jonix
Contributor
Dive 1 Mansud Wall to Angel Cove
Max Depth: 26.5m
Dive Time: 71 minutes
Water temp: 28C
Viz: 15-20m
Dive Op: Carabao Divers
9am I was picked up by bing and 3 other local divers doc fred, ito (a japanese naval officer) and eric to dive talicud island. Talicud island is about 25 minutes by bangka from Pearl Farm Beach Resort in Samal Island and about 1 hr from davao city's sta ana wharf.
We hit mansud wall, good coral and life here overall very similar to anilao albeit with big patches of sandy areas. along the wall we saw a school of yellow colored sardine-like fishes moving fast followed by a small school of trevally...the reef was busy. those transparent shrimp were suddenly everywhere. banging my tank to attract doc fred proved futile...found out he was shooting shrimp of his own hehehe.
there were lots of the usual reef fishes, clownfish etc. but for this dive i chose to ignore them. enjoying the dive and marine life primarily was my intention. to shoot or not was secondary. but soon enough found myself doing a 7 minute penalty because of those shrimps.
it was a long and good dive as far as i was concerned. we had lunch on the boat and had fun exchanging stories of ....dive shop owners in pg. but that's another story.
Dive 2 Coral Garden
Max Depth: 25.6m
Dive Time: 75 mins
Water temp: 28C
Viz: 15-20m
Dive Op: Carabao Divers
eric and ito was sitting this one out. so i went with doc fred, bing & the two dms. this was as easy a dive as it can get. it's basically a slope which is relatively shallow with no current. searching for critters was fairly easy (bing was bent on a resident mantis shrimp but we didn't find it ...maybe it had a date somewhere else). we zigzagged the 4km reef shooting nudis, shrimps, scorpion fishes, noticed some bigger fishes as well. parrots, a few which looked like tuna, trumpetfishes can be seen beside the usual reef fishes.
another long and interesting dive. by this time i basically have an idea of diving southern luzon, visayas and mindanao. while the marinelife is basically similar what's funny about davao was the lack of current and waves for that matter. it was like diving in a swimming pool. given the chance to dive davao again i'd definitely do it with carabao divers cool group/op. they pretty much let you do what you want definitely the pasaway way. davao has many dive sites to offer. the area just behind malipano island for instance is said to have pygmy seahorses, blue ringed octopus, and a host of other critters specially at night. if you're in davao and want to dive, do so. there are things to see.
btw, the group pic...
in wetsuit from from left to right...doc fred, me, bing and papa ito. eric was somewhere at the rear of the bangka prepping his stuff.
Max Depth: 26.5m
Dive Time: 71 minutes
Water temp: 28C
Viz: 15-20m
Dive Op: Carabao Divers
9am I was picked up by bing and 3 other local divers doc fred, ito (a japanese naval officer) and eric to dive talicud island. Talicud island is about 25 minutes by bangka from Pearl Farm Beach Resort in Samal Island and about 1 hr from davao city's sta ana wharf.
We hit mansud wall, good coral and life here overall very similar to anilao albeit with big patches of sandy areas. along the wall we saw a school of yellow colored sardine-like fishes moving fast followed by a small school of trevally...the reef was busy. those transparent shrimp were suddenly everywhere. banging my tank to attract doc fred proved futile...found out he was shooting shrimp of his own hehehe.
there were lots of the usual reef fishes, clownfish etc. but for this dive i chose to ignore them. enjoying the dive and marine life primarily was my intention. to shoot or not was secondary. but soon enough found myself doing a 7 minute penalty because of those shrimps.
it was a long and good dive as far as i was concerned. we had lunch on the boat and had fun exchanging stories of ....dive shop owners in pg. but that's another story.
Dive 2 Coral Garden
Max Depth: 25.6m
Dive Time: 75 mins
Water temp: 28C
Viz: 15-20m
Dive Op: Carabao Divers
eric and ito was sitting this one out. so i went with doc fred, bing & the two dms. this was as easy a dive as it can get. it's basically a slope which is relatively shallow with no current. searching for critters was fairly easy (bing was bent on a resident mantis shrimp but we didn't find it ...maybe it had a date somewhere else). we zigzagged the 4km reef shooting nudis, shrimps, scorpion fishes, noticed some bigger fishes as well. parrots, a few which looked like tuna, trumpetfishes can be seen beside the usual reef fishes.
another long and interesting dive. by this time i basically have an idea of diving southern luzon, visayas and mindanao. while the marinelife is basically similar what's funny about davao was the lack of current and waves for that matter. it was like diving in a swimming pool. given the chance to dive davao again i'd definitely do it with carabao divers cool group/op. they pretty much let you do what you want definitely the pasaway way. davao has many dive sites to offer. the area just behind malipano island for instance is said to have pygmy seahorses, blue ringed octopus, and a host of other critters specially at night. if you're in davao and want to dive, do so. there are things to see.
btw, the group pic...
in wetsuit from from left to right...doc fred, me, bing and papa ito. eric was somewhere at the rear of the bangka prepping his stuff.
