Blowing bubbles in Taiwan

[hsinhai]

Hi all,

I'm a Brit based in Taipei, Taiwan. Just completed my OWD at the weekend, can't wait to get back in the water to accumulate some more bottom time. Looking forward to meeting some buddies in the region.. Awesome amount of knowledge on the boards, so lots of reading for me.. shame the Taiwan board is a little quiet.

Here's a question, at this stage is the best way to accumulate more experience/bottom time just to jump straight into the AOW course?

I'd prefer to enjoy it and get 10 or more dives under my belt first. Here it is mostly be shore dives, and I'm already impressed with the diversity of wildlife. I assume many divers are not keen with a relative newbie tagging along with a dive. I've not found any local clubs/dive days/fun.group dives in the area yet, especially in English.. though I must profess, I have not looked too hard..

Hsinhai

 

[hellhole]

There is no wrong reason to go right into aow... This subject always have two side. One yea and one no.

But IMO no harm in going in aow ... To me .. As long as you go back to your open water instructor and ask them what they think I should work on more....

 

[hsinhai]

Thks for the comments. I actually think I am going to sign up for a AOW course in the very near future, just so i can get back in the water, and try to get in a group class to give myself opportunity to meet more local like minded divers.

Had a great time during my OW dives, we saw x3 sea snakes in 4 dives... as well as octopus, cuttlefish, puffas, lion fish as well as copious others i didn't recognize. Funny in all my dives didn't see any other divers in the water.. too cold for the natives at 21C surface temp.. hehe

BTW: What is a good resource with photos to help identifying fish?

 

[DandyDon]

Howdy and welcome to Scubaboard. :admingreet:

True, I don't like buddying with a newbie, unless she's really cute. Either practice with other newbies on charters that market to newbies, or hire private DMs for a few dives.

 

[hsinhai]

Hit 25 dives at the weekend.. as well my deepest to date at 28.9m at a new site which was totally awesome.. On that particular dive we saw really beautiful corals in whites, reds, purples, greens, brain coral, fan coral, anemone, nudis and a wealth or sealife. Included a moray eel, weedy scorpion fish, lion fish, clown, boxfish, cocktail wrasse, moonish idol, damsel, koran anglefish, emperor anglefish, buttlerfly, and first my clown triggerfish..

It may not be as epic as Thailand, Philippines or Malaysia (or Kenting) but still loving it.. and i still have those places to look forward to one day.. averaging about 6 dives a month currently.. and also completed my AOW in March..

We got a small group of regular divers together in northern Taiwan and mostly do the north coast. Best thing is shore diving here is cheap cheap cheap if you got your own gear & got transport. Air cost between NTD140~250, including tank rental, so 2 dives is costing me about USD10.. bliss

Gets more pricy if you need to rent gear (about $34 full set per day), and a guide costs about $25..

If anyone happens to be in Taipei on business, take an extra day and look me up..