How to change dive regulator stock mouthpiece to customised mouthpiece.

The most common complaint of using a rented dive regulator is that it’s truly UNCOMFORTABLE. I came back from my 1st leisure dive trip with 2 massive ulcers on the inside of my lower jaw and a dull ache that lasted for 1.5 weeks. I had to eat my meals dolphin style and I don’t mean it in a cute sort of way.

So when I finally got my very own dive regulator, the first thing I did was to change the stock mouthpiece to a customised mouthpiece. When I first heard of “customised mouthpiece”, I thought it would involve visiting some expert mouthpiece sculptor who would charge an arm and leg.

# – My dive regulator with the stock mouthpiece. It’s so tiny and I could easily pull it out of my mouth even when I bite down hard.

It’s not like that. Far from it! In fact, customised mouth pieces are widely available in dive shops. You can customise the mouthpiece right in the comfort of your own home. The one we got is JAX Individual Mouthpiece from Mares.

# – Personalised Mares JAX Individual Mouthpiece. Selling between RM90-RM150 each depending on which shop you go to and how friendly you are with the owner. It’s available in various colours…becauce divers are fashionable people too!

So how do you change your dive regulator’s stock mouthpiece to a customised mouthpiece? It’s easy!

The most daunting part for me was actually cutting the cable tie that wrapped around the stock mouthpiece but my fears were really unfounded. You do need a really sharp knife though.

# – Carefully cut off the cable tie around the stock mouthpiece with a sharp knife.

# – Then, slowly pull the stock mouthpiece off the regulator. Set your regulator aside while you continue with personalising your mouthpiece.

# – Pour boiling hot water into a glass.

# – Dip the customisable mouthpiece into the hot water making sure only the area where your teeth rest is submerged. Leave it for 15 seconds.

DO NOT submerge the entire mouthpiece in!

# – After 15 seconds, take it out of the hot water and shake excess water off.

# – Ensuring that the word “up” on the mouthpiece is facing well…up, put it in your mouth immediately and bite down, hard and firm. Make sure your teeth are resting in the groove of the mouthpiece. Inhale any air and suck in any water through your mouth while doing this. Also, remember to massage the mouthpiece from the outside of your cheeks as it might protrude and cut the inside of your cheeks. Do this for 2 minutes.

DO NOT remove any of the black component from the mouthpiece as they help to prevent incidences of irreversible misshaping (read: biting through).

# – Remove mouthpiece from your mouth and submerge the entire mouthpiece into ice cold water for 3 minutes. Then, remove the black components from the mouthpiece and bite it again to test. If it still doesn’t feel right, repeat steps from “dipping mouthpiece in hot water” onwards till you’re absolutely comfortable with it.

# – Check out the difference between a customised mouthpiece and its original state.

# – Now, slowly put the customised mouthpiece back onto the regulator. Depending on brands of regulator, this may take some elbow grease. Again, make sure the word “up” on the mouthpiece is facing the right direction on your regulator.

# – Success!

# – With the cable tie provided, secure the new mouthpiece to your regulator. Make sure where the cable tie joins does not obstruct your face in anyway.

# – Cut off the excess cable tie with a nail clipper or a scissors. Some people like to file down the excess with an emery board.

# – Done! See the difference between the stock mouthpiece and the customised mouthpiece.

And that is how you change a dive regulator stock mouthpiece to a customised, personalised mouthpiece. I can’t wait to breathe underwater with it!

Diving in Redang – October 2011.

I want to dedicate this post to C, who tragically passed away from a car accident while on the way back home from this trip. Although it was only very briefly, I’m glad that our paths crossed and that we had so much fun in those 3 days. I will always remember you – chatty, animated, funny and carefree. Rest in peace.

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We took a slow, leisurely drive to Kuala Terengganu (KT) a day earlier. On the way, we stopped by Kuantan and met up with an old friend, Damien for dinner. He took us to this chinese restaurant called Alor Akar Seafood Restaurant and had very a yummy dinner.

# – Noms.

# – Me and Damien. On an unrelated note, my eyebags remind me of sausages.

After dinner, we continued our journey to KT. We found this budget hotel called Hotel Indah going for RM70 per room per night. Well, in spite of its name, there’s nothing “indah” about it.

The bed was basically a plastic mattress covered in really thin, well-worn sheet. Actually, I won’t even call it a sheet. Blanket was just a thin beach towel…for my 6’5″ bf and myself? Oh well, I guess you get what you pay for. Next time, we’d have no qualms putting down RM50 more for a real bed and blanket!

# – God and Moobs sharing a room with see-through bathroom.

Anyway, before bedtime, we walked out to find some beers. We went to a 7-11 but surprise, surprise, 7-11s in KT don’t carry alcoholic beverages.

Then God proceeded to ask the first person he met outside 7-11 where to find beer, a middle-aged lady in traditional headscarf, “Kak, you tahu mana ada jual arak??” (Sis, do you know anywhere selling booze?). I was ready to run, to be honest.

Instead of scolding us though, the lady led us to a dingy coffee shop behind our hotel. A man was helping a very inebriated man out from the shop and we knew immediately, that we’re at the right place. We thanked the lady in headscarf, went into the semi-closed coffee shop and was met with about a dozen Thai people getting drunk and singing to cowboy country music. We bought 2 bottles of beer and a bag of ice.

At our hotel, we cut an empty mineral water bottle into half cause we didn’t have glasses. And no, Hotel Indah did not have glasses for its guests.

# – Moobs with his half.

# – And me with the other half.

The next morning, we headed to the jetty!

# – Moobs and the BF fighting before departing from the jetty.

We reached Redang Bay Resort and was relieved at our accommodation, which was very, very comfortable :D

# – OMG our room even had a mirror!

Despite being at the very end of the season, the weather held up beautifully for us.

# – Sunny sky, blue sea and white sands.

We had a total of 5 dives, including one night dive which was incredibly awesome. Ed, my dive instructor led all our dives.

# – Ed and the BF.

# – God. He took all the underwater pictures on this blog. Check out his awesome blog at www.seapixels.com

# – Meeee!

# – The BF getting friendly with nemos.

# – Me again!!!!

I saw a live turtle for the first time and it was humongous. It was amazing! Also saw a black tip reef shark and a lone barracuda and of course a lot of colourful, weird fish. I finally learnt that nudibranch is really very tiny, I didn’t realise all those pictures of nudibranches were really macro shots :P

It’s a bit hard to stomach that it will be about 6 more months before we get to dive in local waters again. The only option is to dive overseas but we feel like it’s only right to explore all of Malaysia’s diving spots first before crossing borders.

That said, I’m not sure if my willpower could withstand the temptations, already fantastic diving deals in Thailand and Philippines are being thrown at my face T_T

Truly, I’m missing it so much already :(

A real update.

Sorry for the slew of advertorials this week. Sometimes they come all at once and I won’t have slots for personal blog posts to publish. Not that I’m not complaining really, because being paid to write about what you enjoy (food, parties etc)….not a lot of people get to do that!

Anyway, here’s a real update!

I’m officially a certified scuba diver since last weekend! Yay to me! Something that I’ve always wanted to do and finally I’ve done it!

# – Underwater couple portrait :D

It was a really fun trip to Pulau Lang Tengah with Moobs, God, ST and of course my mentor/diving instructor Edvin.

# – ST, Moobs & Edvin.

# – God sleeping upright in a shaky boat.

# – Errr..

Edvin’s the same person who led my discovery scuba session a year ago and if you’re looking to be certified yourself, look no where else. As far as good instructors go, Edvin’s the man.

He is 200% about safety and that’s all that matters. No beautifully packaged open water cert to advanced cert in 2 days bullshit from our man. You really got to earn your badge properly.

We call Edvin the fishman because he is unreal when he’s in water. He’s got the most incredible breathing techniques; truly valuable stuff when you’re underwater. Truly valuable stuff. I feel very lucky to be what he refers to as “apprentice” :)

# – Edvin administrating the final test on me.

# – Certified! Woohoo!

Diving is an addictive hobby. I can’t wait to wet my bones again. Looking forward to a lot of diving trips, hopefully one in October, fingers crossed!

Anyway, we’re leaving for Singapore in a hour. Going to be there till Sunday. Am quite excited about buying kitchen appliances (I know right I’m such an auntie!)……and checking out scuba gear hehehe.

ST’s wallet is weeping as we speak…

p/s: Happy Malaysia Day!

+++ Advertorial Break +++

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