Fatcatscuba

     Lembongan,

Mola mola sightings 4 out of 5 days diving in Lembongan. Fantastic. We also saw a carpet shark or Wobegong.  Beautiful. A great group of divers,  we had good fun and good company. 

Mola Mola or Oceanic sunfish. A most strange and beautiful, graceful, worlds largest bony fish. A exceptional subject for photographers and a amazing sight to see.

Wobegong or carpet shark.

Fudge style search and recovery.

I Lin, has not been on a bike since she was 7. She screamed louder than the bike.

Blue Corner.

Most of our dives were at Crystal Bay, where the mola mola were mostly found. But we did 1 dive at Blue corner where we were warned that the currents there could be trecherous, real dangerous down currents. We heard from the locals that just 2 days before we arrived a czech girl diving with a czech owned dive center (M&Ms) was lost while diving blue corner and still has not been found. Six months ago there were 3 fatalities, 1 never found. Also while diving with M&M.

The dive we did was to say the least, adrenalin pumping. The current was very strong and caught us right awy as we entered the water with deflated BCDs. Awesome dive, but not for beginners. I lin was not allowed to dive by the dive operator we were with (as she has not logged enough dives), and after the dive at blue corner, i totally agree. I would say, at least 100 logged dives and very steady before even considering diving there. To bring novice divers to that site is asking for trouble.

On the last day of diving for us, we set off in the morning about 8.30 am. As we were 5 minutes coming out of the bay and approaching where we ascended from our blue corner dive, couple of days ago, we saw a police boat approaching and noticed that a local ferry boat stopped, just further up. Apparently the ferry boat spotted the body first, we were third after the police. She was still at blue corner after 7 days missing, i assumed that some thing happened to her when she was seperated during the dive and was lodged somewhere in blue corner, then coming up to the surface 7 days later. It was a grim reminder for me that diving is an extreme sport, the risks that come with it are very real and divers must realize this.

WHY PEOPLE LEARN TO DIVE

• A passion for adventure and travel.

• A desire to explore and learn.

• Beach loving person.

• Animal loving person.

• Nature loving person.

• Curiosity.

• His or her boy/girlfriend is going for the course.

• A diving license seems like the In thing now.

• To brag about being a hard core, macho diver.

• Hopefully to meet some hot chicks or hunks.

• Adrenalin junkies.

• To get to wear a big watch.

• Someone told non swimmers that they could dive.

• Got the course dirt cheap from some free lance instructor.

• For the heck of it. 

• .

Last week was memorable for me as i got a chance to witness a true life underwater proposal….. haha… i must admit, a breath of fresh air, i was the only witness to the event. Stefan was a diver i knew thru Miz M, he treated corina a scuba course for chrismas, 8 months ago, walau so delay this two (he must have needed some time, hehe.), only managed to do the actual dives for corina last week. And on the last dive on the last day, tanjong tokong, Perhentian, vis was great and we saw barracuddas, jacks, great numbers of fussilliers,  when she was most comfortable, he popped out a ring in a seashell he picked up in the bahamas… hmmm.

I did see him like pick a shell up to show corina, took some time before she realized they found a ring, black pearl with two small diamonds. nice…. she was thinking, wow i need to be looking for more seashells, there might be more rings,,, muahhahahah… I guess she realized after a while.

The rest of the gang found out on the boat, congrats all round etc etc. it was a good dive, Romance is a wonderful thing.

Yuri Lipskis tragedy, Russian instructor videoed his own death during his dive in the “Blue Hole”.

Dive Site: The Blue Hole / the Bells http://www.emperordivers.com/divesites_dahab.php

Location: North Dahab, 28°34.367N; 34°32.207E

Description: Reef / shore dive / drop-off

Depth: 200 metres + (600 feet)

Visibility: 30 - 40 metres (100 - 130 feet)

Rating: *****

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eejQPUyeNiY   (Yuris Video)

http://www.youtube.com/user/AntoshkaSPR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lzoA5E3rl8&mode=related&search=

I’ve been a dive instructor for almost 10 years now and it has been a wonderful trip, I have seen and done stuff most people will never get a chance to, privileged to have met many good people. Of all the stories I could tell you, this one is always was close to mind.

It was in Moalboal, Western Cebu, Phillipines. There were only three of us, we were planning to dive ‘Sunken Island’ a dive site south of Pescador Island, submerged reef, top of the reef about 18 meters, goes down to deep. When we arrived at the site, there were a bunch of small 1 man outrigger boats fishing nearby, no buoy or descent line. The current was strong, the DM said fast fast hah…follow me, don’t get taken by the current or we will miss the reef. One of my buddies Peanut (not his real name) decided not to take his camera. Haahhah. It was a good decision.

The moment we hit the water we were kicking for dear life to get to the reef, finally reach the edge of the reef at 30 meters and panting… that’s not good huh..? Peanut meanwhile decided to abort the dive as even though we were on the blind side of the current we still felt it, a down current and it would only get stronger. Also a wise decision, a wise man, he signaled to us and proceeded to buddy the DM up, which left Donald and me.

We proceeded upwards slowly, trying to slow down my breathing, hmmm. At this rate my air consumption was down the drain. As we reached the top of the reef and struggled to the front to meet the full force of the current we expected to see huge pelargics, but to our disappointment, nothing, just the usual fishies. Suddenly Donald saw something and signaled to me, I swam over and saw that it was some sort of metal or brass memorial with some inscription, a bit encrusted, so I scraped it off a little, it was beautiful. There was a little scuba tank embedded beside. The DM did not tell us about it so we were quite surprised. Later he told us that this guy William dived this spot and lost his life, they went deep, separated from group and something happened, they found his body the next day. His friends and family put up this memorial for him. It would be great to have one too, when my time is up… =).

“It is not the years in a life that counts. It is the life in the years.”

So true, so true. Life is short.

We decided to ascend not long after that, was glad I had my reel and sausage, as we were drifted quite a distance in the time we took to ascent. It was a good dive, even though we didn’t see much life below.

I have always wanted to see a whale shark, it has always been elusive and at times frustrating, but I’ve always told myself that that’s diving, you don’t always see what you want. I ve known divers with a few thousand logged dives who have not seen a whale shark… ( sorry man.) There was a girl doing her advance who got nudged from behind by a whale shark. Your dive site is important too, there are sightings on the east coast but its like striking 4 ekor lah. You have to head out to places like Thailand, Phillipines, Indonesia, where the sightings are regular.

Last August, I saw my first, and it was a huge $$&%^(#@@^. About 10 meters. This was northern part of Nusa Penida, Bali. It was the first day diving, simple check out dives. The whale shark sneak up from behind our group. Our Indonesian DM who was bringing up the rear saw her first, he was so excited, he blasted his horn numerous times, as I turned around to see what the commotion was, there it was swimming towards me, looked like a submarine, then it veered off the her right in to deeper waters, I was totally in awe, as it turned I could see her awesome size, power and grace. With one swish of the tail she just went off into the deep, less than 10 seconds. Managed to squeeze off a couple of shots.

Most of my group saw the whale shark except 2 of them. Darrien ( not his real name ) was feeling sleepy after taking his motion sickness pills and opted to skip the dive as it was the first day and we didn’t expect to see much. And Bop ( not real name ) who was right out in front minding his own business when the DM blasted his horn, by the time he turned back, it was gone. Ta Ta.

I was on a roll, a few months later, I saw my second whale shark near Similan, Thailand. We were on a live on board, just finished my dive with Bop as my buddy, we dried off and went for a smoke. Suddenly someone screamed, ouch, whale shark again. We ran out to the dive deck, Saw a group of divers and swimmers about 20 meters away frantically swimming around, I hesitated for a minute, asked Bop, * HOW!!??* I then grabbed my mask, fins and camera and off I went. Meanwhile Bop coolly went back up to the top deck and finished his coffee then decided to go for it. By that time the boat was about 100 meters away and Bop had a real swim ahead of him. As for me, why did I not bring a snorkel @%&%*().

The whale shark was not as big bout 5 meters and very playful, she hung around for 20 minutes swimming with everyone, even Bop finally managed to see a whale shark, after a very exhausting swim. There was another buddy of mine Donald (not his real name) who missed it, that’s another story.