Category: Diving

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Thus The End of the East Coast Dive Season For Me…

It was a good weekend dive trip. I’d achieved what I went there for, which was to meet the tenant of one of my father’s land, and also to explore the possibility of opening up a resort business.

I did 5 dives: Fan Canyon (night dive), Tiger Reef, Labas Island, Chebeh Island (night dive), and the standard farewell dive at the Soyak Wrecks.

Time to soak my equipment in a pool somewhere and hang them to dry….for at least 4 months.

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Excuse To Go Diving

I went on an Emergency Leave. My reason was, someone had passed away. And I had to drive to Johor. The two statements are not necessarily related. Lots of people passed away that day. And it was true I was driving to Mersing in Johor.

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Tioman 1982

Taken on my second dive (or was it third)?

Anyway, it was during the 2nd school term holidays (nowadays they go by semesters) in July 1982, and I went to Tioman island for the very first time on board the Marine Police patrol boat PZ4 (Kapal Polis DiRaja Lang Kuik), which has now been passed to the new Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency. The journey was from the naval base at Tanjung Gelang straight to Tekek. The CO, DSP Michael Lee, asked me if I could swim, and being a school swimmer, I said yes. So he said once we arrive in Tioman he’d take me scuba diving. So there I was, I donned this stoopid looking mask, J-valve tank on a backpack (nobody’s heard of a BCD then), and a pair of “two for RM10” fins and did my first dive at Renggis. That was the first time I scuba-dived, saw my first swimming turtle, my first black-tip reef shark. No RDP, nothing. Not even an air gauge. All I had was this crude looking depth gauge (in Imperial unit). I ran out of air at 70 feet..literally. That was how I knew I no longer had any air. So I removed my backpack, and yanked on this yoke for spare air, and immediately surfaced to the waiting assault boat.

Safety stop? What da fock is that? This was 1982, remember?

Come to think of it, it was my third dive when this photo was taken. I did a solo dive earlier that morning. Haha, yes, solo.

I was 16 years old..I was invincible. What was there to be scared of?

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Now To Put A Damper A Bit…

    Weather for Tioman Marine Region

Friday 30th September: Weather fair all day and night. Wind SW 10-20km/h. Wave 0.5-1.0m

Saturday 1st October: Weather fair all day and night. Wind SW 10-20km/h. Wave 0.5-1.0m

Sunday 2nd October: Weather fair all day and night. Wind SW 10-20km/h. Wave 0.5-1.0m

    Weather for Tioman Island

Friday 30th September: Weather Morning: fair, Afternoon: rain, Night: cloudy

Saturday 1st October: Weather Morning: fair, Afternoon: Thunderstorms, Night: Rain

Sunday 2nd October: Weather Morning: fair, Afternoon: Thunderstorms, Night: Rain

Hahahahaha…

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Tioman Part Trois

If I leave early on Friday morning, say around 8am, I should be in Mersing by 12.30pm, in time for the 1.30pm speedboat out to Tioman. I should arrive in Tioman at 3pm, should be able to do one shore dive and one night dive. On Saturday, I should be able to do two day boat dives, one shore dive, then go to Tekek to see my dad’s land, and then one night dive. Sunday, I can do another boat dive before going back late in the afternoon.

How many dives is that? 7 dives…not too bad. Not too bad at all.

Now…to find a way to get to Tioman.