Now that the silly season is upon us why should we be any different? So, we have decided to have a series of silly but fun competitions.
Something I had wondered for a long time is this. Suppose I was sitting fully dressed in El Galleon and suddenly decided I wanted to go diving and to explore a small wreck. How long would it take before I actually was exploring a sunken boat?
So we had a competition among the staff of Asia Divers to do just that. From the starting whistle each entrant had to locate his dive gear and change into it, get and check his air and then get to Sabang Wreck and show his name to our camera man. The prize for the person doing it in the fastest time was a dinner for two at El Galleon.
Here we can see the starting line up.
Our competitors
There was a lot of hustle and bustle at the start with everyone rushing to change and get their kit on.
Jamie in the background looks like Superman and about to take off !
Almost ready chaps.
We created a movie of the whole event which is a hoot, so I won’t spoil the ending by saying who won the dinner for two but will give you a link to the movie in the next day or two.
In the meantime, HAPPY CHRISTMAS everyone and may you all win the lottery and come and stay with us in 2011.
It is true that everything is in a state of change and few things more so than scuba diving and the Internet. In recent years we have seen great changes in the diving world with things like dive computers coming in, then Nitrox and Trimix and the same has been true of web sites.
We now believe that any web site that relies on .jpg pictures and words to explain anything as interesting and exciting as scuba-diving is destined for extinction.
El Galleon and Asia Divers have spent the last year trying to improve our ability to communicate with our customers and potential customers and to that end some enormous work has been done on the Asia Divers web site.
Now we are happy to unveil our latest step forward in the field of video. We would love to hear your opinions of what we have done so far or suggestions of things you would like to see us do.
Take a look at what you can expect to see when diving here in Puerto Galera. Diving movie.
The long wait finally ended this week and Allan nash having returned to Puerto Galera the draw was done.
As you can see here the winner was Emma Barba. Good for you Emma and rest assured that when you come to collect your free nights ll our staff will make special efforts to see you have a specially nice time.
Emma Barba's ticket fresh from the hat.
Emma and her boyfriend tells us she came to dive with Asia Divers only after trying two other diving operations in Puerto Galera and that now they would never dive with anyone else.
Emma did her Rescue Diver course whilst her friends did a variety of other courses and dives.
Emma says that she very much enjoyed diving with our Peter who is now her favourite instructor. Time for you to blush Peter!
Emma is hoping to visit us again in the New Year and we will ll do our very best to see that she has a wonderful time here.
A new fin from CRESSI that has been created for those who are trying scuba diving for the first time or who dive occasionally and want to perform long kicks and dives without any specific training.
The mix of materials that has been chosen for the blade guarantees an undemanding, fluid kick with reduced muscular effort.
However, in keeping with the Cressi tradition, when needed, the fin shows its remarkable character, capable of helping the diver in any situation.
After been tested by Asia Divers Instructor Team it turned out its a very good fin even for professionals.
Its been two great weeks for Tommy and Allan as they set out for another DEMA (Dive Equipment & Marketing Association) show, this time to be held in Las Vegas.
After a long long flight from Manila-HK-LAX-Mexico City and onto Havana one was ready to either crash or look for a little fun. All hyped up after the flight and not knowing if it was morning or afternoon, a good feed of seafood was on the cards and a few beers to follow.
Allan Nash in Havana
That was exactly what I had, a large bowel of oyster soup (superb) and a serving of lobster, Cubana style. Then time to explore Havana. What a city, and incredible walk back in time, with old buildings with the facades still standing with sculptured artwork on building after building. The streets cobbled stoned and the quant little restaurants lining the streets with live music playing in many of the small bars and restaurants. The atmosphere is exciting and the feeling is overwhelming, you just cant do more than sit back relax and enjoy the ride, or after dark and when the time is right, get up and dance, Havana style, Salsa! Great people, awesome buildings, crazy cars and transportation and the music, something you want to take home with you, absolutely outstanding musicians, its a must do, must see kind of place and now is the time to see it.
Such lovely architecture seemingly frozen in time.Lots of music and the island of Cuba loves to party.
Las Vegas and the town that never sleeps was again the host of the DEMA show 2010. The show was held at the Las Vegas Convention center and there was little to no space left for anymore. It took me the best part of two days to get from one end to the other, along with my schedules with some of our very best friends in the dive industry. As always its a great pleasure to meet up with Ken and Tina from Island Dreams and Yasuko from Island Cruisers along with many more. The waterproof guys were there selling there latest dry suit, designed for ice diving, nothing we were immediately interested in, however a huge hit for the team selling out all there current drysuit stock. Waterproof’s line of wet suits were as always top of the list and a well sort after items. Waterproof have by far stolen the stage on wet suits, everyone is talking about them. So if you don’t have a waterproof wetsuit and are looking to buy a new suit, don’t look past Waterproof for excellence.
Other items of interest at the show were UK (Underwater Kinetics) lights and accessories, take your time and take a look at what this company has to offer. There new lights UK SL3 is about to be upgraded with a new bulb that is guaranteed to outdo anything close to its size. Already the SL3 has taken many by surprise, its size and durability is by fare more superior than anything else in its class. Asia Divers is taking slowly all its rentable lights and changing them to the UK SL3, that’s how good we think they are.
During one evening we decided to take a night off (something not easy to do at a DEMA show) and go see an old favourite singer song writer Rod Stuart, what a man, mid 60’s and still as strong as ever. Its been a long time since I have been to alive concert (not to many visit PG) but I have to say I was overwhelmed by Rod’s voice, his energy and his simple way of having a great party at the Coliseum, go Rod, the man!
Four days of DEMA, lots of excitement, so many new ideas and lots of leads to follow up, it was time to leave and head for the airport for that wonderful flight back home. If your ever near a dive show, do drop by, you never know who you will find wondering around, its generally the beginning of another great night of meeting new friends and telling old stories. Till next year, Orlando Fl., DEMA 2011.
Cheers
Allan Nash
Managing Director
PADI Course Director
Fed up with leaving the bottom early? Enriched Air Nitrox is great way to spend longer time in some of our best spots- imagine 40 minutes in canyons? It really doesn’t get any better! We believe everyone should be a Nitrox diver and always dive with Nitrox. To us it’s just good old common sense. As you’ll notice here, all of our instructors and Divemasters use nitrox for all pretty much all of their diving.
Nitrox tanks for longer bottom time
Enriched air. Learn to dive with Nitrox.
Why Nitrox ?
*Nitrox can give you longer bottom times on recreational dives. A good example of this is being able to spend 30 minutes of bottom time in the Canyons compared with about 20 on air.
*Gets you back to the surface with way less N2 in your system than diving on air.
*Decrease N2 loading if used with air profiles.
*Leave you less tired after multiple dives.
The PADI Nitrox Certification just got a whole quicker and easier to gain. No tables or calculations. All you need is a Nitrox dive computer and if you don’t have one yet, we’ll give you one to use for the course.
Asia Divers offers the PADI Nitrox (EANX) course for just $210 USD. Come to our dive centre, or contact Asia Divers at instructors@asiadivers.com for further details. After your certified you can take advantage of the great deals we have for diving on Nitrox. For only a small extra charge you can do all of your diving on Nitrox!
One dive + $6
All Day NITROX + $12
Two Days NITROX + $20
One Week Unlimited NITROX + $60
Minimum age 15 years
Easy nitrox with tanks charged actually on the pier at El Galleon
Jos Van de Giesen has had a great weekend here with his son, Bart and girlfriend, Jzene. Discovering scuba again, all three got to do some diving together along with Pete and Christopher Tong. It should also be noted that Jos did a sneaky note on the board on his last dive with Alli that said “#400”. Looks like there will be a celebration next time he is here!
Jerry O’Shea advanced though his Advanced course with Pete so quickly that he had to fill some more time doing his Nitrox course as well. Jerry did his theory on-line and came down here to complete the dives. E-Learning is the way to go!
A night of celebrating in the Point for Norbert and Birgit Andreya, Tina Lockie, Andrea Hensel and Rainer Kleenner because Andrea earned a 500 Dive Club T-shirt. Congratulations!
Dicery Gen Aribal is very happy to be on her honeymoon and the fact that she got to go diving her new hubby, Robert Cyr
Congrats to Jenny Fisher, who snuck in a quick Nitrox course before starting the IDC. Christopher Tong hasn’t been diving in a while but came down with some diver friends and got right back into the swing of things with a review, a Nitrox course and of course, some great diving.
Allan Nash who has donated the 3 nights free stay at El Galleon is away and therefore unable to draw the raffle.
I shall contact Allan Nash and as soon as I know a date when he can draw the raffle in public so everyone knows it is fair, I will send notification to everyone.
Sorry about this but Allan Nash is due back on the 25th. so we won’t need to wait too long.
It’s been a howling All-Saints Day long weekend here with lots of Manila regulars around, plus groups from the U.S. and Germany. The Halloween party at the Point was filled with the usual sorts of spooky characters and very bewitching staff members. Face painting was once again was a big hit for the many kids and even the bigger kids too. Thanks to everyone who came along and got into the spirit of things.
We have recently done major work to our web site and have now included this Blog to keep you up to date with the goings on and special offers and deals available from El Galleon and Asia Divers.
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