TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence
Congratulations to Mark Connell for the completion of his Dive Master course. As is the norm for us we did it up right with a good party and snorkel test up in the Point.
It’s always nice to see friends come back to visit us for many years. Bill Twin, Klaus and Gabi Eschelbach and Sabine Henkel have all been coming here a very long time and we’re always happy to see them having fun here.
It was wonderful to have Ike Subardiaga and the whole family here for the weekend. Agnes and Sabrina made sure that their dad was well looked after underwater.
Welcome back to Peter Webster from Vision Divers in Melbourne, Australia. Peter has been bringing groups here for a long time and we surely appreciate it. It’s been fun week of enjoying the superb diving conditions, and good critters. Of course hanging out with this lot has been the added bonus! Looking forward to seeing you all back again next year! Continue reading
Tommi came here ealier this year to do his PADI Dive Master course with us. He also managed to have some time to take some really nice photos during his stay. Tommi has enjoyed taking photos for a long time, but since they moved to Asia 2007 he’s put more effort into photography. Underwater photography has been the main reason to dive for his diving since 2011. He’s been traveling extensively in Southeast Asia, resulting in over 500 dives, including some technical diving. Originally from Finland, but as of now, Tommi is living in Taiwan, thus having good opportunities also for nature and travel photography.
Check out his website: http://tommikokkolaphotography.com
You can contact him at: info(at)tommikokkolaphotography.com
Rags II has only two open slots on a trip left for this season! May 10-17, 2014 (All around Mindoro incl. Tablas Strait, Boracay and Apo Reef). This trip has it all! Wrecks, sea caves and big fish! 1550 US $ for six full days of diving and everything included except equipment (nitrox, food, beer, soft drinks, fuel surcharge and all marine sanctuary fees).
Contact instructors@asiadivers.com for details please!
The Classic Club Lunch #1 started Sunday 2nd October 1994. It was started by Roscoe Thompson, Trevor Griffith and David Austin. Back then, the main purpose of starting the Classic Club was to get half a day off work. 🙂 There were only 5 in attendance on Classic Club Lunch #1, within a few weeks it has quickly grown to averaging 30 Clubbers each week. One of the biggest successes back then and still today, was to bring so many different nationalities together at the one table for some fine dining and wines.
There were 96 Clubbers present at the 1000th Classic Club Lunch at El Galleon Resort on Thursday 24th April with continuous prizes and raffles happening between the superb 8 course lunch which was made possible in a most professional way thanks to the El Galleon Staff.
Wines for the day were sponsored very kindly by Future Trade Inc. Manila.
“The Classic Club wishes to thank the Management and Staff of El Galleon Resort for making our 1000th Classic Club Lunch such a memorable day.”
Geert started making pictures underwater in 2008 (Red Sea, Egypt) and from then on he always had his camera with him: Lembeh, Maldives, Bali, Sipadan, MoalBoal, Puerto Galera (on his flickr site you can also find his PG albums from 2013, 2012 and 2011 and see his progress!) It’s in PG that Ralph Ramirez urged him to switch from the “underwater” to the manual function and to making pictures in RAW format, then followed one external flash, next trip two external flashes, the following trip a macro lens and so on… he has been diving with Asia Divers for five years in a row now, for the “quality and good humor of all the people working in El Galleon and at the dive centre, for the fine operation with four regular dives a day and for the variety of macro life.”
Check out his PG pictures from last February on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/59735737@N04/sets/72157644060479093/
I attended the Asia Dive Expo past weekend in Singapore to represent Asia Divers/El Galleon at the Philippine Department of Tourism booth. It was great to get all chatty about something I love, the wonderful diving in Puerto Galera and about our resort. It was also fantastic to see and meet up with some of our regular friends, Sabine, Akiko, Sue, and Trevor. An especially big thank you to Emma for letting me stay with her and Tilly and also to Brian Moh who came from KL to visit. I hope that the trip pays off and we get to see more folks from Singapore and Malaysia staying with us. This photo was taken by Mazi and used for the display in the Philippines Department Tourism booth at ADEX. Nice huh?!!
It was wonderful to see the Jeff, Julie and Anna Barker back with us again and to meet Rezananta Pietruschka for the first time. Rez enjoyed doing the Discover Scuba program with Troy and follow-up dives… I suspect that we’ll see more of him here in the future. A big congratulations to Anna who did her 150th dive on this trip. Most of these dives have been with Asia Divers and in fact most have been with Alli. Hope that Talia can come over next time though; we missed her this time…
The “Holy Week”, Easter holiday is still in full swing around here. With the excellent weather and many familiar faces around it’s been a great time for everyone to enjoy their diving vacation on the beach. The water temperature is just starting to warm up and this is the time of the year that the critters are really starting to come out and play.
Sabrina Peaker and Sabrina Parker loved the chance to try out scuba diving the first time with Troy and even more excited about seeing three turtles in the sea grass on their second dive!