Official dive vacation thread

[Apo Reefer]

grilled lionfish is yummy!

those are the days when we use to free dive at a nearby reef and a catch lionfish.

[GoFish]

Just got home from the Philippines yesterday. 3rd time there beautiful country! Try to go back every year
This time around went to Puerto Galera, El Nido, Dingalan, Tagaytay. Wanted to dive in Galera but the weather wasnt on our side, windy most of the time, mainly cloudy with some rain. So just went snorkelling there.
El Nido was beautiful but the coral diving isn't as great there so took some tours and one day of diving which turned out to be just one dive out of 2 as i was having difficulty breathing. After a several minutes decidided i needed to go back up and when i got the surface i released the velcro strap on the BCD and wow i could breath! Turns out the fitted me with an XXS vest . Should've known when suiting up for a back roll as i had to exhale to get the strap on so my lung capacity maxed out at probably 40%. Live and learn, non-PADI cerified dive shop and not the greatest equipment

Anyhoo heres some pics, i dont really feel like uploading videos

This is flying into El Nido on a direct charter. Way better than the 7hour bumby bus ride from the Puerto Princessa airport but turned out to be really expensive, oh well. The last pics are snorkelling in Puerto Galera near Coral Garden Resort just north of the Giant clams site

^^ Our private boat captain Austin ^^

[GoFish]

Some coral pics in Puerto Galera. Tried to get some macro shots while snorkelling in the current... a lot of them were too blurry

[GoFish]

A mixture of Puerto Galera and El Nido snorkelling

To be continued next year...

[Delphinus]

Fantastic colours!!

[hillegom]

Beautiful
Is that with a filter or flash?
thanks

[Myka]

Ya great photos! What type of camera/lenses are you using?

[Apo Reefer]

Awesome pics, thanks for sharing your experiences on your Philippine trip.

Yes El Nido is not the best for diving in Palawan. There are 2 dive sites that comes to my mind in Palawan, #1. is Tubbataha and #2 Taiei Maru Wreck in Coron. Don't know if you have dove those sites.

Coral reefs in Coron are better than El Nido.

Another Dive site that I would recommend is Apo Reef in Mindoro and Apo Island in Domaguete. There lots of awesome dive sites in the south.

I'm planning to go back home this summer and will stay in Palawan and Mindoro (my home town).

[GoFish]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Fantastic colours!!

Originally Posted by hillegom

Beautiful
Is that with a filter or flash?
thanks

Originally Posted by Myka

Ya great photos! What type of camera/lenses are you using?

Thanks, thanks and thanks. No Filter or flash. Same camera ive used to take pics of corals in the buy sell but with those i never mess with the colours just white balance with the cam, crop and resize. But with some of these pics i turned up the saturation a bit in photoshop to get rid of some of the haze from sediment and plankton on the windy days. Its an Olympus point and shoot underwater, TG something (can't see the model #), just stock no lense. The cheaper version of the TG3/4

Originally Posted by Apo Reefer

Awesome pics, thanks for sharing your experiences on your Philippine trip.

Yes El Nido is not the best for diving in Palawan. There are 2 dive sites that comes to my mind in Palawan, #1. is Tubbataha and #2 Taiei Maru Wreck in Coron. Don't know if you have dove those sites.

Coral reefs in Coron are better than El Nido.

Another Dive site that I would recommend is Apo Reef in Mindoro and Apo Island in Domaguete. There lots of awesome dive sites in the south.

I'm planning to go back home this summer and will stay in Palawan and Mindoro (my home town).

Thanks and no worries.
The 2nd picture from the plane is above Apo reef but unfortunatley forgot our parachutes

Yeah I've been to Coron definitely some amazing corals there, just snorkeled but will for sure go back on the next trip or 2. Tubbataha is somewhere i'd love to go but with the 3-4 weeks vacation per year and in a relationship with a non-diver its a bit of a long journey time wise and for her sake so that may never happen. And wrecks i've done a few and so far not really much of a fan would kinda rather see pristine natural coral reefs.
When you go back bring your cam and share some pics!

And sorry to post these in the dive thread, none of them are actually dive pics this time. The camera is only rated for 10 metres but our first dive was to 18 so didnt wanna risk a leak

[daplatapus]

If anyone is bored and feels like watching almost an hour of my crappy video skills, lol. Here's a dive I did in Cabo by the fairly newly discovered wreck out by the Arches. I believe the dive spot is called Land's End.

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNjfoy5I9o8
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJRzxNS_Ukk
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp2JeDp86nA