Boracay diving

I'm going on my first vacation with my wife (a newly certified open water diver) to Boracay next week. We'll be staying somewhere near Station two and we're both looking forward to diving in Boracay after hearing wonderful things from our pals here in Okinawa about all the critters.

That being said can anyone answer a couple questions for me?

We're planning on bringing our gear (BCD, mask/fins/snorkel, and regulators). I dive a DIN and she dives a Yoke. Is the differences in reg 1st stages going to make a difference at most of the dive operations or do most operations support both DIN and Yoke?

We're packing pretty lightweight exposure gear (wife .05mm full and shorty for me) is that going to be sufficient for recreational diving or is it much colder there for some reason?

Is there any other dive advice the Philippine Paradise Divers could offer about Boracay?

Looking very forward to a new dive location, very excited because I've heard Boracay (and the PI in general) is awesome.

To be brutally honest, Boracay is the least exciting diving I've done here. Great visibility, great, but there's just not a whole lot to see down there. Some coral, some fish. That's all I really remember.

You'd be much better off taking a side trip from Manila to Anilao or Puerto Galera, diving there, and just enjoying Boracay for the beach and the parties.

As far as protective gear, I usually dive in swim shorts and a t shirt. Water is usually ~26-28.

Thanks for the advice. Probably wont be able to hit Manila this trip but maybe next time. We see a lot of fish here in Okinawa so maybe some different fish will be there at least.

Boracay diving is not in the same class as many other area of the PI however, the above water experience is probably better than anywhere else with lovely beaches and a ton of great places to eat and drink. Your different types of regs should not be a problem. The water will be warm enough that the suits you are bringing should be fine. I dove with "Free Willy Diving" a few years ago, good op and close to where you are staying. Diving is overall pretty easy. Try "Crocodile Island" for a nice reef. "Yapak" is probably the most interesting but is a more advanced site, and if your wife is feeling comfortable after a couple of days she could do it maybe as part of a Nitrox course.

Not every dive operator in Philippines accommodates DIN. Bring a adapter or has it converted to Yoke before your departure.

Boracay top side is great, fab bars, restaurants and other land activities and it sports one of the best beaches I have seen. I did my dm internship there with old friends so have dived there extensively and whilst fish life is low vs other places, u can still see critters. Plus at yapak u may see a shark or eagle ray. Critter wise make sure u do night dive in front of tourist centre. Once I saw 13 frogfish on one dive, and have seen robust and ornate ghost pipefish, harlequin shrimps, bobbit worms, gurnards, hairy frogfish and bobtail squid. I would recommend diving with calypso divers who have a pool and private section of the beach. Make sure u dive crocodile island as has excellent soft corals, but also do the wreck. I have heard they are creating a new wreck in form of a plane, not sure if this is done yet?
The best bit about going Boracay is the chance to dive mini live aboard to panagatan cays which offers mantas and hammers but best in April due to weather.

Tend to agree as above, to be blunt, it hasn't got anything like the variety or types of diving elsewhere has.
Generally 2 decent (artificial) wrecks - a plane and a ship. The ship has a load of life and is worth seeing. For coral then probably Crocodile Island is lovely. Yapak is a nice deep wall with white tip reefs sharks. Unfortunately as OW divers both wrecks and Yapak are or should be off limits unless you do AOW or an adventure deep dive at least.
It's worth noting there is a mandatory minimum pricing structure on the island for walk-in bookings (1600 peso minimum for a guided dive with equipment) although this doesnt apply to online advanced bookings.

At the moment Boracay is very empty as its the middle of low season. The weather currently is excellent HOWEVER its monsoon season so that wont last. Typically its gales, rain and rough seas for days on end which will last until about October so there is a chance diving is cancelled. Visibility is 2m in the shallows and about 8m deeper due to an algae and plankton bloom although it has been slowly clearing all week

Water temperature is currently 28c so minimal exposure protection is more than enough in general with no real dropping off at depth.

(Im actually living/working in Boracay at the moment).

Also worth mentioning as someone else said, the Philippines is effectively the USA with more humidity. I've not seen a more american place outside the USA itself. The tanks are generally very old A-clamp style and aren't DIN convertable so if you have a modern set of DIN regs you'd need an adaptor (some dive centres have one or two but don't rely on it). They generally measure weights in pounds too.

Some photos:-


Clear skies, calm seas. In monsoon season by WhitcombeRD, on Flickr


Batfish and other fish swim around the structure of an underwater shipwreck by WhitcombeRD, on Flickr


Calm day for confined water by WhitcombeRD, on Flickr


Hard corals at Angol point on what was actually a low vis, green day. by WhitcombeRD, on Flickr


Colourful corals on Crocodile Island by WhitcombeRD, on Flickr


Engine by WhitcombeRD, on Flickr


Gustavo and soft corals by WhitcombeRD, on Flickr

Well I'm back from the vacation. Had some great dives and my wife completed her AOW while we were there. I dove with New Wave Divers and cannot speak highly enough about the operators there. Lynette, Sam, and all the others there treated us fantastically and I highly recommend them to anyone traveling there.

I will say that we did not see as many reef fish as we see normally in Okinawa, but we saw some larger critters there and that made those dives. We did one dive on Camia but I blew through my air crazy fast for some reason and didn't get to enjoy that dive as much as the others. The best dive we did was probably the night shore dive right off from Station 1.

Thanks to everyone for the dive advice and the general Boracay advice.