Scuba diving...(part 2)

Now.... I am a certified OWD....but tak ada geng nak pergi diving...problem!!!

As I told before, I don't know many people who are into scuba diving. Anyway east coast diving season has not opened yet...relax saja la...ada lesen tapi tak boleh pergi diving...rasa rugi sangat. Only a few of my office mates knew I am a diver...one of them is Bad Tarha. Bad connected me to Roznee...I didn't really know her but sebab gian sangat nak pergi diving, I asked if I can join her diving trip. Bukan semua orang nak bagi outsiders to join their group but Roznee was accommodating. She was grinning when I told her that I would like to join her group...

Diving nie pun macam driving jugak ler...walaupun dah ada lesen tapi kena ada banyak experience baru la pandai...Nak banyak experience kena banyak practice ler...tapi nak pergi diving kena ada geng...pening jugak!!!...Kalau tak ada geng....macam jalan sorang2 kat London...tempat best tapi tak syok!!!...

Once the east coast season open in March 12, Roznee quickly arranged the diving trip together with the Urbanisland Divers or UiD. We went to Perhentian in April where UiD operate its dive centre.

Roznee arranged everything for me...including buying the bus ticket from Hentian Putra to Kuala Besut (in fact she bough the tickets for the whole gang).... I first met Man BD and Nurul Azlifah of UiD at Hentian Putra. There were quite a few other divers as well which I met for the first time like Jijoe, Yusof, Lan, Shikin and Spoket. Roznee came with her daughter Mimi and the last to arrive was Sharina. It was a bit of surprise to find out that she is also into scuba diving...she doesn't look like one in the office...Amin, my friend was to join us in Kuala Besut since he has to visit his project site somewhere in Kenyir. Then, suddenly a whole big group was going for the diving trip. I knew this is going to be fun but deep inside...these are otai compared to me a newbie....baru 5 kali dives...lets see how it goes....

We arrived early morning in Kuala Besut and after breakfast we took the boat to Pantai Teluk Dalam, Pulau Perhentian Besar where UiD operates its' dive centre. We stayed at Samudra Beach Chalet for 3D/2N... and the plan was to do 5 dives....Jimi and Kamil, the dive instructors at UiD were there to receive us...

Immediately after arriving we gear up and raring to go....happy...lama tak kene air masin...hehe...After 2 dives my diving hasn't really improved...breathing, equalisation and buoyancy are still the main problem...I listened to advice and tips from other divers after each dives. Man BD was very supporting...he kept saying everyone goes through the same thing...One thing though, Man was very good at taking photos. Even though he uses a compact camera which he called "kamera tikam" but he is very artistic...I really like his photos.

I like this photo a lot - my laptop screen background

Sugar Wreck was a very interesting place...from the surface one can see a big ship lie underwater....one of the place that I will remember for a long time...immediately after descend, I started coughing and my eyes were really painful...damn!!! I didn't clean my mask before descend...I put some shampoo inside the mask earlier and forgot to clean it...Jimi saw me suffering and came to me. At first I thought I had to abort the dive and signalled to him that I want to ascend...so both of us ascended slowly.... however I began to catch my breath again...once I was comfortable again I signalled to him that I was okay and like to continue diving....so he took me down again...lega....

Sugar Wreck was a beautiful place where you can see lots of fishes...I really like this place...There are many more exciting places in Perhentian like Tokong Laut and Terumbu Tiga but the most important thing was my diving continued to improve...happy!!!...

A few advice that I still remember until today were from Lan who told me to be the first one to backroll and stay calm in the sea whilst waiting for others to gear up in the boat. This will make me calm whilst waiting for others to gear up. Sharina told me to keep my hands in the BCD pockets. I was using my hands to move underwater where one should just use the fins and control the buoyancy to move places. Easier said than done but I continued to improve...However many of them suggested that I took Advanced Open Water Diver (AOWD) license to further improve my diving....that will be in part 3 hehe...[really interesting learning from Nurul Azlifah or better known as Ipah...opps...Linn actually]

Bye for now...