June 2015 - Wet season arrives... But there's still some Awesome Diving

JM and Alex Post-Dive Planning

The slightly later than normal start to the wet season finally arrived this month with conditions a bit rougher than the near perfect conditions we've had since October.  that said, we still had plenty of time for some awesome diving.

This month saw JM return from Cebu to complete his full DSAT TecTrimix course with Alex from MDA in Manila.   Both of these guys are highly experienced divers (Course Directors and Instructors in fact!) which made this course an absolute please to teach. 

Sadly our final post-course dive didn't happen as the outskirts of Tropical Storm Egay led to some rough seas and we all decided it was best to save the now blended gases for another day to make the dive in better conditions.  were looking forward to seeing JM again soon in the near future so we can team up again with Alex and made a slightly delayed post-course dive past the 100m mark.

Alex getting to grips with multiple bottles underwater...

...and on the surface

"Terrible" Weather

The weather for the rest of the month was great for half the month, not so great for the remainder of the month.  The peninsular geography of Anilao between two large bays means that even on rough days one side of the peninsular is normally pool like conditions. 

The secret Bay site to the East of the Anilao Peninsular is best know for the many macro critters and muck diving - but it also make a great spot for skills training and videos - we made the most of a few rough days by completing some additional skills videos for the Hammerhead CCR series we have on our YouTube channel, as well as some Open Circuit skills you'll see go on there soon.



Check out some of the sample skills in the links below:

Bail-Out to Open Circuit:

High PPO2 Procedure:

1 Cell Voted Out Procedure:

May 2015 - DSAT Courses and Trips!

May is normally the last month of peak season here in the Philippines and we thought we'd make the most of this with trips to both Coron Bay and Verde Island.

Our Coron trip was our first trip back to the Coron Wrecks for almost a year so it was great to get back, catch-up with people and dive again in the best wreck diving location in the Philippines.  We even had time to pull together a few video clips from this trip; the YouTube links below should give you an idea of what to expect - we'll be planning regular trips there every 3-4 months.

Coron, Irako Maru Wreck - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dREXbn6E4U
Coron, Kyokuzan Maru Wreck - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGQVO23rl9o

Making the most of the near perfect weather we also arranged a trip over to Verde Island from Anilao.  This trip went really well and is something we'll be doing a lot more of in the near future.  The boat ride from Anilao is around 90 minutes, so is longer than the PG trip but the large (PG ferry) sized boat we used made it a really comfortable trip.  The trip was done over a full moon weekend so some crazy currents were around, especially at the Washing Machine site when the tide was on a strong ebb.

We'd also like to pass on our congratulations to Cesar who this month completed his Tec45 course after a few weeks of diving with us.

The weather here is holding up well with conditions still hot and sunny and no rain it sight (yet!) so we're looking forward to more great dives in June with CCR, Technical and Instructor courses lined up here in the Philippines.

February 2015 - Cesar Tec 45 Course

February saw a former recreational student, Cesar Teng, return for his Technical training.  Cesar had previously completed the DSAT TecRec Tec40 course in Puerto Galera and 3 of the 4 Tec45 dives in Moalboal; both of these previous course were completed in Sidemount - as Cesar wanted to also complete Tec50 we decided it was best to switch to the more suitable back mounted twin tank configuration in preparation for two deco gas dives.

Being new to Twin Tank diving is someone most of us don't remember fondly, we spent a few days covering the core skills and standard procedures we use for planning dives.  Despite a niggling back pain Cesar's enthusiasm for learning is just as strong in technical diving as it was in recreational diving and it's great to work with him again.

We're looking forward to having Cesar back shortly to close out his Tec45 course and move onto the Tec50 course.