Allan and Dave Ross have been at Oztech in Australia this week. Congratulations to our good friend Richard Evens, who received an award for his dedication towards diver safety and industry standards at the Oztech gala awards.
More participants arrived and are enjoying very nice reef dives and surprising muck dives at Asia Divers. A super hairy roughsnout ghostpipefish is wondering around at giant clams.
Seamoths, fingered dragonets, flying gurnards are found on the sandy mucksites.
On the reefs colourful surprises like blueringed octopus, coleman shrimps and a lot of nudi’s.Everything goes smooth around here with many smiling faces ! The whole Asia Divers crew is giving us a lot of support and everything is well organized at the divecenter. A pleasure! In the picture this week: the resident ‘giant’ turtle of Sabang Bay by Dirkje Roodenburg
Danny Van Belle
Organizer HUGYCUP
Here is a nice photo of the DAA visiting the school at Verde Island and leaving lots of wonderful school supplies with Madam Riza. After visiting the school everyone enjoyed a BBQ and some beach time. The folks at the school were very happy that we left some materials for them to build their new canteen along with some cash to help with the expenses.
We had a wonderful send off on the platform for the group which included dinner on the platform, dancers from Puerto Galera high school, a great band, fireworks and fire dancers.
The Dubai American Academy has arrived and are well into a fine week with plenty of sunshine. We’ve got 5 kids doing their Open Water course, two kids and one of the teachers are doing their Advanced course and 15 kids are learning to sail with the Puerto Galera Yacht Club. We’re thrilled to have Ralph Russell and his team back again for the eighth year in a row!
Time to warm up in the sunshine before the next dive with the Dubai American Academy
Dive # 2 for the Open Water students at DAA.
Happy 22nd birthday to Arthur Nash!
Happy 50th birthday to Veronique Ficheux!
Valentine’s Day in the Philippines is a big deal and we made sure we were all decked out for the occasion. Our Special Valentines dinner was very popular for all the happy couples. Now the CYN holiday has just started and the resort is starting to get pretty full. We’ve got lots of folks from China as well as those who live in Asia coming here and taking advantage of this nicely timed holiday. From everyone here at El Gal and Asia Divers, we wish you all a happy, prosperous and healthy CNY!!
Looks like Andy had a very nice Valentines dinner with three lovely ladies!
February in P.G. is much nicer than February in most parts of the planet and by all the smiles on peoples’ faces around here they all know it. We have a group from Germany who have been here for about a week now plus a lot of familiar faces such as Janne Bjork, Rene Sten, Per Engual, Huub Keultjes, Noboru Suzuki, Karwena Ng, Rebecca Lin, David Coller, Arjan Kroon all beating the February blues! Need a mid-winter break? Contact us at admin@asiadivers.com
Ocean Dive Supply had their annual Staff meeting, where the staff from Alona, Boracay, Cebu, Dumaguete, Manila and Puerto Galera met up on Alona Beach for meeting, seminar and social over the weekend. It finished off with a trip to the Chocolate Hills.
We have very fun and busy time here this past week with the group from the British International School, HCMC in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. This is the second year in a row that they have joined us and we sure hope to see them again next year. Eight of the group did their full Open Water courses, 9 did the four training dives and then a bunch of fun dives, and 2 got their EFR/Rescue. The whole gang worked very hard and should be very proud for what they have accomplished. They also had a great time visiting one of our local schools with some engaging activities to educate the children about the problem of marine debris and the importance of protecting the pristine marine environment. Thanks to Lauren Binnington for getting this all organized.
A big welcome back to the British International School, Ho Chi Minh City. El Galleon and Asia Divers are nicely busy now with a group of 19 kids and 3 teachers plus Mike Bartick is here with a group of photographers and lots of heavy metal…. We just love it when the resort is buzzing!!
After a week of bad visibility due to a huge plancton bloom, its now back to its normal self or even better! Above is a photo by Mike Bartick of a hole through monkey wreck with a diver and the clear blue water in the back.