AQUATASTIC projects our love and passion for scuba diving, marine life, marine conservation, fish identification & knowledge and underwater photography. It is our aim to give you the most recent news and info as well as dive tips and honest reviews to you.

We have a Dive Shop to provide you with all your diving needs located at the airport at Tawau, a major transit point to marvelous diving spots like Sipadan, Mabul, Mataking, Kapalai, the Tun Sakaran Marine Park and other exotic dive sites and islands near Semporna. In addition to that, this dive shop; much like the purpose of this blog, introduces you to dive courses that we can conduct and interesting dive sites not just in our area but around South East Asia. To know more about the places and resorts we love to go, check out the useful links on the right side of this blog.

Feel free to send me an email if you have any inquiries at: allister.03@gmail.com, allister@streamyx.com

You can also visit our dive shop at this website: www.aquatastic.net and email: info@aquatastic.net

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Snorkel Test

Naz the champ! No doubt the best in the world!

You could have done perfectly well in your final exam; performed excellently during the training dives with your instructor and you are on cloud nine as you get yourself all dressed up to get certified. As expected your instructor is already at the bar chillin when he waved you over with a rather mischievous grin. With a can of Tiger beer in his stronger hand he held your certificate high up with his weaker one and the evening wind nearly stole your cert from the tip of his fingers. Just when you think you had done enough and gotten close enough to grab your award, your instructor refused to hand it to you and instead led you to a chair, made you sit and made you put your mask and snorkel back on again.

"YOU WANT YOUR CERT THEN YOU WILL HAVE TO EARN IT!" he announced.

"YOUR FINAL TEST: THE SNORKEL TEST!" he added gleefully.

From there you find yourself sucking in cold Tiger beer poured into your snorkel and since you can't breath through your nose with your mask on you could find this to be rather challenging and as seconds go by you might find it ridiculous but fun! Besides enjoying a free Tiger beer you would also appreciate the cheers from the crowd and the few seconds of fame & glory drinking in the limelight. "Excellent!" your instructor said before handing you your truly well deserved certificate...

Congrats to our new and awesome divers: Timothy, Jim, Jacob, Sandra and Bjorn!


Super Sandra!


Bravo Bjorn!


Tim did it like a pro!


Jim would rather have whiskey rather than beer I guess...


Jacob the man!


A briefing before the test. Kiet showing a good example.


Naz pleaded hard to get her turn. Hehe

Thursday, May 1, 2008

An awesome end for April


Filled with 200+ bars of air - by Denny&Liz

My week in a nutshell:

My life is sadly getting hectic,
And people been calling me eccentric,
With my dive gears packed off I go diving,
To get away from them all as I start my rhyming.

I enjoyed the dives at Sipadan with Denny and Liz,
Both of em so cool I bet they're in showbiz,
"They're natural", says Pun-Pun the seahorse,
As they completed their Advanced Open Water Course!

Next to Mabul with my cousin the no-nonsense Nick,
And from afar came the b'day gal Josey; a lovely chick,
Soon arrived the loving couple no other than Melissa and Ken,
Not forgetting jolly good Aaron and Ben.

With Big John and his members we made our first dive,
Current so damn strong it made us feel so very alive!
But thank god the deeper we went the milder the current,
Everyone was safe but were we tired? Hell no we weren't! (we ain't gonna admit it)

Our second dive was fantastic; Lady Luck heard my wish,
Met our old friends the mandarin fish and the frogfish,
We met some juvenile friends: bi-color parrotfish and the rock-mover wrasse,
But the Titan trigger fish was prepared to kick my arse...
Nice vis with no current and nice hot sun,
Just the right place and time for really awesome fun.

We departed for Semporna again and Josey missing Mabul I see,
Being a good man I bought her a nice lunch at KFC!
Everyone was happy; laughing and smiling or at least I felt that way,
Diving should always be this good and we will do it again this coming May!


Pic 1: At Sipadan with Denny & Liz!
Pic 2: The Umizaru: Nick and Allister gone bananas?

The group pic from left: Ken, Melissa, Nicholas, Aaron, Ben, Me and Josephine.

The birthday girl with her cheesecake! You ain't teenager no more so welcome to the club hehehe...