jonix
Contributor
okay children i have a trip report 
please bear with me as i did this without the benefit of my dive log & comp. this is just the second trip rep i have ever prepared...expect it to be long hehehehe
The much awaited DOR 3 at PG is fast approaching and Carlo, Paolo, Caloy, Chip, Matt, Iris, me and Jag were exchanging emails and chatting on YM for the “gift pack” details and shirt designs...it took about 3 days to finalize the shirt. Having settled with a final shirt design and having production started, me and my wife set off to have stickers and PPD tags produced. Got everything in by the 15th of March. A few weeks earlier Carlo, Chip and Iris mostly did the room hunting part of the trip and thanks to them we all had secured a bunk at PG. Carlo likewise prepped the Tanduay Gold stuff for the guests…and I recall La Flors?
It’s now the 16th of March and having all the dive preparations facilitated by Carlo, Larry, Mike and all of the other guys involved we were now looking forward to the 1st major event of the DOR 3…the meet up at Greenbelt that night. In just a few hours, everyone would be headed for PG!
March 17th:
Woke up 4am and got ready for the 5am meet at Shell C5 with Iris, Ish and Van. By 5:30, we’re having breakfast at McDonald’s SLEX with the Makati Group composed of Carlo, Mons, chip, Zee and Matt. By 8am we were at Lea Beach for the transfer to PG.
1st up was Tamaraw falls with the young ones…chip, iris, zee and ish. 1130am we were riding bikes headed toward Tamaraw falls with Christian (our guide). Scenery was fantastic! We had to stop several times for photo ops along the way to the falls. The bike trip was well worth it. After around 30 minutes we were at Tamaraw falls and started taking pictures…that’s when the group decided to take a dip! Sheesh! I didn’t have any extra clothes to change with heheheheheh. But what the heck! We were there so might as well go for it! We had to scale a couple of rock formations to reach the base of the falls…to tell you the truth this was the most extreme thing I had my wife to do and it’s a good thing she enjoyed it. All the time I was asking her if she’s good with the idea. Zee didn’t bathe there as he didn’t have any extra clothes either. Spending almost an hour there we headed back to Sabang. The guys were still gonna head up to Ponderosa so me and dea to the road back to Sabang as I had to prep my gear for the night dive...that was around 4pm.
Meet up at Asia Divers for the briefing was 630pm for our group composed of matthew, ish, chip, van and zee. I forgot the name of our guide but he was the tall Danish dude in the Waterproof wetsuit. In a few minutes we headed off to Sabang Wreck. For some of this was their first night dive out of AOW so I assumed there was some anxiety on their part. Buddy teams are as follows: Chip + Van, Ish + Zee, me and Matt…just before we descended Van had slight difficulty finding her inflator hose, matt helped him out with that. A few minutes into the dive we got to the wreck, current was nil and I had the opportunity to practice buoyancy skills while watching the younglings explore the wreck. The DM pointed out a crab on the sandy part and I took the opportunity to take pics of it. Unfortunately I couldn’t determine which was the front and back of the thing and it was so camera shy…it was running around the sand making fun of this masked intruder with a camera hehehehe. Had a good laugh as I couldn’t catch up with the thing. I proceeded to explore the wreck myself and got to shoot a pic of a weird looking fishy chip pointed out to. Checking on the group while I was above the wreck I notice to my right that zee was finning fast headed toward ish…geez! Ish’s tank slipped from the cambands! Ish probably didn’t notice it and was still exploring the wreck. Zee, Matt and I had Ish descending to the sandy part to resolve the tank thing. Headed to the shallows, after the tank incident, as per the dive plan where the dm excitedly pointed to an octopus! 1st time I’ve seen one on a night dive! It wasn’t shy either! Dm and matt played with it and I guess the poor thing enjoyed herself too. I tried to take photos of it but probably the sheer thrill of seeing one live and “performing” during a night dive caused all lights to be on it. Got several burned pics to show off though heheheh. Anyways, since I don’t know how to signal “get your lights off the octo” I decided to switch the cam to video mode and maximize the lighting provided by the guys hehehehe. So now I have a cool 2 minute video of the octopus.
A few minutes after that Ish’s tank slipped again and Zee, Matt and I were guiding her to the sand again where the dm tightened the cambands. Ended the dive after 55 minutes I think (I don’t have my log and dive comp while I’m writing this). I now had a cool amateur video of an octopus making “landi” at night hehehehe.
Night at the point:
We finally get to meet the whole group, including Dennis, David, Jim and Cheryl. We had a couple of beers and exchanged stories. But the real drinking and fun part was for the next night so by 11pm it was time to pack up for much needed rest.
March 18 Morning Dive:
Dive time was set at 9am, I was diving with Will, Matt and our AD dm was Buzz. Dive site was Monkey Wreck. Relaxed dive, vizz was about 40-50 feet…I went on practicing hovering skills and enjoying the reef. Nothing much on this site and I didn’t bring my camera either. Saw a couple of huge triggers crisscrossing the reef several feet from us and they were quite big as if they were on guard duty. 55 minutes into the dive Buzz signaled Matt that they and Will will be surfacing, that left me and Matt exploring the reef. I explored this coral head and used up my time grinning on the cute little fishes playing around that coral….nothing out of the ordinary actually. At 60 minutes me and Matt decided to surface and Matt set off to prepare his SMB…I gave him room to do it. I thought of sending mine off too but the thought of repacking everything again stopped me from doing so hehehehe. So Matt deploys his balloon and I’m always amazed on how that thing goes up so fast….but wait! The spool! I saw the spool rising with the sausage! Bwahahahahaha! I started laughing while going after the spool as matt did. Man that was funny hehehehehe (sorry matt, trip rep won’t be complete without this small detail). Ended the dive at 66 minutes on an AL80, my longest one to date.
While waiting for the afternoon dive Matt, Will and I were bummng out at El Galleon when we spotted Larry donning the Pink stuff! OMG! “Is that larry?!” I blurted out. Just next to our table was Ali of AD and she asked “I that Larry your friend?” In usinson I, Will and matt responded “WE DON’T KNOW THE GUY!” Bwahahahahaha! You guys should’ve seen the faces and open mouths there at El Galleon. It was just so hilarious! We could see Larry from a mile away! I recall seeing Mike on the pier nodding sideways in seeming disbelief.
March 19 Afternoon Dive:
Just after having lunch with the group at El Galleon We all headed up to Atlantis for the dive with David. We did West Escarcero and the viz was not that good…probably around 15-25 feet max. Still this was one of the rare opportunities to dive with Dennis, Jag, Chip and the other local PPDs and I was set to do a lot of photos to document the dive. We had the banner in tow so it was quite obvious that we’ll be showing it off underwater. What’s funny is that Jag and Chip decided to go diving in just boardshorts! While descending I saw Jag on top of me and I went “Good Lord! I have to get out of Jag’s way” hahahahahahaha!
We did the usual unfurling of the DOR banner with jag and chip on the opposite ends and took photos of them. It was my and Matt’s turn for the banner and handed off the cam to Chip. This time the whole group were around the banner with MOF David just below me. Got to get off one decent nudi pic though. Spent the remainder of the dive watching David do his stuff with his cam and watching Chip and Iris playing with each other’s gear...so sweeet! Ended the dive at around 55minutes I think.
Pont bar March 18:
Crazy night, I had so much fun that night and alcohol was all over…I guess for this part of the trip words wouldn’t do justice to what transpired that night. Let the pics tell the story of that night at the point. It was one hell of night! It was the perfect culmination to the 1st truly international Dive O Rama. Dea whispered to me that night at the point… “This is a truly international gathering…Filipinos, Americans, British, a Korean, a canuck, an Australian…your guys are unbelievable.” True true…this is a rare gathering one that I will forever hope to beat! As Jag mentioned days earlier “It doesn’t matter if I don’t dive…I just have to be there”…I agree fully! eyebrow
please bear with me as i did this without the benefit of my dive log & comp. this is just the second trip rep i have ever prepared...expect it to be long heheheheThe much awaited DOR 3 at PG is fast approaching and Carlo, Paolo, Caloy, Chip, Matt, Iris, me and Jag were exchanging emails and chatting on YM for the “gift pack” details and shirt designs...it took about 3 days to finalize the shirt. Having settled with a final shirt design and having production started, me and my wife set off to have stickers and PPD tags produced. Got everything in by the 15th of March. A few weeks earlier Carlo, Chip and Iris mostly did the room hunting part of the trip and thanks to them we all had secured a bunk at PG. Carlo likewise prepped the Tanduay Gold stuff for the guests…and I recall La Flors?
It’s now the 16th of March and having all the dive preparations facilitated by Carlo, Larry, Mike and all of the other guys involved we were now looking forward to the 1st major event of the DOR 3…the meet up at Greenbelt that night. In just a few hours, everyone would be headed for PG!
March 17th:
Woke up 4am and got ready for the 5am meet at Shell C5 with Iris, Ish and Van. By 5:30, we’re having breakfast at McDonald’s SLEX with the Makati Group composed of Carlo, Mons, chip, Zee and Matt. By 8am we were at Lea Beach for the transfer to PG.
1st up was Tamaraw falls with the young ones…chip, iris, zee and ish. 1130am we were riding bikes headed toward Tamaraw falls with Christian (our guide). Scenery was fantastic! We had to stop several times for photo ops along the way to the falls. The bike trip was well worth it. After around 30 minutes we were at Tamaraw falls and started taking pictures…that’s when the group decided to take a dip! Sheesh! I didn’t have any extra clothes to change with heheheheheh. But what the heck! We were there so might as well go for it! We had to scale a couple of rock formations to reach the base of the falls…to tell you the truth this was the most extreme thing I had my wife to do and it’s a good thing she enjoyed it. All the time I was asking her if she’s good with the idea. Zee didn’t bathe there as he didn’t have any extra clothes either. Spending almost an hour there we headed back to Sabang. The guys were still gonna head up to Ponderosa so me and dea to the road back to Sabang as I had to prep my gear for the night dive...that was around 4pm.
Meet up at Asia Divers for the briefing was 630pm for our group composed of matthew, ish, chip, van and zee. I forgot the name of our guide but he was the tall Danish dude in the Waterproof wetsuit. In a few minutes we headed off to Sabang Wreck. For some of this was their first night dive out of AOW so I assumed there was some anxiety on their part. Buddy teams are as follows: Chip + Van, Ish + Zee, me and Matt…just before we descended Van had slight difficulty finding her inflator hose, matt helped him out with that. A few minutes into the dive we got to the wreck, current was nil and I had the opportunity to practice buoyancy skills while watching the younglings explore the wreck. The DM pointed out a crab on the sandy part and I took the opportunity to take pics of it. Unfortunately I couldn’t determine which was the front and back of the thing and it was so camera shy…it was running around the sand making fun of this masked intruder with a camera hehehehe. Had a good laugh as I couldn’t catch up with the thing. I proceeded to explore the wreck myself and got to shoot a pic of a weird looking fishy chip pointed out to. Checking on the group while I was above the wreck I notice to my right that zee was finning fast headed toward ish…geez! Ish’s tank slipped from the cambands! Ish probably didn’t notice it and was still exploring the wreck. Zee, Matt and I had Ish descending to the sandy part to resolve the tank thing. Headed to the shallows, after the tank incident, as per the dive plan where the dm excitedly pointed to an octopus! 1st time I’ve seen one on a night dive! It wasn’t shy either! Dm and matt played with it and I guess the poor thing enjoyed herself too. I tried to take photos of it but probably the sheer thrill of seeing one live and “performing” during a night dive caused all lights to be on it. Got several burned pics to show off though heheheh. Anyways, since I don’t know how to signal “get your lights off the octo” I decided to switch the cam to video mode and maximize the lighting provided by the guys hehehehe. So now I have a cool 2 minute video of the octopus.
A few minutes after that Ish’s tank slipped again and Zee, Matt and I were guiding her to the sand again where the dm tightened the cambands. Ended the dive after 55 minutes I think (I don’t have my log and dive comp while I’m writing this). I now had a cool amateur video of an octopus making “landi” at night hehehehe.
Night at the point:
We finally get to meet the whole group, including Dennis, David, Jim and Cheryl. We had a couple of beers and exchanged stories. But the real drinking and fun part was for the next night so by 11pm it was time to pack up for much needed rest.
March 18 Morning Dive:
Dive time was set at 9am, I was diving with Will, Matt and our AD dm was Buzz. Dive site was Monkey Wreck. Relaxed dive, vizz was about 40-50 feet…I went on practicing hovering skills and enjoying the reef. Nothing much on this site and I didn’t bring my camera either. Saw a couple of huge triggers crisscrossing the reef several feet from us and they were quite big as if they were on guard duty. 55 minutes into the dive Buzz signaled Matt that they and Will will be surfacing, that left me and Matt exploring the reef. I explored this coral head and used up my time grinning on the cute little fishes playing around that coral….nothing out of the ordinary actually. At 60 minutes me and Matt decided to surface and Matt set off to prepare his SMB…I gave him room to do it. I thought of sending mine off too but the thought of repacking everything again stopped me from doing so hehehehe. So Matt deploys his balloon and I’m always amazed on how that thing goes up so fast….but wait! The spool! I saw the spool rising with the sausage! Bwahahahahaha! I started laughing while going after the spool as matt did. Man that was funny hehehehehe (sorry matt, trip rep won’t be complete without this small detail). Ended the dive at 66 minutes on an AL80, my longest one to date.
While waiting for the afternoon dive Matt, Will and I were bummng out at El Galleon when we spotted Larry donning the Pink stuff! OMG! “Is that larry?!” I blurted out. Just next to our table was Ali of AD and she asked “I that Larry your friend?” In usinson I, Will and matt responded “WE DON’T KNOW THE GUY!” Bwahahahahaha! You guys should’ve seen the faces and open mouths there at El Galleon. It was just so hilarious! We could see Larry from a mile away! I recall seeing Mike on the pier nodding sideways in seeming disbelief.
March 19 Afternoon Dive:
Just after having lunch with the group at El Galleon We all headed up to Atlantis for the dive with David. We did West Escarcero and the viz was not that good…probably around 15-25 feet max. Still this was one of the rare opportunities to dive with Dennis, Jag, Chip and the other local PPDs and I was set to do a lot of photos to document the dive. We had the banner in tow so it was quite obvious that we’ll be showing it off underwater. What’s funny is that Jag and Chip decided to go diving in just boardshorts! While descending I saw Jag on top of me and I went “Good Lord! I have to get out of Jag’s way” hahahahahahaha!
We did the usual unfurling of the DOR banner with jag and chip on the opposite ends and took photos of them. It was my and Matt’s turn for the banner and handed off the cam to Chip. This time the whole group were around the banner with MOF David just below me. Got to get off one decent nudi pic though. Spent the remainder of the dive watching David do his stuff with his cam and watching Chip and Iris playing with each other’s gear...so sweeet! Ended the dive at around 55minutes I think.
Pont bar March 18:
Crazy night, I had so much fun that night and alcohol was all over…I guess for this part of the trip words wouldn’t do justice to what transpired that night. Let the pics tell the story of that night at the point. It was one hell of night! It was the perfect culmination to the 1st truly international Dive O Rama. Dea whispered to me that night at the point… “This is a truly international gathering…Filipinos, Americans, British, a Korean, a canuck, an Australian…your guys are unbelievable.” True true…this is a rare gathering one that I will forever hope to beat! As Jag mentioned days earlier “It doesn’t matter if I don’t dive…I just have to be there”…I agree fully! eyebrow
