My buddy Richard was recently certified as an IANTD Advanced Recreational Trimix diver (I was certified last December) and since he lives in Cebu we decided to go to Malapascua last weekend for his first post-cert trimix dives. For those of you that aren't aware, mix is now being pumped on Malapascua by ExoTech Malapascua, Malapascua Exotic Dive Resort's tec shop.
I arranged the trip through Terry Dukes, who runs ExoTech, after being introduced by Dave Ross of Tech Asia in Puerto Galera. You can contact Terry at terry_dukes@hotmail.com.
Mix diving is very new to Malapascua with Terry receiving his first bottle of He in late March (after placing his order with Cigi in Cebu in October!). The great thing with Exo Tech still being unknown (for the moment) is you get a lot of personal attention from Terry and the rest of the team-so go now before the crowds discover it!
As Richard lives in Cebu and I live in China, the plan was for me to take the direct CX/PR flight from Hong Kong to Cebu on Firday night and Richard would pick me up at the airport. Things went more or less to plan and I was out of the terminal and waiting for pickup by 7:45pm. Richard arrived by 8:00pm with a truck load that included his wife and son and my girlfriend, Cristina, and her sister from the US. With a very full Ford Expedition we started the trek north.
We arrived in Maya with only one missed turn and some back tracking; after finding our boat we were at the resort by 12:45am.
On the drive north we had already decided that Saturday would be a very relaxed day of diving. We would dive doubles on air to get our feet under us and stay within no deco limits. It would also give me a chance to do a couple of dives with Cristina.
In view of the long week Richard and I had both had and the fact that the next day was a relaxed dive day, we decided to have a drink before retiring. When we sat down we were told the bar didn't close until the last customer left, then a little before 3:00am the bartender decided it was time for the last customer to leave so we went to bed.
We started the next morning with a nice breakfast (I went for the tocino, Richard had tapas). Then it was check the gear and get on the boat for a trip to Gato.
Our first dive on Gato was great, we saw what seemed like hundreds of crabs of all sorts in the Gato swim through plus a few sea snakes. It had been 4 years since I was at Gato and I had forgotten how nice the swimthrough is. Of course the last time I swam through there I did not have an 18w HID light with me, like I did this time
The second dive yielded a couple of white tip reef sharks out swimming around. After the second dive we loaded up and headed back to Malapascua on very flat seas.
Since Saturday went so well we decided on Sunday to do the "Pioneer Wreck" with a bottom of 52msw. Though known as the Pioneer, its misnamed as the Pioneer was a ferry boat that sank a few years back in much deeper (~100msw). The true idenity of the wreck known as the Pioneer still has to be determined, and now that mix is available it should be easier to do so.
The Pioneer turned out to be a very enjoyable dive, the sand is about 52msw and inside its 52msw+ (as I found out). She's not dived much, no one but Terry
pumps mix, she's too deep for hookahs and it wouldn't be a lot of fun on air, so still quite a virgin wreck as far as known origins (Terry believes she is a Japanese war wreck) and artifacts are concerned.
Sunday dawned as beautiful as Saturday and after another breakfast of tocino it was time to analyze and load up. Our plan was 20 minutes to 50msw on 21/35, we were a little late getting to the dive site and current had picked up. Richard, as Terry pointed out later, was thinking about the dive and was quite for the first
time all weekend (you would have to know Richard to understand).
The Exotic dive boat is typical of large Visayan dive boats with low gunwhales and gangways along the bow. We geared up, were helped onto the gangway by the crew and then giant strided in. Due to current a line had been tossed out and after grabbing it we were pulled by the boatmean to the anchor line off the bow.
We decended down the line, hand over hand, in a fairly stiff current until about 35msw were the current almost completely stopped. We then drifted off the
line and onto the wreck, which was swathed in bait fish.
The plan had been to tour the deck and then drop over the stern to the props, then come back up to the holds (in hindsight I hadn't listened very well). When we
hit the wreck it seemed like we were just sort of farting around, not really going in any one direction and we were in an area that had obviously suffered catastrophic damage. In the midst of this jagged steel I saw a hole and decided it looked interesting.
I dropped down inside the hole (Richard stayed outside looking in) and it turned out to be the engine room. I wasn't there but a minute or two when I spotted something behind a large round cylindrical object (boiler, compressor, ?) that looked like a white corrugated hose. It stood out because everything else was rusty or brown...it also looked amazing like one of the hoses from a gas mask in Truk-which I saw when Richard and I were there 6 weeks ago.
I swam over to the object and damn, it was a gas mask, just like the ones in Truk...just lying there uncovered for me to find, it was weird. It excited me
so I forgot to look around the rest of the room, I picked it up and headed out to show the others. Half way out I started feeling guilty about picking it up
but decided to give it to Terry. He was thrilled, as you can imagine, and plans to display it.
On the way out I also checked by depth gauge and realized I had gone to 52msw, not a tragedy, but still not smart to only recognize after the fact-learned a
lesson about getting caught up in the moment and not thinking.
Talking with Terry later, I was only the second person he knows to ever go in the engine room (Terry has never been as he is always shepherding divers and
can't go around poking into dark holes). He was suprised I got into it with my stage still attached (I'm a rather large diver) as the other person apparently had to taken his off (it probably would have been smarter on my part even though I didn't have a problem, but I guess I'll learn that in Subic later this month when I do the wreck course). I found it no problem to get in and move around inside without silting it up...bring on Subic!
After the engine room, Richard and I went in another hold and Richard showed very good form for a newbie (the boy has come a long way). The hold contained what I think were building materials of some sort, not war munitions...seemed to be pipes about 8in dia that would crumble in your hands and also pieces of what could have been some type of wall materials, flat sheets that also crumbled in hand. We called the dive after that hold and started the ascent.
Terry preferred for us to ascend the anchor line instead of a drifting decompression, I think he was uncomfortable with us doing a drift as he was unsure of our skills and didn't want us to get split up (which I can understand). Before the dive I didn't have an opinion about decoing on the line, now I do...I don't like it-its diffcult to maintain team contact when everyone stacked up on a line, facing down, lying horizonal in current.
We had to do our 21msw gas switch hanging on the line, this was Richard's first gas switch since the course and we were hanging on the line in current with one
hand occupied...I was a little concerned how it would go so I made sure to be ready for an OOG if necessary...Richard did us all proud and had no issues making
the switch one handed.
Our second dive was 40m on Monad Shoal where they see threshers in the morning and occasinally mantas in the afternoon. Our dive was uneventful as in we didn't see signs of any mantas. If there's no threshers nor mantas there's pretty much nothing to see at Monad besides rubble. Since what I enjoy most about diving is floating in the water, then a dive like this is fine with me, especially since Richard and I both need dives under our belt to move on to Normoxic.
We did a drifting deco this time with no drama. Well almost none, at the 6m stop the boat snagged Terry's SMB and dragged him over Richard banging tanks and throwing Richard for a somersault. Richard bounced up to 4m and then came back down-but no drama, just some giggles.
We then loaded up and headed back for happy hour and several mango daiquiris. The whole gang (Richard and fam, me, Cristina & sister plus Terry and wife Tracy (PADI CD)) went off to Isla Bonita for several bottles of wine and a fine meal.
The next day, after two beautiful days of diving with calm seas it was time to load out at 7:00am to head back for Cebu (Richard had to be back in the office Monday). We were awakened by rain which only got stronger as we approached Maya and by the time we were all in the Expedition (which made it through the weekend without a scratch) we looked like drowned rats.
The drive back proved uneventful and it was back to China for me with memories of the "Pioneer" and dreams of Subic later this month.
Cheers,
Drew
I arranged the trip through Terry Dukes, who runs ExoTech, after being introduced by Dave Ross of Tech Asia in Puerto Galera. You can contact Terry at terry_dukes@hotmail.com.
Mix diving is very new to Malapascua with Terry receiving his first bottle of He in late March (after placing his order with Cigi in Cebu in October!). The great thing with Exo Tech still being unknown (for the moment) is you get a lot of personal attention from Terry and the rest of the team-so go now before the crowds discover it!
As Richard lives in Cebu and I live in China, the plan was for me to take the direct CX/PR flight from Hong Kong to Cebu on Firday night and Richard would pick me up at the airport. Things went more or less to plan and I was out of the terminal and waiting for pickup by 7:45pm. Richard arrived by 8:00pm with a truck load that included his wife and son and my girlfriend, Cristina, and her sister from the US. With a very full Ford Expedition we started the trek north.
We arrived in Maya with only one missed turn and some back tracking; after finding our boat we were at the resort by 12:45am.
On the drive north we had already decided that Saturday would be a very relaxed day of diving. We would dive doubles on air to get our feet under us and stay within no deco limits. It would also give me a chance to do a couple of dives with Cristina.
In view of the long week Richard and I had both had and the fact that the next day was a relaxed dive day, we decided to have a drink before retiring. When we sat down we were told the bar didn't close until the last customer left, then a little before 3:00am the bartender decided it was time for the last customer to leave so we went to bed.
We started the next morning with a nice breakfast (I went for the tocino, Richard had tapas). Then it was check the gear and get on the boat for a trip to Gato.
Our first dive on Gato was great, we saw what seemed like hundreds of crabs of all sorts in the Gato swim through plus a few sea snakes. It had been 4 years since I was at Gato and I had forgotten how nice the swimthrough is. Of course the last time I swam through there I did not have an 18w HID light with me, like I did this time
The second dive yielded a couple of white tip reef sharks out swimming around. After the second dive we loaded up and headed back to Malapascua on very flat seas.
Since Saturday went so well we decided on Sunday to do the "Pioneer Wreck" with a bottom of 52msw. Though known as the Pioneer, its misnamed as the Pioneer was a ferry boat that sank a few years back in much deeper (~100msw). The true idenity of the wreck known as the Pioneer still has to be determined, and now that mix is available it should be easier to do so.
The Pioneer turned out to be a very enjoyable dive, the sand is about 52msw and inside its 52msw+ (as I found out). She's not dived much, no one but Terry
pumps mix, she's too deep for hookahs and it wouldn't be a lot of fun on air, so still quite a virgin wreck as far as known origins (Terry believes she is a Japanese war wreck) and artifacts are concerned.
Sunday dawned as beautiful as Saturday and after another breakfast of tocino it was time to analyze and load up. Our plan was 20 minutes to 50msw on 21/35, we were a little late getting to the dive site and current had picked up. Richard, as Terry pointed out later, was thinking about the dive and was quite for the first
time all weekend (you would have to know Richard to understand).
The Exotic dive boat is typical of large Visayan dive boats with low gunwhales and gangways along the bow. We geared up, were helped onto the gangway by the crew and then giant strided in. Due to current a line had been tossed out and after grabbing it we were pulled by the boatmean to the anchor line off the bow.
We decended down the line, hand over hand, in a fairly stiff current until about 35msw were the current almost completely stopped. We then drifted off the
line and onto the wreck, which was swathed in bait fish.
The plan had been to tour the deck and then drop over the stern to the props, then come back up to the holds (in hindsight I hadn't listened very well). When we
hit the wreck it seemed like we were just sort of farting around, not really going in any one direction and we were in an area that had obviously suffered catastrophic damage. In the midst of this jagged steel I saw a hole and decided it looked interesting.
I dropped down inside the hole (Richard stayed outside looking in) and it turned out to be the engine room. I wasn't there but a minute or two when I spotted something behind a large round cylindrical object (boiler, compressor, ?) that looked like a white corrugated hose. It stood out because everything else was rusty or brown...it also looked amazing like one of the hoses from a gas mask in Truk-which I saw when Richard and I were there 6 weeks ago.
I swam over to the object and damn, it was a gas mask, just like the ones in Truk...just lying there uncovered for me to find, it was weird. It excited me
so I forgot to look around the rest of the room, I picked it up and headed out to show the others. Half way out I started feeling guilty about picking it up
but decided to give it to Terry. He was thrilled, as you can imagine, and plans to display it.
On the way out I also checked by depth gauge and realized I had gone to 52msw, not a tragedy, but still not smart to only recognize after the fact-learned a
lesson about getting caught up in the moment and not thinking.
Talking with Terry later, I was only the second person he knows to ever go in the engine room (Terry has never been as he is always shepherding divers and
can't go around poking into dark holes). He was suprised I got into it with my stage still attached (I'm a rather large diver) as the other person apparently had to taken his off (it probably would have been smarter on my part even though I didn't have a problem, but I guess I'll learn that in Subic later this month when I do the wreck course). I found it no problem to get in and move around inside without silting it up...bring on Subic!
After the engine room, Richard and I went in another hold and Richard showed very good form for a newbie (the boy has come a long way). The hold contained what I think were building materials of some sort, not war munitions...seemed to be pipes about 8in dia that would crumble in your hands and also pieces of what could have been some type of wall materials, flat sheets that also crumbled in hand. We called the dive after that hold and started the ascent.
Terry preferred for us to ascend the anchor line instead of a drifting decompression, I think he was uncomfortable with us doing a drift as he was unsure of our skills and didn't want us to get split up (which I can understand). Before the dive I didn't have an opinion about decoing on the line, now I do...I don't like it-its diffcult to maintain team contact when everyone stacked up on a line, facing down, lying horizonal in current.
We had to do our 21msw gas switch hanging on the line, this was Richard's first gas switch since the course and we were hanging on the line in current with one
hand occupied...I was a little concerned how it would go so I made sure to be ready for an OOG if necessary...Richard did us all proud and had no issues making
the switch one handed.
Our second dive was 40m on Monad Shoal where they see threshers in the morning and occasinally mantas in the afternoon. Our dive was uneventful as in we didn't see signs of any mantas. If there's no threshers nor mantas there's pretty much nothing to see at Monad besides rubble. Since what I enjoy most about diving is floating in the water, then a dive like this is fine with me, especially since Richard and I both need dives under our belt to move on to Normoxic.
We did a drifting deco this time with no drama. Well almost none, at the 6m stop the boat snagged Terry's SMB and dragged him over Richard banging tanks and throwing Richard for a somersault. Richard bounced up to 4m and then came back down-but no drama, just some giggles.
We then loaded up and headed back for happy hour and several mango daiquiris. The whole gang (Richard and fam, me, Cristina & sister plus Terry and wife Tracy (PADI CD)) went off to Isla Bonita for several bottles of wine and a fine meal.
The next day, after two beautiful days of diving with calm seas it was time to load out at 7:00am to head back for Cebu (Richard had to be back in the office Monday). We were awakened by rain which only got stronger as we approached Maya and by the time we were all in the Expedition (which made it through the weekend without a scratch) we looked like drowned rats.
The drive back proved uneventful and it was back to China for me with memories of the "Pioneer" and dreams of Subic later this month.
Cheers,
Drew
almtree: to dive in the Philippines (some with fresh water showers), you should get around more. If you want to dive the Pioneer I'm sure if you talked with Terry at Exotic he would set you up with a trimix course that will get you there.
