TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence
Sister-ship to Palau Aggressor ensures it’s a comfortable boat and with the perfect dive deck, diving don’t get easier than on this boat. We will board the boat in the afternoon on November 1 and disembark in the morning of November 8, gives us 5 ½ days of brilliant diving among Sharks and other big pelagic animals. Truly a trip you want to come back to do again and again. This is your chance to do your trip of the year! Contact tommy@asiadivers.com if you’re interested.
Asia Divers just got a new compressor and as you can see it takes a lot of manpower just to get it to our place. Once it arrived in Sabang it took all afternoon just to get it to our place…inch by inch….
Our new baby came from the distributors of LW Germany. It’s the Model LW 570ES with the upgraded filtration system and holds the same technical specifications with an air output of 570 Ltr/min. That means if both compressors are running they give a combined output of 1,140 Ltr / mins which equals to filling 10 tanks from 50 bar in 15 mins…WOW!! The unit is fitted with VFD so able to adjust rotation speed output to match the nitrox machine and at same time able to save on electrical power.
It’s been a fun week having this gang from Hong Kong diving with us. In this group are families and friends who have known each other for many years. They decided to come here so some can learn to dive, with their friend Bruce Shu who is not only a friend, but also an PADI instructor. Puerto Galera is a much nicer environment to do training dives for sure and the best part is being able to continue on with fun dives after the training. Congratulations to Joanne Leung, Joe Lee, Mandy Lee, Michael Kwan, and Joey Lee for becoming PADI Open Water divers and to Long Long Turner and Joe Lee who did their PADI Advanced course dives here. Besides the fun underwater we sure enjoyed the fun above water and especially a great dinner shared by all. Thanks so much to Adrienne Ng who put it all together!
A very special mention goes to Yvonne Kwan who “let go of the boat!” and was able to enjoy the snorkeling for the first time. Also to Vincent Lee who had a great time here watching all the action.
Allan has been busy going around Australia visiting many dive shops and also fitting in time to see some old friends like Eric Masters.
Tommy has been on tour around Eastern Philippines and visiting some Dive Shops/Centre’s that don’t often get visited by suppliers. Here is Tommy and Vladimir Elazegui from Scuba de Oro in Cagayan de Oro, Northern Mindanao.
It’s been a busy time here with many students and divers from China. Andy always seems to have one group going as another is coming in! Water temp is still warm and the sun continues to shine even in August.
Congratulations to Bo Jing from China who lucked out and had both Troy and Charmaine teaching her to dive.
“WOW! What fun we had yesterday!! Not one dive, but TWO:-) It just happened that there were NO other divers at Asia Divers, so Alli and I took full advantage of a golden opportunity to go to a couple sites that we love, that aren’t always accessible… went to Odies in the morning. A bit of current pushed us off on the first pass, but Alli made adjustments and nailed it on the second try! Looking for nicer light, we waited until 4pm and went to dry dock, another relatively deep site that normally we couldn’t do late in the day. Kinda spooky and darkish as it had clouded up, but very cool…. TWO frogfish made the dive special, one big one cruising along looking for a new place to perch. “
Alli is organizing a trip to Tubbataha Reef, this time doing the transition trip which will go from Puerto Princesa to Batangas. Dates are June 10-17, 2016. Contact Alli at Allison@asiadivers.com for more details.
Wonderful to have Anton Screibmueller, Christoph Winnat and Christian Weise back with us again along with newbies Chee Kong Hee (Joe) and Thorstein Mielke. Congratulations to Joe who also did his Nitrox course while he was here. This gang from Singapore enjoyed their time underwater as well as above for sure!
Photo by Beth Watson
More on why Puerto Galera is just so awesome! From Manila Today
http://www.manilatoday.net/verde-island-passage-marine-eden-of-the-pacific/
“The Verde Island Passage Marine Corridor (VIP) is famously known as “the center of the center of marine biodiversity” (Carpenter and Springer, 2005). It is the proverbial heart of the Coral Triangle, the apex of aquatic life on Earth. The Passage’s 900,000 square-kilometer area is home to 60% of the world’s known shorefish species, and even as much has yet to be explored in its waters.
Marine life here has the highest levels of endemism and biodiversity anywhere. Scientists counted 1,736 species in a mere 10-by-10 kilometer area. This includes more than 300 coral species and 32 mangrove species in Batangas alone, 20 seagrass species in Balayan Bay and Mindoro Oriental, 162 fish species, rare enclaves of clams, endangered sea turtles, and more. You don’t need to be a mathematician to be astounded of the plentitude of creatures that live in the VIP.
Just this June 2015, scientists from the California Academy of Sciences found more than 100 rare and new species in the Passage. A sea urchin species long thought to have disappeared over the past 230 years was also recently ‘rediscovered’ in the VIP.”
Yup….we love it! Great weather here now and only a bit of rain at night. Come on down!
One of the nice things about being here in the off-season is getting the dive guide and dive site all to yourself! Clarice and Jeff Napier have been enjoying this type of diving all week…