Verde Island - not safe for beginner divers?

[skingsland]

I'm planning a trip to Puerto Galera in February, and am contemplating a day trip to dive around Verde Island. It sounds awesome, from everything I've read! However, I'm a NAUI OW diver with about 5 dives to my name; not much experience! And the dives at Verde Island sound like they are mostly deep, and usually have lots of current. I figured I could mitigate the risk by going after a few days of diving in Sabang, and my DM could make the call as to the conditions vs. my abilities, and choose sites that would be appropriate for me. But should I skip it, for safety?

One of the dive operators I've been emailing said:

Sad to say you cannot possibly do dive there as you are only a beginner diver. You need to be an Advanced Open water certified to do the one day trip full of fun in diving.

What do you folks think? If you had a close friend or family member with only ~10 dives in their book, would you recommend they dive Verde Island, or stay away until they're gotten more experience with depth/currents and AOW cert.?

 

[Centrals]

AOW with 10 logged dives is no better or even worst than OW with 20!!
If I have a close friend or family member with only ~10 dives, there is no way I will take him/her to Verde. There are plenty other dive sites to suit them in PG.

 

[Kenr]

who cares about padi certification. Verde Island diving can be deep and or strong currents. That is why most dive operators recommend it for experience divers. Dont push it get a little more experience, 5 dives is like nothing.

My new wife just got certified a year ago December. she has about 40 dives now and she is just starting to feeling comfortable underwater especially with deep dives and currents. There are lot of other great dives in PG

 

[TSandM]

I had over 1000 dives when I went to Verde, and we got our butts handed to us by the current. Now, it isn't critical to have a lot of diving experience in order to dive in current (strength is more important!) but it's critical to have the composure to deal with what can happen if you don't handle it well. We got blown away from the group and ended up surfacing about a quarter mile from the boats, being swept further away as time went on. We had the appropriate equipment (DiveAlert and signal marker buoy) and had already created a backup plan, if we could not get anybody's attention. This is the sort of thing I'd worry a new diver couldn't do.

There was LOTS of fantastic diving around PG that had milder currents, but was still spectacular.

 

[Woodiver]

As others have stated, the current can be very strong. On the day we went to Verde, the wind picked up during our first dive so we also had 5 to 6 feet of chop when we surfaced. Getting back on the boat was difficult. Not something a new diver would want to experience.

 

[skingsland]

Wow, I had no idea it was so treacherous, but I am so I glad I asked you folks! Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts; I will definitely stay away from Verde Island!

 

[ronski101]

We dove Verde 2 yrs ago and on the first dive got caught in a vicious down current during our safety stop where kicking and adding air was not sufficient to go up. I was contemplating dropping my weights but was finally able to overcome the current. 10 ft from the surface the current abated and I breached like a whale. we had good vis and were watching our gauges or we might not have noticed that we were dropping like the proverbial rock.
The currents in that area are what bring the nutrients that make the area flora so vibrant.......

 

[fisheater]

I did my 200th dive at Verde Island. I'll always remember that dive as a bit of cluster F*&k, but a valuable reminder to never think that you've learned all that you need to learn.

There are TONS of great dive sites in and around Puerto Galera that are well suited for beginning divers. Have a great time.