Raya Yai Island

Tuesday, 21st July
Comment: A windy day stirred up the sea that rocked the boat during the our crossing from Chalong Bay to Raya Yai East Coast. We were alone on the Andaman Eagle Wreck for the entire dive. We also had Lucy's reef all to ourselves for the second dive. Bent Stick pipefish were all over in the sand near the artificial reef.

Dive 080: Andaman Eagle Wreck, Bay 2
Max Depth: 27.7m ; Bottom time: 51 min; EANx: 32%
Water Temp: 29c; Visibility: 15-20m

Dive 081: Lucy's Reef, Bay 3
Max Depth: 23.7m ; Bottom time: 52 min; EANx: 32%
Water Temp: 29c; Visibility: 15-20m

Phi Phi Islands Overnight Trip

Comment: Great idea to go to Phi Phi with Alex & Matt, doing some dives, hanging with the cool people in Tonsai Village, meeting some new friends. Well, Seasick was the norm for our 2 days, huge waves, and Greta was rocking all the wrong way! However, Leopard sharks, turtle, seahorses & frogfish at KDM made up for the rough boat ride. Click on the photo to see Alex pictures, posted at his FB page.

Wednesday, 15th July
Dive 074: Shark Point
Max Depth: 18.9m ; Bottom time: 50 min; EANx: 34%
Water Temp: 30c; Visibility: 15-20m

Dive 075: Koh Bida Nok
Max Depth: 20.7m ; Bottom time: 43 min
Water Temp: 30c; Visibility: 10-15m

Dive 076: Phi Le Point
Max Depth: 16.7m ; Bottom time: 52 min
Water Temp: 30c; Visibility: 10-15m

Thursday, 16th July
Dive 077: Koh Bida Nai
Max Depth: 20.4m ; Bottom time: 49 min
Water Temp: 30c; Visibility: 10-15m

Dive 078: Koh Doc Mai
Max Depth: 22.5m ; Bottom time: 52 min
Water Temp: 30c; Visibility: 15-20m

Dive 079: Koh Doc Mai
Max Depth: 20.1m ; Bottom time: 53 min; EANx: 33%
Water Temp: 30c; Visibility: 15-20m

Cu Lao cham Island, Viet Nam

Thursday, 9th July
Dive 072: Signal Point
Max Depth: 23.4m ; Bottom time: 65 min
Water Temp: 28c; Visibility: 15-20m

Dive 073: Undersea Island
Max Depth: 17.6m ; Bottom time: 60 min
Water Temp: 28c; Visibility: 15-20m

Comment: Hoi An is located about 45 minutes south of central Viet Nam's largest city, Da Nang. It is my favorite place to visit when I come home for holidays each year. With dive gears already with us, Miz and I finally plunged in and do a dive trip in between our feasts and shopping excursions in the Old Town. If you have been following with my log of our latest dive excursion, you would have known that my camera photo mode was fried in Sipadan. So, for the rest of the diving, it was video mode only. Dive condition for our day was practically perfect, flat sea, sunny skies, and pretty good visibility. Topography of the 2 dive sites we visit is similar to what we have in the Raya Islands in Phuket. There were fish life, though not as densely as you might see in the Andaman Sea. Some videos from the dives can be viewed at my YouTube page.

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?

27th - 29th Wreck, Deep & Navigation

Wednesday, 27th May
Dive 052:Andaman Eagle Wreck, Raya Yai
Max Depth: 26.8m ; Bottom time: 50 min
Water Temp: 29c; Visibility: 20-25m

Dive 053: Lucy's Reef, Raya Yai
Max Depth: 23.7m ; Bottom time: 54 min
Water Temp: 29c; Visibility: 15-20m

Friday, 29th May
Dive 054:Andaman Eagle Wreck, Raya Yai
Max Depth: 26.8m ; Bottom time: 49 min
Water Temp: 30c; Visibility: 20-25m

Dive 055: Home Run, Raya Yai
Max Depth: 22.8m ; Bottom time: 48 min
Water Temp: 30c; Visibility: 15-20m

Comment: A couple of really good diving days with Will & Liam for their Specialty Instructor training. We got to dive the Andaman Eagle Wreck in Bay 2 of Raya Yai, practically by ourselves each time. Some photos from the dives are posted at my Facebook album. Friday was a sad day, as I begged farewell to my Suunto Vyper. It decided to "stop diving" on my second dive, ending my 8 years relationship, 4 battery changed and thousands of dives logged... Guess she was broken hearted because of the arrival of my new partner, the Stinger!