4 September 2009
Made our way to Mersing to stay over for the night before hopping over to Tioman the following morning. Charlie gave me a nudge when my instructor announced that I was rooming with him, our DM and another technical diver. I gave Charlie the ‘glare’.
5 September 2009
Alynna and myself were both feeling anxious about the dives and drills. Fortunately, the weather was bright and sunny, so the water temperature was comfortable at 29 degrees!
First dive at Roger’s Reef, Tioman
True to my fears, I did not manage to descend and had to pull the descend line to get myself down to 10 metres deep. My buddy had to hold me down to enable me to kneel and perform drills on the sea bed. We did not realise it but I sustained some deep cuts from being dragged along the sea bed. As newbies, we constantly silt up the sea bed and created sandstorms especially on descent! It was the first time I saw red sea cucumbers and they were found all over the sea bed!! The ones we normally see on our dining tables are brown/grey! heehee
Bakau Bay, Tioman
Added more weights on myself and I’m finally able to descend properly – feet down in a vertical position. Told myself to relax and release all air in my lungs to aid in descent and I did it!! We concentrated on performing drills at the second dive site and I could hear my instructor telling the rest when I was performing my CESA and orally inflating BCD drill: “Hey look here look here, she’s gonna bounce up very high again!” Oh well, at least I managed to orally inflate my BCD within the first try!! haha
Malang Rock, Tioman
The topside scenary at Malang Rock is of a few lone boulders set against the blue ocean and clear skies and you wonder how did these boulder pop up in the middle of the sea? The dive site is also teeming with a wide array of fishes though there were many which we are not able to ID yet! We did a swim through for the last dive of the day and spotted a turtle and schools of barrcudas! Charlie was feeling hungry at the amount of seafood available!! hahaha
6 September 2009
We awoke to cloudy skies with a chance of rain. While gulping down our breakfast, it started raining! The rain decided to stop after half an hour and we boarded the boat. Huge waves, towering swells, rocking boat. Not a good sign!
Marine Park, Tioman
We travelled for half an hour to the Marine Park and by this time, most of us were feeling sick. We geared up speedily and entered the water to meet our instructor at the end of the descend line. I was having difficulty equalizing my ears as the pressure increased. Was down to about 16 metres when I felt my ears getting a ‘blocked’ feeling. Did not think that’s gonna pose a problem and I descended to 18 metres. We explored two wrecks in the marine park and did an ascent after half an hour when Charlie signalled low on air.
The crashing waves made entry onto the boat almost next to impossible for us newbies! We had to grab on to the ladder to remove our fins before pulling ourselves onto the boat. The rocking motion flung us around the ladder and boat, while we were trying to remove our fins with one hand and holding on for our dear lives with the other. It was an uphill task which took a painfully long time and our arm acted as a pivot for the waves to slam our bodies against the ladder. After I successfully removed my fins and was about to pull myself up the ladder, a huge swell came along and carried me away from the boat without my fins! However, I remained calm and tried swimming back to the boat. Then, I felt someone push me forward from behind and it turned out to be my instructor.
4 of us performed the merlion once we stripped ourselves of our gear and all our breakfast went to the fishes! There goes the yummy curry puffs and toasted tuna sandwiches! hahaha all of us had scores of battle scars from the 4th dive, ranging from cuts from barnacles on the descend line and cuts and bruises while trying to get up the boat in the crashing waves!
Renggis, Tioman
Felt instantly better after throwing everything up and all ready for the last dive of the trip! This time, I discovered a new way of equalising my ears by swallowing and pushing my tongue against my teeth, which proved more effective for me than the usual “pinch nose and blow” method! It was during this dive that we spotted two turtles kissing in the water!!
At the end of the course, my instructor commented that I made the greatest improvement in the whole group! Most of the guys were already pretty proficient so there’s not much to improve on but my pool sessions were horrendous enough to warrant many areas for improvement and I’m really happy that I’m now a certified diver!! Not forgetting that I made some great friends on this trip!!
However, I did suffer from slight barotrauma on the ears due to inadequate equalising during my 18 metres dive and I realise I’m lucky that my eardrums did not rupture! *Gulp* My guess is that due to my sinus problem, I need to use a dosage of nasal spray for each diving day! It’s definitely not stopping me from diving and the sotong’s going for Advance Open Water (AOW) pool lessons tonite!! Wheee~
My Open Water Diver Course at Tioman
Sotong Tales... 
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