Philippines?

So last night a couple of us were talking about different dive destinations and we were wondering about the Philippines? Any suggestions or is it comparable to indo? thanks We appreciate your imput. Scott

so have any of you been there? Was the diving good? We're thinking about next year or the next and trying to decide about this or indo again. Sorry, we have to plan way ahead, make payments, etc. Thanks for your help.

Lots of great diving there

Anilao, Cebu area, Dumaguete, S Leyte, Cabilao just to name a few.

Similar to Indonesia but different at the same time, can get whalesharks from Dec-March in Leyte (diving) and Donsol (snorkeling)

There are some recent threads on here about Anilao, punch that one into the search function.

Hey, I am going to Dumaguete next week for a work meeting. Will set aside some days for diving/photos and post a quick report when I come back.

The Ducom Pier is a fabulous dive. One you'll want to do with both a macro and WA lens, so two trips if you're up for it. Scott - my entire flickr site is from Dauin..or Dumagette. You can check out the photos here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/25230308@N07/ I stayed at El Dorado resort and it was truly a mixed bag. The basic rooms were too small. The food was outstanding, but you had to compete with enough flies that it was a challenge. The dive shop was pretty good and Lito is the best guide there. The House Reef in front of the hotel was superb. I dived it about 15 times while there. Other notable sites - Car Wreck, Marsaplot Sanctuary, Apo Island are a few of the sites there. My favorite dive was the pier. My favorite shots were of the Ornate Ghost Pipefish and the sawblade shrimp.

I always hear about these other locations in the Philippines but I don't hear to much about Puerto Galera? Any experiences out there with diving there or staying at El Galleon?

Cheers,

Chuck

We've been to central Philippines aka Visayas, to the island of Cebu in the MoalBoal municipal. It's easy bangka-diving only 2 dive operators in the neigbourhood. We stayed at Magic Island (www.magicisland.nl) and used there diving facilities, definitely recommended if you like unique boat AND shore diving, relaxing and good dinners! Took my first pictures there in 2006 see also http://www.bonaire-villa.nl/reizen/moalboa...l%20Underwater/

Cheers!

The Ducom Pier is a fabulous dive. One you'll want to do with both a macro and WA lens, so two trips if you're up for it. Scott - my entire flickr site is from Dauin..or Dumagette. You can check out the photos here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/25230308@N07/ I stayed at El Dorado resort and it was truly a mixed bag. The basic rooms were too small. The food was outstanding, but you had to compete with enough flies that it was a challenge. The dive shop was pretty good and Lito is the best guide there. The House Reef in front of the hotel was superb. I dived it about 15 times while there. Other notable sites - Car Wreck, Marsaplot Sanctuary, Apo Island are a few of the sites there. My favorite dive was the pier. My favorite shots were of the Ornate Ghost Pipefish and the sawblade shrimp.

There has been some work done on Ducomi pier. The damage isn't major but the extension to the pier is ongoing and they've cleared the bottom 3m of coral for some of the pillars.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/eri...orkducomi-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/eri.../workpier-1.jpg

These were shot by Eric Leong just 2 weeks ago.

The diving doesn't seem too affected by it though.

I always hear about these other locations in the Philippines but I don't hear to much about Puerto Galera? Any experiences out there with diving there or staying at El Galleon?

Cheers,

Chuck

I just got back from doing 201 dives in Puerto Galera/Sabang

I have a million hours of work to do to get the pictures ready for listing with the stock agency's. I have been batch processing/down resing for eight solid hours right now. Got about 40 folders of pics done today, many many more to go. Then the marathon photoshop sessions start. Thank God I got all the key wording and indexing done in between dives.

El Galleon is kind of an upscale resort, you probably will like it there. If I were to stay at an upscale resort I would probably pick Mermaid. El Galleon people seem to dive with Asia divers. I do not really want to complain about Asia divers on the board, but I did 10 dives with them a few years back and I was less than 100% happy and did not go back to them.

This trip I did all 201 of my Sabang dives with South Sea Divers. www.southseadivers.com I like them a lot. The owner Sky is a friendly expat Texan. The one dive master Amil has the best "critter eyes" of any one I have ever dove with. The other dive master Jack---excuse the spelling and grammer but I will paste the rough draft of a story I wrote to eventually put on my website below.

Hole in the Wall---Dive # 196 of 5 month Trip

 

I started the trip with three Ikelite TTL substrobes but alas all are

now broken and in need of repair. Thus I am forced to try to come up

with situations where I can take good pictures with natural light.

 

March 31, 2009 a cloudy morning, I show up at the South Sea divers

dive shop about 8:50 AM. I am the only customer. The DM Jack asked me

what I want to do. I reason out that the vis has been shitty on the

reefs closer to Sabang and also in Manila Channel. Also Manila Channel

is a bit far to go for one diver. I had heard that yesterday around

this time that the vis had not been too bad in the HIW area and Giant

Trevally had been seen.

 

The Giant Trevally often comes in when the tide is flooding and the

current is running to the East. I had the 50 mm f1.4 lens on the

camera so I figured I was as ready as I would ever be for some good

Giant Trevally shots.

 

Twenty min later we roll of the boat and descend into the blue, the

current was indeed taking us east toward HIW but it was not as strong

as I had thought it would be so I felt it was pretty iffy if we would

see any Giant Trevally. I have a little trouble getting the auto focus

mode selector switch to work, I play with the housing a bit and

finally get the focus mode set to continuous. I shoot a few test shots

and everything seems to be working ok.

 

As we near the HIW area we begin to see some schooling drummers,

grunts, and Emperors. I start shooting for real at least I am going to

get some nice pelagic fish pictures out of the dive. We have ascended

to a depth of about 10 M. Jack is slightly ahead of me and looking

around to make sure I do not miss any great potential subjects while I

am composing something else. It is really great to have dive masters

who know how to work with a photographer.

 

As I am shooting a large Emperor, I hear Jack begin rapidly tapping on

his tank. I turn and see him point toward the surface and seaward of

his position, I do not see what he is point at but I rise off the reef

and swim seaward so that I will be in position when I get to what ever

Jack Is pointing at.

 

Even though Jack can see that I have already responded to his signal

he continues tapping on his tank and pointing. My heart begins to

soar, if Jack is this excited it must be really good. Sure enough 10

seconds later I begin to see Giant Trevally swimming straight toward

me. With a quick prayer to the lord, auto focus don’t fail me now, I

begin to shoot rapidly. My excitement builds to an incredible peak as

I drift through the school of Giant Trevally. They are often in this

location when the tide is coming in and the current is running seaward

past the lighthouse but usually the current is much stronger and so it

is not possible to get as high off the reef as I did of spend as long

near them.

 

After my first pass I descended down to the reef at about 10 meters

deep I was able to seek shelter behind a series of reef features and

make my way back up current to the school where the first Giant

Trevally were I ascended back to the depth they were at and made

another pass through them.

 

On my third Pass Jack directed my attention to a certain area of the

reef where a particularly large Giant Trevally had descended down into

the coral. I took several pictures of him then he flashed out of site

back into the current. We made our way about two thirds of the way

back up under the school to where there is a large nonliving (dead

coral) protrusion from the reef upward toward the Giant Trevally

school. Jack signals me to go up here. I have a pretty good idea what

he has in mind, so I follow his suggestion. Jack grabs onto the top

piece of dead coral with one hand and grabs my ankle with his other

hand. This places me in a perfect position to shoot up at the Giant

Trevally, which I do too my hearts content.

 

After the great effort required to repeatedly work our way up current

it is nice to just hover and effortlessly while in a perfect position

to get great shots. After several minutes of continuous shooting Jack

releases and we drift through the school again.

 

I loose tract I can not say if we drifted through the school four

times of five. It while we are going no shallower than five meters and

no deeper than 11 meters I am still glad to be on 32% nitrox with this

up and down profile. Finally I have what must me almost a lifetime

supply of Giant Trevally photographs, and we are about 34 minutes into

the dive, and my Nitrox is down to 80 bar, we swim around the to a

shallow sandy area of patch reefs and sea fans. Even here while we are

sheltered from most of the current the large fish are active. So I

continue shooting what I think are nice pictures of Sweetlips,

Drummers, and Emperors.

 

Dive time 53 minutes. Breathing gas remaining 30 bar.

 

Did I mention I love Sabang and the Dive Masters at South Sea Divers.

The retail price for a one tank dive with nitrox is about $30. I can

take credit for picking the site, and for shooting the photographs but

a lot of it would not be possible without Jack’s understanding of what

my camera was capable of in it’s current setup and helping be to be in

perfect position for a sustained period if time.

South Seas Divers is cheaper than most other dive shops, I prefer to stay at less expensive places for longer stays. Cherry, the office girl can help make reservations in almost any price range, at different small hotels in the area.

I do hope to do a longer trip report some day--- but right now---way too much on my plate.

I always hear about these other locations in the Philippines but I don't hear to much about Puerto Galera? Any experiences out there with diving there or staying at El Galleon?

Cheers,

Chuck

I was in PG a few years ago, the diving was pretty good. The reefs and marine life impressed me (I haven't been to indo to compare though). The vis wasn't that great, but you can't have everything right? The town itself was fairly busy, a big holiday destination for domestic and international travel.

I also dived the wrecks at Coron (from Sangat Is), which I really enjoyed. Again, vis wasn't great, but if you enjoy wreck dives its really worth doing.

Ryan.

I spent 10 days at PG / El Galleon last November and absolutely LOVED it. I saw so many Frogfish I lost count; some as big as footballs (American footballs that is!), and hanging out on Sabang Wrecks 2 minutes boat from the resort. Nudibranchs galore -- lots of mating going on. Amazing drift dives.

I thought Asia Divers were excellent and professional -- did my Nitrox Course with them. I wouldn't consider this a VERY upscale rsort. But its nice, and The Point Bar + Restaurant are fantastic. The location is great; walking distance to "town" but far enough away to be nice and quiet at night.

(It is a real party town)

3-4 hour drive/boat from Manila so you don't have to give up that last day of diving to take a local flight. Totally worth the price at $51 per night (for the budget room, but who needs the view when you're diving all day, right?)

I'm already booked again for October 09. (This place goes quick) ... Need to go back to Verde Island!

I'm combinging it with a week in Moalboal this time.

Atlantis also gets great reviews, but they have a forced meal plan which I think is ridiculous when there are so many choices around.

Moalboal has some great walls. The near by island is also very nice. I also plan to spend at least a week there next trip. I wish I knew a good (but cheap) place to stay.

Diverdon,

The new Phils LP is coming out in May but is downloadable from their site (for a price). The Author's Choice in Moalboal is the Tipolo Beach Resort. The web site looks great. There are only 8 rooms; the deluxe is $37 for beachfront cottage w/ hot water + AC. (They're very pretty on the website)

It's run by 2 German guys and they answered my email within hours. I was able to pay a deposit with Paypal, (which is very refreshing not to have to send a wire transfer!).

They'll pick you up from the Cebu Airport, (again, for a price!) -- it's about a 2 1/2 hour drive. There is no on-site dive shop, but apparently the town is full of them nearby.

In fact, if anyone can recommend a good one?

Diverdon,

The new Phils LP is coming out in May but is downloadable from their site (for a price). The Author's Choice in Moalboal is the Tipolo Beach Resort. The web site looks great. There are only 8 rooms; the deluxe is $37 for beachfront cottage w/ hot water + AC. (They're very pretty on the website)

It's run by 2 German guys and they answered my email within hours. I was able to pay a deposit with Paypal, (which is very refreshing not to have to send a wire transfer!).

They'll pick you up from the Cebu Airport, (again, for a price!) -- it's about a 2 1/2 hour drive. There is no on-site dive shop, but apparently the town is full of them nearby.

 

In fact, if anyone can recommend a good one?

I only did three dives with them, but I did like Neptune and I will use them again next trip. 20 meter Banca dive boat, good boatmen, good divemasters.

http://www.neptunediving.com/neptune/index.jsp

I have a slide show on my website that you can check out. It's built using Proshow Gold so Windows only. Was developed for use by the Philippine Consulate here in Vancouver.

www.stewartsy.com

Stu

Hi,

from my own experience (3 times in the Phils, 4 times in Indo) Diving is very much comparable, they really are on a par if you choose the good sites. there are also dynamited sites around Mactan or Malapascua for instance.

Puerto Galera, my first experience in the Phils in 99, BigLalaguna beach resort is my pick, dive centre owner Frank Doyle is a reknown tech diver. Very friendly outfit, loved the night dives there, you just forget to count the frogfish. They organize day safaris to Verde island, highly recommended.

Moalboal. On my personnal book, Pescador at 6AM is top of the list as one of the best dive spot in the world (tied with north Sulawesi Sahaung). Sharks, somptuous cave, corals, schools of fish, coral plateau with macro critter... on a day with 40m viz, this dive has everything. Cabana beach resort (barely advertized but the best rooms, terraces and banana pancake on Panagsama beach) and Savedra.com for dive center

Malapascua. One the few places you get thresher sharks in the morning and manta rays in the afternoon. I think that's enough said. I'd recommend Exotic island beach resort and dive centre, pioneers of the diving in Malapascua.

Balicasag was good, there were schools of barracudas, trevallies at the time I went, lots of corals but from report I've had from friends it doesn't seem as good as it seems.

other phils highlights : Apo island, certainly the best coral diving in the phils, South Leyte for whale sharks, Cabilao island, Dumaguete for macro stuff, Coron for wrecks.

Luko

You might also want to consider Tubbataha Reefs in the Sulu Sea, one of the best that the Philippines can offer. The dive trip is a live-aboard, from March to early June.

Tubbataha: Nothing here is what it seems