With around a week in Langkawi added to our itinerary, we decided to see who wanted to get their PADI Open Water scuba diving certification. Lara and Nolan signed up, and Neil went along to get a refresher for his SSI certification. Neil opted for the full refresher, given he hadn’t been diving in around 20 years!
The kids had to complete the PADI eLearning course online before we arrived, which was taking a looong time until they stopped treating it like school and just watched the videos without taking extensive notes.
The first day had a quick theory quiz to assess our knowledge, a pool session to start learning the skills, and theory review in the afternoon. Then we had two days break, during which the kids decided to complete their online PADI exam.
The second and third days had two open water dives each (skills learning for the kids, fun dives for Neil).
We got lucky and had decent visibility, especially on the 3rd day where we could see over 10m at times. That’s amazing for Langkawi, which usually has around 2m visibility.
We were really happy with Langkawi Scuba. We’re not exactly experts in reviewing dive operators, but we found the owner (Warda) and the guides we worked with (Plamena, Doriane, and Mairead) were friendly, good teachers, and focussed on safety.
The dive sites offered a wide variety of marine life at various depths. We saw:
- Mark, the big puffer fish
- Porcupine puffer
- Honeycomb Moray Eel
- Small remora
- Frogfish
- Flute mouth
- Nudibranchs
- Nemo (false clown anemone)
- Barracuda
- Lionfish, incuding a baby
- Morish idol
- Butterfly fish
- Boxfish, including a baby
- Seahorses
- Parrotfish
- Grouper
- Stick pipefish
- Razorfish
- Bamboo sharks
- Little purple jellyfish that stung us
The water was around 27, which sounds warm, but after an hour in the water we were all shivering, despite the kids having wetsuits. Fortunately we warmed up pretty quickly in the 28 – 30 C air in the boat or on the beach.
This post was written by Neil.
You could hear the feast under water. Great shots.
Divers city. So many fish. And no sharks!
What an incredible opportunity!, to see a whole other ecosystem! Would loved to have experienced that and seen all that fish with you guys. Super motivating to see what great visibility you had. Do you think you will dive once you’re back to Canada?
Might be a bit chilly and dark, especially in the lakes.
What a great experience!