Davao or Samal Island recommendations

I'm looking to get in a little dive time in this May when I get to Davao. While I'll be spending some time staying in the family home away for the ocean, I'm hoping to get a room in a resort that might have some decent shore diving and snorkeling possibilities for a week or so. Do any of the more reasonably priced resorts have any shore diving? If they do, which shop supplies them? I don't really want to be taking off on all day dive trips or get out on cattle boat tours. I like settling down in a quiet spot and wait for the odd ball stuff to slowly start coming out. For example one of my favorite dives ever was a mangrove swamp.

Sand flats with coral heads spread around, low current, and shallow depths are the preferred types of areas.

As to a resort, good food, aircon, friendly people (workers and guests), are the important things.

It appears there's a number of divers familiar with the Davao area, can you give me some recommendations? Both for a place to stay and a dive shop. A few years back I talked to the folks at Wind Wave and Water, but they seemed to think pricing dives higher than they are in the USA was acceptable when a kano came in the door. Last time I was in Davao, I didn't even bother to try diving there, but I hope things have changed now.

Best resort to stay in will be Pearl Farm. a bit pricey though. more affordable is Paradise island resort. about P2500 a night i think. problem is, the dive shop there is wind and wave. but i dont seem to recall the dive rates to be high. check out their website WIND AND WAVE DAVAO - WIND AND WAVE DAVAO INTRO. or you can just stay in the city and go to the dive shop and avail of their 900 for two dives rate. if they use the speedboat, you should be back by lunch time after two dives. Wind and Wave's DMs should know where to find the macro critters if you like them.

Try to contact Bing. (there's a period after Bing) here in SB. He's based in Davao and usually dives with Carabao divers which i heard offers a better rate.Davao's #1 Dive Center - Carabao Dive Center makes it to Mindanao Times News!
Carabao Dive Center
Door 1F Hermanos Bldg Sta. Ana Wharf
Monteverde St. 8000 Philippines
Tel No. (082) 300-1092 - look for John, Dick or bing
email: carabaodivers@yahoo.com

There are several places for shore diving around Samal. However, the easiest shore dives to get to are not really the most impressive sites for the type diving you describe. Also, the currents can be strong at some sites around Samal when the tide is changing. So it helps to check the tide tables to plan shore dives on Samal. Taking a boat day trip is the way to really see the best of Davao's scuba sites. I'm a big fan of finding nudibranchs and flatworms, so far I have seen around 100 different species around Samal and Talikud. Plenty of other interesting small stuff around.

Some of the best places to just hang out and look for the odd and interesting will be around Talikud island at sites such as Babusanta and shallower parts going down towards Angel's Cove, and in front of Isla Reta resort. But you would need to visit on a day trip, there is not much option for resort type overnite accommodation on Talikud.

There are a few of options on overnite resorts on Samal, but I don't have much first hand experince since I always stay in Davao and take a day trips, and occasionally take a car over to Samal via the ferry. If you could find a way to arrange a car rental around Samal while staying at one of the resorts there, that would be ideal, allowing you to go to a few different resorts and shore dive.

So a quick list of options that I know of on Samal would be...

Punta del Sol resort. I have dove there several times, it is not all that impressive diving, but I have found a few interesting things there. The current is not as bad due to the location. Overnite accomodation is available, but I think a couple days would be long enough to spend there.

Pearl Farm has been mentioned, but out of my price range. There are a few options for diving close by such as the wreck in front which I have never done, and the sites of Marissa and De La Paz corner. Marissa can be hit or miss, there are parts of De la Paz corner I really like.

Paradise Island Resort gets alot of visitors during the day, and does overnite stays. But the divers I have met who stayed there did not seem too impressed with the experience. They do have a house reef, which is nothing special, but I have found some nice critters there sometimes.

A new place called Blue Jazz Resort would be worth looking at. I have done a few dives in front, again the diving in front is nothing to rave about but interesting things can be found. Mostly, I mention it since they organize diving thru Frank, the owner of Davao Scuba Dive who I dive with. That could give you a few options if you felt like taking a day trip on the boat and wanted some variety.

There are others, but I don't know much about them. If I could afford it, I would rent a car and spend a couple weeks just hopping around all the resorts on Samal and shore diving along the way. I expect there are a number of good muck sites that aren't on the maps.

One of my favorite shore dives on Samal is at Tagpopongan. Interesting reef to the left and right with a big sandy area that gradually slopes off in front with tons of small stuff, and interesting reef to the left and right. Very nice for macro photos and quite interesting for night dives. Check it out if you have the chance, but need to take a car or boat to get there.

Hope that is of some help for you.

Thanks jigo

I'm actually trying to find out which resorts might have reasonable shore diving there and a shop that drops off tanks. I have all my gear and don't really want to go on the tour guided mass groups. I've been on 100's of those over the years and haven't found them interesting in years. So I might decide to just throw on the fins and mask going snorkeling off shore, or throw on all the gear and enjoy the bottom right off shore.

I suppose I can email those dive shops and ask if they know of any resort that in Davao or Samal Island that fits my needs. One of them would have to be supplying the tanks. Heck I wouldn't even mind taking the ferry over to pick up a few rental tanks myself if it got me the type of diving I'm looking for.

The people at Wind and Wave seemed nice enough, but when I checked with them in 05, the only option they offered for me was hiring the DM and boat plus the cost of gas if I wanted to dive. They just didn't have enough business to support dives more than one day a week, and the estimated cost was about 200 US dollars for one days diving. A bit steep for a couple of dives in my own gear. That's a week's worth of diving in Panglao or Sabang and I'm make the trip before paying those in Davao. I know plenty of friends and family in Davao that don't make in a month what they wanted to charge for a dive master for one day. I just wish one or two of them were divers. Then I might have someone who could take me a decent shore dive or two rather than the cattle boat type dives. I'll snorkel first and have a better time than a cattle boat dive.

I'm sure you can arrange tanks at Blue Jazz...

Wow Kupu, this is exactly the type of information I've been looking for. The family has a car I should be able to use while I'm there. So I'm easily mobile while I'm there. It might be my best option is renting tanks from one of the shops in town and forget trying to find a resort that might have shore diving tanks on sight.

Then I can pick a resort totally based on other options. Although those Pearl Farm prices are crazy on their web site. The cheapest is now $150 and jumps to $330 pretty fast. Yep that is certainly out of budget now. Hmmm Blue Jazz for a night, we could bring her school age siblings out to enjoy the water park while I catch a dive or two.

Maybe hoping around and staying a night or two here and there is the best thing to do. There's that Hof Gorie (sp) that looks like it might be nice to stay at for a night or two also. Although I"m not sure what the diving is like there.

And I'll certainly get an update on the currents and avoid the tide change time periods. I figured that channel between the island and the city can get fairly strong at times.

Great, you are in good shape if you have the car. I can't remember what time the last ferry comes back from Samal to Davao, but you will have time to do a night dive and still catch the ferry back if you like. I think 10:00 or 11:00 PM is the last one? And easy for you to ask at the dive shops for detailed info and tank rental prices, which should be very reasonable price.

If you are interested in Tagpopongan you can ask for directions from Maeng at Davao Scuba, and you will need to let the owners of the small resort there know that you are coming to dive ahead of time. Maeng would be a great guy to have along if you are interesting diving with someone who knows the sites around Samal, and he is a fan of relaxed dives to look for interesting critters

And especially since you have the car I would say Punta Del Sol is worth a dive or two, relaxing place and easy to get to. I used to be a big fan of shore diving from El Magic Resort, but last time I was there the reef seemed to have suffered, perhaps a COT outbreak? But since it used to be so nice, I wonder if it might still have something to offer someone looking for interesting life, since it used to be really good for nudis, frogfish, cuttlefish, etc. Just don't expect a healthy reef right there. Just throwing that one out there since it is also a very easy place to get to from the Samal ferry landing.

I'm not saying anything against the other shops, it's just that I have always been happy with the guys at Davao Scuba. Nice thing is, all the dive shops are right by Santa Anna Warf at the end of Monteverde St, so you can just go by and check prices, get info and see what works best for you.

Looks like you are getting a good plan together, sounds like a fun time.

Kupu is 'spot on'

Maeng, Davao Scuba, is one of the best macro dive guides in SE Asia.

Blue Jazz Resort works closely with Davao Scuba and you can arrange one-on-one dives with Maeng. Blue Jazz is a very good resort to stay with reasonable rates.

As far as Pearl Farm - they are 'up market' and offer diving as an option along with the usual activities for the 'well heeled'.

Purist divers looking for great diving at reasonable prices are best advised to avoid this place.

WWD

I had been viewing Blue Jazz as more of a kid friendly family water park, than a place to dive at. I"m rethinking about possibly being there for a day or two now.

I thought I had read something about some wrecks off the coast, I believe it was near resort south of Toril. There had also been some reef restoration work that had been successful to. Or at least the article claimed so. Does anyone know the name of the place? For the life of me I can't find the article again. It was a spot I had been thinking I'd like to go visit.

I can't tell you about the wrecks south of Toril, But I've dived the WWII wrecks infront of pearl farm. I was a big fan of the wrecks in Coron, so I enjoyed the wrecks there. IIRC, there's 2 or 3 of them? Bombed during WWII. The DM gave me a great back story of the planes swooping down from over the island peak and dropping their bombs on them. One of them still contains the trailer trucks it was loaded with (albeit in a cross and only a skeleton of the chasis and wheels). The other wreck is lying on it's side and you see the blast holes. Also noticed is the meticulousness of the Japanese sailors in maintaining their ships (line coils and what not) - I love thinking of the history behind them.

I can't remember if it's this dive site or not, but there's a ship in 3 pieces...not sure if it's part of the ship lying on the side, or if it's another ship. I didn't have my dive log with me that day so can't look it up.

As for marine life...I don't recall anything spectacular within the wrecks compared to other dive sites, but I do recall seeing some nifty macro in the sand beds surrounding the wrecks. Viz was so so (I was blessed with a sunny day).