It’s been an action packed year here at El Galleon and Asia Divers and we’ve had lots of great times with many old and new friends. Farewell to our 25th Anniversary year and hello to the next 25 years! Thanks to everyone for your continued support and we hope that you all have a most wonderful 2013.

How many of us can have a job as good as this?

December 31^st was Josh’s final day on the job…so he went out with a bang by doing six Discover Scuba courses! It’s been seven years since Josh arrived on the beach. He did his Divemaster and Instructor courses with us and went on to become a valuable member of the team. Josh will be around for the next month so if you want to catch up with him here you still can. We wish him well in his next adventure

Asia Divers in Bohol

Asia Divers Alona has now opened their doors and has already turned into be a busy shop.

Located on Alona Beach Road less than 100 meter up from the beach, the store is ready to serve the many dive centers at Alona Beach and entire Bohol area as well as holiday makers on the beach. Ivy from our Cebu branch worked very hard the last 2 months or so to get this

up and running and will now be there to train our new staff Odette and Juliet.

Stocked and ready to start.

Come on in.

Waiting to meet and serve you in Bohol.

Dinner with some fun people

Allan, Tommy and Alli went to the DEMA show in Las Vegas recently. It’s the world’s only international trade-only event for the diving industry. It was a great opportunity to do some business, learn a few new things and to see some old friends while we were there. It was fantastic to catch up with Ray and Karen Hopton who used to work at the Canadian Embassy in Manila. Ray and Karen spent a lot of time here in the early years of Asia Divers and have done over 300 dives with us, and about 740 dives around the world. There was a lot of time spent reminiscing about the old days and all the fun times we shared together with good friends, Tanduay rum and San Miguel beers…. Ahhhhh. Looking forward to seeing you both again in 2014!!

It's a man thing!

White Clown Frog Fish

Congratulations to Alex Suh for winning first prize in the Overall category in our photo competition. He has won 10 nights in Seaview room with breakfast, and un-limited day dives at El Galleon/Asia Divers.

Beth Watson's macro photo of a seahorse

Congratulations to Beth Watson for winning first prize in the Macro category in our photo competition. She has won a World Wide Dive and Sail Voucher of €1,000.

Anemone with clown fish

Congratulations to Sue Goodman for winning first prize in the Point and Shoot category in our photo competition. She has won a complete set of the Waterproof Sport Series (W30 fullsuit, W30 shorty, U30 vest, H30 hood, G30 gloves, S30 socks, T30 shorts and T30 Sport Top)

Thanks to everyone who entered. You can see the second and third prize winning shots at http://www.asiadivers.com/photocom/winners.html

 We’re thrilled to have received the PADI Asia Pacific Member Award for “Outstanding Contribution to the Diving Industry in 2011.”  It takes a great team to get this and we know that it was each and everyone who works here who made this award possible.

The actual award.

The end of October and early November sees a full program of fun events at Asia Divers to help celebrate our 25 years of diving in Puerto Galera.

Coastal Water Dive is owned by Torry and Tiffany Goodall and located in Bunbury, Western Australia. They have been in business since 1999 and are the largest regional dive store in Western Australia. We have had the pleasure of having them here this week for the very first time and hopefully we’ll be seeing more of them in the future. Torry met Allan and Tommy while they were on their charity ride around Australia raising funds for street children and Project Aware and got inspired by them to get a group together to come over here…and were sure glad they did! The group consisted of 17 from ages 18 to 51. “ We have enjoyed our stay and the dive team and staff have been flawless!”
http://www.coastalwaterdive.com.au/

Allan Nash

Allan is touring around Europe in a couple of fancy cars with Adrian, Bonny and Peter at the moment. We’re getting all sorts of photos of fine wine, great food and fantastic scenery sent daily from him…enough is enough! Ha ha

The most up market jeepneys I ever saw.

“Just seen the article in the newsletter about rhinopias – didn’t realise that they were so rare or such a big deal to spot. I saw a pair of them last year in November. I didn’t have my camera with me but Hugh Moore did. Only 1 of the photos is clear & in focus but I’ve sent the others so that you can see the pair of the fish.”

But…the plot thickens! We went out there again and this time we found the second one. So now it’s confirmed that there are two in the area…BUT……IT GETS EVEN BETTER. Pete found another one at a completely different dive site!! So now there are at least three!! Peter Webster from Vision Divers, Melbourne Australia took the photo below. He caught it at just the right moment!

Colourful Rhinopia in water off Puerto Galera

Alli couldn’t believe her eyes as she saw this little tuft of fluff moving along the bottom. With magnifying glass and camera in hand and a bunch of other divers with her, they got to see the extremely rare hairy octopus. It’s a small octopus, reddish brown in colour, covered with long and branching skin filaments, mimicking a tuft of Algae about 2 cm. Supposedly it’s only known to be found in North Sulawesi, but surprise surprise they are here in Puerto Galera too!! It’s been an amazing month for new critter findings in the area. Stuff that is only supposed to be in Lembeh is actually here too.

Hairy octapus found at Puerto Galera with Asia Divers

Has it really been 25 years?

Please mark this on your Calendar and book in for what will be a fantastic and very special weekend here. We’re hoping we can get a good crowd of many of our friends who have been part of Asia Divers over the past 25 years to come over and help us celebrate. All perhaps a bit older and a perhaps a wee bit wiser…ha ha ha

Partying in the Point Bar

 Event: Asia Divers 25th Anniversary Party

Date: Friday November 2nd to Monday November 5th

Activities Planned (so far!):  We will have a special dinner at El Galleon on Friday night. Saturday, Verdi Island trip and our local dives. Saturday night will be the big party on the The Platform. The theme will be “60’s Night” then from there we’ll continue on to the Point to carry on the party. We’ll be announcing the winners of the Photo contest and also the raffle that night. Sunday will include a couple of options of golfing, diving and perhaps a sunset cruise. We’re still putting the plans together, but it is already shaping up to be a great weekend. Please contact us soon and let us know if you can make it.

Latest in eLED bright lights

All are the eLED type, bright and with long burning time. Depth rating

is 500ft/150m for all lights, manufactured in USA.

The C4 are powered by 4 C Alkaline batteries that burn for 8h if you run

the light on high and almost 16h on low. The light output has increased

significant from previous model to 275 lumens on high.

SL4 runs by 4 C Alkaline as well but burns for 10h. The light output have

more then tripled to 400 lumens comparing to last years model.

The rental favorite SL3 has an increased light output from 98 to 125 lumens

and the 3 C Alkaline batteries gives you 32h burning time. With this burning

time the SL3 is perfect for rental use as well as personal use. Don’t need to

carry spare battery for your weeks diving holiday !!

Mini Q40 is a great little back-up light or for day dives to light up holes and

under overhang. Gives you 77 lumens and burn for 4-5h powered by 4 AA

Alkaline batteries.

We have many photographers coming to Asia Divers because of the great photo opportunities here. They can get shots of many weird and wonderful creatures, along with of course all the beautiful corals and fishes. Thanks to Stewart Clarke from Dubai for sending us these two fantastic photos and a good write up on them. I suspect Stewart will be eager to enter our 25th Anniversary Photo Competition! Details for that will be out real soon.

Blue ring octopus

The Blue Ring

This shot was taken on at The Boatyard, a relatively new dive site that we had been informed had great potential for critters due the muck diving nature of it. We had already found two giant frogfish on the main wreck there and had decided to have a search around the reef that fringed the dive site. After finding numerous shrimps, nudibranch and crabs we were getting to the point where the dive was almost finished then out of the corner of my eye I saw a slight flash of blue on top of a small coral head. Looking closer I found this little fella perched on top of a yellow and blue sponge. Then came the decision of either informing my fellow photographer buddy or being selfish and taking my own shots with the chance that the Blue Ringed Octopus could disappear in a second. I chose the former and the next five minutes were spent in the joyous company of this amazing creature, it was only when he started getting a little bit feisty that we called it a day and returned to the boat with beaming smiles and full memory cards.

Bug Eyed Shrimp

The Bug Eyed Squat lobster – Munida olivarae

This shot was taken on another dive at The Boatyard (quickly becoming a personal favourite site). We had decided to concentrate more on the reef this time hoping to bump into our friend from the previous day, instead we were treated to a wide array of shrimps, nudibranch, tiny lionfish and of course this wee critter. I had stuck my head under a small rock overhang to take a closer look at a small lionfish when the lobster decided to stick his head out to see what all the fuss was. I love the eyes on this guy and he reminded me of Marty Feldman, a comedian from the 1970s (think Igor in Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein movie). It just goes to show that the closer you look at what is around you the more chance you have of finding some truly amazing little critters with Asia Divers.

We’re all very excited because Asia Divers celebrates its’ 25^th Anniversary this year! During 2012 we’ve got some special things to mark the occasion and one of them is to run a photo competition. We think it will be a fun challenge for many of our photographer friends and it will also give you a chance to be recognized for your talent.

Details and prizes will be announced very soon, so keep your eyes on our Blog!

Cocos Island (Costa Rica)

We still have 1 spot (male) left for Allan’s and Tommy’s trip to Cocos Island (Costa Rica) April 28-08 May, 2012. This is probably the best dive destination if you like big stuff at one single location. Schooling Hammerheads, Galapagos Sharks, Hunting Whitetip Reef Sharks, Mantas, Lots and Lots of Schooling Fish and you never know sometimes the largest fish in the world shows up. DON’T MISS THE CHANCE ! Contact tommy@asiadivers.com