Allan, Tommy and Alli went to the DEMA show in Las Vegas recently. It’s the world’s only international trade-only event for the diving industry. It was a great opportunity to do some business, learn a few new things and to see some old friends while we were there. It was fantastic to catch up with Ray and Karen Hopton who used to work at the Canadian Embassy in Manila. Ray and Karen spent a lot of time here in the early years of Asia Divers and have done over 300 dives with us, and about 740 dives around the world. There was a lot of time spent reminiscing about the old days and all the fun times we shared together with good friends, Tanduay rum and San Miguel beers…. Ahhhhh. Looking forward to seeing you both again in 2014!!
Congratulations to Alex Suh for winning first prize in the Overall category in our photo competition. He has won 10 nights in Seaview room with breakfast, and un-limited day dives at El Galleon/Asia Divers.
Beth Watson's macro photo of a seahorse
Congratulations to Beth Watson for winning first prize in the Macro category in our photo competition. She has won a World Wide Dive and Sail Voucher of €1,000.
Anemone with clown fish
Congratulations to Sue Goodman for winning first prize in the Point and Shoot category in our photo competition. She has won a complete set of the Waterproof Sport Series (W30 fullsuit, W30 shorty, U30 vest, H30 hood, G30 gloves, S30 socks, T30 shorts and T30 Sport Top)
We’re thrilled to have received the PADI Asia Pacific Member Award for “Outstanding Contribution to the Diving Industry in 2011.” It takes a great team to get this and we know that it was each and everyone who works here who made this award possible.
The actual award.
The end of October and early November sees a full program of fun events at Asia Divers to help celebrate our 25 years of diving in Puerto Galera.
If there is a better way to escape the rat race I don't know it.
Have you ever wanted to pack it all in and live the dream? This is the opportunity for you to do it now! A new life, a chance for a new career and in the perfect location! The package of your choice will get you through from being a recreational diver to become a professional diver. This whole programme will take about 2-3 months total depending on which package you choose and when the IDC/IE is scheduled. See the following link for all the details:
I’ve always loved the Ocean. Growing up in Australia I was spoilt for clean beaches and loved our childhood summers swimming in the surf. Having won a competition in 2010 for two open water courses with Asia Divers, it was the perfect opportunity to get together with my brother and sister and enjoy some time together while doing something we’d always wanted to do. Unfortunately, injury struck and I was sidelined in a plaster cast, while they could dive I could not. Watching from the sidelines was more reward than I expected. You observe the effect diving can have on people. A sense of calm wonder as the underwater world is opened up to someone for the first time. Watching people relax as they are allowed to escape from the world they live in with a complete change of focus. That realisation that there is something much bigger than concrete skyscrapers and noisy TV programs about other people’s lives. The bond that grows between diving partners, not only for a unique shared experience, but increase respect you have for someone you’ve had to trust. And, a personal sense of achievement after each dive. Something new learned. Something new seen. It’s taken me 12 months to find my opportunity to complete the open water course – and I’m hooked! Not only for diving itself, but the opportunity I now have to explore the world in a new way with the people I’ve known all my life and love. I would like to thank our instructor Allison. Good instruction from the start builds confidence in anything. We all felt very lucky to have a teacher who is as passionate as she is professional. And to have found a place like PG where you can dive on so many levels and see so much. I’m looking forward to keeping her up to date with my ambition of diving the top 10 sites in the world, and working on an environmental clean up once a year.
Travel
We have the Palau Siren booked for a 10-day trip November 20-30, 2012. For you that have been there before on one of our 7-day cruises with Palau Aggressor you’ll find that we get an opportunity to see other areas of Palau. We’ll dive far north for some big Pelagic, not to mention any as we might have bad luck. Some may have tips on the fins but they are not white !!! Also some may look like very big birds !!! Do the “usual” Palau dives and then go all the way down to Angaur south of Peleliu. The boat will move and we will anchor in different places almost every night and therefore get the opportunity to dive in different areas all the time. Talking about the boat, for you who joined our Komodo trip 2011, will be very familiar on the Palau Siren as its a copy of the Indo Siren we spent the trip on. If you are interested please let me know and I will reserve a spot for you. The price for the trip is €2,995. The dates fits with the Manila-Koror flight so no need for overnight in Koror, straight to and from the boat to the airport. 11 spots left ! Contact tommy@asiadivers.com if your interested.
Some awesome marine life when diving from the liveaboard.
Handning over the money to help the charity ASCT who rescue street children
It’s been almost ten months since Tommy and Allan took off for the Aussie Fundraiser ride around Australia. With five underwater and beach clean ups scheduled, a presentation booked for a ODEX (a Brisbane Dive show) and a promise of a BBQ at PADI in Sydney to celebrate the end of the ride, they managed to raise close to US$17,000 for two very special charities, PADI Project Aware in the fight against and awareness of Ocean Debris and The Springboard Foundation supporting the Mango, Cashew and Grapevine projects (http://ascf.ph/) in the area of Payatas Dump Site.
On Saturday night, Craig Burrow from the ASCF the people behind the Mango, Cashew and Grapevine project, along with Peter the manager of Mango (formally a street child who grew up and educated by ASCF at the Mango house) Annette Helbig creator of Springboard, (http://www.springboard-foundation.org/) Sarah who represents many charities and social clubs in Manila including Springboard and ASCF along with Sarah husband, Ham joined us as Asia Divers and El Galleon resort handed over the cheque to Annette of Springboard.
We look forward to working with these charities offering our support to some very worthwhile projects. If you have just a few minuets, take the time to visit their websites, (http://ascf.ph/ http://www.springboard-foundation.org/)
Second hand dive computers for sale!
Drop us an email at tommy@asiadivers.com to let us know if you want one.
Since it was a bit quiet last week we had a day of discovering scuba for some of our dive center crew. Ferdi, Jeric, Erwin and Francis enjoyed the experience and now have a better understanding of why so many folks come from all over the world to dive here.
One happy Coastal Water Dive group enjoying the diving in Puerto Galera with Asia Divers
Coastal Water Dive is owned by Torry and Tiffany Goodall and located in Bunbury, Western Australia. They have been in business since 1999 and are the largest regional dive store in Western Australia. We have had the pleasure of having them here this week for the very first time and hopefully we’ll be seeing more of them in the future. Torry met Allan and Tommy while they were on their charity ride around Australia raising funds for street children and Project Aware and got inspired by them to get a group together to come over here…and were sure glad they did! The group consisted of 17 from ages 18 to 51. “ We have enjoyed our stay and the dive team and staff have been flawless!”
http://www.coastalwaterdive.com.au/
Allan Nash
Allan is touring around Europe in a couple of fancy cars with Adrian, Bonny and Peter at the moment. We’re getting all sorts of photos of fine wine, great food and fantastic scenery sent daily from him…enough is enough! Ha ha
Mark Mitchell has some shot some pretty amazing photos and this week he and Jamie found this Spiny Tiger Shrimp (Phyllognatia ceratophthalmus), also called the Bongo Shrimp, or Horned Bumblebee Shrimp. None of us have ever seen this before so we were all quite excited to see the photos that Mark got. They belong to the same family as the Harlequin Shrimps and are relatively small in size – they grow to a maximum of 2 cm but are often smaller. They live cryptic and are usually hidden in sponges, rubble, Algae or broken coral – mostly in an encrusted mix of them. Often in pairs – sometimes even in little groups or families. Characteristics are their beautiful coloration, their spikes and their wave like movements. Cool huh?!! Check out more of Mark’s photos on the link below:
Asia Divers participated in an under water clean up dive organised by the Sabang Barangay. It was an afternoon of cleaning above and below the water to help encourage everyone to have a good think about what they are throwing away and keep Puerto Galera beautiful. Lots of folks from our community turned out to get in on the fun and also to get a new t-shirt and snacks. Thanks to Troy, Ruben, Kjell and Mazi, who “splashed for trash”!
Cleaning up Sabang waters and beach 2012
Cocos Island on Wind Dancer April 28-08 May, 2012.
Group enjoying the Cocos Island trip on the Wind Dancer liveaboard.
On the trip was from the left back row: Mark, Andreas, Wolfgang, Tommy, Ulf, Luc, Mikael and Rudy left middle row: Allan, Fitri, Dave, Rosina, Maria, Leen, Suzi, Brian, Kenneth and Ali and in the front John and Johan, missing on the picture is Andre, guess he had a nap.
Half of the team who went for the Cocos Island trip started with 3 days of Whitewater rafting and some other activities but that is another story.
We all got picked up for the 1 1/2h bus ride down the port town Puntarenas and once onboard the Wind Dancer we didn’t waste any time. The 34h hour crossing to Cocos Island went very smooth and we quickly got in the water soon after breakfast.
We had 7 days of world class diving with more fish then you want as the small ones often got in the way while you tried to spot the Hammerhead sharks in the distance! The wallpaper of Scalloped Hammerhead sharks was what Cocos Island is known for, but due to the very warm water 29-30 degrees we didn’t see as many Hammerheads as expected. They were still there in number but obviously the great amount was down deeper in cooler water. However we got some compensation for this in a approx. 4 meter Tiger shark who was spotted on number of dives, very cool!! Add lots of Whitetip Reef sharks, quite a few Silky sharks as well as Galalagos sharks and some hunting Blacktip sharks on the surface, so we got some action.
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