Davi Magalhães
Registered
I'm traveling Philippines for a month and I'm having a blast, after I'm back home I'll post a complete dive report. But, in the meantime, I'd like to warn everyone about what happened to me in Coron just a few days ago.
I'm AOW certified with less than 40 logged dives and I decided to do fun dives with Reggae Dive Center because I saw some people on this forum recommending them and they're well ranked in TripAdvisor. They charge the highest price in Coron so I thought I would get premium service with them.
When we arrived at the first dive site (Kogyu Maru), my divemaster asked me if I wanted to go inside the ship. I said "only if it's a swim through and it's not narrow". When we got to the wreck, we entered through a narrow but OK door and we were inside a huge hall that had many holes on the hull, there was plenty of light inside and I felt I could get out whenever I wanted, so I felt comfortable during the dive.
On the second side site (Okikawa Maru), the divemaster asked me again if I wanted to enter the wreck and I said "only if it's like the first one", to which he said "yeah, it's pretty similar". Boy was he wrong.
As soon as we entered, it was pitch black inside and very narrow. There were many moments where the other fun divers and I were struggling to go through passageways, and we had to detangle our regulators hoses many times (I asked them about this after we were back on the boat). There was a moment I felt I was in a videogame, dodging a barrier on the left just to have another one on the right, and then another one on the left again, all without knowing if I was going up or down.
Overall, I would say we spent more than 10 minutes in complete darkness (apart from the flashlights), with very low visibility and, to me, no idea where I was going or where the exit was. I used way more air than my usual and I didn't feel comfortable at all, which didn't make me enjoy the experience.
I talked to some of the other divers on the boat and many of them also had no idea what they were getting into before the dive. I was so uneasy after the experience that I decided not to dive again in Coron.
Thankfully, no accidents happened, but I cannot think that the experience I had is OK or reflects what I learned during my OW and AOW courses. So, for the non-wreck divers out there, please be careful when going to Coron.
I'm AOW certified with less than 40 logged dives and I decided to do fun dives with Reggae Dive Center because I saw some people on this forum recommending them and they're well ranked in TripAdvisor. They charge the highest price in Coron so I thought I would get premium service with them.
When we arrived at the first dive site (Kogyu Maru), my divemaster asked me if I wanted to go inside the ship. I said "only if it's a swim through and it's not narrow". When we got to the wreck, we entered through a narrow but OK door and we were inside a huge hall that had many holes on the hull, there was plenty of light inside and I felt I could get out whenever I wanted, so I felt comfortable during the dive.
On the second side site (Okikawa Maru), the divemaster asked me again if I wanted to enter the wreck and I said "only if it's like the first one", to which he said "yeah, it's pretty similar". Boy was he wrong.
As soon as we entered, it was pitch black inside and very narrow. There were many moments where the other fun divers and I were struggling to go through passageways, and we had to detangle our regulators hoses many times (I asked them about this after we were back on the boat). There was a moment I felt I was in a videogame, dodging a barrier on the left just to have another one on the right, and then another one on the left again, all without knowing if I was going up or down.
Overall, I would say we spent more than 10 minutes in complete darkness (apart from the flashlights), with very low visibility and, to me, no idea where I was going or where the exit was. I used way more air than my usual and I didn't feel comfortable at all, which didn't make me enjoy the experience.
I talked to some of the other divers on the boat and many of them also had no idea what they were getting into before the dive. I was so uneasy after the experience that I decided not to dive again in Coron.
Thankfully, no accidents happened, but I cannot think that the experience I had is OK or reflects what I learned during my OW and AOW courses. So, for the non-wreck divers out there, please be careful when going to Coron.