After having finally completed my Open water course, the wife and boy and I are looking to get out the country and do some diving.
Some folks I know are going to Malapascua in the Philipines over Chinese New Year. Anyone got the poop on this place?
Dive sites to miss or not miss.
Places to stay.
Places to eat.
None diving things to do.
and, on another note, should I just go ahead and do my advanced course now, so that the really sweet dives are not off my charts?
JD,
Congratulations on the certification. Canāt really offer any advice about the Philipines, but do have some observations about the Advanced Open Water accreditation.
If youāre looking to do some exciting, challenging dives, itās definitely the way to go. Youāll be certified for deep, drift, and wreck dives, as well as a few more. The one thing that I enjoy about it is, that if you get on a charter, the dive instructor will usually pair you up with another advanced diver and basically let you do your own thing.
Do some research into dive shops and schools in the areas that you plan to visit in the Philipines. A lot of shops will offer the advanced course for an extra charge if you sign on to one of their charters or trips. I did mine on a 5 day excursion on the Barrier Reef in Australia and, for the extra $150, it was well worth it.
Overall, Iād strongly suggest it because it will expose and teach you how to deal with under water environments and situations that will only help you to become a proficient and better educated diver.
Have fun!
Jd, just go for Boracay ā¦ Thatās aplace I know very well and itās ideal for the beginning diver and advanced as well ā¦ lotās of good food, western, indian, japanese, chicken adobo, nice people ā¦ chinese new year is the time to go diving there ā¦
[quote][quote=ācitizen kā]JD,
Congratulations on the certification. Canāt really offer any advice about the Philipines, but do have some observations about the Advanced Open Water accreditation.
If youāre looking to do some exciting, challenging dives, itās definitely the way to go. Youāll be certified for deep, drift, and wreck dives, as well as a few more. The one thing that I enjoy about it is, that if you get on a charter, the dive instructor will usually pair you up with another advanced diver and basically let you do your own thing.[/quote]
Thanks, thatās what I was thinking. Five dives for the advanced open water cert, right?
I was checking out some dives in Boracay and Malapascua and noticed that many of the ābetterā dives are below 20M. That would suck I think, to be limited.
Belgian Pie wrote:
Boracay is definately on my to do list, but it takes a while to get there, and dragging the wife and boy with me I think, will not be a wonderful relaxing experience.
Right now, thereās a group of folks Iāve met, and they are planning a CNY trip to Malapascua, and that looks good to me.
And another thingā¦thresher sharks. 
Yeah baby!
[quote=ājdsmithā][quote][quote=ācitizen kā]JD,
Congratulations on the certification. Canāt really offer any advice about the Philipines, but do have some observations about the Advanced Open Water accreditation.
If youāre looking to do some exciting, challenging dives, itās definitely the way to go. Youāll be certified for deep, drift, and wreck dives, as well as a few more. The one thing that I enjoy about it is, that if you get on a charter, the dive instructor will usually pair you up with another advanced diver and basically let you do your own thing.[/quote]
Thanks, thatās what I was thinking. Five dives for the advanced open water cert, right?
I was checking out some dives in Boracay and Malapascua and noticed that many of the ābetterā dives are below 20M. That would suck I think, to be limited.
Belgian Pie wrote:
Boracay is definately on my to do list, but it takes a while to get there, and dragging the wife and boy with me I think, will not be a wonderful relaxing experience.
Right now, thereās a group of folks Iāve met, and they are planning a CNY trip to Malapascua, and that looks good to me.
And another thingā¦thresher sharks. Yeah baby![/quote][/quote]
Iāve not been to either, but the thought of seeing Thresher sharks has gotten me twisting the spouses arm. Weāve gone from a firm ānoā to a firm āhows the shoppingā?
For advanced open water: Most dive guides will do two things when checking out a guest on their boat and neither involve your C-card. First is your log book, and second will be your check-out dive.
Reason for this is simple: To weed out the unqualified. For example, the two students who were certified in my class (I assisted which is all Iām allowed to do as a lowly Divemaster) have 200+ dives under their belts while only have Open water certification. They are utterly confident in the water at any recreational depth, and have a good knowledge of the sea. Take this type of diver against another with an Advanced Open Water ticket but only 5 post-certification dives.
Ok, so now Iām a dive guide at a resort where the closest decompression chamber is 1,000miles away. Who do I take to see thresher sharks at 30 meters? I check your log book, ask a few questions, watch you suit up, how much weight youāre wearing, how streamlined your equipment is, and why donāt you have your own gear?
Once you hit the water, I check out your buoyancy, your breathing/consumption, your finning, your mask seal/eyes and your overall comfortability underwater.
Notice checking your level of certification is not on the list.
A better idea would be to stay on your open water ticket, make as many dives as you can locally before you go (I realize itās late in the season) and then ask the dive guide for permission to attend the deeper stuff. If your skills are up to snuff, then it should be no problem. If not, then having an OW ticket versus an AOW isnāt going to make much difference.
Even with my Divemaster ticket, I still go through the same check out dives as anyone else, and if my skills are shoddy then I donāt get to do the good/deep/current stuff, regardless of my level of certification.
The C-card doesnāt make the diver, itās only a springboard used to enhance your own diving skills through experience.
If you do decide to go, talk to your guide, be up front about your experience and skills (Heāll know within the first 30 seconds of watching you suit up anyway) and ask for some āpersonal attentionā while doing the deep dive. Heāll appreciate your honesty, and a person who knows their limitations tends to be a rational one.
Hope you get there, and get to see the long-tailed beast in action. 
Thatās good thinking MJB. I asked my instructor about this last night, and he said, āWell, if thereās anything the dive master doesnāt teach you, I will.ā And that is most probable as Iām going with him and several other dive master candidates.
We will be there for about 10 days, so thatās a lot of time to get in some dives, choose a dive master and complete the course. I do understand the point about being more experienced before getting the AOW, but honestly, if all the people Iāll be diving with are already AOW, then I have to sit at the kidās table when they do cooler dives.
And anyway, you know me. I donāt exactly jump to notwellthoughtout conclusions. lol
If Iām not ready for a dive I will say so. These folks are talking about some cave diving there too. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII donāt think so.
jdsandandsun
The thing with Boracay is that itās indeed not the easiest to get to, but once youāre there nothing beats it ā¦ the dives and your advanced cert. can be done there in the timespan you would stay without pressure ā¦ some of the the best dives Iāve made and for beginners, are done up to 20 m, but you also have nice dives going between 20 and 30 m, the spectacular ones go from 30 - 40 m. Drift diving, night diving, deep diving, you name it, itās all within a 10-20 minute boatride or from the beach (night dive)
Hell, if I have the time I would join you ā¦ have just to check out my schedule and my wifeās plans ā¦ I really donāt want to spend another chinese newyear here or in china ā¦ have done 9 in a row ā¦ thatās been enough ā¦ bore, bore, bore ā¦
I was planning on going home for x-mas and ny but iāve been thinking about going diving for a few weeks now and not going home ā¦ itās winter ā¦ nothing to do, just see family and friends ā¦ :s
[quote=ābelgian pieā]The thing with Boracay is that itās indeed not the easiest to get to, but once youāre there nothing beats it ā¦ the dives and your advanced cert. can be done there in the timespan you would stay without pressure ā¦ some of the the best dives Iāve made and for beginners, are done up to 20 m, but you also have nice dives going between 20 and 30 m, the spectacular ones go from 30 - 40 m. Drift diving, night diving, deep diving, you name it, itās all within a 10-20 minute boatride or from the beach (night dive)
Hell, if I have the time I would join you ā¦ have just to check out my schedule and my wifeās plans ā¦ I really donāt want to spend another Chinese newyear here or in China ā¦ have done 9 in a row ā¦ thatās been enough ā¦ bore, bore, bore ā¦
I was planning on going home for x-mas and ny but Iāve been thinking about going diving for a few weeks now and not going home ā¦ itās winter ā¦ nothing to do, just see family and friends ā¦ :s[/quote]
Dude, I will do Boracay with youā¦next tripā¦no wife and son. I think less baggage is better for this kind of trip.
Maybe get MJB to go too.
[quote=ājdsmithā]
Dude, I will do Boracay with youā¦next tripā¦no wife and son. I think less baggage is better for this kind of trip.
Maybe get MJB to go too.[/quote]
You guys have got this all backwardsā¦The link you posted JD is pretty much a dedicated dive resort, while Boracay is for partying, shopping and the odd dive.
Boracay is known for many things, but world class diving isnāt one of them. For the same money or less you could be in Manado, The Similan Islands, Apo reef, Layang Layang or a dozen world class destinations that we are so fortunate to be close to.
Iām confused.
Sure Iāll tag along for a dedicated dive trip, but it certainly wouldnāt be Boracay when Iām only 3 1/2 hours from Palau 
JD, get your first 50 dives in this season, and weāll plan it for next fall. My dream dive vacation is a live-aboard in PNG. But between airfare and diving youāre looking at 150,000NT minumum.
Forget Boracay for divingā¦Go to Palau. The boat rides to the dives sites alone are mind-boggling, as are the dives with 50 or so Grey reef sharks within your field of vision in 50meter visibility. Sams dive center is always winning awards for having the best dive operation in the Pacific.
It aināt cheap thoughā¦95.00$US a day for 2 dives and lunch.
Interested? 
I guess what Iām posting here is not understood well ā¦ did I say worldclass dives and mind boggling boat rides? No I didnāt, Iām talking about Boracay being a āfunā place to be and having excellent dives for the beginner through the advanced ā¦ from shallow reef dives to deep dives and drift dives ā¦ and itās probably cheaper than Palau that is flooded with Japanese ā¦
Boracay is in my opinion the place for the inexperienced diver that wants to do some more certification ā¦ and the good thing ā¦ you can choose from about 20 diving stores ā¦
Everyone wants to do worldclass diving, but when you donāt have the experience you could end up in the tank ā¦
Well, weāre off tomorrow for 10 days in Cebu. 2-3 days in Malapascua, thresher sharks and hammerheads are said to be in season.
Way cool.
Then down to Bohol for more sand and sun and blublublub.
I hope the divers out there in Forumosa Land want to get together this year for some local diving!
peace
jdscuba
You have a great time.
A great trip!
Saw lots of goodies:
thresher shark (on my first dive in Malapascua)
enormous seahorses
pygmy seahorses
sea turtle
huge walls of jackfish swimming by a meter away
a great barracuda, 2 meters, at 3 meters distance
had a fight with a clown fish
stone fish
lion fish
white frog fish
crab the size of my chest
huge sea eels stuck in the sand
moray eels
A great diving trip with some wonderful people.
One picture sums it up:
Glad you had a good timeā¦
I got one dive in over the holiday and I sawā¦
One tiny lionfish.
5 Taiwan beer cans.
One panicked Taiwanese diver.
One panicked Taiwanese snorkeler.
I did see a thresher shark though, but not in the waterā¦In front of a seafood restaurant along with a baby Hammerhead packed in ice 
You know itās funny you mention this. I had planned to my advanced diverās course on this trip but decided against it. Foremost becuase when I did the first part of the course, my deep dive, the guy didnāt check my book knowledge, assumed I knew everything, had me do a simple skill at 15 meters, and then took me to 30M.
Later on, as I was going down for a dusk time dive, I spaced and didnātcheck my O2 level. In the water, I saw that I had only 70 bar. 
So, I stayed in the water and passed my BCD and tank back up. The guys changed the tank, but neglected to properly hook up the BCD to the O2 hose. So, when I deflated (it was full from when I had passed the gear to them) I went down to about 12M, and having to carry a lot of weight on me, I wanted to put a bit in the BCD to stabalize, I couldnāt. I had to self inflate.
Now, this might freak some newer divers out, having to do this at 12M in near darkness. My point is this: get properly certified for your Open Water course. I had this and a few other small problems with gear on this trip, but always knew what to do as I had been well trained.
If you are in the mood to get certified, I can highly recommend my instructor. Give me a PM.
peace
jdscuba
I could be interested in joining up for some easy āOpen Waterā style dives. Took the Open Water test in 1998, and have only had one shallow 5-7m dive since then (last week) - that went without a hitch. I will need some experienced diver(s) with me to ensure that I am not too rusty and to avaoid the biggest mistakes. Donāt have any equipment either.
Hi my name is Eugene . I am a Padi OW Instructor . If anyone is intrested in doing courses or just social diving please let me know.
I also stock and sell various brands of Equipment at low prices.
cheers for now
see you in the Blue Zone
Eugene
[quote=āDive the 7 Seasā]Hi my name is Eugene . I am a Padi OW Instructor . If anyone is intrested in doing courses or just social diving please let me know.
I also stock and sell various brands of Equipment at low prices.
cheers for now
see you in the Blue Zone
Eugene[/quote]
Do you have a web site Eugene?
[quote=ājdsmithā]had a fight with a clown fish
[/quote]
Who won?
But seriously folks, how was the inner ear problem?
[quote=āOld Gobboā][quote=ājdsmithā]had a fight with a clown fish
[/quote]
Who won?
But seriously folks, how was the inner ear problem?[/quote]
The clown fish fight was cool and unexpected. I had NO idea they were so damn aggressive. I floated up to its anemone and said hi. He came out and challeneged me. I scoffed and turned to my friend. I turned back and the little SOB was right in fornt of my mask and smashed into it, startling me not a little bit.
I then stretched out my arms and called him out.
He answered and came out about 3 meters from his home and would not let me pass. I felt like a Balrog trying to cross the bridge. We went back and forth for a bout 5 minutes. I was having a grand ole time and apparently entertaining my dive buds.
So finally, I grabbed my octopus and hit the purge button and blasted it away in a swirl of bubbles. *
The ear was fine. My max depth was 38M, and we hit 25+ several times. The flight back though, has left my with a sore right ear. Hmmm.
A complete lie.