Thoughts for first-time visitor to the Philippines?

[wmperry]

I will be in Shanghai for work at the beginning of November, and have carved out 10-11 days at the end for some diving. I am looking at heading down to Subic Bay as a solo traveler. I am looking at grabbing the late night flight on CEBU Pacific on November 3rd, arriving about 4:00am, taking a day to recover and then start diving November 4th-11th before heading to Las Vegas for DEMA.

Background: I am 40 years old, diving for ~8 years with ~800 dives, relatively newly certified TriMix and sidemount diver (20 trimix dives to date, mainly in the 200-250 foot range). Definitely much more of a 'structure' diver but definitely don't mind doing reef dives and hunting in the muck for strange things. Heading to Subic mainly for the wrecks (recreational, not trained for full wreck-penetration). Because I am traveling solo I would rather do a lot of diving (3-4 dives per day, or 1-2 deco dives).

I am leaning towards staying at Johan's - I don't need anything fancy, or party-oriented.

My main concern is whether folks think 10 full days is too long for Subic diving. I am not easily bored when it comes to wrecks, but thought I would get some other opinions.

Any opinions on the CEBU flight inbound? My other option is to take a flight that doesn't arrive into Manila until after 8:00pm. I would rather be doing the trek in early in the morning than after midnight.

Any personal experience with Johan's rental gear? Looks to be a VERY good selection, wondering whether hauling my DiveRite plate/wing or Nomad is worth the hassle. The CEBU flights are pretty strict on the weight of your checked luggage. I could probably trim it down to 20kg, but it would be easier if I was just bringing regs/fins/thigh pockets.

-Bill

 

[kathydee]

Subic is really amazing. If your there for 10 days, why not take a class on wreck penetration? This is one of the best tech shops in SE Asia: Technical Diving Courses - Puerto Galera - Philippines. It's based out of the Puerto Galera area, they run wreck penetration courses or 1:1 privates in Subic and can both teach and guide.

Chat with Dave/Ferg or Sam: Tech Asia Diving - Contact Us

 

[Centrals]

1. Clark Airport would be much closer to Subic than Manila.
2. If you think 10 days is too long how about a tec wreck course?
3. If you are doing technical then you should bring your own gear, pre-paid excessive luggage is cheaper than equipment rental.
4. I hate red eyes flight, it ruins the whole day.

 

[DevonDiver]

I have dived Subic very regularly as a freelance sidemount/technical/wreck instructor for the last 5 years. I have good links with all the dive shops there. The four shops I visit most frequently are: Johan's, Arizona, Blue Rock and Boardwalk.

Johans: Currently rents OMS Tesseract sidemount and tech gear. Provides trimix, if needed. Nice dive crew. Laid back and friendly place. Maintains high standards of safety. Located on Baloy Beach.

Boardwalk: Currently has a Razor and Hollis SMS100 for sidemount rental. Provides trimix and all necessary tech gear. Has excellent technical divemaster (Dante). The most 'tech focused' operation in the Bay. No attached resort/accommodation. Located in SBMA, which is a drag from the more popular resort areas in Baloy/Barretto.

Arizona: New dive shop, opened this year. In the process of stocking Nomad sidemount, maybe others. Has other tech rental gear and deco gases. Friendly dive crew and eager to please...will go the extra mile for customers. Lovely resort at a good price. On Barretto beach.

Blue Rock: (known as 'El Coral Reef Dive Center") Nice resort on Baloy Beach, great food. Dive shop primarily caters for budget recreational divers, but very friendly. Highly experienced DM/SSI instructor.

10 Days is quite a long stretch at Subic, unless you have specific goals for multi-dives on the main wrecks; i.e. you're going to explore penetrations, take videos etc. As Kathydee mentioned; it might be a very good opportunity to do a technical wreck course. That'd cover ~5 days, with a further 5 days to put your skills into practice. You'll feel like you didn't have enough time there! IMHO, there isn't many better places in the world to do that course.

Subic... with sidemount... doing technical penetrations... is heaven.

Feel free to drop me a PM for any other local info, or opinions, you need...

 

[wmperry]

I am sorely tempted to take the wreck class while I am there, but my wife and son are pretty dead set against it. They were fine with the deco ceiling but a PHYSICAL ceiling they have problems with. Still working on them though.

Just booked my tickets on CEBU arriving early on the 3rd and flying out late on the 11th. Should give me plenty of diving time, and enough of a break before I fly from shanghai to LA for DEMA.

 

[Karl_H]

I'd say your best option is to speak directly to Andy (Devondiver), he's the Subic guru and knows the wrecks inside out.

I think 10 days may be a bit too long in Subic but there's a few other options nearby for diving, there's a few decent technical dives in Anilao but the options for operators diving them is very limited, plus it could cost you a small fortune. PG has some okay diving but is highly over rated in my opinion, although you'll have plenty of choice for operators.

A good option may be a few days in Subic then a few days in Coron if you enjoy wrecks, if you like the Subic wrecks then you'd love the Coron wrecks. In Subic I'd strongly recommend Boardwalk for technical diving.

Equipment wise the Nomad isn't really suitable for warm water sidemount, even with the modified d-rings for aluminum tanks the BC is way too big and doesn't trim out well. You may be better renting a razor with boardwalk, the OMS 'sidemount' gear is terrible while the SMS100 has similar issues to the Nomad.