L.A.Dave
Contributor
I just got back from my 3rd ever tropical dive trip, just coming back 2 days ago from the Philippines. I went to Puerto Galera and stayed with Atlantis Resort on Sabang Beach.
The hotel was nice, but the staff was even better....between Hotel manager Matt Reed and the dive guides including Rusty, Ulrika, Thomas, and the rest of the crew and staff there, they really have their act together. I missed my flight by two days and Matt Reed allowed me to add on 2 days at no extra $ so I was able to stay and dive the full number of days by just staying on 2 days later.
Atlantis Resort is located right on the waters edge at Sabang Beach. Dives started at 9 a.m., and there were typically 4 dives a day, a 5th of you asked to do a night dive.
After the first dive briefing, there was between a 3-10 minute excursion to most dive sites. Depending on the diver load, 3 divers was handled by one dive guide, and 6 divers would have 2 dive guides, one following up the rear excluding the boat pilot.
Hour long profiles were typically done, with most divers on Atlantis supplied with 32% nitrox which was available for a small extra charge. Plenty of pure 02 was available for us CCR rebreather divers, and if asked they will have sofnolime or sodasorb in stock for you upon advanced request. I left them 10 lbs of fresh 8-12 sofnolime. They also currently now have 2 Inspiration 3L o2 cylinders and 2 dil cylinders as well as some smaller o2 clean oxygen and dil cylinders for you Meg/Kiss and Jan box types.
The dive sites were too many to remember, but Sabang Wreck stood out with huge frogfish, morays, 4 different types of shrimp, Orbicularis batfish, lionfish, all to be seen one one dive. So did Ernest Point, Manila Channel, and even the bay right out in front of the hotel where I ran into 2 robust ghost pipefish trying to act like a pair of palm tree leaves.
For an extra $35 each, an excursion to Verde Island is a must do. A larger bankga boat takes you to the hour away sight. After the 1st dive, cold drinks and sodas were served on the beach. After the 2nd dive, back 10 minutes to the beach where a barbecue lunch and drinks were served and naps or beachcombing for shells and broken pieces of hand painted china from a 16th century wreck were not too hard to find. Then the 3rd and last dive was typically at a place called Washing Machine. It wasn't anywhere near as turbulent as the name, but it is a shallower dive.
Atlantis had a great camera room lined with towels and a low pressure drying compressed air trigger hose as well as plenty of plugs and transformers. laundry service was available, and just about everyone took advantage of hour long massages from designated staff either in the massage room or in your hotel room for about $13 for the hour!
Food was good, drinks were cold, they had dive equipment available for rent or to buy, including all the little knick knack accessories one tends to forget at home.
The amount of marine life was just incredible, far exceeding what I saw at Yap. Between lionfish on every dive, flourecsing cuttlefish, a Titan triggerfish that attacked me (I highly recommend against skinny dipping) all caught on tape, crinoids galore, commensal, mantis and cleaner shrimp, soft and hard corals and a kaleidescope of every tropical fish imaginable, Sabang is a photo/videographers paradise. I took my first plunge into image capturing and purchased and brought, I mean lugged with a crane my Amphibico Phenom video housing and Sony FX1 HiDef videocam. Although I forgot to frequently white balance, (all correctable in post with Apple's Final Cut Express HD), I got some incredible footage of which I will post some video frame capture stills and eventually some HiDef video clips here once edited.
Lastly, the Philippino people of Sabang were warm, friendly, spoke English and liked us. They made the trip even more memorable. What a lovely, gracious people they were.
Now I know why they have a sub-forum here and use the term Philippine Paradise Divers, as it truly was a paradise.
It was a trip of a lifetime I will never forget.
The hotel was nice, but the staff was even better....between Hotel manager Matt Reed and the dive guides including Rusty, Ulrika, Thomas, and the rest of the crew and staff there, they really have their act together. I missed my flight by two days and Matt Reed allowed me to add on 2 days at no extra $ so I was able to stay and dive the full number of days by just staying on 2 days later.
Atlantis Resort is located right on the waters edge at Sabang Beach. Dives started at 9 a.m., and there were typically 4 dives a day, a 5th of you asked to do a night dive.
After the first dive briefing, there was between a 3-10 minute excursion to most dive sites. Depending on the diver load, 3 divers was handled by one dive guide, and 6 divers would have 2 dive guides, one following up the rear excluding the boat pilot.
Hour long profiles were typically done, with most divers on Atlantis supplied with 32% nitrox which was available for a small extra charge. Plenty of pure 02 was available for us CCR rebreather divers, and if asked they will have sofnolime or sodasorb in stock for you upon advanced request. I left them 10 lbs of fresh 8-12 sofnolime. They also currently now have 2 Inspiration 3L o2 cylinders and 2 dil cylinders as well as some smaller o2 clean oxygen and dil cylinders for you Meg/Kiss and Jan box types.
The dive sites were too many to remember, but Sabang Wreck stood out with huge frogfish, morays, 4 different types of shrimp, Orbicularis batfish, lionfish, all to be seen one one dive. So did Ernest Point, Manila Channel, and even the bay right out in front of the hotel where I ran into 2 robust ghost pipefish trying to act like a pair of palm tree leaves.
For an extra $35 each, an excursion to Verde Island is a must do. A larger bankga boat takes you to the hour away sight. After the 1st dive, cold drinks and sodas were served on the beach. After the 2nd dive, back 10 minutes to the beach where a barbecue lunch and drinks were served and naps or beachcombing for shells and broken pieces of hand painted china from a 16th century wreck were not too hard to find. Then the 3rd and last dive was typically at a place called Washing Machine. It wasn't anywhere near as turbulent as the name, but it is a shallower dive.
Atlantis had a great camera room lined with towels and a low pressure drying compressed air trigger hose as well as plenty of plugs and transformers. laundry service was available, and just about everyone took advantage of hour long massages from designated staff either in the massage room or in your hotel room for about $13 for the hour!
Food was good, drinks were cold, they had dive equipment available for rent or to buy, including all the little knick knack accessories one tends to forget at home.
The amount of marine life was just incredible, far exceeding what I saw at Yap. Between lionfish on every dive, flourecsing cuttlefish, a Titan triggerfish that attacked me (I highly recommend against skinny dipping) all caught on tape, crinoids galore, commensal, mantis and cleaner shrimp, soft and hard corals and a kaleidescope of every tropical fish imaginable, Sabang is a photo/videographers paradise. I took my first plunge into image capturing and purchased and brought, I mean lugged with a crane my Amphibico Phenom video housing and Sony FX1 HiDef videocam. Although I forgot to frequently white balance, (all correctable in post with Apple's Final Cut Express HD), I got some incredible footage of which I will post some video frame capture stills and eventually some HiDef video clips here once edited.
Lastly, the Philippino people of Sabang were warm, friendly, spoke English and liked us. They made the trip even more memorable. What a lovely, gracious people they were.
Now I know why they have a sub-forum here and use the term Philippine Paradise Divers, as it truly was a paradise.
It was a trip of a lifetime I will never forget.
