Dive #4: Mak Cantik (Mini Sea Mount)

Date: 25 August 2006
Day: Friday
Location: Redang Island Malaysia
Time: 17:20 (GMT +8:00)
Duration: 0:28
Cumulative Time: 2:40
Max Depth: 18.0 meters
Sky: Clear
Waters: Choppy
Visibility: 4 meters
Bottom Temp: 27 ºC
Starting Air: 3,100psi
Ending Air: 1,500psi
Surface Interval: 1:51
Starting Pressure Group: B
Ending Pressure Group: O
Dive Buddy: Soon Yean
Divemaster: John & Koh (Coral Redang)

Back-roll off the boat's railing, approximately 1 meter above the surface - that's got to give you an adrenalin rush. I somehow managed to screw it up - *idiot*! Upon rolling backwards, I didn't lift my crossed legs high enough so my left leg slammed the railing. It almost felt like I was dangling off the boat upside-down. The pain in the leg muscle caused a reflex movement which let me drop nicely into the water, nicely... just not gracefully. :Þ

Fortunately the incident didn't affect my ability to dive or fin. The sore was only intense after I got out of the water. Although it wasn't a good experience, and I probably won't get to back-roll off a boat again in local waters (giant stride is a more common entry style), I still appreciate the practice. Lesson learnt - tighten up the ball-like figure when doing the back-roll.

On descent with Chewy and the others, we had our first experience of a thermocline. Sometimes due to weather, the water forms two layers of different temperatures. The upper layer being warmer, the lower cooler. What felt like a sudden drop of 5-10ºC, in fact was only a variation of 2ºC. I guess the human anatomy just wasn't built for sudden changes in environment.

Aquatic life was as usual, corals, spawning sea cucumbers, a black tip reef shark, etc. Nothing we hadn't already seen. But it was still beautiful scenery. I appreciate every moment of it.

Dive ended prematurely because one of us ran out of air. The 45-minute dive was cut short to an embarassing half hour. I still had half a tank of air... what a waste! And the 15-minute wait for the other divers was torturous because the boat was swaying back and forth with the waves. We noobs were all getting seasick and there wasn't enough of my preserved fruit to go around. *LOL*!

Note to all new divers: bring your own sea-sickness countermeasures! *Bleah*!