28 June 2006

weather: morning cloudy, afternoon sunny
sea condition: viz 10m-20m, choppy sea
guides: Bobby, Ron, Jason, Leonard, Sophia, Allan, Jimmy

It was a very dramatic underwater today. The school of jacks with the giant trevallies, leopard sharks, grey reefs, the huge school of barracudas again. Lots of Napolean wrasses swimming around, 2 huge ones, 1 veerryy huge great barracuda, surgeon fish spawning, the rather large school of fusilier...and last but not least, lots of turtles. Macros today were leaf fish, crab eye goby, giant mantis shrimp, orang utan crab, more different types of shrimps, soft coral crabs and nudibranchs...interesting...will keep u guys updated ;-)

27 June 2006

weather: cloudy
sea condition: choppy, viz 8m-20m
guides: Jimmy, Sophia, Jason, Diana, Nina, Allan

Diana's group spotted a big school of bumpheads today. She told us that she hadnt seen such big school in quite some time already...She was very lucky today though, she saw also a big school of barracudas, forming a gigantic wall....Jason's group also saw the barracudas today, but not as big, and already split up into a few smaller schools...*sigh*....

We would like to take this chance to give some dive tips ler...if u are lucky to see a school of barracudas, dont swim into them or chase them. This will split them up, and this will spoil the chance for them to do their performance--the tornado...if u wanna take pics, approach them veeeerrryyy slowly. Let us be considerate divers, in case they are splitted up or chased away other divers behind might not be able to see them...And this is Bobby's & Jason's advice :-D...we dont go to the barracudas, we let them come to us...how? come here and dive with us...we will show u!!! ;-)

For the small creatures, a lot of variety were spotted today...leaf fish, frog fish, nudibranchs (some saw the cute "pikachu"), jawfish, shrimps, crabs and lots of gobies....altogether a good day...looking forward to tomorrow's dive!!

26 June 2006

weather: cloudy in the morning, sunny for the rest of the day
sea condition: viz 8m-15m, choppy in the afternoon
guides: Ron, Bobby, Diana, Sophia, Allan

today Sophia's group saw a big "wall" of barracudas which looked like a long river underwater...many who saw this before will agree that it is a majestic sight. As usual, there were alot of turtles today, not forgeting the ever present white tipped reef sharks...photogenic underwater critters seen today were giant frogfish, nudibranchs, leaf fish, and many types of shrimps...

Plus, last but not least, the triggers fishes were very active today.....some divers were attacked by them during diving...(protecting their eggs)...so...those of u who are diving here these few days please keep a look out for them...just dun stay too close. In case u are being attacked, just point ur 2nd stage towards them, purge air and swim away. The noise and bubbles tend to keep them away. But no guarantee this will work though :-D but we tried them a few times already and it seemed to work evrytime we did it...

Cheers...and Happy Diving !!

25 June 2006

weather: sunny, slight wind from south
sea condition: viz good 10m-30m
guides: Sophia, Diana, Nina, Jason, Ron, Bobby

We are not able to get hold of any pics today, we'll make this a short one...Other than the big school of barracudas, most of the interesting sightings today were macros...leaf fish, giant frog fish, robust ghost pipefish, many types of shrimps and loads of nudibranchs. One of the group spotted a solar nudibranch, hopefully we can get hold of some pic of this beautiful creature so we can post it here soon. It's getting busier, more groups are diving, we should be able to post longer blogs starting nex week...

CheeRs & Happy Diving :-D

Congratulations Masahiro & Miwa

To Masahiro & Miwa:

~Love Is A Beautiful Dream~

(A belated) Heartiest Congratulations from all of us at the Dive Centre on your wedding

HapPy BiRthDay Miwa !!!
& ConGratulations Miwa on completing your Open Water course at SWV Mabul

All of us wishes u a Joyful and Loving life ahead

Thank You for spending your HoneyMooN in SWV
it's a pleasure for us to be able to dive with u guys...

Dont StoP DivinG & kEEp In tOuch ^__^

24 June 2006

weather: rain in the morning, the rest sunny, wind from south
sea condition: viz 10m-18m, slightly choppy in d afternoon
guides: Sophia, Diana, Bobby, Nina

All the "staffs" at our "office" were there today...the jacks, barracudas, white tips, angle fishes, fusiliers, and not to forget the senior staffs -- turtles. A lot of bumpheads were absent though, Sophia's group only saw 5 of them. Yeah, if u can really count bumpheads meaning they really are in a small group. All the petite & cute macro models had given the photographers a good time also. The giant frogfish, leaf fish, gobies, cuttlefish, the mantis shrimps, and dont forget the cleaner shrimps who did all the dirty work for us.

A good windy day which makes everyone felt sleepy in the daytime...But....what an evening, it is very very hot now while we are updating this post...issk....

Quiet Days

pheew...its been a few days since this blog is updated..sorry guys, all of us had been very busy. Actually it's not considered peak season here, but things are going to pick up starting next week till August *sigh* :_( so some are taking this chance to take their holidays and most of us are given chance to have our rest days, so less staffs but still same workloads....nothing as big as the whale shark appeared during this few days...but some dives were still very interesting.

Nina saw bumpheads mating on the 21st. wat happened was her group saw a big male "displaying" along the reef...erm...displaying is a way the males attract the females. eg. for humans usually the males need to diplay our cash, or car, or at least possesses good looks (no worries, just come to SWV Mabul, all the divemasters have almost all of those...wakakaka)...bumpheads displays by swimming erm...erm...erm...we dunno how to describe, but they swim very fast in around an area, twisting, turning, going up, going down. a few females will be around that area watching...after displaying, a male and a female swam side by side till they get "high", then they separated and wat Nina and the others can see was a cloud of eggs, floating and brought away by the current. And the best part is, the male will do it again, and with a different female!! How every guy wishes they can do this also (ooops...)

and 1 more thing tho...most of us who had seen the jacks these few days just felt dat the school had become bigger. very pretty sight :_) very good feeling. and the school of banner fishes and surgeon fishes for the past few days had became bigger also, and very active....hhmm...something happening maybe?

ok guys...think we'll stop here, we'll giv more updates soon. this painted frogfish was photographed by Allan, and the Bobtail squid pic was taken by Jimmy during their self dive...CheeRs :-D

Coral Spawning

On the 16th & 17th this month, there were several species of coral which spawned.

On the 16th Jason brought 2 guests accompanied by Miki, while the other DMs, Leonard, Allan, Jimmy, Nina, Bobby and Ron went down in a separate group. Jason's group saw only 1 coral spawning, while Leonard's group did see 2 corals spawning.

On the 17th, Jason brought a guest while Leonard & Nina dived separately to check another site. Jason did saw 4 different coral species spawn tonite. Leonard & Nina did see 1 big one spawned.

Pic above was taken before spawning, the eggs inside polyps had came out and can be seen clearly. Pic below was taken during spawning, we can clearly see the eggs being released and floated away with the current.

20 June '06

weather: raining in the morning, the rest of the day sunny, slight wind from the south
sea condition: viz 15m-20m
guides: Allan, Jimmy, Miki, Bobby, Ron

Today was as good as any other day. Big school of bumpheads and school of jacks with few giant trevallies. Lots of white tipped reef sharks, a few baby grey reef sharks, leopard shark and as usual big school of blue trigger fish and long fin bannerfish :-D and not to forget, lots and lots of turtles!!! Bobby's group saw a full body ribbon eel (very difficult to spot as it is usually in its burrow)...nudibranchs, giant frogfish etc etc...too long to post everything, will update nex time. The pic below of Allan with the giant frogfish is taken by Jimmy :-) enjoy...

Good Days

It's been a happening few days for those who dived with us. It also has been busy few days for us (the World Cup has added some extra "working" hours), so this is gonna be 3 days in 1 post...


17 June '06
weather: sunny, slight wind from south
sea condition: viz 15-25m
guides: Allan, Bobby, Jason, Jimmy, Sophia

A surprising day!! school of jacks, school of bumpheads, school of batfish and massive school of barracudas. Bobby and Jason's group saw 1 baby whaleshark swimming past the massive school of barracudas!! Although it is only a baby round 3.5m, but it is enough for those who saw it to get high underwater :-D as it is quite difficult to spot a whaleshark in Sipadan. For macros, those photogenic guys were still there, giant frogfish, leaf fish and loads of nudibranchs...

On the nite of 16th and 17th, there were corals spawning. We will update infos on that on another post :-)

18 June '06
weather: sunny, slight wind from south
sea condition: viz 15-30++m
guides: Bobby, Jason, Nina, Ron, Sophia

What a day...good viz & clear water!! still the massive school of jacks, school of batfish, school of bumpheads and also the big school of barracudas. There were many sharks and they were very active today. As usual, the giant frog fishes, leaf fishes, nudibranches were so good for the cameras...

Allan & Jason are studying surgeon fish spawning currently, they have been doing research dives on this for the past few days. Hopefully we can get a clearer idea of their behaviour in the near future so we can share it with u guys. During their dive today they spotted a pair of sea cucumbers mating also. The male was sperming (i hope that is the right word)...please check the pic attached :-)


19 June '06
weather: sunny, slight wind from south
sea condition: viz 15-25m, surface slightly choppy
guides: Allan, Jason, Jimmy, Nina

hehehe another good day!!! Good viz and woah...cold water!! small school of barracudas, school of batfish, and amazingly the whaleshark was spotted again. 2 divers saw it the second time already in 3 days...hmmm very lucky...so what we learn here, if Ghana can beat Czech Republic 2-0 in the World Cup, nothing is impossible!!! :-D Ian, the videographer from Scubazoo claimed that he smells like a shrimp, and that why the whaleshark was attracted here :-D the macro stars were always present, pgymy seahorse, leaf fish and giant frogfish.

If only everyday in our lives are as exciting as the past few days.....

hello !!!

hello all out there....

We are a bunch of scuba diving enthusiasts who are working as divemasters in Sipadan Water Village Resort at Mabul Island.

Never heard of or never been to Mabul Island?
Or it's been a long time since u heard from us?

no worries la...we'll keep u guys updated about everything...


at the moment we still dun hav any pics of us...a few are on holiday (*sigh*)...please come back from time to time to see the updates :-)

cheers, Happy Diving & maintain Pangit!!!!

the dive team :-D