joemcd
Registered
A few months ago I started a thread about wanting to do a CCR skills brush-up in the Philippines. Matt from Evolution diving suggested I join them and even see some sharks.Fast forward a few months and I actually did.
Luggage Drama
Things didn't start off well as part of my dive gear got stuck in Manila due to a power outage at the airport. What worked out very well is that the staff at Evolution got involved and liaised with the airline on my behalf to get the bag delivered to the island. That really simplified things for me even though I lost a day of diving.
Set-up
I got my XCCR set-up on a very spacious dive counter. The great thing with the cylinder rental is that they had the same type of values that I use with my XCCR. One annoying thing we realised though was that my adapter for the EU Oxygen regulator didn't go deep enough into the valve on their cylinder. We ended up doing a quick replace of the insert and all was good.
Dive 1
It had been a year since my last dive so I knew this was not going to be fun. Due to changes from Steel to Aluminium cylinders I needed some extra weights. We spent the dive playing around with the weights to a max depth of 10m. We practised O2 and Dil flushes. Overall, I felt uncomfortable with the new weighting and was probably a bit 'flustered'. We decided not to do a bailout and instead got back on the boat after 45 mins. It was definitely a low point in my diving but Matt was very patient and helpful throughout it all.
Dive 2
Over lunch we tinkered around with the weighting to make it better. This next dive went far better. I felt a lot more comfortable and relaxed. We swam around hitting around 14m. There were a few comical moments such as when Matt wrote something to the effect of 'what happens if you stopped finning'. I did laugh quite hard at that and we spent some time on buoyancy control. I was feeling a lot more confident with the new weighting. We did a bailout drill and surfaced after 63 mins. My confidence was back.
Dive 3
The next day we decided to do a long dive with the sharks. It was lovely waking up to be ready to get on the boat for 4:30am. We got to the site, let the other divers jump in and then we got in. After a bubble check we made our way to 40m . Soon after we saw a Thresher shark approach. He came past us a few times and we reversed course and went along the wall for a bit before going up to around 20m. After that we had quite a few sightings of the sharks. What stunning creatures and they approached quite close, one even went almost over my head and I didn't notice until just afterwards. We avoided the other divers and made our way to the top of the pinnacle which was around 12m to burn off any remaining deco. An eel and I had a staring competition for around 2 mins before it swam away (and I was quite chuffed at how I managed to just float in front of him with some minor back finning). What a great dive.
Summary
Unfortunately, after that my plan for more skill dives ended as I got a cold and quite blocked-up sinuses. I had a great time on the Island and I'd love to go back. Matt was superb as both a guide as well as someone to point out areas of development. What a shame I didn't get to stay longer. There'll always be next time....
Luggage Drama
Things didn't start off well as part of my dive gear got stuck in Manila due to a power outage at the airport. What worked out very well is that the staff at Evolution got involved and liaised with the airline on my behalf to get the bag delivered to the island. That really simplified things for me even though I lost a day of diving.
Set-up
I got my XCCR set-up on a very spacious dive counter. The great thing with the cylinder rental is that they had the same type of values that I use with my XCCR. One annoying thing we realised though was that my adapter for the EU Oxygen regulator didn't go deep enough into the valve on their cylinder. We ended up doing a quick replace of the insert and all was good.
Dive 1
It had been a year since my last dive so I knew this was not going to be fun. Due to changes from Steel to Aluminium cylinders I needed some extra weights. We spent the dive playing around with the weights to a max depth of 10m. We practised O2 and Dil flushes. Overall, I felt uncomfortable with the new weighting and was probably a bit 'flustered'. We decided not to do a bailout and instead got back on the boat after 45 mins. It was definitely a low point in my diving but Matt was very patient and helpful throughout it all.
Dive 2
Over lunch we tinkered around with the weighting to make it better. This next dive went far better. I felt a lot more comfortable and relaxed. We swam around hitting around 14m. There were a few comical moments such as when Matt wrote something to the effect of 'what happens if you stopped finning'. I did laugh quite hard at that and we spent some time on buoyancy control. I was feeling a lot more confident with the new weighting. We did a bailout drill and surfaced after 63 mins. My confidence was back.
Dive 3
The next day we decided to do a long dive with the sharks. It was lovely waking up to be ready to get on the boat for 4:30am. We got to the site, let the other divers jump in and then we got in. After a bubble check we made our way to 40m . Soon after we saw a Thresher shark approach. He came past us a few times and we reversed course and went along the wall for a bit before going up to around 20m. After that we had quite a few sightings of the sharks. What stunning creatures and they approached quite close, one even went almost over my head and I didn't notice until just afterwards. We avoided the other divers and made our way to the top of the pinnacle which was around 12m to burn off any remaining deco. An eel and I had a staring competition for around 2 mins before it swam away (and I was quite chuffed at how I managed to just float in front of him with some minor back finning). What a great dive.
Summary
Unfortunately, after that my plan for more skill dives ended as I got a cold and quite blocked-up sinuses. I had a great time on the Island and I'd love to go back. Matt was superb as both a guide as well as someone to point out areas of development. What a shame I didn't get to stay longer. There'll always be next time....
