twice about eating ‘em.

Blue-Spotted Stingray

The night dive was admittedly not as eventful as the previous week’s one in Dayang, but nonetheless we caught sight of a really cute hermit crab with 3 anemones on its shell, and a turtle sleeping under the cover of a large growth of table coral, filefish, a cute puffer trying desperately to get out of the limelight by hiding in a hole smaller than itself=)

Turtle Zzzzz

Filefish

~eeep! divers!

Zomg!

Later on, Ronnie explained that there’s been a recent case of turtles laying eggs on the beach, and he suspected that this turtle we sighted was the one responsible. From the number of the eggs laid, he said, the villagers could determine when was the next time the turtle would resurface to lay more.  Through the night, some of the divers learnt more about the habits of these magnificent creatures, and how the villagers try to save the baby turtles from being attrited by predators the moment they hatch in the hundreds; while acknowledging the ecological impact of their interfering actions of, for example, rearing some of the hatched turtles till they get big enough to hopefully escape some of the other predators. One of the baby turtles, he said with a tinge of regret, had been reared to the point that it seemed to have no wish to return to the sea, and have since been surviving in a tiny bucket of seawater with constant donations of food from the inhabitants of the island.

There are many more stories about how our actions affect other marine creatures and even entire ecosystems; Dayang is a good example, but I’ll leave that to another post.

Some time ago 51 Scuba brought Ducky, our rubber-chicken-in-a-wetsuit mascot to interact with some crown of thorns… and this time we decided to do things a bit differently;)

Clint Eastwood moments

How bout some Kaboom?

Next day we’re off to some more diving!

I kinda realised that all the photos that Linda ends up in really look like model PADI OPEN WATER DIVER COURSE photos!!!!! Our girl from Holland is flying back to Holland, sadly; and we’ll mail her the certification card when it arrives… (in return for some nice dutch agricultural produce…)

Linda, the Model PADI OPen Water Diver

Poor Chee Keen missed out on his Controlled Emergency Surface Ascent dive, and had to complete it separately before his certification… but with Jennifer’s encouragement that’d scarcely be a problem, would it? <3

<3

Many thanks to Allyson and Mabel for some of the photographs!

P.S. It’s always heartwarming to still stay in touch after the trip, and its always a nice feeling to meet someone who persists and perseveres to pass the course…you can do it man!

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