We’ve had Paul Mongomery here with us for the past while and he passed along some amazing photos. They are a snap shot of some of the early pioneers and long term guests that frequented Sabang and LaLaguna beaches around 1983 to 85. We’ve added these photos along with some others that Alli took in the late 90’s on to our “Asia Divers Oldies” album on our Facebook Page. Have a look here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/asia.divers/photos/?tab=album&album_id=158818000907642
Super Umbrella in Sabang
Enjoying the nice weather and cold beer at the Barrel Bar! It’s been a busy time here this week as Kelly, Eleanor and Sabine have been in IDC land, while Maria has been teaching Sarah her OW course. Sarah is on her solo backpacking around Philippines and decided to take Open Water Diver course with Asia Divers. She has done great job as student and absolutely loved the experience. She’s also been brave to give the local delicacy, Balot a try. At the end of the day it’s nice to come together to either the Barrel or Point Bar and chat about all the great things going on and appreciate the fact that we’re all here. Make every day count!
PADI Womens Dive Day and more!
Come and join us for the weekend of July 21-22 to celebrate “PADI Women Dive day”! We’ll be making it a special “Healthy Ocean, Healthy Body” weekend with some fun things to do and taste as well. On Saturday there will be a Dive Against Debris, where we’ll get a chance to make our ocean healthy by cleaning up one of our local dive sites. All friends and family are invited to join of course…boys and girls! To make our body healthy we’ll also be offering a Yoga class by Sabine, our PADI Course Director, early morning walks and some great specials in our Spa. To top it all off we’ll have some yummy fresh fruit drinks available. Now to make even more interesting we’ll have a “Men’s Dive day” on Saturday just to keep things even. A Verde trip could be in the works along with, “Beer and Barrels” yoga! Please join us for a fun weekend by contacting admin@asiadivers.com
A nice moody shot of Pete at Alma Jane by Matt Hutchinson. Thinking of a couple of great specialty courses to get you to Alma Jane. Consider perhaps PADI Deep Diver, PADI Wreck Specialty and PADI Enriched Air. The PADI Enriched Air Diver course is PADI’s most popular specialty scuba course. Why? Because scuba diving with enriched air nitrox gives you more no decompression time, especially on repetitive scuba dives. If staying down longer and getting back in the water sooner sounds appealing, then don’t hesitate to become an enriched air diver.
Instructor level – Project AWARE Dive Against Debris
It’s been great enjoying time at the Barrel Bar at El Galleon this past week with the good weather, our IDC candidates (now certified Instructors) and of course a lot of our guests. Keep those sunsets in Puerto Galera coming!
Underwater’s Ultimate Weapon
Listen to this audio recording below from Radiolab https://iono.fm/e/286830 . Start from 2:00 and end at 3:25. What did you hear? Rice pops? Twigs being burned? Frying bacon?
No – they are snapping shrimps, or rightfully called “pistol” shrimps which belong to the family Alpheidae. Do the sound even hint to a deadly weapon?
For starters, a snapping shrimp is a tiny creature, reaching one to two inches – just half of your finger . Now it gets scarier: it has a distinctive large claw which it uses to stun a prey instantaneously! The cracking sound produced is what you hear during low tide in shallow waters. Some species live mutually with gobies in burrows: the shrimp provides a home for the goby, while the fish confers protection to shrimp against predators .
To see the whole story and know more about snapping shrimps or pistol shrimps, visit SeaLifeBase: http://sealifebaseproject.blogspot.com/2016/11/underwaters-ultimate-weapon.html
E-IDC update
Yay !! Our candidates all passed the PADI Instructor Exams with flying colors and are now PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors!!! Heartfelt congratulations to Vincent Wolf and Kirk Zhong for a job well done and for keeping up our 100% first time pass rate. We are so proud of you!!
Party time!!!
And then it was party time! Vincent and Kirk tried our newly designed instructor t-shirt shooter combination – that btw was non-alcoholic – but clearly lived up to expectations… B) A long party night followed in the Point Bar….
The team will be back in Puerto Galera in a few weeks for the instructor internship month with Asia Divers and also to complete their MSDT specialty course training.
Next upcoming IDC in March
If you would like to become a PADI Instructor or Staff Instructor, join our March IDC on 17th -26th March with the PADI IE on 27/28th and secure your space now via email to idc@asiadivers.com.
Start the eLearning component via this link:
https://apps.padi.com/scuba-diving/elearning/?irra=2736
Underwater’s Ultimate Weapon
Such a fun day with this mixed group of friends from all over the globe…. South Korea, USA, Canada, China, Columbia…all getting together in Puerto Galrera! Mike, Bryan, Drew and Jorge tried a “Discover Scuba” while their certified friends joined in for the dive to the Giant Clams. Afterwards celebratory drinks of course at the Barrel Bar.
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.