I just finished my PADI Open Water Certification, and boy was it fun!
I did my diving certification at Pulau Perhentian with Sea Voice Divers over four days. I went there with seven other friends who were also doing the same certification. We were divided into two groups of four, each under a different dive master. The dive master I was assigned to was Cikgu Man, a really funny and entertaining guy. We did a total of five dives, four of them training dives and one a fun dive.
Learning and Training
Prior to the trip, we had spent ten hours working through the online PADI Open Water course and quiz. When we arrived at Sea Voice Divers, they basically recapped what we’d learned, going through how each equipment works (snorkel, BCD, regulator, fins, cylinder) and basic diving signals. Before we were able to touch any tanks though, we went snorkeling off the shore as a kind of water confidence test. As most of us were already comfortable with swimming, we drifted along the surface, enjoyed the scenery and tried to identify underwater life. Luckily, we spotted a baby bamboo shark!
We gradually learned scuba diving skills over the next three days. For our first dive, we went to Romantic Beach. It was a shore dive, where we walked backwards down the shore to enter the water. It was sort of another water confidence test, but this time with scuba diving gear. Looking back, I’d say the shore dive was the least fun method to enter the water, since I didn’t enjoy walking in fins while carrying a heavy tank. Here, we learned to breathe through the regulator and maintain neutral buoyancy. Our maximum depth was about 5 meters, and we spent roughly 53 minutes underwater.
Our next dive was at D’Lagoon, where we did our first boat dive using a back roll entry. It was so much better than a shore dive. It was scary the first time, but it turned out to be the best way to enter the water. I didn’t have to deal with the heavy tank weight and I could go straight into the water. We also went much deeper this time, to 11.8 meters. We learned about partial and fully flooded mask clearing, as well as the tired diver tow at the surface.
In the afternoon, we were briefed on compass navigation for our third dive at Adam and Eve Beach. Each buddy pair received an analogue compass watch, and we learned about its top and side views, and how to rotate the bezel to set the direction of the dive. We also had to memorize how many kicks we took and then turn back to reach the exact starting position. At the end of the dive, we learned about CESA, or Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent. One of the tips for this was that we should vocalize an “AAA!” sound so that we would continuously exhale while ascending.
At this point, we had mostly completed our training dives. We only had one skill left to learn, and we were now more comfortable with scuba diving. Instead of focusing on skills for the majority of the dive time, we could spend more time enjoying the underwater scenery.
Observing Marine Life
For our fourth and final training dive, our dive master brought us to Panglima Abu, a rock formation off the coast of the island. Underwater, it was described to have some table corals and a variety of marine life. As we descended from the boat, we were immediately greeted by huge bumpheads. I was so amazed by their size. They were the biggest fishes we’d seen so far. There were about four or five of them hanging around. As we left them, a triggerfish actually started attacking one of the bumpheads. I didn’t see it myself, but the dive master and my friends loved recalling that moment afterward.
We also came across a stingray resting close to the seabed between the corals. After taking a quick peek, I made sure to stay clear of it, since I know that they can be dangerous (RIP Steve Irwin). This was also our deepest dive, at 15.7 meters. For our final lesson of the last training dive, we learned how to deploy an inflatable signal tube. Not long after, we ascended back to the boat.
As we took off our gear and got ready to head back to the island, our dive master splashed us with water from his fins and shouted, “We have eight new certified open water divers!” We all screamed and cheered, celebrating the fruits of our labor. We headed back to the island for a quick rest and lunch before our final dive of the trip, and our first fun dive as certified open water divers.
The Fun Dive
For our actual final dive, we went to Serenggeh Island, about 30 minutes from Pulau Perhentian. During the dive site briefing, we were warned to watch out for strong currents and fire corals in some sections. We’d also be diving through a cave, which sounded so exciting. So we did our usual back roll and descended to the sea floor. We began the dive by admiring some large coral formations and swimming around them. They were so pretty. I wished I could take pictures, but since I didn’t have any cameras on me, I focused on committing the image to memory instead.
Halfway through the dive, we started encountering fire corals. I was so scared of them (a friend told me that their colleague ended up in the hospital after touching one) that I stayed well clear of anything that looked even slightly red. After the whole fire coral section, we came across two large rock formations that looked like Arizona’s Antelope Canyon. I assumed this was the cave we’d been briefed about. Once again, I was amazed at the beauty of seeing such a thing underwater. We swam through it, careful not to touch the vertical walls. It was quite difficult, as the canyon was narrow and left little room to maneuver.
Soon after, we had to ascend, as there was a big rock in front of us with only about 0.3 meters of water above it. The current was strong here too, and we had to coast through the shallow water, barely clearing the rocks below. I was actually a bit nervous about scraping against the rock, since they had a reddish tint and I thought they might be fire corals. I tried to swim slowly and carefully, but the current was so strong that the person behind me bumped into me, forcing me to let go and drift past the area. Once we were in the clear, we descended again for the last stretch of the dive.
Truth be told, I was actually scared during that previous section. The current was so strong, and I thought I might have brushed against a fire coral (I hadn’t). But when I looked back and saw my friends signaling “OK,” I knew that it was fine. We swam calmly through the final section of the dive and then ascended back to the boat.
So that was my first open water diving experience (I actually did confined water diving in high school, but that’s a story for another time). It was so much fun. I vividly remember the beauty of our underwater friends. I can’t wait for my next dive trip.