What a way to start on your 50th year! The birthday boy, Curt went out on a nice morning dive and came back to the whole resort decorated for his 50th birthday. (Included were many old photos of Curt as a wee lad and even some of those scary 70’s photos!) Happy 50th Birthday Curt….ya dumb whore!! His friends Steve and Chuck made sure everyone knew…
What a great week it was for the 18 students and three teachers from the British School Manila. Fourteen left with their Open Water certification, Four earned their Advanced, and we even got one of the teachers to do a “Try Dive”. eLearning once again ensured that the kids got to spend more time in the water and no time in the classroom during their stay here. They all had more time for fun diving, a sunset cruise, and a big send off party on the platform. Thank you to Will Tibblits, David O’Connor, and Alexandra Van Lierde for organizing this very successful event. We can hardly wait until next year to do it again!
Our newest bubblemaker Oscar Collin is very happy to show off his certificate with his instructor, Mazi. Asia Divers loves kids and takes special care with the little ones. We have a bubble-maker course in the swimming pool and we also do bubblemaker dives in the ocean to a depth of 2 m for kids 8-10 years old. Kids love to get the chance to find Nemo!
Alli vanished last week to take a group to Tubbataha Reef. It is the only purely marine World heritage Site in Southeast Asia. It lies at the heart of the coral triangle, the global center for marine diversity and consists of roughly 10,00 hectares of coral reefs. The area is a source of coral and fish larvae and also represents the last intact seabird habitats in the Philippines. It was a great trip for the whole group as they got to see lots of sharks, turtles, beautiful walls covered in huge seafans and sponges and even a few big rays. Asia Divers is running several live-aboard dive trips every year to many places all over the world. If you would like to be kept up to date on all the latest news and upcoming trips you can subscribe to our weekly newsletter “the Monday News”. Just drop Alli a line at instructors@asiadivers.com and she can get you on the list.
It’s great to have Ken Knezick and his group of 38 here with us this week to enjoy the perfect weather, 25-30 meter vis, warm water and wonderful diving!
“So far so good. When the guests are happy…I’m happy. Big fun in the Philippines!
Philippines Dive Report – I’m writing at the front end of Island Dreams’ group tour to El Galleon Dive Resort in Puerto Galera, Mindoro, Philippines. We have completed our first two days of diving and I’ve been enjoying more than four hours per day underwater. Weather conditions both topside and below have been excellent, with visibility the best I’ve yet to experience in this region. We have already encountered a wonderful array of unique marine life, including a blue ring octopus, various frogfish, ornate ghost pipefish, a pair of halameda ghost pipefish, sea horses, pipe horses, plenty of reef fishes, jacks, tuna, a nice spotted eagle ray and some small black tip sharks. I’ve already investigated at least 50 fire urchins – no resident Coleman shrimp yet so I’m still on the hunt.
El Galleon Resort is operating even better than ever, with a topnotch staff, friendly and motivated to please. The Asia Divers operation is one of the best I’ve seen, with special kudos for the way they have streamlined Nitrox analyzing, plus the expert ministrations of equipment repair wizard Andy Norman. Chef Anton is still master of the kitchen and the guests are very appreciative of his cuisine. I personally am grateful for how deliciously well he accommodates my vegetarian diet. Top all of this off with happy hour at The Point Bar and El Galleon Resort is the place to be in Puerto Galera. Luckily, right now that’s where you will find me and Island Dreams. Let’s go diving!”
Look at the cool critters that have been spotted recently
With much excitement we are very proud to launch our new website. This has been in the process for a long time and we’re all thrilled to get it out there. It’s been a collaboration of many people with many ideas and many thoughts of what needs to be included and what needs to be eliminated.
A big thank-you to Jeffery Hutt and his team at CrossStep for coming up with a very dynamic and easy to navigate website. CrossStep is a productions company led by creative entrepreneurs who’ve designed numerous award-winning interactive products and user experiences. For more info, please visit http://crossstep.com.
With much excitement we are very proud to launch our new website. This has been in the process for a long time and we’re all thrilled to get it out there. It’s been a collaboration of many people with many ideas and many thoughts of what needs to be included and what needs to be eliminated.
Dubai American Academy week at the resort
It’s been an exciting time with the Dubai American Academy here for the 6th year in a row. 50 kids, 5 teachers and what they did: 34 newly certified PADI Open Water divers, 10 newly certified PADI Advanced divers, 16 trained sailors with the Puerto Galera Yacht Club, community service work at local schools, sunset cruise to Talipanan, day trip to see some of the island, lots of fun dives, fiesta night grand finale with fireworks and a fire dancer to keep it hot…
Thank you once again to Ralph Russell and his team for his continued support. We are all ready for you in 2014!
34 students and 3 teachers from the Dubai American Academy, along with the whole staff at Asia Divers/El Galleon Resort, in Puerto Galera, Philippines say that extinction is NOT an option!! Project AWARE is pushing forward with Calls to Action to secure protection for sharks and rays at CITES. Extinction is NOT an Option! To learn more about the coalition visit www.cites4sharks.org
Jamie gives a talk to the kids on how important it is for us to take a stand for “Extinction is not an option”.
The kids were busy doing some painting at the Talipanan Mangyan school as part of their community service work.
Travel
Komodo
Pete is organizing a Dive trip for Asia Divers aboard the Komodo Dancer 11th to 18th Nov 2013. Komodo is famous for its Komodo Dragons but has some fantastic diving including Komodo National Park. There are five spots left. For more information, send him a message on Facebook and/or contact him at peteeaton@hotmail.com or instructors@asiadivers.com
Easter trip to Apo/Coron
You have not been diving at Apo Reef or Coron yet?
Rags II has a few free slots on a trip just before Easter available!
March 23-29, 2013: Five slots available for five days of diving/six nights at Coron Wrecks and Apo Reef for 1225 US $ per person! Everything included (fuel surcharge, nitrox, beer etc.) except the Marine Park fee of 1700 PHP.
Contact instructors@asiadivers.com for details please
OZTek 2013
Dave Ross and Steve Cox along with Allan Nash and Ralph will be in Sydney this coming weekend. Tech Asia will have a booth at the show, so drop by and say hello if you’re in the hood! Below is the preview to a talk that Dave and Steve will be doing there on Sunday 17th. See http://www.diveoztek.com.au/previews.html
It was great to have Hans Ornhagen and his group of 17 doctors, intensive care nurses, and diving instructors from Sweden, here with us for ten days. Hans’s background is research and teaching in diving medicine, and for the past 10 years he has run a course in diving medicine abroad. This time he chose to do it here at El Galleon/Asia Divers. For details see www.divemed.net. The program included evening lectures and some special exercises during the day, but there was always time for lots of fun diving for the whole group. They even had an afternoon field trip to see the recompression chamber in Batangas. Contact us or Hans if you would like to join him next year perhaps.
Pete is organizing a Dive trip for Asia Divers aboard the Komodo Dancer 11th to 18th Nov 2013. Komodo is famous for its Komodo Dragons but has some fantastic diving including Komodo National Park. There are five spots left. For more information, send him a message on Facebook and/or contact him at peteeaton@hotmail.com or instructors@asiadivers.com
January 31st saw us with another group of 6 taking the Cressi Sub service seminar that was conducted as Asia Divers in Lalaguna beach Puerto Galera by Andy Norman.
This time there were three students continuing on from completing their instructor training through Asia divers instructor IDAP collage, two from Blue Ribbon dive resort in Small Lalaguna and our own Brad that’s seen on the platform working with us.
After the course, Brad threatened to overtake the workshop to do his own regulator… think I’ll be a fly on the well to watch the parts scatter across the floor….
For any of you interested in the course…… ‘This course is primary designed for the student to fully understand the theory and working practice of the Cressi- Sub regulator, and by understanding that theory can now go on to correctly diagnose problems encountered with proper procedures to correct those faults’.
Not forgetting….. There was that little word called maintenance, proper periodic service procedures and the obligatory record taking per each piece of equipment that was discussed as part of the course… so not all was practical with a spanner in your hand… however still was a very important part of the seminar.
If interested in taking this free one day course, either in Puerto Galera or an area close to you then please don’t hesitate to email andy@asiadivers.com
Congratulations to those that completed the one day service on the Cressi-sub AC2, MC5 first stage and the XS 2 and ellipse second stage.
David larbalester, Ramona Stilzer, Roger Wingate, Barrie Brigden …. Blue Ribbon dive resort, Chris Easton……..Blue Ribbon, Bradly Bynum Asia Divers.
iDAP College news
A big congratulation goes to Ramona Stelzner and David Larbalestier for becoming PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors! On the picture above you can see them at their IE Graduation Ceremony. True to our strong commitment and hard work for our IDC candidates they easily passed their Instructor Examinations. Between them they have also managed to put in a great effort and becoming Specialty Instructors in 12 areas.
Next IDC start’s the 1st of March. If anyone is interested just let us know and we’ll send you all the details. We are probably the only IDC/ CDC center in the Philippines that has a 100% passing rate with all our candidates passing their first IE appearance with Kenneth, our Course Director in charge of iDAP College. Many wish to have that passing rate but we actually have it!!
Dave is a Canadian/Australian living in Perth who originally became a diver as part of his marital obligations to Michele Mannix less than five years ago. He recently made his 200th dive with Asia Divers here in Puerto Galera at the Boulders site. When he is not force-feeding mathematics into the minds of unwilling Aussie teenagers, he likes to spend his time photographing the world above and below the sea. His dreams include being a financially kept house-husband, world peace, and better camera gear. All of Dave and Kelly’s dive pictures can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dvanv333/
It’s been an action packed year here at El Galleon and Asia Divers and we’ve had lots of great times with many old and new friends. Farewell to our 25th Anniversary year and hello to the next 25 years! Thanks to everyone for your continued support and we hope that you all have a most wonderful 2013.
December 31st was Josh’s final day on the job…so he went out with a bang by doing six Discover Scuba courses! It’s been seven years since Josh arrived on the beach. He did his Divemaster and Instructor courses with us and went on to become a valuable member of the team. Josh will be around for the next month so if you want to catch up with him here you still can. We wish him well in his next adventure
Asia Divers Alona has now opened their doors and has already turned into be a busy shop.
Located on Alona Beach Road less than 100 meter up from the beach, the store is ready to serve the many dive centers at Alona Beach and entire Bohol area as well as holiday makers on the beach. Ivy from our Cebu branch worked very hard the last 2 months or so to get this
up and running and will now be there to train our new staff Odette and Juliet.
TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence