As a newbie in scuba, the level of confidence and skills need to be gained and developed
through... dives more
list me suitable dive sites for a beginner where the current is not strong, the depth is not too deep (below 18 meter), good visibility and of course-lah the dive site should offers great view of beautiful corals / marine animals.
Aquaria KLCC, great vis, no current, beautiful fishes, beautiful corals .. also your requirement won't help you gain skills and confidence.
In Tanjung Tokong, I had encountered strong current while in Southern Tips the visibility was too low.
glad that you had experienced it, then u'll learn.
if you learned, you'll know you have to stay calm n close to buddy when vis is low and how to counter strong current, either you realized that fin kicking need to be improved or you realized you need a better fin
Tanjung Tengah suits me well as a beginner where it suits all the criteria for a beginner.
u'll always remain at open water practice level, not open water diver level.
a good dive site never be a good dive site forever, weather change, sea change.. etc
a good dive site like you said never improve you. You need to conquer your fear(if u have) and experience different diving conditions by dives more then confidence and experience gained without you knowing it.
I went to sugar wreck @ Perhentian at my first dive trip after OW course.
Crazy current on the surface, low vis about 3m, and separated with buddy(due to low vis) for while because i was the last one to descent. I knew i had to keep kicking, remain calm though i'm not, just follow bubbles coming from bottom and finally I re-unite with my buddies. the first thing i did with my buddy is showing him the "stick with me" hand signal. and slowly i calm down and we had exciting good dive although the crazy current and low vis, a different experience you do not know when you'll experience again. few month after the trip, we decided to go back perhentian this year, the first in my mind was to conquer sugar wreck again, i went, i did, though didn't have crazy current, better vis, good dive, can see more things n clear but I still miss last year experience that made me learnt a lot. same site but different diving condition and experience.
my deep dive of AOW at mabul, Panglima reef, didn't expect to have strong current, we descent to 30m while being drift by current, again i'm slow because i had equalization problem.. in my heart i said shit my instructor n my buddy has reached bottom 30m and i'm still drifting fast while adjusting my equalization, but then i did not panic, i still took my time. end up my instructor and buddy have to chase me due to not much "no deco time" left. we missed the nice spot for kneel down to do practice .. end up we did it at the wall by holding the rock and we done. I did not panic at all, because I'm a open water diver, i know all the procedure, and the main factor i did not panic because i know what is current like that past diving experience I learned.
this year perhentian, shark point, a beginner dive site(also snorkel site) like what you wanted. normal dive, my gauge hose burst, i didnt realize, my buddy alerted me.. ok, i bang my tank with pointer, dive master came n instruct me to signal him when I low on air, i said ok , relax.. continue diving.. what i did.. i pulled the spg gauge n put on top of my left hand(not holding), just let it lay on top, monitor air consumption from time to time, still enjoying looking for things to see, 50 bar reached, slowly fin toward dive master n alert him... he signaled me am i ok to ascent alone, i signal ok(we have already agree on land if we low on air very early, we will ascent first, becuz my group of buddy have the same amount of air consumption compare the other group which better than us). he passed me sausage buoy, and my buddy and dive master continue diving and i slowly ascent while still look around for beautiful coral. on the surface, kept calm, relax, lay back and wait for boat to pick me up... another lesson learned and experience applied~! also indirectly my buddy also learned that pointer /tang banger is so important thru my incident. you see.. so many can learn and confidence & experience gained.
this year, perhentian, batu layar, excellent vis 15-20m.. beautiful hard corals.. last year i dive same site but not much impression(perhaps due to low vis, cloudy day no sunlight.. not really remember).. so you see.. bad site in your definition can turn to be a good site in your definitions. weather change does affect dive site.
this year, perhentian, Terumbu Tiga, go through holes.. but more holes compared to last year. again i was the last one.. went in dark holes but came out wrong exit.. separated with everyone... what i did.. ascent a lil so i'm on top of rocks and look for bubbles, n already prepare for worst case to do buddy separation procedure. then i saw bubbles, my dive master came to find me and we reunited.
also i did learned and improve many things of my diving skills (too long to tell) as I dive more and more.
all of the above are taught during OW course(unless you didn't pay attention to what you learn, if so you are risking your life) and gained from experiences that makes me still in love of scuba diving though things happen.
dive sites i recommned for beginner:
terumbu tiga / t3 @ perhentian .. a good buoyancy control, you'll learn
sugar wreck @ perhentian .. diving in low vis bottom
pinnacle / tokong laut @ perhentian .. an experience of direct free descent / buoy line descent until 18m only start swimming.
No offend mean of above, but you are in need to change your attitude and mindset towards scuba diving. Enjoy scuba diving with the right attitude.
