Big waves coming in tomoro till the weekend. No good for diving but great for surfing. So pack up your diving gear and bring out your boards!

Surfing in Borneo

Kudat "Tip Of Borneo"

Surf season:

Most or all surfing only can be found on the west coast of Sabah. Obviously it comes all from the bigger south china sea. From Late July till November we get the southwest monsoon. Occasional big storms pass by and we get waves between 3 - 6 foot in Tanjung aru which is only 15 min drive from KK city. But the waves gets bigger if you travel further up north like towards Nexus up to Kudat.From December up March the wind changes to the Northwest Monsoon, and the swells starts coming in more frequently, but size varies alot from 2 feet to 8 foot. During this time most of the swells will be hitting Nexus and further up north to kudat. KK Area will be protected by the Islands so they wont be much.

Tanjung Aru- 10 mins away from Kota Kinabalu City

Where to Surf:

During the southwest monsoon and the occasional typhoon that hits KK, most of the local surfers will head down to Tg Aru Beach after work. Its only 15 mins drive from downtown. Tg Aru is one of the easiest spots to surf especially if you are a beginner. The swells if its really good, it can go up to 6ft but that's rare. Most of the time it's 3- 4 ft when its surf-able. Many times though the waves can be disappointing, so if you in KK and you want to try Tg aru don't expect too much.
As most of the local surfers know the best and nearest place to surf will be in Karambunai in front of Nexus Resort beach area. You can get some good long left breaks caused by the live corals at the bottom. It can create waves for beginners to advance. You can also get good breaks at the beach area whereby the bottom is sand. Currents here can be strong.
The problem about Nexus is you can only surf there if you are an in house guest and there's only 1 resort there and rooms you can expect to pay between RM350 and above. But if you got a group of 4 and if you want to save $ just share 1 room because most of the rooms are big. So if you decide to stay in Nexus resort you can just take a taxi from airport direct to Nexus and yes taxis in KK are expensive, all taxis know where it is, cost is maybe rm70.00 for 30 mins traveling time. For bookings always informs us as we got friends working (also a surfer) there so sometimes if there's any promotions we could inform you.
Another way is we get a group of surfers to share a boat and head up the coast to nexus. Boat charter will cost between rm300- rm400 per day. It takes about 25 min by boat from the KK jetty. So it depends on your budget whether you rather stay in Nexus or KK.
In KK there's alot of backpackers lodge and good 3 star hotels. B&B cost rm25 a night and 3 Star about rm180.00 Kudat is the next best spot. It has good left beach breaks. The wave there is fast. The only problem is distance. It takes 3 hour dive from K.K to Kudat. The beach is open to everyone. You can stay at the local longhouse for rm25 per night which is situated right in front of the beach. But the accommodation is very basic. Its a half hour drive to kudat town. I started bodyboarding in about 1990 and switch to surfing about 1998 after I went to Bali and got my own board. Most of my bodyboard buddies left the scene and back then I didn't see or hear any surfers around so I stopped. I only started to really surf again when I met Charles and Kanesh which was in 2005. Now the group has grown to about 10 really passionate surfers and about 2 bodyboarders. We have a pro too, English dude who use to work in a surf school, I knew him 5 years ago but I only found out he's a surfer last year. Occasionally there’s 5 or more beginners who comes and joins us once in awhile when the surf is easy for them to handle. But overall the surf scene in KK is very small, but at least now people are noticing due to the benefits of facebook and etc. Surf boards and acc we order or get friends to buy coming from overseas like Bali or Australia and sometimes KL. Nothing in KK except for Quicksilver shop which don't sell anything but very expensive clothes. But we do have a ding repair man who runs a fiber glass shop.

These are the other surf spots we have been to but we think there are many more we haven't discovered yet.

1. Shabandar Tuaran. Swell can go up to 8ft, often strong currents. Easily accessible. Watch out for flies and cow dung on the beach! Lol!




2. Kota Belud. Swell height up 10ft, strong currents. Easy access. Beach is very isolated so make sure there's few of you when heading up there. Not much trees around, so it can be hot. Be friendly to the local villagers and strictly no dating on this beach otherwise you'll piss-off the villagers...

Tips for Scuba Diver

Beating Stress

1. Practice skills under stressful and task-loaded condition in a benign environment.
2. Always make sure you dive within your own comfort zone. Only you really know its limits.
3. Thoroughly prepare for every dive and thoroughly plan every one of your dives.
4. Deal with small problems as they arise to prevent lots of small problems becoming one big one.
5. Test out only one item of new equipment at a time. No extreme dives with unfamiliar kit.
6. Don't dive if it doesn't feel right. Nervous excitement is not to be confuse with real concern.
7. Dive with a skilled buddy when extending your personal experience.
8. If you get a problem underwater remember to STOP... BREATHE...THINK...ACT.
9.Be fit to dive. Both physically and mentally-particularly after a longish lay-off.
10. No diving with hangovers! Don't let a Saturday night binge ruin the dives.

How to help a panicking buddy

You need to help reduce the level of stress and bring your buddy back from the brink of panic.
Put one hand on their shoulder.
Establish good eye contact.
Signal for them to stop and breath deeply.
Often a reassuring squeeze of the hand that lets your buddy know you're there for them is enough to calm them down.

p/s : Girls! log into www.girldiver.com

Let's go Scuba diving!!

Mantanani the Paradise Island

Mantanani Island is one of the great get away paradise island in the West Coast of Sabah. It takes about 1 hour drive from Kota Kinabalu to Kg Rampaiyan Kota Belud and another 45 - 1 hour boat ride depending on the weather to Mantanani Island. You can get away to the island to do Discover Scuba diving, leisure dive and snorkeling at a few beautiful coral reefs there, if it is your day you might see "Duggong" near by and some turtles too. After the first dive we had our lunch at noon. Theres toilets, changing rooms and table setting for lunch on the island and of course the lunch is BBQ :) . At 2pm we went for the second dive before heading home, there are still lot's of dive sites that we need to dive here and we certainly coming back here again. For those who are interested to visit or dive at this beautiful island please do not hesitate to contact us, We are happy to provide you the info.

Photo & Diver:Louis
Dive Instructor: Reuben

Diving in Tengku Abdul Rahman parks.

TAR park offers more than 20 different dive sites in and around its area. The reefs are mostly made up of hard corals starting at a depth of 5m if not shallower and gradually decends to a sandy bottom between 10-30m depending on the dive site. Average visibility around TARP is around 10 metres but it does get better or worst during certain months.
You can expect to see alot more macro around the TARP reefs such as frogfish, tons of nudibranch, pipefishes and etc. Dont expect too much big fish action although occasionally you do get to see some schools of Barracudas and Jacks. Between the month of January till March if you're lucky you might get to see the Whalesharks which has been a yearly event for the K.K folks.
Best time to dive would be during the southwest monsoon from April to August. Water temperature throughout the year is between 30c although it does go down to 24c during the months of January and Febuary.

If you like muck diving and macro photography or even you are a novice diver who just want to get more experience on your belt you will love diving in K.K. Currents are normally very mild to none in most of the dive sites.

There are certain sites preferably for Advanced divers like Agil's Reef and Edgell Patches where currents can get really strong and the top of the reef starts at 10-12m. Because of this not many Dive centres know the exact location of these hidden dive sites. Here when the currents pick up, you can see alot more big stuff like baracudas and etc. I personally have seen pygmy devil rays, eagle rays and grey reef sharks although I must say these sightings are rare. The corals on Agil's reef especially are really good. Lots of beautiful hard & soft corals, huge seafans and barrel sponges.

Dive Packages

1. Discover Scuba Diving ( DSD )
- City hotel return transfer.
- Full use of Scuba gear.
- 10AM Boat departure from Sutera Jetty.
- One shore dive & One boat dive. (Tengku Abdul Rahman Park)
- Refreshment.
- Park fee.
p/s Minimum Two pax.

2. Leisure dives
- City hotel return transfer.
- Full use of Scuba gear.
- 10AM Boat departure from Sutera Jetty.
- Two or Three boat dives ( Tengku Abdul Rahman Park)
- Refreshment.
- Park fee.
p/s Minimum Two pax.

3. Sunset dives at Tengku Abdul Rahman Island (Minimum 2 Pax)
4. Leisure dives at Mantanani Island (Minimum 2 Pax)
5. Usukan (Kota Belud) wreck diving (Minimum 2 Pax)
6. Leisure dives at Mengalum Island (Minimum 5 Pax)
7. Leisure dives at Layang-Layang Island (Advance booking)
8. Leisure dives at Sipadan Mabul Island (Advance booking)