PADI Open Water Diver Archives - Asia Divers & El Galleon Beach Resort, Puerto Galera

Beach Resort, Diving, News and Events

Top Reasons to Try Diving in Puerto Galera, Philippines

Posted on February 14, 2020March 5, 2020 by Asia Divers

Recognized for some of the best reef diving in the world, Puerto Galera in the Philippines is known as a spectacular scuba diving haven by divers worldwide.

The fish variety exceeds the fish found in the Red Sea and boasts to consist both of more hard and soft coral variety than the Great Barrier Reef.

The water in Puerto Galera offers excellent visibility all year round with an average water temperature of around 29’C. Colorful and vibrant reef dominates the waters along with an abundance of sea life making the reefs their home. Most of the dive sites of Puerto Galera are suitable for divers with Open Water qualification, but there are still plenty of sites technical divers will enjoy.

Here are the top dive sites in Puerto Galera that should be on your list:

Sabang Wrecks

Sabang Wreck Dive Photo by Beth Watson

Two wooden wrecks and one steel hull yacht are part of the Sabang Wrecks. It’s an excellent dive experience, especially for beginning divers with a max depth of 21m. Be prepared to meet a school of batfish once you reach the first wreck at about 11m. The three wrecks are surrounded by all kinds of marine life.

Monkey Beach, West Escarceo and Dugong Wall

Puerto Galera Underwater
Photo by Beth Watson

A great diversity of marine species and colorful corals are found within these three dive sites as part of the continuous coral garden within easy reach from 5 to 25 meters. This spot is a favorite among marine photographers with the wreck of a small sailboat found in the area.

The Canyons

Puerto Galera Photo by Beth Watson

For a more thrilling and adrenaline-pumping time in the depths, the Canyon consists of 3 canyons with a maximum depth of 32m. Diving in these strong currents is only for advanced divers. You’ll get to watch schools of trevally tuna and even barracudas effortlessly drifting in the currents.

Here are some of the popular dive sites that made Puerto Galera a worldwide diving phenomenon. Other locations include caves, muck dives, other shallow coral fields, and drift dives. Planned to visit Puerto Galera on your next diving trip? Contact Asia Divers for unforgettable diving tours in Asia including the Philippines.

Diving, News and Events, Travel

Mindoro Sprinter private resorts and boat taxi service now operational!

Posted on September 1, 2019September 1, 2019 by Asia Divers

01
Sep

Mindoro Sprinter, the new 22 seater Navicat, Private Resorts and Boat Taxi service is now operational.

It’s the fastest and most comfortable way to get to (and from) Puerto Galera, and directly to El Galleon/Asia Divers. Our new and easily accessible pick up point at Ilaya, is right next door to Batangas Port. And dis-embark at our pier.

Check out the official Mindoro Sprinter website. All contact details, location map for pick-up location, costs and schedule will be posted there: www.mindorosprinter.com . You can also follow our Facebook page “Mindoro Sprinter”

Summer Holiday Promo

Last minute holidays? Our summer promo ends September 30th. Contact us to take advantage of this amazing special.

What’s been happening at Asia Divers & El Galleon Dive Resort

Happy birthday to Leon, so nice that you and Carole can spend another one here with us!

It was great to have Ian and Jack Jones diving with us. Jack completed his Open Water course with us a few months ago and he had not forgotten a thing. It was like riding a bike, he was right back at it again! Three big turtles, a couple of big puffers and an amazing very fishy drift dive made the weekend…

Discover Scuba by day…jamming in the Point by night! Maria Khristina Tome and Mark Donahue had a great experience trying out scuba diving with Maria and then joining in a fun evening at the Point Bar.

First time at the Point Bar… “Sudden” gig/acoustic session and it was a success! Watch out… this might become a regular thing! Thank you so much to our guests, Tin (vocalist) and her partner Mark for making this happen, to Odie for the music, to all the jammers, El Galleon family and awesome crowd!

A chip off the old block! Very nice to see Ruben teaching his 16 year old daughter Andrea to dive along with her support team Ruby Ann and, Issa to cheer her on.

Jana and Glenn Everett have been keeping themselves busy this weekend with their PADI EFR and Rescue course with Sabine. Both are enjoying the learning and the fun of it along with a few bumps here and there on the egress!

That’s all for this episode from Asia Divers & El Galleon Dive Resort. See you soon!

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Diving, News and Events

Visit Asia Divers at ADEX Beijing July 12-14

Posted on July 9, 2019 by Asia Divers

09
Jul

ADEX Beijing 2019 – Ocean Fiesta

ADEX Beijing Ocean Fiesta will be held in Beijing China International Exhibition Center on July 12 to 14. Alli and Elly and Dave Ross will be there at the Philippines Department or Tourism Booth representing Asia Divers/El Galleon and Tech Asia. Please drop by if you’re in the area.

We have some great accommodation and dive packages to show you and some interesting ideas for instructors wishing to bring their students here to teach them at our awesome dive facility.

July has started in the right direction with the sun shining and the awesome dive conditions continuing on. Tony, Warren, Paul, Pete, Rod, Michael, Robin, John, Phil, Elly and Maria spent the morning at Verde Island with just enough current to bring out the big fish and spectacular visibility to make it a great day.

Get 20% off accommodation and complimentary breakfast this July!

Thinking about a quick little getaway. Contact us to arrange your stay at El Galleon this month with a 20% discount on accommodation and complementary breakfast.

Book Now Contact us

Who’s been doing what at Asia Divers?

Congratulations to Jessica Loder who has become the 4th diver in the family. Arthur took her under his wing and now they are both super happy. Jessica is very excited about all the great things she is seeing and looks forward to diving with her family.

Congratulation to Leo Church for earning his PADI Open Water with Ruben. Leo’s dad, John came here many years ago and did his OW course here as well. Nice to have another “Asia Divers” diver in the family!

Rescue/EFR/lots of diving and a new t-shirt to go home with…it’s been a great holiday! Congratulations Paul on your 100th dive!

Allan and Tommy on the road again

Allan, Tommy and Mark are on an amazing motorcycle journey in Australia. These photos are from Meekatharra to Mt Agustus to Tom Price over 850Km with 650Km being all dirt roads, such fun:-)

asia divers owners road trip fun — At the Marble Bar Cup day

That’s all for this week folks! See you again soon.

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Diving, News and Events

Long Live the ‘Monday News’ & Underwater Photography Workshop

Posted on May 9, 2019 by Asia Divers

09
May

“The Monday News” is a great way to keep up to date on what’s been going on at Asia Divers and El Galleon Dive Resort. Before Facebook, Instagram, blogs and all other social media came into play, this was how we let our previous guests and friends know who’s been doing what and what new and exciting things were coming up.

We still get people giving us comments like

“I just love coming into work on an ugly Monday morning through a massive snowfall, and icy roads and than seeing your newsletter!”

Even with all the new social media options and technology there is still a group of people out there who enjoy seeing it every Monday….so we keep it going!

Every month we change the cover photo and this month’s cover pic is a stunning nudi branch taken by Sue Goodman. Sue has been living here for several years and has been taking some really beautiful and creative photos. She really captures the beauty of Puerto Galera’s marine biodiversity within her photography.

If you would like to get signed up for the Monday news just complete the form below:

Awesome dive conditions continuing on this week with lots of sunny calm days, warm water and thresher sightings are still happening!

What’s been happening this week at Asia Divers

It’s been a superb time having these guys here with us this past week. Iain Caldwell, Sarah Holmes, Danaka Shaver and Kim Nguyen got to see the best of P.G. and have some good fun and laughs along the way. Congratulations to Danaka for completing her PADI Advanced Open Water and Nitrox courses.

It’s been such an amazing time teaching Jack Jones, Benjamin Mansfield and Aspley Stevens to dive this week and of course to have Jack’s dad Ian Jones join in on all the dives. I’m so proud of all the hard work they did to get this accomplishment. Most especially to Jack who at eleven years old has completed the same course that an adult has to do and kept up with the big boys all week! Big congratulations to our new “mermen”!

Now this looks a bit dangerous….Ben and Aspley on the start of their T-shirt collection. The Point Bar is a great place to wind down or wind up at the end of the day.

Congratulations Jerumel Deveza on your PADI Open Water Diver qualification! The result of some intense few days and lots of determination…. Enjoy the underwater world now awaiting you as a qualified diver!!

It’s not too late to sign up for our Underwater Photography workshop happening June 16-23, 2019

Less is More ~ Negative space is a welcome element in photography. It does not matter whether it is a wide angle scene or a close-up macro image. Composition is the key when working with negative space. Learn about this and much more with Phil Rudin and Beth Watson.

Photo workshop will include:

Hands-on in water mentoring with short slideshow presentations throughout the week
Learn about lighting, composition, camera settings, equipment and much more
Learn macro and wide angle techniques using fisheye and rectilinear lenses
Daily photo critiques, Lightroom and Photoshop editing techniques
Learn creative lighting and advanced photography techniques
Full details about the course can be found here:

Contact admin@asiadivers.com if you have any questions or would like to make a reservation.

E-IDC update

Another PADI Freediver is born…

Congratulations to Romain for achieving the PADI Freediver certification! Romain has been snorkeling and skin diving before but now wanted to get training in Freediving and came out with great achievements, for example a static breath hold time of 3:35min after an initial 2min in the pool. Fantastic! And on our open water dives we were surrounded by wide mouth mackerel, rainbow runners and schools of fuseliers…

That’s all for this week folks, visit us again next week for the latest news from Asia Divers and El Galleon Dive Resort

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Diving

PADI Scuba Diving Courses for Kids

Posted on May 6, 2019 by Asia Divers

06
May

Family diving at Asia Divers & El Galleon Dive Resort

PADI Scuba Diving courses for kids and grown ups at Asia Divers & El Galleon Dive Resort in Puerto Galera, Philippines.

Jack age 11 and his cousin Aspley 18 in action on their first dive as newly qualified PADI Open Water Divers. Asia Divers/El Galleon is the perfect choice for a tropical family diving holiday.

Diving, Environment, News and Events

Summer is here and we have the skies to prove it!

Posted on May 1, 2019May 1, 2019 by Asia Divers

01
May

It’s that time of year when the sky is showing us her amazing colours in the evening. Elly shot these photos last night in the Point Bar while many others were also running out to catch the fire in the sky! Summer time in Puerto Galera is awesome.

Email us to arrange your escape to paradise: admin@asiadivers.com

Or send us a message on the contact page

Join the Blackwater Diving revolution at Asia Divers

Join us for the “greatest migration on earth, which happens every night, right in front of you!”

Find out all about Blackwater diving with Asia Divers on the Blackwater Diving page

What’s been happening at Asia Divers this week?

Asia Divers and El Galleon Resort are proud to be recognized for our environmental practices by Project SEAyasat and Save Philippine Seas!

Congratulations to Alan Lo who completed his PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water this week. Seeing him in the water you can tell how comfortable he is already!

philippines scuba diving at asia divers in Puerto Galera — Very nice to have father (Jacky Lo) and son (Alan) diving together this week.

Charolotte and Zaid did a refresher when they first arrived to get back into the diving swing and sure enough it got them all excited to continue on with doing the PADI Advanced Open Water course.

Paul Stripp and Paul Mounsey had a blast on their Diver Propulsion Vehicle (DPV) course with Jamie.

E-IDC update

PADI Instructors learning Freediving…

PADI Instructor Magnus Peterson and his daughter Veronica teamed up to explore the underwater world on one breath with the PADI Freediver Course. And in short amount of time they doubled and tripled their initial breath hold to an astonishing 3:07 and 2:13 min static. In the open water both went beyond the required 10m depth easily on second dive and practiced rescue scenarios specific to freediving.

See a short video clip about their adventures here on our YouTube channel

Did you know…?!

The PADI Freediver certification also counts as one of five Specialties for your PADI MSD – Master Scuba Diver certification.

That’s all the news from Asia Divers for this week folks, see you next week!

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News and Events

Asia Divers at DEMA Las Vegas, Halloween Party Pics, and Diver News

Posted on November 7, 2018November 7, 2018 by Asia Divers

07
Nov

Creepy times at our Halloween party

Click on images to enlarge

A ghoulishly delightful night was had by all at our Halloween party. Thanks to everyone for putting in the effort to getting creepified!

You can see more photos in the album on our Facebook page

Asia Divers at DEMA 2018

Allan, Tommy, Alli and Rhuby will be at the DEMA Show November 14-17 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall.

We’ll be with the Philippine Department of Tourism booth #2425 introducing folks to Asia Divers/El Galleon. Please drop by for a visit if you’re attending.

Scuba Diver News

We’re very excited to welcome three new mermaids into scuba diving. Sarah Fenwick and two sisters, 13 year old Katie and 14 year old Ella Callahan completed their PADI Open Water course with Elly. They worked really hard to achieve this goal and even went through a bit of a tough logistics day because of some bad weather…but they did it, and should all be very proud! Congratulations ladies!

Congratulations Jobert Tapia (Cody) on your Rescue Diver Certification (with EFR Primary and Secondary care with AED! Now, on to your Divemaster! It was a fun course with Arthur Nash who is almost done as well.

This was a great example of team teaching here as Matt did the EFR courses for both Arthur and Cody and Pete and Matt both got involved with the Rescue course. Matt is now an Assistant instructor and very soon will be an Instructor, so he got some great experience in team teaching with Pete.

Very nice to have the Lalani family here with us this weekend! Ruben and Elliot introduced them to diving through a PADI Discover Scuba program. Mahmud, Temina and Kiran thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I suspect they’ll be back for more.

Way to go Sarah Fenwick!! She completed Open Water and Advanced OW this week and now on to her next great adventure to meet up with mom and dad in El Nido.

Wonderful to have Richard Hughes back again and this time bringing his mom Jacqueline. Richard kept Jackie very busy with finishing off her PADI Advanced course and also doing a Nitrox course. Then they brought out the “big boys’ and got Jackie certified as a DPV diver by Pete. Congrats Jackie!

This month’s cover shot for Asia Diver “Monday News” newsletter is a photo of The Point Bar. The Point Bar is a great place to wind down with good friends, great ambiance and perhaps a cocktail or two at the end of your diving day.

The Monday News is a weekly newsletter that will keep you up to date on what’s been going on here with Asia Divers and El Galleon.

If you would like to subscribe please just sign up below

Photo credit to our good friend Beth Watson, whose beautiful photos and videos you can see throughout our website.

Check out her awesome images on her website or on Facebook

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Diving, News and Events

What’s Been Happening at Asia Divers?

Posted on October 17, 2018October 17, 2018 by Asia Divers

17
Oct

It’s been a busy week at Asia Divers, which is just the way we like it!

If you have visited the Asia Divers website before, you probably noticed it’s had a major facelift. It was a big job, spanning several months, with many hands involved, but everyone did their part, and we’re very happy with result. Hope you like the new site!

Now you can buy top quality scuba gear from us online!

We’re very pleased to announce that Ocean Dive Supply has a new website and online store. You can see our products at https://divesupply.com.ph/ and visit the ODS Online Store https://divesupply.com.ph/shop/diving/en

Visit the ODS website

A PADI Open Water course 15 years in the making!

Congratulations to Arthur Nash for completing his PADI Open Water course. I’d have to say that this is the longest running course that I’ve ever done….ha ha. Actually, Arthur started the course 15 years ago and never quite finished it, so second time around we made sure it got completed. Now on to AOW and more. Needless to say the family genes are there as far as comfort and ability in the water…a chip off the old block for sure!!

Night dive on the Alma Jane wreck

Diving one of our favourite dive sites with Richard, and Andrew plus 4 instructors! What a great dive to do for the more experienced divers.

What’s our Divemaster Intern Elliot been doing?

Straight from the horse’s mouth:

Over a month now interning with Asia Divers and learning more each week. Passed the Dive Master exams, averaging over 90% and now working with Allison on the PADI Advanced Open Water Course, gaining more great experience training students.

Besides training students I’ve had the opportunity to learn how to work the compressors including the theory of how to repair and analyze cylinders and regulators in the dive shop.

With the number of guests increasing each week there is more and more opportunities to explore and learn the dive sites along with meeting interesting people from all different walks of life. Can’t wait to see how the next month unfolds.

Guilty Pleasures…

They say an army marches on its stomach, and the Asia Divers team is no different. Guess who was very happy to get the chance to go to Batangas SM by speedboat, run in, and get a bag of Big Macs to bring home!