I know I love to dive, it’s in my blood now. When I have the chance, I want to be in the water all the time, and if I don’t have a camera with me I feel somewhat naked. This is why I created this blog, to share the love of diving and the cool photo’s and video’s that I make with others who might share the passion for the sport. I am still learning, both diving as well as video and photography. If you have comments and feedback on my blogging skills, my diving, places I have been, equipment I use, suggestions for better photography and videography, please share it with me. I welcome all feedback and want to continue to improve. Some of my photo’s are overly “blue” which is a common problem underwater, and I am working both on getting better equipment to help with that (notably lights and camera) as well as improving my skills in post production. I also hope to improve my video post-production quality to produce entertaining and exciting video content that not only shows off the amazing things I have seen, but also adds a sense of wonder and awe with better editing and scoring. I am always looking for help and advice and so if you have some to give, please feel free to share.
Picture taken while diving in Tubbataha, Phillipines
The best dive trip I have taken so far was in March of 2011 with Jack’s Diving Locker (out of Kona, Hawaii) to the Philippines. I flew from Seattle to Kona to meet up with the other folks going on the trip, and then we flew from Kona to Manila. From there, we caught a flight to Dumaguete and then caught a shuttle to the Atlantis Dumaguete dive resort. The resort itself was very nice, and the room had a great ocean front view with a hammock on the deck that allowed for very relaxing rests between dives. We typically had 3-4 boat dives a day as well as unlimited shore diving, and the house reef was great, especially at night. The staff at the resort are very friendly indeed, and my word the amount of good food was simply overwhelming (I thought for sure I would have gained weight, but luck that diving burns calories too so I turned out losing 2 pounds over the course of 2 weeks). In Dumaguete the typical diving is “Muck Diving” which is really cool to find all kinds of smaller critters and such, and I have lots of video and photo’s that I will process and post now that I have a home to publish my content.
After a week in Dumaguete, we said our fond goodbye’s and then flew to Puerto Princessa in order get on the live aboard charter, the Atlantis Azores to start the long journey (10 hours or so) to Tubbataha (located in the Sulu Sea, at the center of the Coral Triangle between Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines). Because Tubbataha (pronounced Tooba-Ta-ha) is a marine preserve and very protected, very few people get to visit this amazing reef. They only let 6 boats a year travel to the reef, and there is no land on which to set foot on while in the reserve. The diving here was amazing as well, and being on a live aboard, all you do is eat, sleep, dive, rinse and repeat. I loved it, and the people on board where very friendly, and again, the food was amazing.
If you are an avid diver, and ever get the chance to head to the Philippines, do yourself a favor and find a way to do it, it will be the most amazing diving you will ever do.
This was a great (hopefully not once in a lifetime) trip. It wasn’t all just diving as my friend Mongo (Michael Hazard) captured in some video. We went to the once a week Dumaguete market and we got the dive resort to include us in their “entertainment”:
Here is a highlight video of our time in the Philippines:
More pictures and video will be added to this post shortly.
Here is a quick taste of what I saw in Dumaguete. This Flamboyant Cuttlefish that was simply amazing to see:
When I travel someplace warm, I have my travel gear I take with me. First, I use the coolest travel bag called a DiveCady Gen 2 (http://www.divecaddy.net/). This system lets me pack almost all of my dive gear, and easily get through TSA at the airport and on the plane. I love it.
My regulator is an Atomic B-2 (http://www.atomicaquatics.com/reg_B2.html) which I have really enjoyed using as well. This is actually my reg I use for warm and cold water diving and I never go anywhere near the water without it.
My Dive Computer is a Uwetec Galileo Luna by Scubapro (http://www.scubapro.com/en-US/USA/instruments/computers/products/galileo-luna.aspx). This is a very capable dive computer and I have really enjoyed using it, however, the screen can sometimes be a bit hard to read in the water. The nice thing about this computer is the ability to upgrade it to add more capabilities if you need them in the future.
Mask/Fins/Booties/stinger are nothing special, but they do the job for me. I tend to not be too picky about such things.
Also, you may notice I have not listed any thermal (wetsuit) because I do not wear thermal if the water is above 70 degrees. I tend to not get cold and the feel of being unencumbered by a wetsuit is a wonderful feeling in the water. The stinger suit (basically nylon/lycra body suit) protects me from sun exposure and of course, stingers in the water, but that is about it.
I love this equipment and it travels quite well.
If you have any questions about this equipment, let me know, happy to answer any/all questions.
I know I love to dive, it’s in my blood now. When I have the chance, I want to be in the water all the time, and if I don’t have a camera with me I feel somewhat naked. This is why I created this blog, to share the love of diving and the cool photo’s and video’s that I make with others who might share the passion for the sport. I am still learning, both diving as well as video and photography. If you have comments and feedback on my blogging skills, my diving, places I have been, equipment I use, suggestions for better photography and videography, please share it with me. I welcome all feedback and want to continue to improve. Some of my photo’s are overly “blue” which is a common problem underwater, and I am working both on getting better equipment to help with that (notably lights and camera) as well as improving my skills in post production. I also hope to improve my video post-production quality to produce entertaining and exciting video content that not only shows off the amazing things I have seen, but also adds a sense of wonder and awe with better editing and scoring. I am always looking for help and advice and so if you have some to give, please feel free to share.