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I made this open invitation last year for bloggers to start diving and through sheer force of will, convenience in the form of dive instructor/dive master friends and not-so-busy schedules,  some bloggers have already heeded the call to pick up the hobby. My good friend Angel of the now-widely popular travel blog Lakwatsero finally made good on his intentions to be a certified diver late last year. Jayvee also recently got certified while Juned was able to take a refresher course to revitalize his diving “career” that got it start in 1990.

Everything seemed to line up heading to last week’s dive. Schedules, finances and other logistical concerns seemed to be have been ironed out and to clinch it, resorts in Batangas had madly slashed deals that made it irresistible to not go. Angel was unfortunately out of commission so Juned, Jayvee and I had to troop to Lemery (as people claim) / Bauan (as it says on the resort’s sign) and be part of the biggest blogger dive party – this breaks the record of two. Continue Reading »

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My good friend and dive buddy Angel of Lakwatsero.com went to  Davao for a weekend of diving. Everything went well as far as his safety was concerned but the same couldn’t be said for a certain doctor who died while diving with the same dive operators that Angel had. The not-to-be-named male allegedly died due to a heart attack while he was still underwater – lack of air was ruled out since he had a dual-tank setup. This incident occured the same day that two tourists died in Cebu while diving. Scuba diving has  generally been safe in the Philippines so such a surge in dive-related fatalities may merit some further investigation. I only heard of one scuba-related death for the whole of 2008 so this disturbing cluster of deaths is nothing short of shocking.

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This was taken shortly after my open water dive at Boquete Island near Puerto Galera.

I was fortunate enough to be exposed to scuba diving at an early age. I took lessons as a teenager and since the license that PADI provides doesn’t really expire, I could theoretically keep diving as long as I practice regularly. My last dive was at Boquete Island in Puerto Galera. It wasn’t exactly as memorable as my earlier dives in Anilao, Batangas but the experience sure rekindled my interest in pursuing the sport. I saw a scorpion fish up close for the second time and I even hovered over a huge sea turtle! Continue Reading »

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