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The Best Wreck Diving Along the West Coast of Sabah, Borneo

Article by Joanne Cotterill

Many divers visit Sabah, Borneo to go diving world famous Sipadan. Home to stunning drop-offs, Turtles on every dive and dived by Jacques Cousteau it’s not a surprise it’s a popular scuba diving destination. What many divers do not realise is that there are a range of World War 2 (WW2) wrecks offering some memorable diving experiences along the west coast of Sabah. And all are accessible via diving day trips from Kota Kinabalu (the capital city of Sabah).

Whilst there are believed to be many wrecks in the South China Sea (from World War 2), there are currently four WW2 wrecks identified off the west coast of Sabah which are also suitable for scuba diving. All of the wrecks are Japanese cargo ships – meaning they are large (~150m – 200m) and have historic ‘treasures’ that were being transported at the time they went down. Due to the length of time they have been sunk (~65 years) they are all covered in stunning soft coral gardens, hard corals, teeming with fish life and home to an amazing range of tropical water marine life. Find schooling Barracuda, Nurse Sharks, large Groupers and large shoals of Yellow Snappers and Fusiliers.

Three of the wrecks are located in Usukan Bay (Rice Bowl Wreck, Upside-Down Wreck and the Usukan Wreck) which is located 30 nautical miles north west from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The fourth wreck, the Gaya Wreck, is located ~ 20 minutes west of Pulau Gaya (outside Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park near Kota Kinabalu, Sabah). The wrecks offer both non-penetration diving (i.e. swimming over and around the wreck) and limited penetration diving, within the “light zone”. The rest of this article provides an overview of the wrecks to be dived along the west coast of Sabah.

The Rice Bowl Wreck – So-called because a cache of rice bowls was found in the bow when it was first dived, this is a relatively long vessel (~150m) lying in a North Easterly direction in 40m at its deepest and 26m at its shallowest. The depth of this wreck makes it suitable for minimum PADI Advanced Open Water Divers and is best dived recreationally using nitrox (EANx30). The superstructure is punctured in many places, making some exploration possible and interesting, and the metalwork is robust. The soft coral garden is memorable. During the ‘Dry Season’ you can often enjoy stunning visibility on the wreck of 30m+.

The Upside-Down Wreck – The name gives away the orientation of this ship, which lies in the same direction and at similar depth to the Rice Bowl wreck. This wreck has good swim-throughs, though a torch is essential and is good for exploring as well as a training ground for Wreck Diver specialty.

The Usukan Wreck – This is the deepest of the three Usukan Bay wrecks at 35m – 45m and consequently only available to technical divers (divers certified for decompression diving). It is a good wreck for diving on rebreathers or diving twin-tanks / Trimix. The wreck is interesting and has a spectacular whip coral coverage that can give it a frosted appearance in a certain light.

The Gaya Wreck – The large Gaya wreck is a deep wreck and sits upright in 36m – 50m of water. The wreck is generally intact and there are lots of interesting exploration and wreck penetration opportunities for technical divers with suitable experience and training (rebreather divers of twin-tank divers). Whilst the identify of the wreck has not been confirmed, it is believed to be the Nittetsu Maru. On October 14th 1944, Submarine Dace (SS-247) sank two Japanese merchant tankers, the Eikyo Maru and Nittetsu Maru, and damaged merchant ore carrier Taizen Maru off North Borneo, 06°05′N, 115°55′E”. The description of this wreck matches that of the Nittetsu Maru. Post action reports state the Dace sunk the Nittetsu Maru (a cargo ship of 5,993 tons), the Eikyo Maru (an oil tanker of 6,948 tons) and heavily damages the cargo ship Taizen Maru (5,396 tons).

Wreck diving is a popular form of scuba diving amongst leisure divers. Diving along, or inside, a shipwreck is attractive to divers for several reasons. Shipwrecks have a history to them which provides a different perspective when diving along one. Wrecks also quickly become an artificial reef, which creates a habitat for many types of marine life – they are normally surrounded by fish and home to critters. Scuba diving along a wreck also presents new skill challenges for scuba divers.

The best time to go diving the dive sites along the west coast of Sabah is from April to September (with April – June offering typically the best diving conditions).

Whether you be visiting Kota Kinabalu, Sabah as an experienced diver, a new diver, wanting to learn to dive or enjoy a try dive there are dive sites to meet your needs.

Find out more about wreck diving from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo at http://www.borneodream.com

Dive Schools question by johnnyboy44: where does the school dive team get their swimsuits?
does each diver have to buy their own or does
the dive team have a special store where they buy them
or how do they get them?
i want to know because i want to be on the dive team
next year
does anyone have any dive team tips/ tricks/ comments
im a guy btw

Dive Schools best answer:

Answer by Polak365
they usually let u order them from some special place or they tell u to go to the store and get ur own.

go to macy’s or kiefer

Diving In The Sea

Sea Saba – Our dive retail outlet

After checking into our place, we examine in with our dive store and get the scoop on the diving situation. The dive store has to transfer their boats to St. Maarten to shield them from the impending storm. This has to be scheduled around a bridge opening at St. Maarten, so for Thurs. morning’s dive, they set us up with an additional dive store with smaller boats that are not reliant on the bridge opening and can get to St. Maarten afterwards in the day. Even so, there will be no Thurs. afternoon dive and no diving on Fri. There might be diving on Sat., and they are hopeful for Sunday. (It all depends upon the problem of the seas and if they can get their boats back again from St. Maarten.)

Scuba Diving In The Gold Coast

Post by James Chapman

The Gold Coast in Australia is one particular the most sought following dive metropolitan areas in the country. The principal purpose behind it is hardly ever any town has a vast expansive dive web site in this kind of an simply available area with awesome surroundings and weather conditions ailments. The Gold Coast is recognized to supply varied colossal marine everyday living, huge reefs and wrecks just off the coast and a good deal a lot more magnificence that can depart you stunned.

If you travel to the Gold Coast without having getting tried the dive exciting, you have certainly missed out on some adventure. It is really effortless to locate a scuba dive shop there thinking about the location is popularly identified for that. In fact you can find many of then in Kirra which is positioned near to the airport. With the type of variation, you have the liberty to decide on a dive location as for each your usefulness in terms of proximity and the adventurous knowledge it has to supply.

Decide on a dive experience in the Gold Coast primarily based on your prospective and original practice. If you already hold a scuba diving certification then you can often opt for the tough ones like going shore diving or boat diving. And for novices it is advisable to be strongly supported by an instructor. If you want to get an Open h2o certification a minimum of four days is all you need. It is also critical to pick exactly where you would like to go diving. The boat diving tips is a minor difficult in the starting as it takes 1 to the myriad of marine everyday living in aquatic reserves but the best adventurous expertise comes from the shore diving in the Gold Coast as it lets you see vrays, sea horses, turtles and several other marine lives. It is a single of a kind knowledge which totally rejuvenates and re-energizes you.

When you are heading diving in the Gold Coast consider a rental gear if you do no personal one. It is very essential to make sure that the gear fits well mainly the fins, mask, wetsuit and other buoyancy management gadgets. The quality of the gear desires to be one particular of the most important aspects as it makes certain safety of the diver.

Diving in the sea

Researchers have mapped less than 10 percent of the ridge of underwater mountains in the center of the Atlantic ocean. It is here that 95 % of the volcanic exercise on earth occurs. And it is also in which the scientist Abundant Lutz has tracked the remarkable evolution of bizarre creatures that spawn in hydrothermal vent fluids that are poisonous to most other forms of life. How can lifestyle exist in this planet of utter darkness?

For Rich Lutz, a pioneer in marine biology, every dive to the fro

Diving to a Deep-Sea Volcano (Scientists in the Field Series)

Click on the button for a lot more Diving in the sea information and evaluations.

Scuba Mask POV Digital camera Sees Every thing Under the Sea
Diving in the sea
With a 136-diploma field of view, this hybrid scuba mask/videocam sees everything you do and then some. That can make aiming a good deal simpler. Throw it on and you are ready to capture hands-free of charge 720p video and 5-megapixel images that rival pro function from just a number of years back.

Diving in the sea query by missmayzie: Has the deep-sea diving honeymoon widow been arrested in his wife’s’ death nevertheless ?
What is the newest ?
I meant “widower” .

Diving in the sea best reply:

Response by Charlotte’s Dad
Not however but he will be and then there perhaps some justice for his wifes household