Recent Layang Layang - Labuan trip (early Apr 2012)

[fayol]

Didn't see Hammerhead, but spotted this guy:

DSC_6776.jpg

[chewkit]

nice shoot! I wonder how close to the whale?

[Eskasi]

Wow... VERY cool! How was the rest of the diving though in general? LL felt a little disappointing for me when I went to the shootout last year...

[fayol]

nice shoot! I wonder how close to the whale?

pretty close... reachable by hand touch (although not my style of doing it, always.)

[fayol]

Wow... VERY cool! How was the rest of the diving though in general? LL felt a little disappointing for me when I went to the shootout last year...

Except didn't have a chance to meet with Hammerhead Shark (due to water too hot this year, 28'c!), MANTA, EAGLE RAY and TREASURE SHARK made us deep breath!

[nicktsc]

nice shoot ! is huge !

[teokf]

How SURE that a diver would meet these big pelagic life in LL? I would want to be close to one of these beautiful creatures b4 my day is up. Thinking of Nabire as I understand from divers that there are whale sharks constantly around those waters. Saw some amazing, amazing pixs.

[chzehong]

I went LL in April 2011. Pretty much all dives are deep blue dives with no walls nor reference point. Strong current dragged us away from the reef and it was impossible to fight.

Nevertheless, the reef is absolutely amazing. But we had a hard time trying to stay on the reef or near the wall due to the current and surge.

BUT, when the hammerhead showed up, all is forgotten.

We spotted the hammerhead in 4 dives, and manta in 3.

[noordin]

Cool catch.

[teokf]

I went LL in April 2011. Pretty much all dives are deep blue dives with no walls nor reference point. Strong current dragged us away from the reef and it was impossible to fight.

Nevertheless, the reef is absolutely amazing. But we had a hard time trying to stay on the reef or near the wall due to the current and surge.

BUT, when the hammerhead showed up, all is forgotten.

We spotted the hammerhead in 4 dives, and manta in 3.

Does it mean you have to drift dive in LL with the dive boat following above? I guess in these situations reef hook doesn't help? I remembered when I took my AOW and I was brought out about 2km from land and told to do a negative dive and then move towards land. That 1st time experience underwater without any reference point was least to say frightening. But, after getting back my senses I was ok.

How deep did you have to go to encounter these big fellas? I am thinking of doing the specialty 40 meters course.

[Scheelings]

people dive their whole lives without seeing a whale shark.... lucky man

[teokf]

people dive their whole lives without seeing a whale shark.... lucky man

well, if they are diving in a pond behind their house, they wouldn't even see a nudibranch their whole life 8-) Want to see, go to where their habitats are

[chzehong]

Does it mean you have to drift dive in LL with the dive boat following above? I guess in these situations reef hook doesn't help? I remembered when I took my AOW and I was brought out about 2km from land and told to do a negative dive and then move towards land. That 1st time experience underwater without any reference point was least to say frightening. But, after getting back my senses I was ok.

How deep did you have to go to encounter these big fellas? I am thinking of doing the specialty 40 meters course.

It really depends on the particular dive. Certain dives the current were mild and we could easily fight our way back onto the reef. But during my time there, more than half the dives were without any reference. I set my heading on my compass so I know where the reef is, but there is no way to fight the current.

That is also the fun part if you ask me. We were diving out in the open with no reference, deep, dark and cold. Even the visibility was about 50m, we still could not find the reef so I assume we were pretty far out .

The deepest dive I did was 41m. To capture a vid of a school of jacks. The hammerheads were mostly around the 35m region. Most of the dive we will be hanging out between 25 - 30m and if nothing shows up towards the end of the dive, we will return to the shallow reef to search for micro stuff. That is IF we could fight our way back .

[Eskasi]

One more question if you don't mind bro... were the hammers at 30 or so or could you only see them at that depth? I would go down deeper if I could shoot them from below!

[teokf]

Does the DC there have Nitrox? I calculated, at 25 - 30m there isn't much bottom time. Kay, to shoot from below which would be great shots, but wouldn't a diver need to go at least 10m below the big fella which would then half the air time and it wouldn't give a diver much air unless it's twin tanks. Quite some logistics to shoot these big fellas. Unless a UWP is happy to just shoot them from the top.

[chzehong]

One more question if you don't mind bro... were the hammers at 30 or so or could you only see them at that depth? I would go down deeper if I could shoot them from below!

Yes if you have enough no decompression time left I guess you could go deeper to shoot from below. The DMs discourages us to shoot with flash though. I only had videos of the hammerheads because I couldn't get up close enough.

Does the DC there have Nitrox? I calculated, at 25 - 30m there isn't much bottom time. Kay, to shoot from below which would be great shots, but wouldn't a diver need to go at least 10m below the big fella which would then half the air time and it wouldn't give a diver much air unless it's twin tanks. Quite some logistics to shoot these big fellas. Unless a UWP is happy to just shoot them from the top.

As far as I remember they do not provide Nitrox. But then you cannot dive so deep while using Enriched Air. Max depth for EAN32 is 32.4m and EAN36 is 27.8m. So Nitrox is not the solution.

Go trimix or rebreather

[fayol]

How SURE that a diver would meet these big pelagic life in LL? I would want to be close to one of these beautiful creatures b4 my day is up. Thinking of Nabire as I understand from divers that there are whale sharks constantly around those waters. Saw some amazing, amazing pixs.

Never carry any expectation while diving, is not the way of enjoying this sport! Marine life isn't puppet, they keeping moving all the time! :-p

[fayol]

Does it mean you have to drift dive in LL with the dive boat following above? I guess in these situations reef hook doesn't help? I remembered when I took my AOW and I was brought out about 2km from land and told to do a negative dive and then move towards land. That 1st time experience underwater without any reference point was least to say frightening. But, after getting back my senses I was ok.

How deep did you have to go to encounter these big fellas? I am thinking of doing the specialty 40 meters course.

Is not the matter of going deep for this lovely creature, is the water temperature raise them up to shallow depth. Hammerhead Shark love cold water, same as their living environment (around 25'c or below). If water cold enough, you can easily spot them at the depth less than 20M! Unfortunately our time was too hot (28'c)!

[Eskasi]

I would stay shallow and hope to catch them early in the dive... let the DM signal up to me if they are spotted and then drop like a rock to 40... bang bang bang and then go up No flash makes hammer sillouettes the ONLY viable shark shots at those depths! But of course, you MUST have enough deco time. You simply cannot go into deco out in the blue. In strong current, they may not find you when you surface It's no wonder that it's discouraged in LL.... ALWAYS have a sausage at LL!

[optixsyz]

that was huge!!!