It’s the beginning of an action packed week for these 50 kids and several teachers. They’ll be kept happily busy and very well fed. In the works for the group are diving lessons, sailing, water sports, hiking, Extreme sports, Golfing, Zip line and community service at Verde Island. Let the games begin!
Puffer on a sucide mission?! Thanks Carole Harris for the photo
Hello little blue Ringed octo! Thanks for making an appearance in the Giant Clam area and thanks to Eliz Annand for the photo!
It was great to have Vision Divers here with us again. Mostly from Melbourne Australia, Vision Divers have been visiting us for at least 10 years, and always have a great time. Scott, Kaite, Dave,Rob, Emma and Eliz all carried on that tradition . All the usual activities were at hand, including a great day out at Verde Island. There were lots of critter sightings on our local dives, including an encounter with an eagle ray on their final dive. Of course Vision are no wimps when it comes to post diving activities, so the Point Bar is always the venue of choice. We are really glad the new look Point Bar got the seal of approval from these guys. See you next time!
Notable people missing from the trip were, Pete Webster and his Mrs Deb Lord who could not attend this visit. We missed you!
Congratulations to Scott Brickell for getting his PADI Open Water certification this weekend. Scott did his Scuba Diver course in 2011 and felt it was about time for an upgrade! On Sunday Scott did his 4th dive with Alli who happened to be on her dive number 11,111!
John, Rene and Larry were indeed happy boys in Truk with Tech Asia last week. Larry, always thinking about his friends knew that Malcolm Ward would be here while he was not, so he cunningly arranged a new beautiful new regulator case for Malcolm. I think the “Hello Kitty” regulator case could be a big hit in the tech diving community!
We are very happy to have Eleanor join the Asia Divers Instructor team. Prior, Eleanor was in Marketing & PR in cosmetics industry for 10 years in Hong Kong. She quit her job and moved to Puerto Galera in 2016 September. Eleanor loves diving and taking pictures – even on the ground or underwater. She speaks Mandarin, Cantonese and English. If you need a Chinese speaking instructor to teach you please contact instructors@asiadivers.com where both Andy and Eleanor are working along with the rest of the team.
It was great to have Simon and Finn Josey back with us recently. They have been coming here for many, many years and we’re happy that Simon did his 200th dive with us on this vacation! In-fact most of those 200 dives have been with us.
Another of our long time friends are here this week and it’s time to get the next generation diving. Wonderful to see Bonny, CY and the kids and to see that Tim is on his way to becoming an Open Water diver.
The Verde Island Passage Marine Corridor (VIP) is famously known as “the center of the center of marine biodiversity”. 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.
Asia Divers/El Galleon is lucky to have this amazing diving right on our doorstep!
Good morning Verdi Island!! What a stunning early morning photo by Beth Watson. She shot this one with her drone in the wee early hours of the morning.
Speaking of Verde Island…look what Alli and her group bumped into this morning on the pinnacle. Yes, a lovely whale shark spend a good few minutes with us just resting in the current while we were all racing around and getting out of breath. Check out the video: https://web.facebook.com/andy.xie.5836/videos/958153520993355/
A very happy group of divers today! Remily Middaugh, Shiyuan, Qin Zhen, Alli, David Potter and Joe Ashworth-Martin giving the “W” for WHALE SHARK signal.
Private IDC about to start
The PADI Instructor Exams are finished and we are off to starting our next (private) IDC today. What better way to begin an Instructor Development Program than having an awesome diving day… So we went to Chicken Feather Island for a Physics field day – cooking soup underwater in one of the many volcanic vents (to study heat transmission), explore a new dive site at Bonito Island and enjoy a fun time of a slow cruise back coupled with that stunning sunset shortly after. Now, we are ready for some skills…
You can also view a short video clip of the soup discovery here:
It’s been a full-on heavy metal time with several photographers here over the past couple weeks. Here are a few images taken by a couple folks which we though you would appreciate.
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