You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: Scuba Scribe - Diving Elephant Rock and the Shimmering Night - Part 1
I can relate. I took my open water, advanced and nitrox in 6 days on Malapascua - Philippines, took a domestic flight to Coron and went wreckdiving.
Was a -35 in the machine room of a Japanese freighter sunk in WW 2 only 1 week after my first dives :-D. Talking about an adrenaline kick :-).
Looking back now when more experienced it was reckless and I wasn't ready in case of an issue but still it was a great memory and a good way to learn diving fast.
Wow @pieter87, that is crazy man. Lol, it's pretty scary to be honest. Just shows that money rules the roost and I'm guessing cause the Philippines is quite poor the dive guides were more inclined to bend the rules, should we say ;-) As you say though, it was a quick learning gradient but I think the fact that there was wreck penetration, at such an early stage of dive training was reckless of the dive operation. Same with me in Thailand tho, there were drift dives involved in this trip that were way above my level at the time.
Yep, the money has a lot more power over there then in EU dive centers. And you can abuse the system, if you have an advanced certificate you are good while they should put more attention to the number and type of dives.
When diving in Indonesia a couple months ago I heard from my (German) buddy who's and instructor on the Philippines that a guy died just that week in the same wreck. Someone hit the dust and sand while paddling and the viability went almost to zero. He panicked and didn't find the exit.
If something like that would happen to me now, it still would be risky and dangerous but at least I got used to diving with very bad viability here in Belgium and I wouldn't panic.
If the same happened when I was in there it would have been a disaster. The dive center only allowed small groups and there was always a dive master in front and behind the group but still....
And indeed that's why I'm relating to your story. Drift dives can be very tricky, done lots of them now with a couple of heavy ones on the Maldives but last December in Egypt on my 99'th dive it went wrong when swimming from the reef to the boat. I missed the boat by 50 meters and in a matter of minutes I drifted into open sea and the zodiac had tome come pick me up. It was a good reality check that every dive needs your full attention and concentration.
Finally finished the concluding part. Lol, only 5 days late. Check it out if you're up for more diving tales @pieter87 :-)
https://steemit.com/travel/@raj808/scuba-scribe-diving-the-similian-islands-concluding-part