25th - 28th: Borneo Bound

Thursday, 25th June (Boheyan)
Dive 060: Green Marker
Max Depth: 29.8m ; Bottom time: 51 min
Water Temp: 29c; Visibility: 15-20m

Dive 061: Coral Wall *
Max Depth: 22.5m ; Bottom time: 67 min
Water Temp: 29c; Visibility: 15-20m

Dive 062: Timba Timba, Sting Ray City
Max Depth: 15.2m ; Bottom time: 47 min
Water Temp: 28c; Visibility: 15-20m

Friday, 26th June (Mabul)
Dive 063: Seaventures **
Max Depth: 18.5m ; Bottom time: 67 min
Water Temp: 28c; Visibility: 15-20m

Dive 064: Froggies **
Max Depth: 12.8m ; Bottom time: 77 min
Water Temp: 29c; Visibility: 5-15m

Dive 065: Artificial Reef *
Max Depth: 16.4m ; Bottom time: 47 min
Water Temp: 28c; Visibility: 10-15m

Saturday, 27th June (Sipadan)
Dive 066: South Point *
Max Depth: 36.2m ; Bottom time: 66 min
Water Temp: 28c; Visibility: 15-20m

Dive 067: Barracudas Point **
Max Depth: 31.4m ; Bottom time: 63 min
Water Temp: 28c; Visibility: 15-20m

Dive 068: Barracudas Point **
Max Depth: 16.1m ; Bottom time: 66 min
Water Temp: 28c; Visibility: 15-20m

Sunday, 28th June (Mantabuan)
Dive 069: Black Corals Garden *
Max Depth: 25.3m ; Bottom time: 63 min
Water Temp: 28c; Visibility: 15-20m

Dive 070: Sham Sham
Max Depth: 20.1m ; Bottom time: 60 min
Water Temp: 28c; Visibility: 15-20m

Dive 071: Corner *
Max Depth: 14.3m ; Bottom time: 49 min
Water Temp: 28c; Visibility: 15-20m

Comment: 4 days of diving from Semporna, Borneo with Scuba Junkie. We covered 4 different islands, starting with Boheyan, Mabul, the famous Sipadan, and Mantabuan. Except for the windy condition on the first day and dive, the entire trip was spectacular. Mabul was great for macro, saw Mandarin fish at noon, around 4m depth at Froggies. The marine life underneath Seaventures' ugly Platform were quite exquisite. Sipadan delivered more than I have expected with one of my absolute best dives, whale shark, turtles, white tip reef sharks, and school of 1000s barracudas and jacks "rocked my senses" for 66 minutes. Mantabuan is on my highly recommended dive sites for this area. Macro life are awaiting with great variants of nudibranches, leaf scorpionfish, juvenile batfish, plus the usual colorful angels and butterfly fishes that are not seen in the Andaman Sea. Some of the dives photos are uploaded to my Facebook Album.

21st - 23rd: Open Water Course with Marcel

Monday, 22nd June
Dive 056:Lucy's Reef, Raya Yai
Max Depth: 11.8m ; Bottom time: 39 min
Water Temp: 30c; Visibility: 15-20m

Dive 057: Staghorn Reef, Raya Yai
Max Depth: 12m ; Bottom time: 45 min
Water Temp: 30c; Visibility: 15-20m

Tuesday, 23rd June
Dive 058:Lucy's Reef, Raya Yai
Max Depth: 18.2m ; Bottom time: 40 min
Water Temp: 30c; Visibility: 15-20m

Dive 059: Home Run, Raya Yai
Max Depth: 17.9m ; Bottom time: 40 min
Water Temp: 30c; Visibility: 15-20m

Comment: A wonderful 3 days OW course with Marcel and his son, Eric whose completed his Advance Course at the same time as his father. The guys hung around to dive with my good buddy and former Calypso IDC candidate, Dave "the Legend" Ryan, for a couple of days. Base on their feedback, Phi Phi rewarded the guys with sharks and more. Great start to a new hobby for Marcel. I look forward to catching up with them later this year :;-) Eric's photos from his Digital Photo Adventure dives are posted at my Picassa Album.

I Got Gold From PADI :-)

Well, actually it's a Gold Status Award for 2008 Course Director Frequent Trainer Program, the same one I received in 2007.

I know, it sounds like a membership for one of the airlines, and it's nice to get higher recognition because there are some perks to be had. In the airline world, that means racking up lots of miles by flying lots of time to get a free flight. In "our diving education" world, it means notching loads of new instructor certifications, and get some "nice break" in fees.

Regardless of the perks, I like being Gold! However, to my former and future candidates, I will have a very difficult time reaching Platinum anytime soon, as I am still aiming for 6 IDC programs per year, with each program no more than 4 candidates.
It has been my philosophy since Pro Tech Divers and I joined force, "when it comes to high Quality Education, less is more." So, to my Pro Tech and Cambodia's first ever IDC 18 successful candidates in 2008 (that's 2.57 of you in the 7 programs :-), thank you for the opportunity to dive together. And I 've learn much from you, as much as hopefully you have learned from us.

So here to 2009, as we are looking to increase our average to 3.33 per program. We're at 2.75 per program for the first half of the year already. So, who's up to help me reach this goal?