Underwater attack

This incident happened during my recent trip to manado/lembeh straits/bangka. I was diving the Lembeh straits with a friend on December 1. On the 3rd dive of the day at a site called Aer Perang, we were diving there to go look for the rare Rhinopias; weedy and paddle-flap scorpionfish. As we arrived on site in our boat, another boat from Kungkungan Bay Resort (KBR) pulled up alongside. Incidentally, the Asian Diver Magazine Shootout (http://www.eco-divers.com/ocean_odyssey.html)was taking place KBR at that time. Thinking that the divers from the newly arrived boat were competitors from that shoot-out, our guide decided we should wait for these diver to head down first so as not to crowd the dive site.

After a wait of around 10min or so, we descended to hunt for the rare fish. The hunt proved futile till our guides found the guides and divers from KBR who found one at 15m around a mass of staghorn corals. I settled down with my friend to wait for our turn to 'shoot' the subject and observing what the diver from KBR was doing.

He was using 2 pointers/pokers to position the Rhinopias in a certain way and seemed to be growing increasingly frustrated. How do i know that? Cause a while after we arrived, he basically threw his camera rig to his side and proceeded to try and poke the fish to the postition he desired (tsk tsk tsk i thought). I slowly inched forward and picked up the diver's camera rig as he seemed to be on the verge of squashing/kicking the camera with his legs, so intent he was in getting the fish to the position he wanted. That was when i saw the label on the camera, 'Rod Klein'. Recognizing his name from various dive magazines that i've read, I thought to myself 'wow a photopro!' (http://www.eco-divers.com/uwphotography_rodklein.html)

While waiting, our guide signalled us to another location amongst the staghorn corals where he pointed out a yellow(female) ribbon eel. So i left the Rod Klein's camera set-up at a safer distance before going over to 'shoot' the eel.

Coming back to the Rhinopias later on to wait, my friend Esther suddenly came up to me pointing at Rod Klein. Through her hand signals, it seemed that Rod Klein had poked her with his pointers and she seemed very upset. At the time, i thought he had just nudged her away, not very friendly but no real harm done. So i signalled to her that she should poke him back with his pointer. ;p

By this time, Rod Klein had turned around and pointed to me in what seemed like ' do you want to take the fish?' I signalled back that he should go ahead first. He then abruptly packed up his stuff and took off, in a cloud of silt. In my mind i thought now that's an angry man. Waiting for the silt to clear, our dive group proceeded to take a couple of pics of the much harrassed Rhinopias before ending our dive.

Back on the boat, my friend Esther was complaining loudly about how she was 'attacked'. Apparently she was hovering above the staghorns (about 1m plus in height) watching what Rod Klein was doing when he reached out with his pointers and jabbed her hard around the hip/thigh area. It felt very painful she said and when she showed us the area where she was poked, you could the beginnings of a bruise forming.

Incidentally, our mutual friend is the new editor of Asian Diver magazine and was staying at KBR overseeing the competition. So back at our hotel at bitung, esther rang our friend up at KBR to tell her of the incident. It was then we realised that Rod Klein was actually one of the judges for the shootout.

The next day our friend called up, saying she confronted Rod Klein about the incident and he claimed that he jabbed Esther because she was stirring up silt and he was waiting to shoot the Rhinopias for a long time.

Now that is a lame excuse if there was ever one. No amount of reasoning can be used to justify this unprovoked underwater attack on a fellow diver. Sure there a certain kinds of etiquette that most underwater photographers will follow. However the ocean belongs to everyone and not just for photographers and divers. And no picture is worth injuring a fellow human being over. There is always another time to take a picture if the conditions are not right.

Attached below is a photo of the bruise on Esther's thigh taken a day after the incident. Make your own mind up on how serious was this 'attack'.

Rod has a history here at Wetpixel. I am never surprised when I hear stories like this.

Well, to be fair, one should also consider that Howeikwok just signed on as a member today and posted this story, his first post. One should take into account of this when considering the veracity of this story. There are always 2 sides to a story. We don't know what transpired between Esther and 'Rod.' There is absolutely no justification for ANYONE to assault someone. Was it an accident? Was 'Rod' trying to lift her off staghorn and bruised her as a result?

However, if someone were to do that to my friends or me, and I'd gotten an unsatisfactory reply from the other person directly, I'd have made a local police report on assault. Obviously he won't go to jail for something like that, but it'd be on record that such an incident occurred and there'd be statements taken on both sides.

That is a good point, Drew. There are always two sides to the story.

Given Rod's history with Wetpixel and with me in particular, it's obvious that I'm not at all neutral. I should probably just shut up, as whenever I share my opinions, I always seem to get in trouble.

I guess it came down to not wanting to spoil the rest of our dive holiday by going to the local police which i suspect would be such a hassle with the language barrier and all.

As to 2 sides to the story, when our friend, editor of Asian Diver Magazine confronted Rod, he did admit to the things that i've written about as well as to offer a reason which i stated in my post. The version of events can easily be verified by our friend whom we visited at KBR. She has too seen the bruise, as has other divers from malaysia in our group.

I guess the purporse of the post is to spread the news that Rod Klein, a supposed famous underwater photograper resorts to manipulating marine life to get the shot he wants. And when he doesn't get it through inadvertant action by other divers, intended or not, is likely to erupt in anger or physically injure/move other divers out of the way.

But of course like what Drew says, we'll never know what Rod was really thinking and they maybe other factors involved.

I know I don't post much here either because I am new to photography but I can address one point. I am the moderator of FiNS forum which you will likely have heard of or at least seen the adverts here (we hope!).

I know howeikwok and his family personally. He is a regular contributor on FiNS and some other forums that I visit. I know him to be honest and fair in all his other posts so if he says something happened, I will take his word as what really happened, as far as he saw it.

Poking a fish is bad enough. Poking a person is really beyond the pale IMHO.

Mr Ho

I don't mean to doubt you but you must understand these are pretty serious allegations against Rod, especially since the uw photog market is where he makes his living. I hope you understand that proof is required for such serious charges.

It's unfair to post something unverified about a person's actions without corroborating evidence or the person's knowledge. I'm sure you understand the use of internet posting can be malicious so I'm just trying to be fair, without being personal to anyone involved.

Regarding the issue of anonymous complaints vs complaints from known people, it makes a huge difference when a complaint is prefaced with something like.... My name is xxx. Here is my website, and here is a picture of me.

After writing that, your anonymous handle has a real face behind it, and you are responsible for what you write. People are also more likely to take what you say seriously because you have put your identity behind it.

If Rod indeed poked Esther hard enough to bruise her, he deserves the story to get out. He'll get wind of this thread soon enough, and can come reply if he wants to... which would surely be interesting!

There is a lesson to be learned here for all of us:

When giving someone a 'poke' in Indonesia you really have to make sure you do it discretely...

I hope that your friend is ok now, and that it doesn't put her off diving in the long term.

It's a shame you didn't take a pic of the Rodster poking the fish...

..... and Ho Wei Kwok is really his name.... he takes durn nice photos too but you can see that from his posts on FiNS and I know his website his posted there too.

I'll shut up now.

If someone did that to me or my buddy, he would be getting a rather hard poke back. The nerve of some people.

My first thought is ' It's just a damn photograph' then I think I am sure glad I do not have to make my living doing this, it might take all the fun out of it. Really though, at what point does something like this become assault. All kinds of bad things could happen underwater as a result, what's next, cutting the regulator hose?

Maybe I've lived with a lawyer too long but I think stating one side of the story, however reliable the source, is still one side.

I mean, does Esther bruise easily where a little poke will cause the same bruise? I know people who bruise very easily. Before the vilification starts, it would be due diligence in verifying the incident and hearing the other side.

He'll get wind of this thread soon enough, and can come reply if he wants to... which would surely be interesting!

I've broken wind his way already. And to Carol Lim Sol and KBR as well.

When giving someone a 'poke' in Indonesia you really have to make sure you do it discretely...

I don't even wanna get into that with you... go play nurse maid with Mike.

Sorry about the bruise, but I can't help to feel a little sorry about the Rhinopias as well. Even after being ("alledgedlly") harassed by two pokers, there's still a whole pod of divers taking pictures before it is left alone. I hope for the sake of them, that there is no 24/7 diving at that site.

Thanks to zippsy for indentifying me. My name is Ho Wei Kwok Alvin from Singapore. My hobby is underwater photography and my pics can be found at http:howeikwok.multiply.com/photos

I stand by what i wrote on this forum as these are the things that happened and i'm recounting it to the best of my knowledge.

As to the size and severity of the bruise. I think it's besides the point that she shouldn't have been poked in the first place. The fact that there's a bruise only goes to show the force used to poke her was by no means gentle. Again if this was a court of law, there would be no evidence Esther or myself can produce that the bruise was caused by a pointer or that the bruise seen in the picture was that of Esther either.

Needless to say this is not a court of law and nor am I or Esther sueing anybody. This post was made by the request of Esther to let people know that this incident happened and was caused by a world famous underwater photographer.

Maybe I've lived with a lawyer too long but I think stating one side of the story, however reliable the source, is still one side.

I mean, does Esther bruise easily where a little poke will cause the same bruise? I know people who bruise very easily. Before the vilification starts, it would be due diligence in verifying the incident and hearing the other side.

I've broken wind his way already. And to Carol Lim and KBR as well.

I don't even wanna get into that with you... go play nurse maid with Mike.

Carol Lim is no longer editor of Asian Diver so she wouldn't know of the incident, just in case you think she still is.

If it was me, i take a picture of the harassing " photo-pro " in action and made it public .

Before the vilification starts, it would be due diligence in verifying the incident and hearing the other side.

I guess at this point, if we do not hear from him, either another take on the incident, or an apology - it's fair to assume the incident happened as described.

I think the seriousness of this should not be ignored; it's one thing to have it out verbally with someone back on the boat, (and there are right and wrong ways to do this as well) but it's a whole different ballgame to intentionally accost someone underwater in any way. It goes way beyond just being a jerk, it's downright dangerous. What if this had been a novice diver?

Maybe I'm prejudging, but until I hear a response from him that satisfies me, I will never support his photography, dive trips, etc or recommend them to anyone else.

See you next week JA.

howeikwok,

I really commend you for reporting this incident. people can have very bad behavior when they think they can't get "caught" (e.g. - flipping someone off while driving). this guy obvious thought he could remain anonymous, harrass marine life, and almost give a woman a serious wound, without any repercussions.

so i guess I'm with loftus on this one.

scott

ps - I'll be in singapore in feb for chinese new year, maybe I can get together with some of you wetpixel members there...

I'm a gal who bruises very easily and I can tell that even if she (Esther) bruised easily this had some force behind it and would have hurt quite a bit.

So if it did happen from a jab from another diver it is inexcusable.

But again someone who bruises easily could have gotten that from other impacts. Still I believe what is posted here by Ho Wei Kwok Alvin, although I would have chosen another term in the title than "attack" - but again English is my native language.

There are many ways to get a point across underwater and antagonistic physical force should not be one of them unless it is a rare, extreme circumstance. I have a good friend who was undergoing her advanced scuba certification. She told me that at depth of over 100ft her "instructor" grabbed her wrist really, really hard and shook it/twisted it to make some point. It startled her and she still says she still has a pain in her wrist from where he grabbed her, plus her underwater confidence was badly shaken. She is an experienced massage therapist who hardly ever complains and is familiar with body structure and nerves, etc. and she is honest and kind to a fault. So I believe that the "instructor" behaved very wrong and possibly wasn't able to judge his strength vs. her strength and body structure at over 100ft on an advanced training dive, and yes there could have been some damage done.

There are ways to communicate underwater and there are ways not to communicate underwater. Of course if it is a rescue situation that is another thing all-together.

Carol