What Do You Expect?

What big teeth you have, Grandma!

Sharks Maul Diver

Powered by CDNN – CYBER DIVER News Network
PORT DOUGLAS, Australia (11 Dec 2005)
— A spear fisherman has escaped with a gashed arm after fending off one shark only to be mauled from behind by another in a frenzied attack off Queensland’s far north.

Melbourne charter boat operator Glenn Simpson, 44, is nursing his badly wounded left arm which required dozens of stitches after the attack at a reef off Port Douglas.

Mr Simpson was spear fishing with his 15-year-old son Luke when the attack happened early Sunday.

“I had one come straight in my face – I punched him with my left arm to get him out of my face,” Mr Simpson told the Ten Network.

“And as I did that I was thinking I got rid of him and another one came from behind and grabbed my right arm.”

With his boat 60 metres away, Mr Simpson, who was bleeding heavily, told his son to leave him.

But his son refused and instead helped his father back to the boat.

“I ignored him. I stayed with him all the way back to the boat,” Luke told the Cairns Post.

“I’m happy that I stayed with Dad.”

The feeding frenzy began after Luke speared a trout.

“After that they started harassing me and dad a bit,” Luke said.

And then, “just out of nowhere, it was just like shark city,” Mr Simpson told the Ten Network.

“It was like something out of a movie,” he said.

“I consider myself very lucky, you know, especially with the mood the sharks were in.”

The Simpsons have vowed to continue spearfishing but admit they will be more cautious in the water.

A spokeswoman for Cairns Base Hospital said Mr Simpson was in a satisfactory condition.

Another man was killed by a shark a year ago while spear-fishing at a reef close to the area of Sunday’s attack.

MABUL SIPADAN TRIP

I’m organising a trip to Mabul/Sipadan in March 2006. So for those wishing to join, please e-mail me at seademon@narcaholic.com a.s.a.p:

Mabul

SEADEMON’S SIPADAN/MABUL/KAPALAI TRIP

Date: 1st thru 6th March 2006 (6 days 5 nights)

Price: RM1600 (divers) and RM880 (non-divers). Extension nights RM200 and RM90

respectively.

What it includes:

1. Return airport transfer from Tawau airport/Semporna jetty,
2. 5 nights accommodation in Homestay Water Resort (Mabul) based on triple sharing, standard
water cottage, shared bathroom.
3. 3 meals a day except on arrival and departure.
4. 3 boat dives with unlimited house reef dives (6am thru 6pm).
5. Tanks, weights, belts and guide. Other equipment available for rental.
6. Sipadan levy.

Itinerary:

Day One:

Flight from KLIA to Tawau AK152 (own account).
Transfer from Tawau to Semporna jetty.
Boat transfer from Semporna jetty to Mabul island.
Check-in resort; resort briefing.
Check-out dive.
Lunch and dinner at resort.

Days Two to Five:

3 boat dives daily with unlimited house reef dives from 6am to 6pm.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner at resort.

Day Six:

Check-out from resort.
Boat transfer from Mabul island to Semporna jetty.
Transfer from Semporna jetty to Tawau airport.
Flight from Tawau to KLIA AK153 (own account).

Please bring log book and certification card for verification.

Terms and condition:

1. 30% non-refundable deposit to secure booking
2. I reserve the right to alter the above without prior notice.
3. Valid strictly for Malaysians and expats working in Malaysia only.
4. Full payment one month before departure.

Mail me at seademon@narcaholic.com

My Way..

ก็ตอนที่ฉันรักเธอแค่ครึ่งใจ หากเธอมีใครก็ทิ้งฉันไปได้เลย

That’s part of the lyrics of a song I listened to some 10 years ago. It has nothing to do with what I’m going to write here.

Many people would go the professional way diving, taking up courses like DM, AI and Instructor. Me? No..I’m pursuing my technical courses as well as my PADI Master Scuba Diver (MSD). For that reason i don’t think I’ll be doing a lot of fun dives with the rest of the MDC divers.

For my Master Scuba Diver rating, I shall take the following specialties:

1) Deep Diver (4 dives over 2 days)
2) Enriched Air Diver (2 dives over 1 day)
3) Semi-Closed Rebreather (3 dives over 2 days)
4) Underwater Photographer (2 dives over 1 day)
5) Wreck Diver (4 dives over 2 days)
6) EFR/Rescue Diver(5 sessions over 2 days)

After which I’ll go for the TDI Decompression Procedures, Inspiration Rebreather…get my own rebreather if my pocket permits, and then do a trimix course on my own rebreather.

Makes more sense that way.

Pulau Payar

Good or bad viz, here I come!!

Come Christmas Day, my daughters (Noor Farhanah and Nurul Syafiqah), and I, will be diving Pulau Payar. Latest reports say that condition is good but viz is a bit sh**ty…bad at 2m, best at 6m. It’s the moon. Probably it’s waxing and into its first quarter. But come 25th December, it should be just after the last quarter and into waning gibbous. So hopefully the viz will improve and tide changes not too vivid.

Payar, here I come.

A Poem I Wrote

This is a poem I wrote just a few minutes ago…I really hope something can be done about the cruelty of shark-finning.

A Shark’s PleaHelp! I'm drowning!

From the subclass called Elasmobranchii
Evolved my predecessors, my family and I
In terms of number of years 409 million
I have been here since the Upper Devonian

I have strong teeth, they make big gash
But I have no desire for human flesh
But humans make me into a cause
Thank you to the paranoia caused by ‘Jaws’

They hunt, and fin us, they did not even frown
Then they toss us back to sea alive to drown
To earn millions for them is something of a coup
While it was only our fins that end up in some soup

All their butchering earned them some praise
While we never did anything to the human race
15 human deaths a year is attributed to the snake
0.4 human deaths a year is all we could rake

So please, I beg you, make your kind realise
The decimation of a kind goes not without a price
We both live in the same world, so please make them see
So your children and mine can learn to co-exist and enjoy the sea

Abdul Rahmat Omar a.k.a SeaDemon
8th December 2005

Something Needs To Be Done..

I found this posting on the Malaysia Diving Community from a forumer called Belushi.

If I may paste the posting here:

I am a professional.
15 years teaching, PADI Master Instructor, IANTD Adv EANx Instructor, 5000+ dives, (1000 of them @ Pulau Payar & Pulau Segantang)
The problem is that us Matsallays need work permits to work in beautiful Malaysia and the govt, in its infinite wisdom, does not let us stay for very long.
I am back in the UK now, but I regularly remember my time in Langkawi and Penang.
I would love to come back

I would say although there are local Divemasters, Assistant Instructors as well as Instructors, it may be somewhat wise for the government to allow foreign DMs, AIs and Instructors to work at local dive centers because I honestly believe they can help promote Malaysia as a dive destination in this region. What more with the presence of wrecks of warships in Malaysian waters, Malaysia can be THE dive destination that can offer both recreational and technical dive destinations other countries in this region, save for the Phillipines.