China’s National Day Golden Week holiday brought in 17 Open Water students and 3 Advanced students all here now enjoying the best of Puerto Galera! The pool has been quite the busy place with instructors dueling it out for time slots…
Yes we did it! Qianyin Luo, Hui Li, Xin Wang, Shaoning Zhang, Shuai Zhao and Jiahong Han completed full OW course in four days due to the tight schedule despite everyone had their own problem to deal with (work, seasickness, fear of water, too much orange juice…:-). Very glad to see everyone’s smiley face and keep the tough but happy spirit up guys!!! See you next time:)
Welcome back to “the Animals”! Every year for many many years this awesome cast of characters joins us for some great diving, distinguished birthdays and perhaps even some fun times in the Point BarJ. Here we have a group of happy “Animals” and friends (Tom, Zsolt, Larry, Russ, Helen, John, Robert, Rene, David, Terry and Pete) getting ready to head off to Verde Island.
It’s been a lovely sunny weather weekend in P.G. and we’re happy that we had some folks come down from Manila for the long weekend to keep the rest of us company. Getting ready to get wet are: Rebecca, Dave, Chen, Huub, Matthias, Bernd, Leanne, Gavin, Pete and Snake. Puerto Galera is 3 hours from Manila and makes it easy for weekend getaways! www.asiadivers.com
Look at these amazing photos that Sue Goodman got of a Blue-ringed octopus in Manila Channel recently. Did you know that the mating ritual for the blue-ringed octopus begins when a male approaches a female and begins to caress her with his modified arm, the hectocotylus. A male mates with a female by grabbing her, which sometimes completely obscures the female’s vision, then transferring sperm packets by inserting his hectocotylus into her mantle cavity repeatedly. Mating continues until the female has had enough, and in at least one species the female has to remove the over-enthusiastic male by force. Males will attempt copulation with members of their own species regardless of sex or size, but interactions between males are most often shorter in duration and end with the mounting octopus withdrawing the hectocotylus without packet insertion or struggle. Blue-ringed octopus females lay only one clutch of about 50 eggs in their lifetimes towards the end of autumn. Eggs are laid then incubated underneath the female’s arms for about six months, and during this process she does not eat. After the eggs hatch, the female dies, and the new offspring will reach maturity and be able to mate by the next year. To read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-ringed_octopus
Learning with Asia Divers….fun, safe and thorough!
Congratulations Wenchao Zhu for getting your PADI Open Water in Puerto Galera with Asia Divers! He had Pete plus instructor intern Chen to guide him though the course.
Yao Zhang and Wei Li became PADI Advanced divers this week and got to put their skills to use in some strong currents. Nothing like a good drift and feeling comfortable to build up your confidence!
Here are a few photos taken by Sergey Kazantsev this past week. Don’t you love the natural lighting?! It’s really amazing what’s here in Puerto Galera. Every day you can see something special. Asia Divers has four scheduled divers per day, plus a night dive so you have lots of opportunities to take some wonderful photos and bring home some amazing memories from the Philippines.
It’s wonderful to see Cy Lu and the kids back, but we’re missing Bonny!
It’s been a great time diving with our friends from Russia: Oksana Golubeva, Sergey Grigoryev, Svetlana Grigoryeva, Vasily Kuravkin, Yulia Kharchenko, Irina Shutoba and missing from this
Sergey Kazantsev. They have made the most out of their time here enjoying the PG diving and waiting for sun-tanning times!
Team Russia arrived yesterday with their own dive club flag! It’s going to be a great 9 days at Asia Divers! Oksana Golubeva, Irina Shutoba, Sergey Grigoryev, Sergey Kazantsev, Svetlana Grigoryeva, Vasily Kuravkin, Yulia Kharchenko