On June 26th, 51 Scuba took a group of Open Water and Leisure Divers up to Pulau Dayang. The last time, I drowned John’s compact camera; this time Jacki was really nice to loan us his camera and waterproof casing=) Check it out!

Hola Lara! Como estas?
Tu habla espanol?! Muy bien, Muy bien… y tu?
Bien, bien… encantado!

Half the time I tried to speak something in Spanish, Lara (Velasco) would correct my horrendous conjugation, and this happened all the way in the bus to Mersing Jetty as 51Scuba went on a trip to Pulau Dayang together with Yiqi and Chay Him from U Weekly, Lara and Alan being certified as Open Water Divers!

Taz, Henry, and our resident diver Jason were also up on the trip as leisure divers as well; and I think maybe for much of this post I’ll let the pictures do the talking=)

Picture Parfait

L-R, Yiqi, Jason, myself, Taz, Henry our muscleman, and Alan.

Yup ladies and gentlemen, postcard perfect isn’t it! If there’s a day when the world clouds over with the pollution till blue melds into gray… at least a reminder of our utter failure to keep the world for the next generation can be kept longingly right here in cyberspace.

But now it’s turquoise, so let’s keep it at that, shall we? Here’s a whole collection of captures of a small piece of heaven that we divers pay homage to every once in a little while. Beautiful=)

Now for the diving!

Our Open Water Divers proved to be quickly comfortable in the water; and apart from slight equalising problems, we were soon exploring after demonstration of some of the critical skills.

Weightless Awesomeness

The first few dives at Sebukang and Pulau Lang turned up a couple of stingrays, and a really cute dog-faced pufferfish that looks like its just about awake.. The Homer Simpson of diving-

Dog-faced pufferfish

Here’s what I thought was a nice arrangement, albeit bad colour-

That’s Lara with me emphasizing on how important the buddy check procedure is. The thing about diving is that things can go from awesome to a completely disastrous situation in a very very short time.
Most dive accidents happen on the surface, often around entry/exit points, so the predive check should not be simply looked over even by the most experienced diver.
Dive safe, fellas. BWRAF check please=) Lara if you are reading this please tag in the comments what BWRAF stands for!

I led the leisure divers around, and at the Channel we fooled around with a curious remora looking for someone to tag onto…. which eventually settled down on Taz’s face. Here’s myself, Jason and his amazingly expensive setup. (Chap kui cheng lei!!!)

Filefish!

Night diving is awesome as usual, Dayang is simply one of the better night dive spots. We spotted a lobster but it was impossible to penetrate the little cave it was hiding in and so this was the only picture I could take of it before it fled..

Lobster.

Also noticed a humongous twenty-arm Crown of Thorns about 1.5m in diameter at Lang. A creepy reminder of last year’s serious infestation. Read up on Crown of Thorns and their badassness here.

Ultimate Diver Landmine

Also a really nice and oddly cute composition of clams (dont they seem like they’re grinning!) and crinoid on the right-

well hello there!

Also caught 2 crabs wrestling underwater, ending in one dangling off the claws of the other, hanging over a dark abyss. Really interesting to watch, in relation to us in terms of size and power this was all childish savagery. Enter WWF heavy metal!

WWF

Dinner was a barbeque under the stars in the powdery sand, and was pretty good. Chay Him’s SLR works wonders in capturing Dayang at night- even in the dark, the turquoise of the water never fades.

After which we took the camera and shared what we saw during the dive with the Open Water Divers who were busying away with theur dive logs…Lara exclaimed all along the way: amazing, amazing…!

The next day dive was at Rayner’s rock, and clumps of crown of thorns here and there, remains of their innards over granite substrate still mark the devastation of the reef last year. By now Yiqi, Henry and Lara were proficient in their buddy checks=)

WHee!! Lara's mastery of neutral buoyancy

We did the dive along Crocodile Bay this time, and caught sight of a reef cuttlefish amazingly well blended into the surrounding coral rubble. Here’s two videos- Tried to chase after it in the second, but it’s amazingly fast!

Amazing, isn’t it!

Jason and I tried to stalk a titan triggerfish, which are often notorious for their aggressiveness during nesting times. Titan triggerfish bash open and eat urchins and shellfish, and are more ‘dangerous’ than sharks in a sense due to their ability to get pissed if anything intrudes into da ‘hood. With Rory’s advice on seeking clues as to triggerfish behaviour relative to their positioning, movement and language, we were able to confidently stalk one… PADI should totally create a PADI Nut Diver Certification… kidding!

Lucks for your certifying dive!!! Alan and Henry

Henry and Alan

w00t

Rory making bubble rings

L-R Lara, Myself, Yiqi, Jason, Henry

It was a nice trip, and we had a rockin’ time=)

Sunrise. Breathtaking.

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