Hilarious Video of an underwater "Cycling" adventure

I received this clip from Ken, one of the very humorous fun chap from my recent trip to the Similans. He made this clip to illustrate the common mistakes that most newbies or even some old rusty divers may commit. In fact, proper fin kicks are taught as part of the core syllabus during Open Water Course.

There are different styles of finning and the versatility of a proficient diver to use the right style under different the various marine environment is very important. For example, a diver in a muck environment uses minimal effort in finning as he would be travelling very slowly. As the muck environment is always silty, sandy and delicate, the diver hovering close to the bottom must perform a "frog style" kick with his knees bent so as not to disturb the bottom.

Moreover, different kinds of fins requires the diver to fin differently in situations. When a strong current hits a diver with split fins(like the Scubapro twin jets i'm using), he must perform rapid and shallow kicks with knees locked in order to effectively fight the current. A paddle fin diver, on the hand, needs to use strong and powerful wide fin kicks. There's alot about finning techniques and to enjoy bottom time without geting physical stress and cramps, it is imperative to practise the correct way of finning underwater right from the start.

Sit back, relax and enjoy this funny video Starring Kennie, April and Vernon!

Fatal Incident At Pulau Hantu

Body of missing diver found in waters off Pulau Hantu
By S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 20 February 2007 1820 hrs


SINGAPORE : The body of a missing diver was found in the waters off Pulau Hantu at around 9.40 am on Tuesday.

Singaporean Sue Qing Wen, who is in his 20s and who had just finished his National Service, was reported missing on Saturday, the eve of the Lunar New Year.

He and several others has gone for their first dive in open waters off Pulau Hantu - as part of their diving certification - but did not make it back.

Pulau Hantu is 15 minutes away from Sentosa by speedboat. Police said they received a call from a member of the public about the body. A diving wet suit and an oxygen tank were also found with the body.

No one responded to Channel NewsAsia's queries when our crew visited his house in Chua Chu Kang. - CNA/ms


S'porean Learner Diver lost Near Pulau Hantu

How did he vanish?

By Arul John (The Electric New paper)

It was Chinese New Year's Eve but he was excited for another reason. Singaporean Sue Qing Wen was going for his first dive in open waters. If he passed, he would soon be certified fit to dive in local and international waters. Everything was planned ahead for the training dive involving 14 divers and nothing was out of place.

But Mr Sue didn't come back on Saturday, like the other divers. He remains missing at press time.

At Mr Sue's home, preparations for the Chinese New Year's Eve reunion dinner was in full swing when the phone rang on Saturday evening. It was the police informing his parents that the eldest son was lost in the waters around Pulau Hantu, a 15-minute speedboat ride from Sentosa.

One of the divers in the group, who declined to be named, said that all 14 divers had assembled at Keppel Marina near VivoCity shopping mall at 7.30am that day. They then boarded a boat to the island for the dive. The group included two dive masters, the boatman, four experienced divers and six student divers, one of whom was Mr Sue. Another diver looked after the other divers' equipment on the boat.

The student divers had taken lessons at a local dive school and were now deemed to be ready for an open sea dive. This would determine if they are ready to be certified capable of diving in local and international waters, said the diver.

'On the way to the dive site, the dive masters reviewed all the lessons we had learnt. They asked us if anyone was unwell or afraid and we even went over the sign language to use to communicate with our fellow divers when in the water. Everyone was well and had no problems,' said the diver.

By 8am, the boat had arrived at the dive site about 40m to 50m off Pulau Hantu. The student divers were paired up and put into two groups, each led by a dive master. Mr Sue was in one group together with another student diver. The other four student divers were in the other group.

At about 8.30am, both groups headed for their first dive - lasting about 30 minutes - to test their oxygen tanks. The divers then rested and did another training exercise.

'We were in the water for about 20 minutes and practised putting on and taking off our diving masks and regulators quickly without panicking. The missing diver - we called him Sue - performed well during both dives and he looked well,' said the diver. At about noon, the larger group went into the water and dived in single file along the anchor line - the chain leading from the boat to its anchoring point about 10m below the surface.

'We were going to practise what to do if our air supply was cut off or disrupted. The smaller group dived in about a minute after the first group went in and they followed down the anchor line too. The dive master was moving around and supervising what was happening. Suddenly, he went to Sue's partner and asked him using sign language where he was. Sue's partner pointed up, indicating that he might have gone to the surface. The dive master went up to the surface but didn't find Sue there,' said the diver.

What could have happened to Mr Sue?

COMBINATION OF FACTORS?

A diver with over 20 years' experience diving in Singapore and overseas waters said that a combination of high tides, strong currents and poor visibility might have contributed to Mr Sue's disappearance.

'The visibility of the water off Pulau Hantu is about 3m and the currents there can be quite strong, even up to three hours after high tide.

'At about 11am to noon on Saturday, high tide was about 3m,' he said.

Around noon, after discovering that one of the divers was missing, the dive master told the divers to return to the boat and then asked for a back-up boat to join them at the scene.

He also asked that Police Coast Guard (PCG) be informed, said the diver.

Police told The New Paper yesterday that they were informed at about 1.30pm and a search was conducted by the PCG boats when they arrived at the scene.

The divers also helped in the search.

Said the diver: 'We circled around the dive site to see if we could detect any bubbles on the surface or debris that could help locate the missing diver but we were unsuccessful.'

They returned to Singapore at 5pm that day, said the diver.

At Mr Sue's flat in Chua Chu Kang, the family was too distraught to speak but a relative, who declined to be named, said that the missing man was an outgoing person who loved the outdoors and diving.

He said Mr Sue had just completed full-time National Service and had not yet found a job.

'This is a sad day for us. We have not heard anything so far, since the news of his disappearance,' he said yesterday.

Similans Trip Report - by Dorothy

Photos Courtesy of Dorothy...
















A Picture Before Our Last Dive At Boon Sung Wreck...

Our Dive Group(from Left): Me, Dorothy, Meilin,
Josephine,Yixiu and our Dive guide Chris(center, squating)

Below is the account of Dorothy's experience at the Similans:

"Hey hey!!

I am BACK from diving the Similan Islands, and it was a fantastic trip....diving-wise. Anyone intending to have a good experience on an LOB should do the White Manta - great service, fantastic crew, reliable dive guides, comfy lodging and space, and really delicious food. We were really blessed to be assigned to this Brit chap called Chris, who spent a lot of time during breaks drawing out entire dive sites before any briefing, with rocks/bommies/reefs etc. in diff colours; and whom also more than once commented he liked diving with our little group...until he started losing us underwater, and vice versa. (*snigger*) Alright, before I ramble further about nothing much, here's my dive report:

1) Anita's Reef
I woke up to light filtering into the cabin and was greeted by a view of sun beginning to rise behind some rocks, clear blue waters you could see through to the bottom with and a zest for some great diving. Indeed, the visibility was about 20m and it felt like I was in an aquarium rather then open water. I was immediately greeted by a large pufferfish hovering on the white sandy bottom on descent, and soon after, began stalking clown trigger, oriental sweetlip, and came by a bevy of brown sweetlip and blue tangs clamouring for breakfast on some corals. Schools of blue trevally, yellow tail barracudas and snappers greeted us along the way, and there were varieties of butterfly fish I'd never met. We saw some blue trevally having mouth washes by cleaner wrasses, and hovered a bit on the sand to spot garden eels (I didn't see any but the others did). The highlight was spotting a Mimic Octopus in the sand. It frolicked away from us to try to camouflage itself next to some rock and coral. I just kneeled in the sand and fired away at my camera, and the amazing thing was, another similar octopus just appeared next to it, before moving off, leaving octo no.1 still struggling to blend with its surroundings. The dive ended at a huge boulder (think it's called Hin Muang Tao) characterised by a spot of bright red coral housing a family of Clark's Anemone Fish.

2) East of Eden
Another reef with great visibility, but as I was feeling a little unwell, I got a little bored and uncomfortable during this dive, despite the once again, numerous schools of fusiliers, butterflyfish and snappers. Emma saved the dive - "Emma" the free gliding giant moray, resident at this site. We spotted here just before ascending, sliding under some table coral.

3) Elephant Head Rock
An attempt to seek out leopard sharks proved null again here, with much declined visibility. The host of butterflyfishes and angelfish here was aplenty, and huge in size as we swam among the rocks. Some spotted a huge barracuda here, which I didn't, but I did encounter a lobster, a dead one. (no fresh sashimi here)

4) Turtle Rock
After a miraculous recovery, signalled by finally being able to eat, we beheld a beautiful sunset as we waited for our night dive. A friendly hawksbill turtle swam by to say hi as we prepared for the brief. This dive, we hovered mostly on the gentle gradient of the bottom, shining our torches into corals and rocks for shrimps, crabs, etc. Another octopus showed up, and lionfish as well. There was quite a lot to spot, and we lost our dive guide for the first time in the darkness. He showed up later on and guided us in the general direction of the boat, before losing us again. Thank God for the blinking flash the instructor hung beneath the boat. We eventually found our way back.

5) Breakfast Bend/ Snapper Alley
Rise and shine and here I was in a dive that took my breath away....literally. It was a really beautiful site with good vis, schools of all kinds of reef fish, and so much to see. Nudibranchs are a rare sight in the Similans, and getting great shots (IMO) of a pretty Chromodoris kunei (or is geminina?) really made my day. We spotted a HUGE barracuda having a mouthwash (as usual I finned fwd to attempt taking photos...much to the "horror" of my buddy), and even with 30bar of air left, I still wanted to stay and observe a red spotted snapper, having breakfast among a swirling school of glass fish (or some kind of small fish). Pretty pretty dive....I was so reluctant to ascend.

6) Christmas Point
Our last site at the Similans and still no leopard shark! This was the last chance. After some odd currents and thermoclines, we nearly lost Chris again, until we heard him clicking frantically for us. There it was, the leopard shark, lying on the sandy bottom behind a rock. We simply kneeled on the sand near it and fired with our cameras, and it didn't budge a bit. I shifted to take closer shots from the front as well...still it didn't move. Only the expansion of it gills and slight opening of the mouth showed signs of life in the 1.5m wonder. The ascent from this site was wrought with more chilly thermoclines and currents. I was pointed to a giant grouper just before making my way upwards. Nothing really mattered...the leopard shark was on the top of our minds, and the first thing we screamed at the people on the boat when we hit zero metres.

7) Koh Bon
A long sunny boat ride brought us to Koh Bon, and I was contemplating taking a nap as the boat docked near the island. Absently, I decided to walk towards the bow of the boat for some wind, and as I got there, the crew suddenly dashed out from their room and gestured to me. I looked and there it was, a manta ray flapping near the surface some metres away. We excitedly shouted "Manta!" and aroused all the napping divers into action. It made it rounds, occassionally breaching and making us cry in wonder. One of the instructors quickly donned fins and snorkel and paddled out in chase.

We had 3 dives planned here. On our first dive, we barely spotted 2 mantas cruising overhead in the first 10min, before totally losing Chris. As our surroundings was neither rock nor reef, the five of us were totally lost, and ascended to our record shortest dive, lasting 20min. Chris came back with report of making it to the reef as planned, and seeing 4 mantas surrounding them. My heart cringed at having missed all that. Dive 2 was a sunset dive, and this time, we were determined to stick close to Chris. The site got darker and darker, but not before we spotted lionfish, another octopus, a very fierce moray and a banded sea krait (we later found to be named "Hector" - another resident). In the last rays of light, I spotted the manta cruising by once again, before being hit by a bout of strong current, sending me and another diver clinging onto the rocks for dear life. We only let go as the rest of the group came drifting by with the current as well. Dive 3 showed us a different side of the same site in daylight. I spotted an octopus and a huge school of yellow snapper before finding myself hanging on to rocks again, waiting for mantas to pass by. They did not disappoint. We spotted 3 flying by and one more overhead. As we made our way along the long ridge, I couldn't help noticing an entire highway of yellow snapper. Fish life was aplenty as well, and I spotted 3 blue puffers swimming together...so cute! Chris spotted a black tip shark, which we all missed. (vis at sites where mantas roam are typically not so good)

8) Boon Sung Wreck
Our final dive was in 3-5m visibility, with so much particles and silt in the site we....(you guessed it)....lost Chris within 15min into the dive. However, all 5 of us stuck together once again, and explored the piece of wreck we found ourselves at. We found a family of Durban hinge-beak shrimps, bumped into a school of white trumpetfish (never seen them in a school before), honeycomb moray, stonefish and many lionfish. The schools of smallfish here was numerous, and the many puffers were all XL sized. Currents were pushing us around, and we held on to a guiding line to ascend. I was almost swept away when I got distracted by a cute purplish jellyfish tumbling about next to me.

The diving was wonderful, and nearly made up for the frustration that came later on, when we found out the dive instructor we booked the trip with hadn't arranged our Phuket accomodation for the night yet. Unwise and risky move on his part, but thankfully, we eventually found rooms for the night and made our way back home safe and sound. The Lord's hand of protection is always upon us, and indeed He created all things for us to enjoy. I've got a new hobby and it's called video editing. Haha! Wish I'd discovered the software in my laptop earlier. Have attached my Manta video for your viewing pleasure.(Also did up my Bali one into a 3min plus show, but it's 28plus mb large so will have to upload somewhere)Photos will be uploaded soon, after I've edited them.=) --



Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.

Bubblingly yours,
Dorothy
"
View Dorothy's Similans Trip Photos at her Kodak Gallery
Meilin's Photos can be found on her Flickr account

My photos...erm...are still in the midst of being processed...uploaded a few already and loads more to come... u can view them in myphotoalbum gallery following the link here.