On the 2nd day, I woke up early at 0545 to witness the morning sunrise. I took a quick bath (due to nonfunctional water heater) and walked to the beach with my camera to captured the moment. I think I was at the beach as early as 0610. I waited up until 0715 .... no spectacular sunrise even. I was frustrated. Maybe it was due to the weather. It was cloudy.
From the beach, I went to the restaurant and had my breakfast. I was scheduled to meet up with my instructor at the Dive Centre at 0815. I had a light breakfast as I was trying not to consume too much oily menu as my next immediate dive would be my first ever boat dive.
At 0815 sharp, I was already at the Dive Centre feeling energetic and excited. And of course there was a bit of nervous inside me thinking of my first boat dive. Briefing was made and the instructor told us that we will go to a dive site named Tanjung Tokong situated on the north site of the Redang Island. Scheduled to board the dive boat at 0830, we were only managed to boarded the boat somewhere around 0930. This was due to the fact that there were 2 of other student who supposed to join us woke up a little bit late.
The boat ride from the dive centre to Tanjung Tokong took around less than 10 minutes. We were taught on how to enter the boat by performing roll back entry. Yeah, it's surely looks simple but believe me, when you did it for the first time, it was not that really easy. Nevertheless, I did well on my roll back entry even.
Once we entered the water, the instructor signed us to decent. We decent slowly and I guess I was the last person who decent. I can see my instructor at the bottom with the other student. Why my decent was slow? This was due to the fact that I did not want to failed on my equalization process. I need to get my equalization right so that I will not facing an uncomfortable later. Then when we were almost at the same level deep in the bottom, we started to fin against the current. The current was quite mild but the deeper and further we go, the current started to became faster and faster. I was with my camera on this dive. I managed to took some photo at first but somewhere in the mid of this dive, I had lost interest to photograph. Why? Because of fast current and poor visibility. I need to concentrate on my diving and of course staying close to my instructor even. At some point, the current was too great for a newbie like us and we were really struggling against it.
And as expected, due to the anxieties of the first boat dive and busy with the camera, the first person that reached low air level was me. :) Signal my instructor and he just looked with me with a shake of his head. Then we were all begin our ascent to 5 meter level and did our 3 minutes safety stop. As we are new diver, hovering was not an easy task even. With the gauge on my left hand, I kept on moving up and down between 7 to 4 meters struggling to stay leveled at 5. 3 minutes felt like 10 minutes for me.
After the safety stop, we slowly ascent to the surface and the boat was there already waiting for us. We then stepped into the boat and headed back to our dive centre. On the boat, my instructor told me that I consume my air too fast like a Ferrari. Hahaha, I admitted that but what more to expect from a newbie who did his first boat dive + first time at 18 meter depth + first time trying to play with a camera underwater + feeling nervous. The boatman told us that if we go a little bit early, the underwater current would be mild.
Did I enjoyed my first boat dive? Not really but it was a great experience and exposure to me. I can't concentrate on the corals, fishes and other marine life as I was too busy with finning against the current, watching out my instructor in order not to get lost, watching out my buddies who were also new and equalizing the pressure.
We reached back at the dive centre and took an hour rest before we were on the boat again for our 2nd boat dive. Briefing made by a Dive Master representing the Dive Centre and not by my instructor. We will go to a dive site called Southern Tips.
On the boat, we were joined by 2 other experience diver who I think are from Europe. Once reaches the dive site, we did the roll back entry and entered the water. Instructor ordered for a decent and to the bottom we go. One thing I did noticed here was the mild current. Easier that the first dive but the visibility was kinda bad. I brought in my camera again on this dive but did not managed to take good and clear photo due to the visibility.
This time, I had told myself to controlled my breathing technique not as per my first dive. I did enjoyed the dive. Although I did not managed to take good photograph of this dive site, I was happy enjoying the view of the corals, fishes and marine life. Poor visibility? Yes, but I was happy as I can control my finning and movement easily now. I dove as almost as the same level as my instructor this time compared to the first dive where I dove mostly 5 feet above him.
When the time came to ascent, my air level was still good. The 3 minutes safety stop went well. I can managed to controlled my buoyancy steadily. My Instructor even took a picture of me during this 3 minutes stop.
Once I was at the surface and waiting for the other to get into the boat, I started to get dizzy. I was thinking to myself "oh oh ... I am getting seasick now ... " And yes I did, while in the water, I told my instructor that I did not want to get into the boat yet, let me stay afloat in the water while waiting for the 2 European diver to get on the surface. But my instructor told me that he need me to get into the boat and I obeyed. I think I was on the boat for about 10 minutes, struggling to overcome the seasickness before the European diver got on the surface. Luckily I did not reach the level that I need to vomit. :D
When I arrived at the dive centre and right after cleaning up my diving gear, I straightly went for lunch. The menu served were good. After my lunch, I went to the chalet and took a bath. We rested for about 1 and a half hour before we were called up again to go for our last official dive as for this course. Somewhere before 1400 hours, the instructor started to teach us on how to use a compass to cover the Basic Navigation subject. We did a few land navigation before he told us to gear up for a shore dive.
It is quite a distance walking from the dive centre to the spot that we will do our shore dive. Actually it is not really that far but as we had done 2 boat dives, walking towards the dive spot with full gear seems to be tiring for me. The instructor told us not to dive first, he wanted us to swim to a deeper water before we start to decent. At this point, while swimming towards deeper walking, I had realized that there was something wrong with my left leg. I was in the mid of getting leg cramp. So, I was the last person who reach the spot and the last student who did the surface navigation test. I told my instructor about my leg and paused my movement for about 2 minutes before proceeding with my navigation swim.
Then, to the bottom we go. We dove at the depth of 10 meters and kneel down at the bottom. Here the instructor asked us to do the CESA (Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent) and Underwater Basic Navigation. I did well on both subject without any delay / trouble. The CESA was done at the depth of 7 meters. Navigation was easy as it was a straight forward test from Point A to Point B and back to Point A.
After this 2 test, we leisurely dive and scuba around. On this last official dive as for the course, I had really enjoyed the dive. I was a bit upset not able to bring my camera along as this dive was a test/lesson dive. The most memorable moment on this specific dive was my first underwater encountered with a giant stingray. I regretted not to have my camera along to photograph this beautiful fish.
For about an hour later, we slowly swam back to the shore. Once out of the water, I'd smiled to myself as I really did enjoyed the dive. Back at the dive centre, we cleaned up our gear and store them properly as there would be no more official dive for us. We had completed 5 official dive consisting of 3 shore dive plus 2 boat dive.
I went back to the chalet, took a bath again and went to the restaurant for an evening tea. They served donuts covered with sugar, curry puff and wheat porridge which is a favorite of mine. From the restaurant, myself and the other 2 student went back again to the dive centre ... this time was to seat down for our final exam.
We were required to answered 50 subjective questions and being told that the passing mark is 75%. Lower than that, you gotta repeat the whole course again. So, without wasting any time, the Instructor handed over the question paper and we started answering. It took me around 30 minutes to finished up the paper. Most question were simple but being asked in a tricky ways. I was struggling a bit with the mathematical chart questions. Our paper being checked on the spot by the instructor and we straightly knew our result there and then. I had 44 right answers out of 50 and I had been officially congratulated by my instructor as an Open Water Diver.
Later on that evening, I walked along the beach to enjoy the scenery. I saw lots of tourist on the beach and mostly were locals. I also tried to look for some souvenir from Redang to bring back home especially aiming to buy some T Shirt but from what I can see after walking around a few shops (not many souvenir shops even), I think I better buy the souvenir at Merang Jetty as there are more choices there than here on the island.
At 730pm, I went to the restaurant to enjoy my BBQ dinner. I did not expect much on the dinner as the resort BBQ dinner is being bundle with a 3 days 2 nights package. But to my surprise, the Ayu Mayang Resort BBQ dinner that night was superb. They served Spaghetti with minced beef sauce, fried chicken wings, grilled lamb shoulders, chicken sausages, baked sweet potatoes and varieties of salads. This was the best menu that I had during my stay in Ayu Mayang Resort. I am not saying that the other menu served were not good but from day 1, the menu served were mostly cooked in Chinese Style (Halal as cooked and prepared by Malay). I did enjoyed the food but from my opinion they should served at least 1 dish to catered Malay taste e.g a good sambal or at least sambal belacan, masak lemak kuning, asam pedas etc. But I did not blame the resort even as in real fact, most of the tourist I had found on the island/resort were Chinese even. :)
Right after we had finished our BBQ dinner, we met up with our instructor and he gave us our wall certificate. And at the same time he invited 4 more new student to joined the table as they will need to get brief later. For me, personally I think the certificate should be given in a more merrier way. But hey, we were the student and no doubt as long that we had passed the exam, obtained the license and got certified, that will be enough to make us happy.
After our temporary license and wall certificate been given, my room mates talked to the Instructor about having a leisure dive on the next morning. They told me to join in and I agreed. After enjoying my final official dive, who could ignore an invitation for a leisure dive. Well, of course it won't be a free one but the Instructor had set a minimum fees to be paid as for the leisure dive just right in front of the beach (Tanjung Tengah).
I went straight to the chalet after that and heavy rain started to falls. After a tiring day, a good dinner, passing the exam with highest mark, received the license and certificate, the falling rain was a bless even. I went to bed eagerly waiting for tomorrow's leisure dive but I need to wake up early as we were scheduled to met at 0700.
No so called 'spectacular' sunrise on 7th June 2011 due to cloudy weather.
From the beach, I went to the restaurant and had my breakfast. I was scheduled to meet up with my instructor at the Dive Centre at 0815. I had a light breakfast as I was trying not to consume too much oily menu as my next immediate dive would be my first ever boat dive.
At 0815 sharp, I was already at the Dive Centre feeling energetic and excited. And of course there was a bit of nervous inside me thinking of my first boat dive. Briefing was made and the instructor told us that we will go to a dive site named Tanjung Tokong situated on the north site of the Redang Island. Scheduled to board the dive boat at 0830, we were only managed to boarded the boat somewhere around 0930. This was due to the fact that there were 2 of other student who supposed to join us woke up a little bit late.
Redang Pelangi Dive Centre
My scuba gear (not really, but it was mine for 3 days :D)
The boat ride from the dive centre to Tanjung Tokong took around less than 10 minutes. We were taught on how to enter the boat by performing roll back entry. Yeah, it's surely looks simple but believe me, when you did it for the first time, it was not that really easy. Nevertheless, I did well on my roll back entry even.
Once we entered the water, the instructor signed us to decent. We decent slowly and I guess I was the last person who decent. I can see my instructor at the bottom with the other student. Why my decent was slow? This was due to the fact that I did not want to failed on my equalization process. I need to get my equalization right so that I will not facing an uncomfortable later. Then when we were almost at the same level deep in the bottom, we started to fin against the current. The current was quite mild but the deeper and further we go, the current started to became faster and faster. I was with my camera on this dive. I managed to took some photo at first but somewhere in the mid of this dive, I had lost interest to photograph. Why? Because of fast current and poor visibility. I need to concentrate on my diving and of course staying close to my instructor even. At some point, the current was too great for a newbie like us and we were really struggling against it.
My first boat dive : Tanjung Tokong
My first boat dive : Tanjung Tokong
Only enjoying the dive at the beginning of the dive, after that struggling with the strong current + poor visibility.
Another Instructor and with his student were with us
And as expected, due to the anxieties of the first boat dive and busy with the camera, the first person that reached low air level was me. :) Signal my instructor and he just looked with me with a shake of his head. Then we were all begin our ascent to 5 meter level and did our 3 minutes safety stop. As we are new diver, hovering was not an easy task even. With the gauge on my left hand, I kept on moving up and down between 7 to 4 meters struggling to stay leveled at 5. 3 minutes felt like 10 minutes for me.
After the safety stop, we slowly ascent to the surface and the boat was there already waiting for us. We then stepped into the boat and headed back to our dive centre. On the boat, my instructor told me that I consume my air too fast like a Ferrari. Hahaha, I admitted that but what more to expect from a newbie who did his first boat dive + first time at 18 meter depth + first time trying to play with a camera underwater + feeling nervous. The boatman told us that if we go a little bit early, the underwater current would be mild.
Did I enjoyed my first boat dive? Not really but it was a great experience and exposure to me. I can't concentrate on the corals, fishes and other marine life as I was too busy with finning against the current, watching out my instructor in order not to get lost, watching out my buddies who were also new and equalizing the pressure.
We reached back at the dive centre and took an hour rest before we were on the boat again for our 2nd boat dive. Briefing made by a Dive Master representing the Dive Centre and not by my instructor. We will go to a dive site called Southern Tips.
On the boat, we were joined by 2 other experience diver who I think are from Europe. Once reaches the dive site, we did the roll back entry and entered the water. Instructor ordered for a decent and to the bottom we go. One thing I did noticed here was the mild current. Easier that the first dive but the visibility was kinda bad. I brought in my camera again on this dive but did not managed to take good and clear photo due to the visibility.
This time, I had told myself to controlled my breathing technique not as per my first dive. I did enjoyed the dive. Although I did not managed to take good photograph of this dive site, I was happy enjoying the view of the corals, fishes and marine life. Poor visibility? Yes, but I was happy as I can control my finning and movement easily now. I dove as almost as the same level as my instructor this time compared to the first dive where I dove mostly 5 feet above him.
Saw an underwater photographer performing underwater portraiture photography in style
A group of sea anemone sighted at Southern Tips
When the time came to ascent, my air level was still good. The 3 minutes safety stop went well. I can managed to controlled my buoyancy steadily. My Instructor even took a picture of me during this 3 minutes stop.
3 Minutes Safety Stop : Photo taken by my Instructor, my pose inspired by Wing Chun Master, IP Man. :D
Once I was at the surface and waiting for the other to get into the boat, I started to get dizzy. I was thinking to myself "oh oh ... I am getting seasick now ... " And yes I did, while in the water, I told my instructor that I did not want to get into the boat yet, let me stay afloat in the water while waiting for the 2 European diver to get on the surface. But my instructor told me that he need me to get into the boat and I obeyed. I think I was on the boat for about 10 minutes, struggling to overcome the seasickness before the European diver got on the surface. Luckily I did not reach the level that I need to vomit. :D
Although I was on seasick, I did managed to captured the moment of the boatman helping divers to board dive boat
When I arrived at the dive centre and right after cleaning up my diving gear, I straightly went for lunch. The menu served were good. After my lunch, I went to the chalet and took a bath. We rested for about 1 and a half hour before we were called up again to go for our last official dive as for this course. Somewhere before 1400 hours, the instructor started to teach us on how to use a compass to cover the Basic Navigation subject. We did a few land navigation before he told us to gear up for a shore dive.
It is quite a distance walking from the dive centre to the spot that we will do our shore dive. Actually it is not really that far but as we had done 2 boat dives, walking towards the dive spot with full gear seems to be tiring for me. The instructor told us not to dive first, he wanted us to swim to a deeper water before we start to decent. At this point, while swimming towards deeper walking, I had realized that there was something wrong with my left leg. I was in the mid of getting leg cramp. So, I was the last person who reach the spot and the last student who did the surface navigation test. I told my instructor about my leg and paused my movement for about 2 minutes before proceeding with my navigation swim.
Then, to the bottom we go. We dove at the depth of 10 meters and kneel down at the bottom. Here the instructor asked us to do the CESA (Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent) and Underwater Basic Navigation. I did well on both subject without any delay / trouble. The CESA was done at the depth of 7 meters. Navigation was easy as it was a straight forward test from Point A to Point B and back to Point A.
After this 2 test, we leisurely dive and scuba around. On this last official dive as for the course, I had really enjoyed the dive. I was a bit upset not able to bring my camera along as this dive was a test/lesson dive. The most memorable moment on this specific dive was my first underwater encountered with a giant stingray. I regretted not to have my camera along to photograph this beautiful fish.
For about an hour later, we slowly swam back to the shore. Once out of the water, I'd smiled to myself as I really did enjoyed the dive. Back at the dive centre, we cleaned up our gear and store them properly as there would be no more official dive for us. We had completed 5 official dive consisting of 3 shore dive plus 2 boat dive.
I went back to the chalet, took a bath again and went to the restaurant for an evening tea. They served donuts covered with sugar, curry puff and wheat porridge which is a favorite of mine. From the restaurant, myself and the other 2 student went back again to the dive centre ... this time was to seat down for our final exam.
We were required to answered 50 subjective questions and being told that the passing mark is 75%. Lower than that, you gotta repeat the whole course again. So, without wasting any time, the Instructor handed over the question paper and we started answering. It took me around 30 minutes to finished up the paper. Most question were simple but being asked in a tricky ways. I was struggling a bit with the mathematical chart questions. Our paper being checked on the spot by the instructor and we straightly knew our result there and then. I had 44 right answers out of 50 and I had been officially congratulated by my instructor as an Open Water Diver.
Later on that evening, I walked along the beach to enjoy the scenery. I saw lots of tourist on the beach and mostly were locals. I also tried to look for some souvenir from Redang to bring back home especially aiming to buy some T Shirt but from what I can see after walking around a few shops (not many souvenir shops even), I think I better buy the souvenir at Merang Jetty as there are more choices there than here on the island.
Taking some photograph, experimenting the newly obtained Canon S95
Took a photo of one of my room mate
Hanging around at the Dive Centre, passing time.
At 730pm, I went to the restaurant to enjoy my BBQ dinner. I did not expect much on the dinner as the resort BBQ dinner is being bundle with a 3 days 2 nights package. But to my surprise, the Ayu Mayang Resort BBQ dinner that night was superb. They served Spaghetti with minced beef sauce, fried chicken wings, grilled lamb shoulders, chicken sausages, baked sweet potatoes and varieties of salads. This was the best menu that I had during my stay in Ayu Mayang Resort. I am not saying that the other menu served were not good but from day 1, the menu served were mostly cooked in Chinese Style (Halal as cooked and prepared by Malay). I did enjoyed the food but from my opinion they should served at least 1 dish to catered Malay taste e.g a good sambal or at least sambal belacan, masak lemak kuning, asam pedas etc. But I did not blame the resort even as in real fact, most of the tourist I had found on the island/resort were Chinese even. :)
Ayu Mayang Resort did served a very good BBQ menu even.
Right after we had finished our BBQ dinner, we met up with our instructor and he gave us our wall certificate. And at the same time he invited 4 more new student to joined the table as they will need to get brief later. For me, personally I think the certificate should be given in a more merrier way. But hey, we were the student and no doubt as long that we had passed the exam, obtained the license and got certified, that will be enough to make us happy.
After our temporary license and wall certificate been given, my room mates talked to the Instructor about having a leisure dive on the next morning. They told me to join in and I agreed. After enjoying my final official dive, who could ignore an invitation for a leisure dive. Well, of course it won't be a free one but the Instructor had set a minimum fees to be paid as for the leisure dive just right in front of the beach (Tanjung Tengah).
I went straight to the chalet after that and heavy rain started to falls. After a tiring day, a good dinner, passing the exam with highest mark, received the license and certificate, the falling rain was a bless even. I went to bed eagerly waiting for tomorrow's leisure dive but I need to wake up early as we were scheduled to met at 0700.
0 comments:
Post a Comment