I declare the Malaysian Dive Season Open!

I think many divers were a bit apprehensive about heading off to the east coast of Malaysia this past weekend after hearing reports of the sinking of a dive boat in rough weather the previous weekend. Seems the monsoon had a little more energy left in it, and caught many divers off guard. However, the Malaysian Meteorlogical Service lifted its high wave and wind warning for Tioman early in the week, and by Saturday morning we were cruising across a flat sea under sunny skies towards this South China Sea gem and anticipating a great weekend of diving ahead.

Here are some memorable moments and sightings from the weekend.

At Chebeh:
A group of about 6 very large golden trevallies and a couple of turtles were spotted. Debby even found a couple of empty shark casings, and shared this unique find with the rest of the divers. Those babies are out there somewhere!

At Seafan Garden:
Stick pipefish were the highlight of this dive. While many gathered around Debby for a good look at the one she had found, Ken had one all to himself nearby and I am sure was thankful for his solitude to get a couple of great photos of the one he found.

At Rengiss:
This site never fails to perform! While I had wanted to take everyone to check out the progress of the Pahang Royal Reef at the beginning of the dive, we were immediately distracted upon descent by the flurry of fish action. I was completely entranced by the massive school of chevron barracudas that surrounded me at the beginning of the dive, and seemed to carry me over the reef to greet a group of its larger cousins, the great barracudas! Then the silhouette of a very large (1m+) star puffer caught my eye from above, only to be distracted again by the puff of silt below from a blue spotted stingray. The barracudas remained nearby for some time, and when they got bored of us, the friendly batfish took over as our escorts. A couple of large cuttlefish waved their tentacles our way as we cruised along the edge of the reef slope, and Ken and his open water students were visited by a very large potato cod. It was great to see the smiles of excitement on all the divers faces upon ascent as they recalled the sightings, their faces awash in the golden glow of the setting sun. What a beautiful way to end the day! One sad discovery, however, is that the very large table coral near to the cart has not survived the monsoon, and has been broken at its stem. I only hope it was natural, and not the result of some divers' carelessness.

Night Dive at Salang:
Another hot favorite! Jimmy's keen eyes picked up what Ken and I thought to be a flathead...but once we moved on, Debby gave it a closer and "more thorough" inspection. Annoyed by all the sudden attention, the apparent "flathead" made itself more visible, and low and behold the full body of the demon stinger was revealed! Well, I thought that would have been enough for Debby to start frantically waving her flashlight to call us back...but NO!!...Debby reserves that action for the minute and almost imperceptible urchin shrimp! Geez, Deb, all that effort for something I cant even see! Ha! Good dive all around...but by this time, hunger had got the best of us.

Marine Park:
Wow! Good viz on early Sunday morning for the Marine Park, and because we were early, we had the site virtually to ourselves. A couple of very large tusked wrasses were hanging out around a couple of the wrecks, and a few baby morays were tucked into the rotting wood hulls. Lots more barracudas here too, both around the wrecks and under the pier. The rabbit fish were a little too hungry, and even though I thought I made it very clear to them that I had no food, one decided to have a taste of my middle finger.

Burong:
Current from the right. Current from the left. Current from above. Hello, this is supposed to be slack tide? Oh well, tucked in behind the wall, we managed to spot a variety of different nudibranchs and Ken spotted a couple of large morays hiding out among the crevices. Had the conditions been better, it would have been nice to check out the life around the large seafans and seawhips at 18m and below. Next time.

Congratulations to Rudy and Andrew for completing their Open Water courses! Welcome to the wonderful world of the deep blue sea! Looking forward to seeing you enhance your knowledge and adventures with the Advanced course.

Thanks to Ken (our intrepid leader for the weekend), Debby and Jimmy for their great assistance, and to Linda, Su Lin, Kwong Hwee, Claudia, Cynthia, Ian, Andrew, Rudy, Jon and Terror for making it fun and memorable.

I declare the Malaysian Dive Season Open!

Cheers!
Johari
PADI DM#479744