Scuba Diving

I have always been fascinated by the underwater world. As a kid I learned how to swim under water long before I learned how to swim above. So when I was asked to join a dive course in 1994, I was pretty easy to convince. The course was a NAUI course at Nato, Kolsaas. We started the course in January and we had theory / pool sessions every Friday evening until Easter. In May, after 12 Open Water dives we were finally certified divers (NAUI Advanced Scuba Diver & CMAS ** ).

I have now done more than 700 dives, about 100 of them being in cold water. Most of my Norwegian dives has been in inner Oslo Fjord (Asker to Sandefjord), but I have also been diving in Kragero/Mandal/Farsund/Flekkefjord/Kristiansand (South) and Strømsholmen/Lygnstølsvatnet (West). There is some great diving in Norway, but the diving gets better the further you get away from the Inner Oslo Fjord (...where I have done most of my dives). Still, I have had many great dives in inner Oslo Fjord. The focus of the dives there is more on getting under water and to feel the calm, sounds and sights of the underwater realm.

I have also done tropical diving in various places around the world:

• Thailand: Koh Similan / Koh Phi-Phi / Phuket / Koh Tao / Koh Samui / Koh Chang

• Indonesia: Pualau Weh / Komodo / Gili Island / Bali / Togean Islands / Lembeh Strait

• Malaysia: Sipadan / Mabul / Kapalai / Tioman Island

• Philippines: Coron / Malapascua Island / Alona Beach / Balicasag Island / Ducomi / Dauin / Apo Island / Sipalay / Moalboal

• Vietnam: Nha Trang

• Australia: Coral Sea / Sydney

• Tanzania: Zanzibar

• Egypt: Dahab / Thistlegorm / Ras Mohammed

• Mexico: Cenote / Cozumel / Manzanillo

• Belize: Lighthouse Reef

• Honduras: Roatan / Utila

• Brazil: Ilha Grande / Arraial do Cabo

• Equador: Galapagos Islands

When I decided to leave Norway to travel it was natural to take the Divemaster course so that I could dive for free and even get some money thrown after me. As PADI is the most widespread dive organization I ended up converting to PADI when I did the Divemaster course at PG Dykk from April to June 2002.

Looking for a job on Phi-Phi I found out that it would be a lot easier to get work if I was an instructor, so I signed up on the IDC/IE (Instructor Development Course / Instructor Exam) with Course Director Bent  Posejpal. The course started November 2 and prepared us well for the IE (10-11/12 2002) as well as for working as an dive instructor. Soon after I started working for Island Divers in Phi-Phi. Got my teaching status on the 4th of December and started my first course the very same day. The next year I was working in Neptunes Diving, based on a large resort in Manzanillo on the Pacific coast of Mexico. I came back to Phi-Phi in late 2004 to work in Sea Frog, but the stay was shortened by the tsunami. When we later where diving on Sipadan and Mabul in Malaysian Borneo, we enjoyed the diving so much that we stayed and worked for Uncle Chang. When we returned to Asia in 2007 I worked for Scandinavian Divers in Phuket.

Recommended Dive Spots

Here are some of my favorite diving / snorkeling spots:

Diving for the Big stuff

It's great to see nice corals, tons of small fish, but it is the larger sea creatures that really get your heart pumping.

• Galapagos Islands, Ecuador: No corals, but awesome place to see large sea creatures like Sealions, Hammerhead Sharks, Galapagos Sharks, White-tip Reef Sharks, Turtles, Eagle Rays, Golden Rays, large schools of Barracuda etc.

• Sipadan, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo: The marine life on the reefs is abundant and includes Turtles (often see more than 20 on one dive), Sharks (White-tip, Grey Reef, Leopard, Hammerhead), Manta rays, napoleon wrasses, octopus and huge schools of fish (including barracuda, trevally, humphead parrotfish).

• Monad Shoal, Malapascua Island, Cebu, Philippines: Submerged island with good chance to see Thresher shark, Manta rays and Devil rays. The best time to see Thresher Sharks are March-April.

• Nusa Lembongan, Bali, Indonesia: Crystal Bay offers a good chance to see the rare Mola-Mola (Sunfish) when it comes up to get cleaned in July-November. The Mola-Mola is the largest bony fish (average: 1 ton) and resembles a flattened fish head without a tail, but with large fins above and below the body. Manta Point is supposed to be a great place to see Manta Rays, but unfortunately we did not see any.

• Hian Daeng, Thailand: Pinnacle with a good chance to see Manta Rays in December-February. Also a great site without Manta encounters. Can be reached from Koh Phi-Phi or Koh Lanta.

• Magic Point, Sydney, Australia: The large, scary looking, but harmless Grey Nurse Sharks (also called Sandtiger Shark) patrol the area by a small cavern. Also good place to see giant Cuttlefish.

Macro/Muck Diving

Muck diving is when you spend most of your dive looking into the sand to discover a world of small, weird and wonderful creatures.

• Lembeh Strait, Sulawesi, Indonesia: Muck paradise. Hardly any corals, just black lava sand, but you will see weird creatures you have never seen before on every dive.

• Mabul/Kapalai/Semporna, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo: Depending on the dive site, regularly spotted species are Turtles, various Nudibranches, colorful Flatworms, Frogfish, Pipefish, Seahorses, Mandarinfish, Crocodile fish, Cuttlefish, Moray eels, Batfish, schooling Yellowtail Barracudas, Humphead Parrotfish, Lobster, Shrimps, Octopus and almost the whole Scorpionfish family.

• Dauin, Negros Oriental, Philippines: Several great macro sites in the area, with the highlight being Ducomi Pier. The pillars of the pier have nice corals and are a majestic view from below, but the main attraction are the small critters in the sand and on the pillars like various Nudibranches, Flatworms, Seahorses, Pipefish, Frogfish, Scorpionfish, Cuttlefish and large schools of Catfish, Batfish and Shrimpfish.

Wreck Diving

It is difficult to explain the feeling you get when diving at a great wreck. A large wreck gives you a nice feeling of being small and a eerie ghost town feeling even though it is full of life.

• Coron, Calamian Group, Philippines: Coron Bay has 6 large Japanese auxiliary ships sunk in World War 2 lying at the bottom at 25-45m depth. The wrecks are large and full of life, but the most impressive thing about the diving is the possibility to penetrate deep into the ships. A special feeling when you swim through a dark corridor of a large WW2 ship at the bottom of the ocean with streaks of light penetrating from pot holes and other openings.

• Thistlegorm, Sinai, Egypt: A 129m long British armed Merchant Navy ship that was sunk in 1941. Good penetration and lots of cargo like motorcycles, truck, steam locomotives, tanks, boots, rifles and lots more. The highlight was exiting the captain's cabin and seeing a school of about 30 dolphins swimming along the wreck.

• US Liberty Wreck, Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia: This 120m long World War 2 wreck is easily accessible from the beach at depths between 7 and 30m. Although the deterioration of the wreck don't allow for much penetration the easy access, good coral growth and abundant fish life makes it a great wreck dive. The site can be dived cheaply from Tulamben.

•  B-24 Liberator, Togean Island, Sulawesi, Indonesia: Not really that spectacular, but a dive a really enjoyed. This World War 2 Bomber plane was just recently discovered. It is in very good shape and has plenty of corals and fish.

Snorkeling

You often hear that "the snorkeling is just as good as the diving", but this is seldom really true. Still, there are some places where you for various reasons can see things snorkeling that you can not see diving.

• Donsol, Luzon, Philippines: Snorkeling with the world's biggest fish, the Whaleshark. In 3 days I had 30 encounters.

• Zanzibar, Tanzania: Snorkeling with Dolphins. The best place to see the Dolpins are down in the south where they let you swim among them.

• Galapagos, Ecuador: Snorkel inside large colonies of Sealions, see hunting Pinguins and feeding Marine Iguanas. You will also see Turtles, White-tip Reef Shark and Eagle Rays.

Diving in Phi-Phi (Thailand)

Diving from Phi-Phi you have 3 main alternatives;

• Marine park: Typically we go out to the Bidah Islands and to the sites around Maya Bay (THE Beach), but we also have various other alternatives. Bidah is two small islands (Bidah Nok / Bidah Nai) that we swim around and almost always see leopard sharks, schools of squid and tons of other reef fish. Around Maya Bay we have some nice swimthroughs, lion fish, titan triggerfish, turtles and black tip reef shark.

• King Cruiser Wreck / Phuket Shark Point / Anemone Reef: The King Cruiser is a 85m long car ferry that sank in May 1997 after crashing into the only rock between Phuket and Phi-Phi (Anemone Reef). It is easy to penetrate the wreck through the car deck (update: not anymore). The wreck has a special atmosphere (like a ghost town) and lots of big lionfish, scorpion fish and other reef fish.

• Hin Daeng / Hin Muang: This is THE site to see big fish! The sites are beautiful submerged pinnacles, 70 km from Phi-Phi, where we usually see mantas, giant morays, great barracudas and sharks. This is also the site with the most frequent whale shark encounters. Even without the big fish this is a excellent site in every way.

Diving in Manzanillo (Mexico)

We see lots of puffers, morayeels, stingrays and at some sites we could almost guarantee seahorses (Wreck), octopus (Elephant/Wreck) and eaglerays (Horses). The dive sites visited most frequently are:

• Elephant Rock: Site with valleys, arches, swimthroughs and lots of morayeels, stingrays and scorpionfish. An octopus has its permanent residence in a crack on the pinnacle.

• San Luciano Wreck: Cargo steamer that sank in 1959. The wreck lays shallow at only 7m (making it also a nice snorkeling site) and some parts of the ship break the surface. The wreck is easily penetrated and among its residents are various seahorses, octopus, moray eels, stingrays, flounders as well as large schools of reef fish.

• Horses Ear: Deep site with great swimthroughs, large rock formations and schools of trevally, eaglerays, large parrotfish, as well as large morayeels.

• Carrasalis: A large bay with various dive sites. Some are shallow with lots of corals, but I prefer the outer wall (Carrasalis Deep) where I have seen turtles and eaglerays quite regularly.

Diving from Semporna (Malaysian Borneo)

The most affordable way to dive the world class dive sites on Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai is from Semporna:

• Sipadan: A small island surrounded by large coral reefs and steep walls sloping down to 600m. All the resorts on the island were recently closed down for conservational reasons. The marine life on the reefs is abundant and includes turtles (often see more than 20 on one dive), sharks (white-tip, grey reef, leopard, hammerhead), manta rays, napoleon wrasses, octopus and huge schools of fish (including barracuda, trevally, humphead parrotfish).

• Mabul:  An inhabited island with more shallow reefs.  Depending on the dive site, regularly spotted species are turtles, various nudibranches, colorful flatworms, frogfish, pipefish, mandarinfish, crocodile fish, cuttlefish, moray eels, batfish, schooling yellowtail barracudas, humphead parrotfish, lobster, shrimps, octopus and almost the whole scorpionfish family.

• Kapalai: A sand bank between Sipadan and Mabul. The site has similar diving to Mabul.

Diving Pictures

Zanzibar, Tanzania, Des-01: #1 and #2  (some diving and some snorkeling w/ dolphins).

Diving Videos

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Australia

Belize

Honduras

Indonesia

Malaysia

Mexico

Norway

Philippines

South America

Thailand