Tech diving around El Nido and Coron

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GF99/99

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Hi Guys,

New to the board so bare with me. Anyways I am going to the Philippines in April for 3 weeks and will be spending a majority of my time in El Nido and Coron because it looks beautiful. Obviously I will be doing some diving but diving is not my number one priority I love traveling, seeing new cultures, renting scooters and getting lost for the day, etc. But I would like to do some diving and I have heard that are some good wreck dives. I looked online/on the TDI site and it does not look like there is much in the way of tech shops. Does anyone have any recommendations for good reputable tech shops in the Coron and El Nido area? Is tech diving popular in that area/is it worth the effort of lugging 3 regs and a side mount harness there?

Also any recommendations on where the best dive sites are. I am not super into tech diving, but I do have my Extended range cert and don't mind going deep. Kind of goes in waves sometimes all ill do is deco dives then sometime all ill do is just rec dives.

Thanks guys
 
Coron is famous for the WWII wrecks. So tec wreck qualification is probably preferred over ow tec!
Gunther at D Divers(TDI) should be able to take good care of you. The man has been diving in Coron well over 20yrs.
I will be very surprised if there is any proper tec operator in El Nido but I could be wrong.
 
I went through d divers. There was a Great instructor there, but I was really diappointed to find they were not set up for tech diving as suggested. There wasn’t really an option to hire any deco tanks. So I just used different mixes in my tanks tanks to suit the site to be dived. I took my sidemount harness and rigging and they were able to cater to this no probs which was great.

The boats were in terrible condition breaking down, holes in the floor where you gear up and walk around etc. upsides: divestaff there at the time were great, location to the wrecks was awesome. We beat every other boat to the sites so I had every wreck to myself and guide, avoided the masses. Could choose what I wanted to dive etc. overall had a ball.

Al faro across the water was a fanstatic place to stay at though! Could not recommend it more.
 
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Hey guys thanks for the info. Sounds like D Divers is the closest thing. What is the highest % o2 mix they can make? Also do the guides dive double tanks or are you limited to his air time?
 
Gunther is a Inspiration instructor so a simple e-mail should be able to solve all your questions rather than coming here.
 
Never seen a dive guide air's consumption to be the time limiting factor on a dive yet. Especially in Asia, most of these guys have a petite stature and consume nothing.
 
Thank Centrals. I'll shoot them an email.

Freewillow maybe I'm wrong but even if the guide has a ridiculously low SAC rate I find it hard to believe that someone diving with me on a single tank at depth (as in over 30m) will not be limited by air consumption especially following the 2/3 rule. Not to mention I would never choose to dive with someone that is running a single tank on a deco dive. I like knowing that both me and my partner have the redundancy.
 
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Sorry guys one more question, do the dive shop in Coron/El Nido have a couple din tanks. I have had pretty good luck in Asia/Australia and almost always am able to find a couple din tanks with inserts that just need to be taken out, but I have never been to the Philippines
 
I had no issue with din. D divers did not use local guides when I was there. The guy I dived with dived sidemount with me.
 
DIN with "insert" for A-clamp is getting popular but don't count on it. Please enquire with the operator.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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