PADI Open Water Certificate in Sipadan!
Just a quick update! On a whim, I decided to go to Sipadan, one of the worlds top dive sites. After a 10 hour bus(es) ride from hell, I arrived in Semporna, coastal town at southern tip of Borneo, and I immediately started studying for my Open Water course. Within 2 hours, I went through the first 3 of 5 modules for the course. The next day, I did 3 dives and loads of skills tests off of Sibuan Island. Sibuan has a gentle beach slope perfect for learning in the open ocean. The island comes to a sharp point where the waves from both sides of the island meet.
The best part of the day was after 2 dives and lunch. I managed to pass the Open Water swim and float test after only learning how to swim about 3 weeks ago on the Perhentian Island. What a relief! Thanks for the Help Alja and Eva. I can’t even believe I did it! I did another 3 dives today up to 18 Meters and tomorrow, I’m going to dive the Sipadan Marine reserve itself with my fresh new Open Water Cert. I hope to see loads of sharks, black tip and white tip reef sharks, leopard sharks, and maybe even some hammer head sharks. Maybe if I’m really lucky, I’ll get to see a Whale shark. I’ve already seen loads of sea turtles and more fish than I can count. Pictures to follow. SWEEET!!
WOW! Sipadan RULES! Seconds after dropping into the water I saw tons of Reef Sharks, Green Turtles and loads of fish! My first dive at South Point off Sipadan was amazing! Visibility of 35-40 meters (that’s like 120feet). Click this link to watch a video of a sea turtle swimming straight at the camera.
This is what diving is all about. The previous 2 days I saw lots of small aquatic life, today, I saw a huge 3 meter Grey Reef Shark (click linkto see video of shark). I have a video of this magnificent creature, but at 12.5MB it’s too large to upload. I also have a nice video of a large sea turtle swimming directly into the camera. If anyone wants to see them, find me on MSN Messenger and I’ll send it to you. Here’s a closeup of a Moray Eel.
On my third dive of the day, we went to “The Drop Off” where the sea literally drops off to a depth of 600 Meters. On the way down, there is a cave that is filled with turtles skelletons. It’s a very deep cave with tons of caution signs not to enter. Unfotunately, the turtles can’t read. The dive instructor and I swam into it until we couldn’t see any more. While we still had some light if you looked up you could see your air bubbles run along the cave’s ceiling like a stream of mercury. Very kewl.
Tags: diving, Malaysia
Kane
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