Trip 2018 Daily Updates

Thursday 18th of January

Today and yesterday’s dive were the best experience I’ve ever had in my life. Yesterday, seeing a wild green sea turtle for the first time was amazing. Such a life changing experience, its just so different compared to seeing a turtle in an aquarium. It was also my first time seeing a nudibranch, emperor fish, cowfish, frogfish and a rockfish in the wild. Diving really lets you explore a whole new world, seeing things you have never seen before. 

Today, I’ve done 3 dives all 3 dives have changed my point of view of what I expected from the ocean, seeing one of the rarest fishes to find underwater, firstly going off the monkey beach an amazingly beautiful reef that goes down in a slope, finding all sorts of different type of fishes, there was a massive barracuda following an emperor fish, it zapped off so fast that my other companions did not see it. Then I went to sabang point, seeing all types of fish, the most special fish we encountered were the cowfish and the frogfish. Seeing them for the first time finally outside of a book it just truly magical. There was also a massive lion fish we saw feeding on fish, and a mantis shrimp. Finally we went to dungon wall, again seeing a mantis shrimp and a massive pufferfish that swam really close to us. One of our companions was attacked by a tiny but aggressive clownfish, and I have to say that was my most favourite time underwater!

It’s been amazing!

By Kai Chieh Tseng

Wednesday 17th of January

Today was another BISy day for all of the Divers and our teachers!

Our group of advanced divers participated in the exploration of the Manila channel, followed by a night dive later in the evening. Their eyes were filled with the wondrous sights of numerous lion fish, nudibranches, puffer fish and many many more (fin-tastic).

Meanwhile, a group of open water divers (alongside Ms Webb and Mr Goundry) travelled to 3 ship wreck locations in Sabang Bay. One of said ships happened to be a Vietnamese fishing boat (Wowzer!). Another group of open water divers went on their own adventure, which resulted in the lucky encounter with a green sea turtle (how cray-sea!!). Everyone had their first chance to really dive properly, and 2 of the groups finished their diving course and got qualified as Divers! Hurrah!

Tomorrow comes one final opportunity to out a few more dives under our belts and see some more majestic coral and awesome fish. Looking forward to another great day of fun!!!

Love, your beautiful sons and daughters <3

By Oscar and Jonah

Tuesday 16th of January

Today an intrepid group of open water divers ventured across to “Monkey Beach”, we dove down to 18 meters, how exciting! We saw a variety of fish such as grouper, jellyfish, angelfish, butterfly fish and the friendly batfish. During this exciting time an audacious featherstar attached itself to a students leg, it was clearly looking for a ride across the reef. 

We were practicing our skills at the bottom of the sea, including taking off our weight belts, clearing our masks of water and sharing air with our buddies. The dive was great fun, but of course we were disappointed that monkey beach didn’t seem or have any monkeys... it seems that there is nothing the name.

In the evening we played some games, including bananagrams and codenames. The trip continues and we are looking forward to our fun dives tomorrow, and becoming qualified Divers.

Julia & Trang

Monday 15th of January:

The Open Water Divers successfully finished all theory content today and are currently in the process of preparing for their final exam! After a whole morning in the pool practicing essential diving skills, they are soon to be certified divers. As a reward for their work they enjoyed of a selection of cold drinks ranging from coffee shakes to iced tea (a group favorite). 

Subsequently, they were all tested for their swimming skills. They had to tread water for 10 minutes and then do a 200 meter swim in the ocean.

Simultaneously, the Advanced divers were astounded by many of the sea creatures they encountered during their multiple dives throughout the day; their dives included a visit to a deep ship wreck and a night dive. Amongst the creatures they saw were dolphins(from the boat), bullet shrimp, turtles, and box fish. Although very tiring, the skills gained and overall experience of diving is definitely worth it. All of the divers look forward to the days to come and the wonders to explore under the deep blue ocean.

By Ana & Ali

Sunday 14th of January:

This morning, after a long needed sleep, we woke up energized, engaged and empowered for the eventful day. After a scrumptious breakfast of banana pancakes and bacon (for the meat-eaters - not us!), the open water group, bursting with enthusiasm, took their first breath underwater while the advanced group navigated the depths of the ocean via compass. Later on in the day, the open water group was practicing essential diving skills and the advanced divers were saving the environment (yay!) through a Dive against Debris in collaboration with Project AWARE. They collected 3kg of trash, including 2 pipes, instant noodles packaging, 3 bottles and 2 soda cans. We're still hoping to collect more! After this magnificent day we are winding down though conversation, games and food - looking forward to the adventures waiting ahead.

By Victoria and Annie 

Saturday 13th of January:

Today was an exhusting and very long adventure, filled with ups and downs, for all involved.

After arriving safely this morning before sunrise, we traveled by coach to a huge service station where we endulged in a whole host of delectables. One student claims to have whitnessed 20 mustangs... wowzers.

Later after this we continued our journey on to a port, from which we set sail on the high seas. The journey was long and treacherous, but we survived through the perils and arrived at our final destination, Puerto Galera.

After settling in we were divided into dive groups, lead by our new dive instructors. We spent our time with them wisely learning the tricks of the trade ranging from breathing techniques to simply learning how to equip the highly complex scuba diving tools.

We are sitting here now at dinner enjoying our excellent array of courses, writing this heart filled log.

Everything is well and there is nothing to worry about what so ever.

See you all soon,

Your loving sons and daughters.

Xoxo

- by Joseph Ward & Jonah Taylor