Best places to go diving & things to see in the Philippines

[rjjj111]

I am returning to the Philippines in March of 2010.

I have been once before in March of 2009, I went to Donsol for the whale shark encounter and went diving in Sabang/Puerto Galera area for 4 days. I then spend 1 day in Davao diving also.

Well I want to dive other places and see other things while in the Philippines.

I have thought of going to Taal Volcano for the day, go and get my AOW in Sabang and maybe a live aboard to Tubbataha Reef, but I am not sure since i have only about 35 dives so far. I want to do the live aboard but that is a lot of money and I am not sure if I have enough experience to dive according to other posts I have read?

Any suggestions?

 

[zahgurim]

The southern end of Bohol is nice, around Panglao island. Nice house reefs at Alona beach, as well as trips out to Balicasag island nearby.

 

[fuggler]

I vote for Palawan and Bohol even though I haven't been there yet. From my research and talking to friends who live in PI, I found out that Bohol is pretty much an outdoorsy person's paradise. They have numerous waterfalls, hot springs, hills, 1400+ caves (some are still being discovered), on top of the awesome dive sites. I'll be there for a week towards the end of this month and I'll give a comprehensive trip report for you.

 

[rjjj111]

fuggler, please give an update when you get back. i plan to go in March 2010, so i would like to hear back from you.

 

[limirl]

Fuggler I may see you, I'll be there from 21-26 november. Look out for the sf giants shirt.

 

[MADRI diver]

try Mantangale (mantangale.com) for diving in camiguin and northern mindanao

 

[Rhoody]

Make your AOW/Nitrox in Sabang and head for Tubbataha. Do some drift-dives in PG and fine-tune your buoyancy ... you will be absolutely fine at Tubbataha Reef. It will be each cent worth, and won't get cheaper the next years anyway.

Additional who knows when you will be back, so don't miss the chance...

 

[Rogersea]

I am returning to the Philippines in March of 2010.

I have been once before in March of 2009, I went to Donsol for the whale shark encounter and went diving in Sabang/Puerto Galera area for 4 days. I then spend 1 day in Davao diving also.

Well I want to dive other places and see other things while in the Philippines.

I have thought of going to Taal Volcano for the day, go and get my AOW in Sabang and maybe a live aboard to Tubbataha Reef, but I am not sure since i have only about 35 dives so far. I want to do the live aboard but that is a lot of money and I am not sure if I have enough experience to dive according to other posts I have read?

Any suggestions?

I think you have a plan!!!! It is most important for you to be comfortable with your Bouyancy(as Rhoody said) when diving in pristine places like Tubbataha..

But depending on your time limits and financial constraints I would do Tubbataha and Coron(experience wrecks) and you could visit some of the other non diving hot spots of Palawan... Palawan was the first place I had been to which had wild monkeys in the trees..... It was a real adventure...

Cheers,
Roger

 

[rjjj111]

@Rhoody Good points. I like the way you are thnking about the situation.
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@Rogersea and @Rhoody

Bouyancy? I usually dive with about 2 weights, and my bouyancy is about level. Or am I missing something, not fully understanding? Isn't my bouyancy something I can easily workout once in the water with my BC and weights?

Another question, what is it about Nitrox? Doesn't Nitrox just allow you to stay down longer and dive deeper?

 

[CODMAN]

Rjj,
buoyancy isn't just about getting the right amount of lead to be neutral (that is part of it though). It's also about you controling your buoyancy during the dive, mainly through how you move underwater, how you breathe (lungs contain a good amount of air), and how you control the air in your BCD. All this together controls your position in the water relative to the bottom or even in the water column (if in blue water, such as a safety stop). Some of these things are easy to master (such as how much lead to use)and others require experience and time in the water (ex: changing how much air is in your lungs to bring very slight changes in your buoyancy ). Easily and effectively controling your buoyancy is often essential on more difficult dives. Also, the more you master all these "techniques", the less you need to think about it, and the more comfortable you become under water, which brings about lots of other advantages for you(even lower air consumption).

Nitrox is simply an air mix containing more oxygen and less Nitrogen. Richer oxygen mixes (which is generally what is refered to as Nitrox, except by Technical divers), don't let you dive deeper. It's the opposite. But since it contains less Nitrogen it either 1- reduces the amount of Nitrogen you absorb during your dive (if you do the same dive profile as you would have diving air) which is generally considered a good safe thing, or 2- lets you stay down longer since it takes you longer to reach your Nitrogen limits (in which case it's no better than air in regards to Nitrogen uptake). Generally, Nitrox is very usefull in the 60-100' range where your NDL limit will be shorter than your air consumption (you run out of NDL before running low on air). You can gain considerable bottom time. It is also usefull if you want to reduce your daily Nitrogen uptake (by diving it with air NDL limits) when doing several dives a day (such as a liveaboard).

I enjoy diving it when I can. I find I feel better using it rather than air (which is very debatable, but it's my impression). Whatever, the Nitrox course is very interesting and a great way to further your diving knowledge, wether you use it or not...

Hope this answers some of your questions!

@Rhoody Good points. I like the way you are thnking about the situation.
---------------------------------
@Rogersea and @Rhoody

Bouyancy? I usually dive with about 2 weights, and my bouyancy is about level. Or am I missing something, not fully understanding? Isn't my bouyancy something I can easily workout once in the water with my BC and weights?

Another question, what is it about Nitrox? Doesn't Nitrox just allow you to stay down longer and dive deeper?