SeaDive Resort Coron Palawan

[ithacles]

I am at the end of a visit to Coron.

I stayed the first few nights at Village Lodge. Rooms at Village are ok but, you are very close to a chicken farm so the noise can be a bit much in the morning. I later moved over to Seadive. Ironically, the reviews of Seadive suggesting noise from pigs and karaoke kept me from booking there originally. These proved to be otoally unfounded. Seadive was very quiet and the staff was very helpful.

I looked at Dive Cal, Coron Divers and Sea dive before selecting Seadive for my diving. Seadive is more expensive than the others but, you get what you pay for.

Dive Cal's equipment was falling apart and the operation seems to prioritize cheap prices rather than safety and quality. This shop is an embarassment to the dive community.

Slightly better was Coron Divers but, as I was walking in they were bringing tanks out of their shop and taking them to Seadive. Curious!? It turns out that the owner, a filipino named Bobby, not to be confused with Arni the filipino operator, refused to dive with tanks filled by his own dive shop because he believes the air to be unsafe. This shop is cheaper than Seadive but, apparently, to save money they dont change the filters in their compressors very often resulting in a very dangerous situation for divers.

If Seadive is good enough for the owner of another dive center, it is good enough for me. Search finished. Seadive still has a few older sets scubapro equipment but, 90% of it was new Seaquest BCDs and Apeks regulators. They have a very professional compressor room running 3 compressors and are the only shop that has certified gas blenders filling their tanks.

The food on the dive boat varies from day to day and is excellent. It is actually better than the food served in Seadives restaurant. Dive groups are small. 3 divers per dive master is the average. Guides are very professional and are also great fun.

Best place for food is Bistro. Owned by a french expat, the food is delicious and an excellent value.

Enjoy Coron it is truly a world class destination for wreck diving.

 

[Jasoncassanova]

I was just there last April, Seadive is good when it comes to service and quality, I guess for some who weren't satisfied with Seadive, they probably had a really high expectation of the place. Anyway we only had our DSD/Intro Dive, there were three of us, one of my companions said that what we experienced was really worth it, compared to what she experienced in El Nido. My suggestion is that you look for Kevin, he's a foreigner instructor in Seadive, really nice guy and though he knew there was a small chance of us seeing each other again after that dive, he still took time to give us some pointers on what we experienced

 

[mgjones]

Hi. Stayed and dived Seadive 3 months ago. Can confirm they have a good set of very new equipment, including wetsuits. A definite improvement. Dived with some folks who had dived with Dive Cal the day before and were not impreesed with the reliability of the equipment and changed to Seadive. The Seadive staff were generally very good.

The only comment on Seadive I would make is make sure you are put in a group with similar experience and don't be talked into just doing what suits them. they deal with a wide range of experience so it's possible to end up circling the wreck for 20 minutes and coming straight up instead of doing some penetration. Stand your ground if you're not happy.

Not sure if he is still there or not, but Patrick is an excellent instructor/guide. He's an experienced cave diver, very safety conscious and practical to boot.

Last year I dived with Discovery Divers. They are a more serious outfit and would suit more experienced wreck divers, although they didn't offer Nitrox at the time. Hopefully that has changed. At the depths of most wrecks, you could have some serious fun with a set of nitrox filled twins! A good operator.

Edit: rumour has it some new blood from Manila direction may be moving to Dive Cal. If so, he will definitely help them pick up their game.

 

[mgjones]

Oh and Seadive have their own wee recompression chamber too.

 

[bill22]

My own experience with Sea Dive was that I was either taken diving by myself or I was buddied with someone with similar experience. I thought they were a top notch outfit

Patrick was still there the end of April... I didn't get the impression he was going anywhere

 

[Antarctic-Adventurer]

If you are a more experienced diver then my vote would be to go with Gunter's outfit Discovery Divers. Discovery Divers: Wreck Tek & scuba diving in Coron, Palawan, Phlippines
I dived with him for a week last year and had a good time, included a lot of wreck penetration which was great.
They are more catered to advanced and more techinical diving, but will take anyone.

Either way though both SeaDive or DD seem to be fine.