Moalboal, The Philippines - Day One

[Marriard]

you mean to tel me anilao has better macro life? ive been doing 99% of my diving here and honestly its getting old for me.

How much time are you spending up at Basura? That is some of the world's best muck diving. The other site is to do the shore dive in front of Planet Dive. I can spend all day and night there.

Night dives at both sites rock - esepcially at Basura. If you havent seen the Wunderpus' and the Reptile Snake Eels at Basura then you have some new critters to hunt there. They are NOT easy to find - especially the Wunderpus.

M

 

[Spoon]

How much time are you spending up at Basura? That is some of the world's best muck diving. The other site is to do the shore dive in front of Planet Dive. I can spend all day and night there.

Night dives at both sites rock - esepcially at Basura. If you havent seen the Wunderpus' and the Reptile Snake Eels at Basura then you have some new critters to hunt there. They are NOT easy to find - especially the Wunderpus.

M

you mean bahura? anyway i have been diving in anilao ever since i took up the sport months ago, its getting old but now i have a new hobby, underwater Photography. ive decided to slow my pace and have noticed a whole new spectrum of lie resting at the bottom. this is the reason i bought my camera in the ist place seeing photos from you guys, and at my back yard i notice that in bahura/basura the currents are to strong and i dont have ample time to set up my camera.

my fav site for taking photos is by sombrero island, tons of macro life here! will be here over the weekend to take nudis, hope the twin froggies are stilll perched at the rock i last saw them at.

the site right in front of planet dive is called twin rocks, nice place but i have one bad experience their dealing with a crazy surge

 

[Marriard]

you mean bahura? anyway i have been diving in anilao ever since i took up the sport months ago, its getting old but now i have a new hobby, underwater Photography. ive decided to slow my pace and have noticed a whole new spectrum of lie resting at the bottom. this is the reason i bought my camera in the ist place seeing photos from you guys, and at my back yard i notice that in bahura/basura the currents are to strong and i dont have ample time to set up my camera.

No I do not mean Bahura (which is over on Maricaban Island).

Basura is a shore dive up the coast quite some distance. A lot of shops wont go there because it is quite a distance and it is not a reef and most divers wont be interested (i.e. why dive in muck, dark sand, algae patches, rock fields, etc when there is a blue water and reefs) - for people interested in the little stuff and macro photographers it is totally awesome. It is really a special request site. We always take a lot of tanks and do at least an afternoon and night dive there.

I just went over to the Panet Dive site and they don't even list it on their dive site map at http://www.planetdive.net/divesites.htm . It is further north than Hole in the Wall and Ligpo on their map.

Oh man I just realised, they probably have NEVER taken you there because you didn't know it existed and you need to request it. You are missing the best macro site in the whole area. Here is a Reptilian Snake Eel and a Moonface Euselenops (one of the weirder nudibranchs in the world) from last March there

M

 

[Spoon]

No I do not mean Bahura (which is over on Maricaban Island).

Basura is a shore dive up the coast quite some distance. A lot of shops wont go there because it is quite a distance and it is not a reef and most divers wont be interested (i.e. why dive in muck, dark sand, algae patches, rock fields, etc when there is a blue water and reefs) - for people interested in the little stuff and macro photographers it is totally awesome. It is really a special request site. We always take a lot of tanks and do at least an afternoon and night dive there.

I just went over to the Panet Dive site and they don't even list it on their dive site map at http://www.planetdive.net/divesites.htm . It is further north than Hole in the Wall and Ligpo on their map.

Oh man I just realised, they probably have NEVER taken you there because you didn't know it existed and you need to request it. You are missing the best macro site in the whole area. Here is a Reptilian Snake Eel and a Moonface Euselenops (one of the weirder nudibranchs in the world) from last March there

M

i have heard of basura and you are correct it is not listed in many of the dive resorts, i never wanted to go there but i can request it. will request it this sunday if possible. i would like to go there, would be nice to dive a site not on the beaten path.

 

[jbb]

What kind of camera set-up do you have? Very nice shots. Do you have to do much retouching on the computer for these? I go diving frequently on Malapascua Island and really enjoy the diving near the Vasayan's.

thanks.

Jason

 

[Marriard]

i have heard of basura and you are correct it is not listed in many of the dive resorts, i never wanted to go there but i can request it. will request it this sunday if possible. i would like to go there, would be nice to dive a site not on the beaten path.

Cool - lucky you - wish I was diving there this weekend Next month....

Anyway, Basura - you don't need to go very deep and you should spend most of the dive between 3 and 20m. You do not need to go over the ledge to see what you need to see. Even in waist deep water there is plenty of stuff to see including cloud morays and those snake eels. Lots of seahorses as well around. Mimic Octopus and Flamboyant Cuttlefish are around as well. I think the average dive we do there is about 75-80 minutes and a lot of it is very shallow. Best time is later afternoon because you will want to do a night dive and the dive shop will not want to make two trips to the site in a day because it is a long way.

Jbb - The original photos in this thread are taken with a Nikon D2X in a Subal Housing with dual Inon 220 strobes. This is a new set up this year. The other pics (the Snake Eel and Moonface) were with my older set up which was a Fuji S2Pro in a Aquatica housing.

I only shoot RAW so there are RAW conversations, resize, some sharpening and little else.

M

 

[Spoon]

Cool - lucky you - wish I was diving there this weekend Next month....

Anyway, Basura - you don't need to go very deep and you should spend most of the dive between 3 and 20m. You do not need to go over the ledge to see what you need to see. Even in waist deep water there is plenty of stuff to see including cloud morays and those snake eels. Lots of seahorses as well around. Mimic Octopus and Flamboyant Cuttlefish are around as well. I think the average dive we do there is about 75-80 minutes and a lot of it is very shallow. Best time is later afternoon because you will want to do a night dive and the dive shop will not want to make two trips to the site in a day because it is a long way.


M

will check it out. is it a good site to bring none photographers to? il be with a group and il be taking UW shots, they might get bored in the site while i fire away? anyway just got into this uw photography and i cant get enough of it. thank god anilao is in my backyard and easily accessed every week.

youl be here next month? maybe you can give me a crash course in uw photography hehe

 

[Marriard]

will check it out. is it a good site to bring none photographers to? il be with a group and il be taking UW shots, they might get bored in the site while i fire away? anyway just got into this uw photography and i cant get enough of it. thank god anilao is in my backyard and easily accessed every week.

youl be here next month? maybe you can give me a crash course in uw photography hehe

Not good for non-photographers if they do not like critter hunting. If they love unusual critters and finding unique stuff and seeing things they haven't seen before then a very nice place. If they like blue water, big stuff, etc, then no. It is one of the other reasons (apart from distance) that not a lot of dive shops go there.

I'll let you know when I am in the area I am thinking of visiting my friends at Planet Dive again, but I'm open to somewhere new if you dive with someone else there.

M

 

[Spoon]

Not good for non-photographers if they do not like critter hunting. If they love unusual critters and finding unique stuff and seeing things they haven't seen before then a very nice place. If they like blue water, big stuff, etc, then no. It is one of the other reasons (apart from distance) that not a lot of dive shops go there.

I'll let you know when I am in the area I am thinking of visiting my friends at Planet Dive again, but I'm open to somewhere new if you dive with someone else there.

M

thats good, the people i dive with just purchaed uw cameras like me and we have been critter hunting these last couple of dives. ive never been to planet dive, i usually dive at aquaventure bec of their top notch service, good facilities and relative distance from the more popular dive sites.

 

[justleesa]

Wow, Great stuff here!!!