Miri, Sarawak Dive Sites

[bakpakka]

I'll be in Miri for a couple of days in August, and meeting up with some friends of mine who work at Shell. The terrible part is, that none of them dive and have little or no information to provide about diving there.

Does anyone have experience there? And is it costly? I hope it's under RM 100 per dive! I'm 2/5ths of the way to an Advanced Diver. Hoping to log in a few more dives, maybe. A wreck would be awesome, if it's available.

I'll be going to Mulu Caves from there. Anyone wanna join me? :mean:

Thanks...

 

[kawabunga0]

Hi, sorry for not seeing this earlier. Guess you must have gone and went. Hope the Shell frineds managed to hook you up with some local diving. They have the Piasau Boat Club with a catamaran just for diving and some of the sites can be good , with good viz (...on a good day!!).

If you have not done this yet, do let me know.

 

[ben arthur]

I used to live in Miri and did a fair bit of diving there.

Not sure about the dive operators as there were none when i was there, but I understand there are a couple around

As for the diving, there's one main wreck, the Atago Maru, a Jap ship that went down in WWII, which isn';t a bad dive, although vis can be so-so - best areas for vis are mid to bow sections.

There are a few shallow reefs which are nice, I'd recommend one of the reefs at Siwa - if you can get permission to dive the Siwa oil platform then that would be even better - the best diving i did in Miri.

Most of the diving is fairly shallow, not much more than 20m

Hope this helps - would be interested to hear how you get on

 

[kawabunga0]

There are now two other wrecks in Miri, one in about 45m of water - have not dived it yet...but hear it is quite good.

Incidently, there was a hardcore diver once in Miri, an Aussie chap, attached to the GCM BSAC group and was a chopper mechanic or something. His name was also Arther......hmm.

 

[ben arthur]

Well, I think you're more than likely talking about my father there!! Except he's not an Aussie, he's a Brit!

You're on about Ray Arthur aren't you? He used to work for Bristow Helicopters / Malaysian Helicopter Servies in Miri as an aircraft engineer from 1981 to 1995, was the equipment officer for the GCM BSAC club and was probably the most active diver at the club.

What;s your actual name as he'll possibly remember you ?(perhaps even I will?)

He's retired now living in the UK - I've just actually returned from a 2 week liveaboard trip with him in the Red Sea, great diving.

I have dived one other wreck in Miri, not that far off the river mouth, a Japanese destroyer, name unknown - good dive when viz is good, in a bit of a mess though.

 

[kawabunga0]

Yes, Ray Arthur, that's the guy whose name I was trying to recall.
My email is p_layong@hotpop.com.......if you'd like to contact me directly....

If you have dived the wrecks just outside of the Miri River mouth, you must have gone out with the GCM group quite a bit - fine bunch of BSAC people there (I was trained up by Lau Sie Ping and Joseph Chu, if you might know them)......or used to be there. After Ray left, I think the enthusiasm died down and has remained inactive for some time now....so we dive with whoever loves diving now.

 

[ben arthur]

Kawabunga - tried to email you but message was returned.

What's your name by the way, my father may possibly recall you ?

I do recall that a couple of guys left the GCM club and set up a club, using the main public pool in Miri (I think)

Lau Si Ping - did he not have a nice boat to go diving on? if he's the one i;m thinking of, we went out on his boat a few times, including once with Chris Knight, MD of Shell some years back, to the rig at Siwa - no-one was going to argue against him diving there!

I do vaguely remember Joseph Chu, I'm sure my father remembers him well.

I used to go out to Miri every holiday when i was at secondary school in uk (I also went to Piasau school when i was a kid for 3 years) and would dive at any opportunity with Dad - had some absolutely fantastic times out in Miri and it will always be a big part of my life since I spent so much time out there.

Think my best dives were at Siwa oil rig (and also one of the ones off Lutong) but also had some good ones elsewhere - saw the biggest grouper i've ever seen at the atago maru, and this guy was just enormous - i'd heard people talk of a large one there but this one has to have been a different one as it was like a mini-submarine!

Are there many expats left in Miri now - I get the impression not?

All the best

Ben Arthur

 

[bakpakka]

Well, I had a good time in Miri / Mulu, although I did not dive. Perhaps another time, huh?

The entire Miri town is monopolised by one single operator, and it was surely very expensive. I opted out in the end as I could not justify that amount. Furthermore, I'm going to Perhentian tonight. So I figured I'd save my dosh and dive more at Perhentian.

The Mulu caves rock. Should try that sometime, all of ya. Someday, perhaps when there is more competition in Miri, I'll return to try my hand at diving.

Cheers...

*glug* *glug* to Perhentian I go!!!

 

[yao]

Hmm...i've always wanted to ask this question but just didn't know to whom I should ask...

ben arthur>> What is it like under the oil rig?

been a couple of times 'on' the oil rig and all i can ever do is to look down, trying to imagine what is it look like underneath, what kind of fishes / critters that I can find down there and stuff like like that.

bakpakka>> how much is the guy charging anyway? plus rental of equipment and stuff??

I just went to Bintulu and I can find brochures of Miri dive sites everywhere... must have been very comercialize by now.. sigh

 

[ben arthur]

Hi Yao

The diving on the rig at Siwa is excellent - lots of fish of different types, including (normally) big schools of snapper, jacks and barracuda. There also used to be 3 huge grouper down there, normally at the bottom, quite friendly too.

I've dived one of the rigs off Lutong too and that was just as good, loads of life.

At the time, diving was prohibited on the rigs, which are, as you probably know, unmanned during much of the day - still, even if you can;t get permission I'd give it a go, just make sure you have someone on the boat drive around the rig and then pick you up when you surface