I fell in love with the underwater world at a young age, as soon as my head went under the water and I saw a whole new world down there I was hooked. I feel so lucky to now have this as my job, introducing others to this world through snorkelling and dive experiences. Seeing people relax under the waves, letting all their stresses in the ‘dry world’ drift away as they hover in the marine seascapes in a weightless state. We are described, by many, as the ‘astronauts’ of the deep blue and there really is no other feeling like it!
My day normally starts quite early, getting up in the coolness of the newly risen sun. I always try to welcome the new day with a little bit of me time, making my way down to the soft rocks of the beach and doing some morning meditation followed by some stretches.
I then feel ready to start my day properly so it’s coffee time and hopefully a tasty treat. I like to walk to ‘My Café’ aptly named this café feels like home to ever dinner who goes, with amazing roti cani with a tasty spicy sambal washed down by an iced coffee me and the other staff love to go here or grab a tapau for us and our guests if we have a busy day ahead of us.
Then it is a nice walk along the beach to our dive centre located just off the sands on Juara beach. We swing the sign around to open, pop on our favourite morning tunes and get the coffee brewing ready for our guests to arrive.
As a divemaster I will help the instructors welcoming their guests, making sure paperwork is filled in and get everyone sized up with their equipment ready for the day’s lessons. I’m always on hand to help out with demonstrations like the methods of ‘sharing air’ underwater when we do our land lesson’s so the students are fully prepared for the underwater experience.
If I have a quiet day I will go into the water with our instructors to help out with the courses, its great to have an extra pair of hands under the water and I love to entertain the students in between their lessons. I really appreciate being able to do this as it also helps me prepare for my next stage in my training. Learning first hand from our expert instructors is invaluable education that really helps me develop my own skills.
I am often busy with dive safaris though, as a divemaster I act as a guide for certified divers exploring our underwater wonderland.
I also start off these dives with a briefing about the dive site, the conditions and all the amazing species we might get to see, Cobia, schooling Barracuda, black tipped sharks, reef fish and turtle as well as the beautiful nudibranch, seaslugs, rays and shrimps that can sometimes go unnoticed if you don’t know where they like to hide! This is a chance for me to get to know my divers as well as understand their experience and confidence levels so that I can best guide them when we enter the water.
I love going on our dive trips, doing two or three boat dives around Tioman Island, these are great as we go to very varied sites and also get to have delicious snacks and lunch on some of the surrounding beaches (and of course a bit more coffee) Some of my favourite sites to go to are Tgi Api and Jahad (as we get to go to a waterfall on our surface stop!) and also to Karang Tohor, Bugis and Batu Mumbang around the bay of Juara. Of course it is also always a treat to go across to coral island on a day trip or go to Labas for the swim throughs!
After the dives we all come back to the shop, wash up our equipment and then fill in our logbooks. I love talking with guests about all the species we saw and still find that I see something new on every dive, no matter how many times I have been to that site before!
Our NGO Reef Tribes has set up a coral resilience and education project, taking corals of opportunity, broken fragments of coral, from the reef and attaching them to our underwater structures that stimulate growth. We clean, measure and monitor these pieces before replanting them back onto the reef system. In the afternoons I will pop down to our coral nursery to check on our coral ‘babies’ often taking interested divers with me on this shore dive.
We love our nursery as it has turned into a thriving ecosystem within itself. There is so much macro there we can often get distracted by beautiful nudibranch, exciting little shrimps and coral crabs as well as larger species such as cowtail rays, Trevally, puffer fish and groupers that now call this new site their home. We often get visits from large schools of squid and had a nesting pair of cuttlefish choose this site for their eggs last season, soooo fascinating to watch the whole process!
At the end of the day we shut up shop and normally meet up with some of our divers for dinner and some music on the beach. We find that our guests very quickly become friends and I think this is, in part, one of our favourite parts of working in the dive industry!
Watching the moon rise sitting around a bonfire on the beach with new friends is one of the perks of the job and creates those special memories that make you smile.
On days off we often go up to one of the many waterfalls in Juara for a swim of take a picnic up to the lookout point or explore the rainforest with its native species, chameleons and rafflesia flowers, or just chill out bodyboarding, kayaking or reading a good book in a hammock ending our days with BBQs and conversation.
I chose to come and work with Juara Scuba Academy because I love that they have such a focus on conservation, holding it as a key pillar of their business model. In the way that they teach, focusing on buoyancy and control in new divers and teaching ecology and conservation elements in every course. We all take pride in the beauty of the dive sites we call the ‘office’ and strive to protect these complex ecosystems so they can be enjoyed far into the future. Alongside this the efforts they are putting into Reef Tribes is so refreshing to see working with the environment and the local and international community to spread love and respect for the reef.
I am proud to be a part of the ever growing JSA family and look forward to meeting new guests and making friends every day, why don’t you come join us and experience the beguilingly beautiful Tioman for yourself!
