kapalai-sipadan, malaysia certification dive trip

28-31  january 2010:  i joined my group of malaysian diver-friends from kuala lumpur and ventured down to kapalai/sipadan – a small group of islands just off the south eastern shore of malaysian-borneo for a few days of diving. known for its pristine waters, stunning wall dives full of turtles and sharks - we were looking forward to several days of spectacular diving and R&R. while the visibility didn’t turn out as terrific as i’ve seen sipadan before, we all still had a great time. PADI welcomed 4 new divers on this trip. i was able to finish up certifying my first two star open-water students: Geraldine Chan & Jia Wen Loo. in addition, it was also my honour to certify two new advanced open-water divers, Sit Fong Wong and Jia Mayne Loo in the deep waters off sipadan’s shores. we stayed at Kapalai Water Village – a chinese-owned resort built on stilts in the open ocean upon a shallow reef/sand-bank, staffed predominantly to my surprise by numerous dive crew from the Philippines! i was very happy to meet the filipino staff and they too were happy to see a filipino instructor on property. yabang pinoy! our DM, Alvin, was also a fil-chinese like myself. you can see a pic below of me and him toasting ice cold Tiger beers after our last dive. (we are not only kababayan, we also dove with the same equipment and are both left-handed! a sure sign of a great diver!) below are several photos from the dive.  click on the individual thumbnails for a larger view.  there are much more and i’ll be making a slideshow later. but a final congratulations to the new divers: Gerry, Jia Wen, Sit Fong & Jia Mayne. you guys worked hard and did well. i’m really proud of all of you. we can be buddies anytime! well done!

Taking Sit Fong and Jia Mayne (advanced students) on their first night dive. Fun!

Sit Fong and I – Thermal Tec and A700 Scubapro BW’s! Cool!

The view from my bungalow down the long pier back to the main resort hall. Had to walk past 41 bungalows every day.

The exhausted divers snoozing in the Garden Lounge between dives.

The water in Kapalai Water Village was spectacularly clear!

Another view of the Kapalai Water Village Resort.

Me floating next to one of my Advanced students, Jia Mayne after successfully completing her Underwater Navigation exercise.

Sit Fong and I again posing with our A700’s!

The magnificent Petronas Towers on a magnificent day in K.L. before leaving for Kapalai.

My two open water students, Jia Wen & Gerry – paying careful attention to my underwater demonstration. Look at the concentration!

Jia Wen performing her final skill – complete mask removal, replacement and clearing while underwater.

Our Scubapro A700 regulators enjoying the sunset after a long day of diving.

Drinking games courtesy of the local DM’s + Tiger beer.

Selamat Datang, Laksa Divers!

Filipino-Chinese Alvin the DM and I toasting our success after 3 days of full-on diving.

The Malaysian flag flying proud at Kapalai Water Village resort.

The Oakley boyz – Jason, Me & Allan.

I flew MAS back to KL alone from Tawau aboard this 737 – an airplane I used to fly.

She Dives. The two sisters – one open water, one advanced on the early morning flight to Tawau.

Low cost but charge you for everything…RM15 for every 1 kilo overweight bags.

Well Wong & Speedy happy to be in Tawau.

Speedy signing her life away to me. Only 2 more dives Speedy!!

A stressed Well Wong signing her life away to me as well.

Mayne (a.k.a. Pacific a.k.a. Gorillaffe) happily signing her life away to me.

My star open-water student, Gerry contemplating which Cheezel fingers to eat first.

On our way to Kapalai Water Village via speedboat.

Me with two Malay girls on a secluded beach outside of Kapalai.

Presenting my two open water students their Certification “C-Cards” underwater with sister Mayne congratulating in the background. Congratulations Gerry & Jia Wen!

congratulations new open water divers – Tyler & Kyle

on 5 January 2010, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) welcomed two new open water divers to their ranks, my nephews - Tyler & Kyle Chen. they successfully completed their open water course in anilao, batangas, philippines with me as their instructor. good job and congratulations you guys! hope to see you in the water again soon. here are some photos from their course.

back to Mac

16 years ago i graduated from the university of washington in seattle, u.s.a. as a computer information systems business school major. i worked as a mac consultant at the macintosh computer lab in balmer hall, home of the UW business school. after i graduated, however, i left the world of macintosh and was a pc/windows guru….until now. it’s time to make the switch ‘back to Mac’ with my new 27″ iMac! it’s good to be back in a new yet incredibly familiar enivronment. from the glory years of the macintosh to my new iMac, i toast apple and welcome you back onto my desktop! here’s to hopefully 16 more years of mac magic.

My Classic 1993 Mac with a whopping 2 MB of RAM!! woo hoo! yes, i still have it and it still works! and the new 27″iMac…Intel i7 Quad Core processor, 2 TB HDD, 16 GB RAM. it’s nice to be back.

king of bling…because deep down, you want the best

my gift to myself for passing the instructor’s course. i’ll copy Scubapro’s advert ‘coz they say it best. bling bling! WSF

The MK25 teamed with our exceptional new A700, offers superior ultra-high airflow system for maximum performance in all temperatures and diving conditions. SCUBAPRO is synonymous with piston-controlled first stages. Our MK25 underscores this heritage with an array of patented features and ultra-stable intermediate pressure, for an extremely punctual and consistent high delivery of air, ensuring unfailing performance. The MK25 balanced piston first stage is our absolute top performer, making this system our very best!

• Air balanced flow-through piston provides constant and effortless air flow unaffected by changing tank pressure.
• Newly polished chrome edition, available uniquely with A700 system, with 5 low pressure and 2 high pressure ports plus swiveling turret for convenient arrangement and personalisation of your gear.
• Anti-freeze protection for all diving temperatures and externally adjustable intermediate pressure for easy maintenance.
• Available in either 232bar INT or 300bar DIN configuration.

For more details and some great video on the A700, visit http://www.scubapro.com/A700

**  It’s always a good day to go diving!  **

learn to dive with me!

working on some PADI promotional posters! click on the thumbnails for a larger view. anyone interested in scuba instruction feel free to drop me a line. if you are not located in hong kong, let me know and perhaps we can work something out and arrange a class where you’re located. with my travel benefits as an airline pilot, it’s probably easier for me to come to you than for you to come to hong kong. my ideal places for instruction would be philippines, thailand, malaysia, and indonesia – the choicest diving spots by far in all of southeast asia.  so if that works out for you, let’s go diving!

PADI Instructor! OWSI-260021

after 10 grueling days of classroom, pool, and open-water training, i finally finished my PADI instructor development course (IDC) with Sea Fun Divers in Phuket, Thailand! my terrific course director from norway, Bent Posejpal (http://igotbent.com/) saw me through the intense course, culminating in a 3-day Instructor Exam (IE) administered by official PADI asia-pacific instructor examiners who flew up from Australia to conduct our final examination. after passing the written exam on day 1, confined (pool teaching exam), classroom presentation on day 2, and a final-open water (beach) examination on day 3 in the pouring rain, i successfully passed the IE and am now an official PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor. that’s my PADI Pro number above - my identity has been stripped and i am now merely a number – but proud of it! congratulations to all the other candidates who passed the IE along with me on 18 October 2009 in Phuket! see you in the water someday.  thank goodness it’s over.  now, if only i had some students!!! the fun begins. dive safe!

divemaster success!

on 27th september 2009 i officially joined the ranks of one of PADI’s newest professional divers reaching Divemaster status! thanks to Tim Campbell, my instructor, and everyone i learned from down at Sea Bees Diving in Chalong, Phuket, Thailand (http://www.sea-bees.com/eng/index.htm) – i had a terrific time. i experienced everything from mantas and sharks to panicked divers and dealing with an actual dive emergency. i assisted and guided customers from all over the world. assisted someone who didn’t even know how to snorkel – become an avid and competent diver by the end of the course. it was truly a great experience that i wouldn’t trade for the world. i met and worked with some of the best people in the industry. if anyone wants to dive Thailand – definitely go with Sea Bees. they are hands down the best. contact me if you have any doubts. i am now on my way to becoming an instructor. hope to dive with you all again soon. to everyone i met in thailand and to all the customers who joined me ‘n Sea Bees from around the world…warm love and thanks and happy, SAFE diving!

going pro

i will be away for the entire month of september in phuket, thailand doing my first professional level scuba course – the PADI divemaster - with Sea Bees Dive Academy. i can be reached via email should you need to contact me. however, it may take me a while to reply as i will probably be underwater for most of the month! sending warm regards from sunny phuket, thailand. wish me luck.

African Safari – The Big 5…err, well, Big 3!

I just returned from my first trip to South Africa. Not only was it my first time in that part of the world but it was finally nice to be on an entire continent I’ve never visited before. The place is absolutely mesmorizing. You truly get a sense that this vast, but rich land was definitely among the first places that existed at the beginning of time. I went on a 2-day safari just around 2 hours north-west of Johannesburg and Pretoria – staying at Sable Ranch Thaba Khaya Lodge – run by a lovely couple (and new-found-friends), Storm and Ken. Shout out to both of you for a FANSTASTIC first-class stay! Highly recommended. The ranch has over 2600 head of game – among them leopard, buffalo, black and white rhino, giraffe, hippo, eland, kudu, and of course roan and the highly prized and rare sable antelope. Among the Big 5 african game animals (elephant, leopard, white rhino, cape buffalo, and lion) I was only able to see 3. I guess that means I’ll have to come back again! We ended our trip at Ukutula Lion Park where I was able to play, feed, and care for my own cub named Cash. You can see Cash’s photos and some of my other photos of the wild african game on my Multiply website (http://esguerra1.multiply.com/) Just click the photo album with Cash’s picture on it. You can’t miss him!

first video upload – diving with the ulua in anilao, philippines

School in session with the Jacks in Anilao, Philippines.

my cousin and i recently went to anilao and happened upon a huge school of jacks (known as “ulua” in hawaiian) as we swam along the depths of the TWIN ROCKS dive site in batangas, philippines. i was able to swim amidst the entire school and film them while my cousin was messin’ around in the background. we swam amongst these fish for around 30 minutes it was so relaxing. it’s among the only time i enjoy being in a school! (Sorry, you’ll have to click the Hyperlink above to view the video as I haven’t purchased a video upgrade account embed the video here).