*Floater*
Contributor
Short version: I had some disagreements with the owner (who I wasn't even diving with) about how I should do some dives, and he resorted to being flat out rude to me and basically threw me out of the resort. Details below, but it's a long report.
First, let me note that the dive info in my profile is outdated, but I haven't been able to update it because that function has been disabled for a while now. In particular, I recently took ANDI's Technical SafeAir Diver course, which is your basic first deco diving course and certifies you to use everything up to O2 and dive down to 50m. I also did a bunch of tech dives in Puerto Galera since that course. For my tech dives I currently use ANDI's GAP-RGBM for my deco planning (which I also used during my training). I run it on nominal (the middle setting), but then pad it by adding some deeper stops, extending the time at 21m (70ft) stop by 3-5min to take advantage of the oxygen window (so far I've been using EAN50 for deco). I'm also happy to spend some extra time at the last stop if someone feels the need for it. I just switch to back gas and practice my drills to pass the time. This padding makes my profiles roughly equivalent to GAP-RGBM's conservative or recreational setting in total runtimes for the profiles I've been diving.
Anyway, back to Johan's, I arrived there Thursday after reserving a room and informing them I'd like to do both rec and tech dives. The first day no tech DM's were available so I just did two rec dives. Johan was teaching a DSAT tech course to somebody at the time so he was unavailable to DM. The first dive was to the USS NY on EAN36 (max depth around 28m), though my tank measured in at 37.5% O2. Total dive time was 53min. The second dive was to the LST wreck, again on 36%. The max depth there is supposed to be 34m, but we stayed mostly above 27m. Total dive time 51min. The ppO2's were a little high for my taste, but nothing unheard of. All the same I asked Johan if I could just use EAN32 and bring a stage of EAN50 so that I could basically do the same profile as the others, go down to 34m without problem and do a mini deco on the way up. He said no because there was no other diver there with tech training to supervise or observe the gas switch. I don't see a huge complication there with a single stage of EAN50, but okay, not a big deal, I just did it on the nitrox they were using. The DM, Henry, was fine and both dives were limited by my gas consumption only. Another diver ascended earlier and then Henry finished the dive with me, which was a nice way to do it rather than having to cut the dive short.
At the end of the day Johan asked me about the tech dive for tomorrow. I asked what the site he recommended and he suggested the Orion Tail which is at 42m. He asked about the back gas and I said air would be fine. He seemed surprised and asked if I planned to spend only 9min there (iirc, or something ridiculously short). I said I'd prefer 30min. He again seemed surprised and asked if I wanted to do some ridiculous amount of deco (maybe he said 90min or something like that), to which I said I'd be happy with about 30min per GAP-RGBM (23min of deco including ascent would be fine with GAP-RGBM for that profile on EAN50). We were interrupted by a phone call, and I had to go anyway, so that was it for the night.
The next day I met the tech DM, Steve, and he was fine, I have no problem with him. However, when we discussed what deco to do I said I'd prefer ANDI's GAP-RGBM, so we had a look, and he thought the profile it produced was a little short for the dive, so I agreed to just do his deco (with O2 window stop extended by a few minutes). The runtime for the dive on his plan was a whopping 69min (compared to GAP's 53min) with a big 22min stop at 4.5m. We also agreed I'd switch to back gas after an hour and practice my drills. Furthermore, we discussed cutting the time at depth by 5min if we had enough of the site by them (I was told 30min might be a bit long to spend at the Orion Tail, which turned out to be true). Earlier when deco gases were discussed Johan also seemed surprised because I just wanted one 5.5L bottle of EAN50 (AL40). He also called my SCR of 17 L/min (or 0.6 cf/min) terrible and wondered if I would have enough gas for the dive (I ended up using half of both back and deco gas on the dive). Also, when I suggested we cut all runtimes by 5min if we cut the bottom time by 5min Johan seemed surprised yet again and made some remark about me coming up with new procedures. Anyway, we did the dive, the visibility was crap and the wreck was really tiny so we just spent 25min there, but did the whole 69min runtime.
Things were still basically fine at this point though I had been taken aback by some of the guy's ideas. I don't see why using air (as opposed to EAN26) was a big deal (it costs you 3min of extra deco on GAP-RGBM for the first profile). If he was charging per volume of O2 then then I'd add some in, but he charged by fill and Ean22-40 fills all cost P250 per 12L tank, so P1000 for doubles since I have to pay for the DM's gas as well). Also, I'm not crazy about running moderately high ppO2's at depth, and I don't see what the point of using two deco gases for a dive like this is - bringing an extra bottle down might be good for redundancy, but I don't think that was Johan's point. I also don't see what's wrong with cutting the runtimes by 5min if you cut the bottom time by 5min. And I personally haven't felt any ill affects from using my padded GAP-RGBM profiles, and don't really see the need for huge shallow stops.
The problems really started when we were planning the second dive for the day. I was given two options: either USS NY or the LST; the two wrecks I had done the previous day. I suggested we just top off the doubles with air, and do a slightly deeper dive to the LST than what I had done the other day and then finish off the deco bottle for it. Steve decided to use a higher nitrox mix in his doubles though and do it as a rec dive, so I wrote down my deco profile to see if it would work with what he was doing (only 30 or 35min bottom time). However, he said Johan would need to check it - by the way, it's sort of weird to me that the owner needs to check profiles between a DM and diver. I think Johan even printed out some plans he wanted us to follow. The times were ridiculously long though, and I told him I didn't need those since I had been using my software without problems. He said that I should use nitrox for back gas then, but I said I might as well then do it as a rec dive and asked if I could use the doubles the for a rec dive (since I didn't feel like switching wings, I would have paid double for the gases of course). He informed me that if you use doubles then it's a tech dive and that's it. He also proceeded to tell me that my ideas about tech diving were crazy, and in particular, when I told him I didn't feel using weak nitrox mixes was worth it (P1000 to get out of water 3min earlier per GAP-RGBM on the first dive, for example), he told me I should then get out of tech diving and basically told me to leave his resort, which I did. The guy was just plain rude, I didn't see any point to a lot of what he was doing, he didn't offer any convincing explanations. Also, I later found out the DM had used EAN26 for the first dive (which they billed to me), and they still insisted on the damn 69min runtime.
Basically at Johan's it's his way or the highway in my experience, and on top of it he may be rude to you and insult you. I don't mind doing things differently from what I consider best and I try to be flexible, but I don't like to spend a lot of money on doing things that don't make sense to me either, and I don't like people who insist on following some set of rules without justification (seemingly for just the sake of following them), and I don't put up with being rude to, so that was it for me. I packed my packs within the hour and checked out. I'm just glad I didn't end up getting my tech training from a guy like that. Luckily I was able to get some quality diving in with Halthron at Planet Dive, Anilao in the last few days.
I'm leaving the Philippines early tomorrow, so I won't be able to respond for a few days, but feel free to comment. Maybe some people here feel Johan was right on and that's fine with me. Just trying to relate my experience/complaint, obviously I'd never go back there myself.
Other things about Johan's:
1. They use 12L steel twinsets - I'd prefer AL80's as I'm already slightly negative with them and my tech rig.
2. They label both the tanks and second stages per ANDI procedure. I'm neutral on this, it's a nice feature as long as you don't mislabel anything - I just use whatever the resort I'm visiting uses.
3. I asked about his wreck courses and was told I'd need to start with PADI's wreck specialty. I'm not sure if this is how it works everywhere, but I'm not crazy about PADI specialty courses and would prefer to take Technical Wreck directly at some point.
4. No solo diving even at shallow shore water (to practice drills and skills) - this is fine with me, and probably pretty common among resorts.
5. I didn't mentioned GUE or DIR at all, obviously I wasn't following DIR practices either (no trimix, steel tanks with wetsuit, etc.)
First, let me note that the dive info in my profile is outdated, but I haven't been able to update it because that function has been disabled for a while now. In particular, I recently took ANDI's Technical SafeAir Diver course, which is your basic first deco diving course and certifies you to use everything up to O2 and dive down to 50m. I also did a bunch of tech dives in Puerto Galera since that course. For my tech dives I currently use ANDI's GAP-RGBM for my deco planning (which I also used during my training). I run it on nominal (the middle setting), but then pad it by adding some deeper stops, extending the time at 21m (70ft) stop by 3-5min to take advantage of the oxygen window (so far I've been using EAN50 for deco). I'm also happy to spend some extra time at the last stop if someone feels the need for it. I just switch to back gas and practice my drills to pass the time. This padding makes my profiles roughly equivalent to GAP-RGBM's conservative or recreational setting in total runtimes for the profiles I've been diving.
Anyway, back to Johan's, I arrived there Thursday after reserving a room and informing them I'd like to do both rec and tech dives. The first day no tech DM's were available so I just did two rec dives. Johan was teaching a DSAT tech course to somebody at the time so he was unavailable to DM. The first dive was to the USS NY on EAN36 (max depth around 28m), though my tank measured in at 37.5% O2. Total dive time was 53min. The second dive was to the LST wreck, again on 36%. The max depth there is supposed to be 34m, but we stayed mostly above 27m. Total dive time 51min. The ppO2's were a little high for my taste, but nothing unheard of. All the same I asked Johan if I could just use EAN32 and bring a stage of EAN50 so that I could basically do the same profile as the others, go down to 34m without problem and do a mini deco on the way up. He said no because there was no other diver there with tech training to supervise or observe the gas switch. I don't see a huge complication there with a single stage of EAN50, but okay, not a big deal, I just did it on the nitrox they were using. The DM, Henry, was fine and both dives were limited by my gas consumption only. Another diver ascended earlier and then Henry finished the dive with me, which was a nice way to do it rather than having to cut the dive short.
At the end of the day Johan asked me about the tech dive for tomorrow. I asked what the site he recommended and he suggested the Orion Tail which is at 42m. He asked about the back gas and I said air would be fine. He seemed surprised and asked if I planned to spend only 9min there (iirc, or something ridiculously short). I said I'd prefer 30min. He again seemed surprised and asked if I wanted to do some ridiculous amount of deco (maybe he said 90min or something like that), to which I said I'd be happy with about 30min per GAP-RGBM (23min of deco including ascent would be fine with GAP-RGBM for that profile on EAN50). We were interrupted by a phone call, and I had to go anyway, so that was it for the night.
The next day I met the tech DM, Steve, and he was fine, I have no problem with him. However, when we discussed what deco to do I said I'd prefer ANDI's GAP-RGBM, so we had a look, and he thought the profile it produced was a little short for the dive, so I agreed to just do his deco (with O2 window stop extended by a few minutes). The runtime for the dive on his plan was a whopping 69min (compared to GAP's 53min) with a big 22min stop at 4.5m. We also agreed I'd switch to back gas after an hour and practice my drills. Furthermore, we discussed cutting the time at depth by 5min if we had enough of the site by them (I was told 30min might be a bit long to spend at the Orion Tail, which turned out to be true). Earlier when deco gases were discussed Johan also seemed surprised because I just wanted one 5.5L bottle of EAN50 (AL40). He also called my SCR of 17 L/min (or 0.6 cf/min) terrible and wondered if I would have enough gas for the dive (I ended up using half of both back and deco gas on the dive). Also, when I suggested we cut all runtimes by 5min if we cut the bottom time by 5min Johan seemed surprised yet again and made some remark about me coming up with new procedures. Anyway, we did the dive, the visibility was crap and the wreck was really tiny so we just spent 25min there, but did the whole 69min runtime.
Things were still basically fine at this point though I had been taken aback by some of the guy's ideas. I don't see why using air (as opposed to EAN26) was a big deal (it costs you 3min of extra deco on GAP-RGBM for the first profile). If he was charging per volume of O2 then then I'd add some in, but he charged by fill and Ean22-40 fills all cost P250 per 12L tank, so P1000 for doubles since I have to pay for the DM's gas as well). Also, I'm not crazy about running moderately high ppO2's at depth, and I don't see what the point of using two deco gases for a dive like this is - bringing an extra bottle down might be good for redundancy, but I don't think that was Johan's point. I also don't see what's wrong with cutting the runtimes by 5min if you cut the bottom time by 5min. And I personally haven't felt any ill affects from using my padded GAP-RGBM profiles, and don't really see the need for huge shallow stops.
The problems really started when we were planning the second dive for the day. I was given two options: either USS NY or the LST; the two wrecks I had done the previous day. I suggested we just top off the doubles with air, and do a slightly deeper dive to the LST than what I had done the other day and then finish off the deco bottle for it. Steve decided to use a higher nitrox mix in his doubles though and do it as a rec dive, so I wrote down my deco profile to see if it would work with what he was doing (only 30 or 35min bottom time). However, he said Johan would need to check it - by the way, it's sort of weird to me that the owner needs to check profiles between a DM and diver. I think Johan even printed out some plans he wanted us to follow. The times were ridiculously long though, and I told him I didn't need those since I had been using my software without problems. He said that I should use nitrox for back gas then, but I said I might as well then do it as a rec dive and asked if I could use the doubles the for a rec dive (since I didn't feel like switching wings, I would have paid double for the gases of course). He informed me that if you use doubles then it's a tech dive and that's it. He also proceeded to tell me that my ideas about tech diving were crazy, and in particular, when I told him I didn't feel using weak nitrox mixes was worth it (P1000 to get out of water 3min earlier per GAP-RGBM on the first dive, for example), he told me I should then get out of tech diving and basically told me to leave his resort, which I did. The guy was just plain rude, I didn't see any point to a lot of what he was doing, he didn't offer any convincing explanations. Also, I later found out the DM had used EAN26 for the first dive (which they billed to me), and they still insisted on the damn 69min runtime.
Basically at Johan's it's his way or the highway in my experience, and on top of it he may be rude to you and insult you. I don't mind doing things differently from what I consider best and I try to be flexible, but I don't like to spend a lot of money on doing things that don't make sense to me either, and I don't like people who insist on following some set of rules without justification (seemingly for just the sake of following them), and I don't put up with being rude to, so that was it for me. I packed my packs within the hour and checked out. I'm just glad I didn't end up getting my tech training from a guy like that. Luckily I was able to get some quality diving in with Halthron at Planet Dive, Anilao in the last few days.
I'm leaving the Philippines early tomorrow, so I won't be able to respond for a few days, but feel free to comment. Maybe some people here feel Johan was right on and that's fine with me. Just trying to relate my experience/complaint, obviously I'd never go back there myself.
Other things about Johan's:
1. They use 12L steel twinsets - I'd prefer AL80's as I'm already slightly negative with them and my tech rig.
2. They label both the tanks and second stages per ANDI procedure. I'm neutral on this, it's a nice feature as long as you don't mislabel anything - I just use whatever the resort I'm visiting uses.
3. I asked about his wreck courses and was told I'd need to start with PADI's wreck specialty. I'm not sure if this is how it works everywhere, but I'm not crazy about PADI specialty courses and would prefer to take Technical Wreck directly at some point.
4. No solo diving even at shallow shore water (to practice drills and skills) - this is fine with me, and probably pretty common among resorts.
5. I didn't mentioned GUE or DIR at all, obviously I wasn't following DIR practices either (no trimix, steel tanks with wetsuit, etc.)
