Best Marine Life Books?

[Spoon]

watch Spirited Away. It makes the critics of anime appreciate it somewhat. You and mons should rent it.

will do, im not really a big fan of anime but will do in the near future.

 

[Ishie]

Thanks all! You guys are really nice.

As far as I know, we have two or three day trips planned from Dumaguete. One is to Apo Island, and I'm pretty sure one is to Balicasag, both of which I'm really excited about. The resort (Atlantis) offers two more day trips, but I'm not sure which, if either, are planned. I'm also looking forward to hanging off the house reef hunting down mandarin gobies.

I got my macro and wide angle lenses, great recs on id books, so I think I'm getting close to good to go... now if I can only somehow angle my photo gear around that 15 lb carry on limit...

 

[clgsamson]

Thanks all! You guys are really nice.

As far as I know, we have two or three day trips planned from Dumaguete. One is to Apo Island, and I'm pretty sure one is to Balicasag, both of which I'm really excited about. The resort (Atlantis) offers two more day trips, but I'm not sure which, if either, are planned. I'm also looking forward to hanging off the house reef hunting down mandarin gobies.

I got my macro and wide angle lenses, great recs on id books, so I think I'm getting close to good to go... now if I can only somehow angle my photo gear around that 15 lb carry on limit...

if you're flying Philippine Airlines to Dumaguete you can avail of its "sportsplus" benefit (P1,600 or $30). That's an additional 20 kilos free.

 

[Ishie]

if you're flying Philippine Airlines to Dumaguete you can avail of its "sportsplus" benefit (P1,600 or $30). That's an additional 20 kilos free.

Ooh!

I am flying Philippine airlines, through Manila and onto Dumaguete. For 30$, they'll let you have 20 kilos in addition to the 15 lbs? The checked luggage is no biggie since I'm leaving tanks and weights behind, so it'll be a heck of a lot lighter than usual, but I was worried about trying to get my entire camera setup and logbook (won't check it) with me under 15#.

 

[greatwolf]

Ooh!

I am flying Philippine airlines, through Manila and onto Dumaguete. For 30$, they'll let you have 20 kilos in addition to the 15 lbs? The checked luggage is no biggie since I'm leaving tanks and weights behind, so it'll be a heck of a lot lighter than usual, but I was worried about trying to get my entire camera setup and logbook (won't check it) with me under 15#.

Wow, you travel real light. I weighted my gear last night, no weights and cylinders, and I'm on 15 kilos already. That doesn't include any dry clothes, that's just dive gear. I'm actually a bit worried about my planned trip to Coron as I've read on a couple of airline's websites that they only allow up to 10Kgs on the plane, and if you're any heavier they'd ask you to purchase another seat. Can someone please confirm that the 10Kgs includes hand-carried luggage? Hence the reason I'm flying with PAL (Pilipino-Always-Late..hehehe) to get to Bohol.

 

[shugar]

Wow, you travel real light. I weighted my gear last night, no weights and cylinders, and I'm on 15 kilos already. That doesn't include any dry clothes, that's just dive gear. I'm actually a bit worried about my planned trip to Coron as I've read on a couple of airline's websites that they only allow up to 10Kgs on the plane, and if you're any heavier they'd ask you to purchase another seat. Can someone please confirm that the 10Kgs includes hand-carried luggage? Hence the reason I'm flying with PAL (Pilipino-Always-Late..hehehe) to get to Bohol.

you're right about that... there are only 2 (or 1) air services to busuanga (to coron)... that's sea-air and asian spirit... both are tiny airplanes and they're VERY strict about the 10kg thing... when i had to shoot there (a group of 5) we barely squeezed in (we were lucky it was not a full flight but they were threatening not to accomodate our extra gear (cams, dive gear sans BC/weights/tanks)...

they even positioned us around the plane to balance off weight... it was wierd...

if you're gonna be traveling to coron heavy i would suggest going by boat instead... it's 12 hours travel time if i'm not mistaken and you can skip the 1.5 hour transfer from busuanga airport to coron town... so it's 2.5 hours on limited baggage vs. 12 for virtually unlimited

advantage of boating it though is that you don't have a no-fly time to worry about and might be able to integrate that into your dive sked (as opposed to flying)

transfers from other islands to coron i'm not sure about... from bohol or aklan or cebu...

Jag

 

[greatwolf]

you're right about that... there are only 2 (or 1) air services to busuanga (to coron)... that's sea-air and asian spirit... both are tiny airplanes and they're VERY strict about the 10kg thing... when i had to shoot there (a group of 5) we barely squeezed in (we were lucky it was not a full flight but they were threatening not to accomodate our extra gear (cams, dive gear sans BC/weights/tanks)...

they even positioned us around the plane to balance off weight... it was wierd...

if you're gonna be traveling to coron heavy i would suggest going by boat instead... it's 12 hours travel time if i'm not mistaken and you can skip the 1.5 hour transfer from busuanga airport to coron town... so it's 2.5 hours on limited baggage vs. 12 for virtually unlimited

advantage of boating it though is that you don't have a no-fly time to worry about and might be able to integrate that into your dive sked (as opposed to flying)

transfers from other islands to coron i'm not sure about... from bohol or aklan or cebu...

Jag

Thanks Jag. Just checked SE Air's website, it says 10kgs and they charge P40/Kg for excess. I don't have any problems with that, I'lll try bringing a minimal amount of dry clothing only. With Asian Spirit, you can bring up to 18Kg, but depends on the plane though.

 

[Ishie]

Wow, you travel real light. I weighted my gear last night, no weights and cylinders, and I'm on 15 kilos already. That doesn't include any dry clothes, that's just dive gear. I'm actually a bit worried about my planned trip to Coron as I've read on a couple of airline's websites that they only allow up to 10Kgs on the plane, and if you're any heavier they'd ask you to purchase another seat. Can someone please confirm that the 10Kgs includes hand-carried luggage? Hence the reason I'm flying with PAL (Pilipino-Always-Late..hehehe) to get to Bohol.

Not too bad. The luggage restrictions for checked bags are very lenient (two bags, 70# each, so I can check 140# of luggage), so it's the carry on I'm concerned about. Anything in my checked luggage can be rented, but my camera and my dive log can't be rented and the latter can't be replaced, so I want to carry them on with me. The owner of the dive shop said that the airline is actually strangely strict about weighing the carry-ons, though he also said some last minute juggling (here, hold my wa lens!) usually gets people through.

I've never dived warm water before, but the gear for it is so much lighter than I use for Monterey, so it's actually coming up quite light when you don't include the beast of a camera. My BC is quite light, though I have 4# of trim weights on the belt, slim mask, snorkel, fins, regulator, lights, SO much lighter wetsuit... it will likely take up one of my 70# bags, but since I plan to be in the water almost all the time, I'm going really light on dry clothes and other stuff, plus I want to gift shop for friends, so I'm hoping to leave a lot of room in my second bag. I don't bother with blowdryers, curling irons, and such, just a lot of leave in conditioner, so I'm thinking no worries there.

 

[clgsamson]

Ooh!

I am flying Philippine airlines, through Manila and onto Dumaguete. For 30$, they'll let you have 20 kilos in addition to the 15 lbs? The checked luggage is no biggie since I'm leaving tanks and weights behind, so it'll be a heck of a lot lighter than usual, but I was worried about trying to get my entire camera setup and logbook (won't check it) with me under 15#.

Yup another 20 kilos. In total (Domestic Flight-PAL), the 7 kilos handcarry limit with the first 20 kilos and additional 20 kilos under the sportsplus privilege, that'll be 47 kilos all in all. You can get an International Sportsplus at your end and have it applied in your international and domestic flights too.

 

[greatwolf]

Not too bad. The luggage restrictions for checked bags are very lenient (two bags, 70# each, so I can check 140# of luggage), so it's the carry on I'm concerned about. Anything in my checked luggage can be rented, but my camera and my dive log can't be rented and the latter can't be replaced, so I want to carry them on with me. The owner of the dive shop said that the airline is actually strangely strict about weighing the carry-ons, though he also said some last minute juggling (here, hold my wa lens!) usually gets people through.

I've never dived warm water before, but the gear for it is so much lighter than I use for Monterey, so it's actually coming up quite light when you don't include the beast of a camera. My BC is quite light, though I have 4# of trim weights on the belt, slim mask, snorkel, fins, regulator, lights, SO much lighter wetsuit... it will likely take up one of my 70# bags, but since I plan to be in the water almost all the time, I'm going really light on dry clothes and other stuff, plus I want to gift shop for friends, so I'm hoping to leave a lot of room in my second bag. I don't bother with blowdryers, curling irons, and such, just a lot of leave in conditioner, so I'm thinking no worries there.

Mate, that's one helluva airline that you're flying with if they allow you to fly with 140lbs. I was seriously contemplating on just hiring gear when I get there. At the end of the day, there are 5 of us so I can spread most of my stuff around. I doubt that my kids would be requiring 20Kgs each.

Diving in warm water astounds me, as I've heard that most people on this board use anywhere between 8-15 lbs of weight only. I seriously need to do a weight check when I get there, now that my wetsuit's a bit broken in. Leave in conditioner? For your hair I presume? I keep forgetting to buy some for myself. I've got long hair and it gets uber-dry after a dive....lol. But I suppose that's available in the Philippines.