Overcoming Stress

Sabang Beach during low tide in the evening.

I did my fourth confined water teaching presentation today which was on buddy breathing. It went just as well as the others and in fact I got a consistent 4 out of 5 for all my confined water presentations. My instructor Warren said he’s never seen that before. Additionally, I did several Divemaster circuit skills in pool which generally went well too. In the afternoon Warren talked about Business Principles for the Dive Professional and about the Divemaster class.

The stress from my lack of sleep and low confidence in certain things was seriously getting to me. It concerned me so much I actually looked online on how to reduce it and manage it. I learned about breathing and mental techniques. I’m open to try anything. I’m beginning to think that my stress is negatively affecting my performance doing skills. I set out to prepare the best I can and renew my thinking that whatever I do will be my best efforts. Whatever happens will happen, and to not worry. I used to think this way before but have forgotten about it over time.

Relaxing and enjoying the view from the Point bar.

Later in the evening I just hung out at the Point bar for a beer and to relax and watch the sunset. I have to admit, I already felt much better just sitting there and mentally enjoying the calm ocean. Tonight I also wanted to get enough sleep because I think my late nights contributed to my stress.


- jason

Safety Safety Safety

Today I had to demonstrate teaching an Adventure Dive—navigating an obstacle course (Peak Performance Bouyancy) and how to use a lifting device to safely rig and bring it to the surface. During the dive, I felt pretty good about the dive except that I took too long with the obstacle course.

During the debriefing, Warren gave me only 1 point for the skill of safely rigging and lifting an object to the surface. Why? When Maziar lifted the bag, he ascended above me while I was watching him below. His ascent sped up til it was too fast to safely keep up so I slowed down. He made it to the surface while I was still below him making my way up. The problem was that I left a student alone unattended, a safety risk, a big no-no. I was quite upset with my score (or lack of a score) but better I learn this now than when it really matters. It’s becoming more apparent to me that I learn from doing the exercise and from my mistakes.

For the rest of the afternoon, Warren lectured about diver retention programs and adaptive teaching. Adaptive teaching involves changing one’s teaching methods to accommodate people with disabilities or children.

After class, I went to the Point bar for a much needed drink from a rough day.


- jason

Coursework and BBQ Galore

The one student, one teacher IDC classroom.

I woke up at 5:30 AM today to work on my prescriptive teaching presentation. For some reason preparation usually takes more time than it looks. In class, my presentation went fairly well. I’ve done so many of these presentations I don’t feel nervous anymore doing them.

There’s lots of work today. I have to prepare two open water teaching presentations. My stress is building. I watched a few videos Warren recommended I watch—Underwater Navigation and the Rescue Diver Professional edition (Conduct and Marketing). Additionally, I did some reading late in the evening in order to prepare for tomorrows exercises.

Sunset from the Point bar during BBQ Thursday.

Warren came into the classroom while I was studying and was surprised I was still studying. He was going to the weekly Thursday Point bar BBQ and asked me if I wanted to go. I joined him because I didn’t want to go home and cook instant ramen.

The BBQ was the best deal I’ve had here in Puerto Galera—195 pesos for BBQ chicken and an all you can eat salad bar. The salad bar was extensive and the chicken was cooked well. After a few beers, I felt pretty relaxed but now I was sleepy. It’s a problem given I have so much homework to do.


- jason

Prescriptive Teaching Drizzle

Instructor Josh and bartender Eva at the Point bar.

Today in class I learned about teaching the Prescriptive Teaching method. This basically involves first evaluating a student about a subject and then teaching only the parts that the student doesn’t understand. Regarding PADI courses, this is done by having the student independently study a subject from a book. In class, the student is given a quiz and or their homework is graded. Whatever the student doesn’t gets wrong on either quiz or homework, the teacher goes over in class. This lessens potentially boring repetitive instruction of what the student already knows and allowing the time to be focused on what’s not clear.

In the pool, I had a confined water teaching presentation on doing a Fin Pivot with the Oral Inflator. I felt the presentation went fairly well. After the presentation, with Maziar, I decided to take the time to practice inflating a surface marker underwater and playing with some other skills. When I surfaced, I was slightly embarrassed to find someone watching me. She introduced herself as Caroline, an IDC student from Atlantis Resort in Sabang.

I was excited to meet someone else who’s been going through what I’ve been going through in the IDC. She was a very friendly and overall positive person. She suggested we meet up the day before our exam and have a beer or something so I can meet the other 2 doing the IDC. I enthusiastically agreed. Caroline didn’t stay long, and left by the time I could get my gear off.

James from Wetpixel.

I met up with Maziar at the Point bar for a few happy hour drinks. At the bar, I talked with Josh, Beverley, and Rebecca. Warren was there too, and introduced me to his new friend named Drizzle. She’s from Manila and has been singing at Broadway bar the last few nights. Nice girl.

Maziar and I wait for our food.

For dinner, Maziar and I went to the International European restaurant I had bad service at before. I decided to give it another try and Maziar really wanted to go there. Maziar ordered two hamburgers to go and one to eat in and I ordered a pasta dish. There was one person working at the restaurant playing both the waitress and chef. For some reason, the person working decided to cook and package the two to-go burgers first which took 30 minutes. Then, while Maziar’s to-go order was getting cold, cooked my dish and Maziar’s dine in burger. It took an hour to get our food and we were starving.

Drizzle (left) and her live band.

After dinner Maziar and I went to Broadway bar for a drink. Drizzle was singing with her band on stage. It seemed that the band was trying to sing as many songs as they could in their 2 hour set—one after another, with no break in between. All the songs were covers, videoke style, where the beat was produced from a synthesizer. Warren told me that the band plays for 2 hours, then has a half hour break, and then plays for a half hour. What’s the point? I wanted to stay longer but needed to go home and study.

When I got home, I had a hard time staying awake while trying to study. So, I decided to sleep and wake up early to study.


- jason

IDC Part 2, Sunset Cruise

Brick boat.

I had a pretty bad hangover today. Thankfully, class with Warren was for a half day and didn’t start until after lunch. Today was the start of the second half of the IDC course. This part of the course focused on learning how to teach each certification level—Open Water Diver, Advanced Open Water Diver, Rescue Diver, and Divemaster and more fine tuning of general teaching skills.

The cruise part of the Sunset Cruise.

Warren lectured through the lessons quickly so we could go on the scheduled “Sunset Cruise” at 4:30 PM. The Sunset Cruise included riding in a large boat to a beach about 40 minutes away during sunset. At the end of the beach is Luca’s Italian pizza restaurant. The boat ride to the beach was very relaxing with all you can drink beer and relatively calm water. I sat next to James from Wetpixel and Warren on the boat and at the pizza restaurant.

The large and good pizza from Luca's.

There were about 30 people that went on the Sunset Cruise which meant there were equal amounts of pizzas. The pizzas were thin crust but wider than the pan they were served on; they were huge! It’s amazing how such a small kitchen was able to produce so many large pizzas at the same time. The pizza I had was delicious, in fact, it was one of the best pizzas I’ve had in a long time both here and in the US.

Sunset rocks just off Luca's.

The boat ride back to Puerto Galera was so relaxing I dosed off. I’m glad I went on the Sunset Cruise, it was a good respite from the stresses of the IDC.


- jason

EFR, Diving, and Partying

Fish on starfish.

Today was the second half of the EFR Instructor course. I did more teaching skills exercises. Today I practiced EFR skills for use on a child. There’s different EFR techniques for both infants and children. It’s quite interesting and I hope to never have to use the skills I learn.

Anemones

After taking the final exam (which was easy), I ended the course and officially became an EFR Instructor. Class ended by mid-afternoon so I was able to have a “fun” dive—a dive purely for enjoyment, not requiring skills or evaluation—with Maziar. This was my first fun dive since visiting Puerto Galera this year. It was a nice taste of the world outside the IDC. Something to look forward to.

In the evening, I hung out with Maziar at the Point bar. There we ordered several appetizers and several rounds of happy hour beer. There was a large group of Australian divers at the bar which livened up the place. As usual, I intended on only drinking a few beers, but the Australians bought two rounds of shots for everyone at the bar. Thankfully, I didn’t have to study for anything the next day.

A round of B52 shots from the Australians.

Maziar and I decided to go to downtown Sabang before the Australians ordered another round of shots. On our way to a disco, we met up with two friends I met at the Point bar—Beverley and Rebecca. Beverley is a Taiwanese girl from Canada who works for the Associated Press. This sparked my interest because I’m interested in photojournalism. I forgot what Rebecca did. We all agreed to meet at Broadway bar to shoot some pool and just hang out.

Beverley and Rebecca hung out at Broadway.

Maziar and I hung out and had some beers. We managed to play a game of pool, which was only 20 pesos, until the girls came back. I eventually forgot how many rounds of beer we all ordered. After several games of pool, we went into the Broadway disco to watch the girls dance. We had several more rounds of drinks. I remember walking out to puke in a bush only to have the security guard tell me to go to the restroom. I passed out on the bar until Beverley and Rebecca came out with my camera. We walked back home, and I passed out.

- jason

Half Way There

Wetpixel staff had a lot of photo gear they had to move out of the class.

Yesterday was officially the end of the first half of my Instructor Development Course (IDC). The curriculum now has me study to be an Emergency First Response Instructor (EFR) for two days. This involves learning how to teach people primary care (CPR) and secondary care (first aid). It’s a general course anyone can take that isn’t tied into diving. A nice break from the IDC. Compared to the IDC, the EFR course is a cinch.

Today we just went over orientation to the course, the EFR philosophy, and a little workshop on teaching the EFR skills. It was basically just going over all the skills, and doing a role model demonstration of them all.

Customers watch dancer at Village Disco.

After class, I met up with Maziar and his girl Vergie at the Point bar. We later went to downtown Sabang to hang out at the Village Disco club. At one point during the night Vergie got jealous of Maziar hanging with some other girls and stormed out of the club. Maziar and I stayed a bit later until the club closed.

- jason

Open Water Teaching

In the morning I had to do an Open Water teaching presentation of two skills—Buoyancy Weight Check at the Surface and a Free Descent with Reference only. This dive was the first dive I was doing using Nitrox (32% oxygen, 68% nitrogen) which allows me to stay underwater longer, air supply permitting. For my teaching presentations, Maziar and Warren played my “students”, or victims, depending on how you see it.

On paper, the exercises seemed simple enough. However, once you get in the ocean, things change. Control of your students can quickly be handed over to mother nature or your students—currents can push students away, students may not know how to do things and veer off, etc. The Weight Check exercise went okay except for the fact that it was hard to keep my students together because of surface current and the sun blinding people. The Free Descent was chaotic as one student held onto the descent line while the other wasn’t descending in a controlled manner. I didn’t pass the Descent portion because the student used the decent line when he wasn’t supposed to. Learn from your mistakes.

After lunch I did my second Confined Water teaching presentation which was on Snorkel to Regulator Exchange. It’s a simple skill to do, but there are many subtle details an instructor needs to demonstrate. As an instructor in training, I’m learning that students may have no clue how to do simple skills I take for granted—for example, breathing from a snorkel. My presentation went well except I didn’t mention for the student to blow bubbles while exchanging the snorkel and regulator. This wasn’t a requirement, just something they should do.

I finished class early and had the majority of the afternoon free. I took the time to relax from the stressful morning. I’m starting to realize that I’m feeling less nervous during my presentations. After practicing each presentation several times, I’m getting more confident in what I do which lessens my nervousness. The Open Water presentation was my first attempt so I expect to get used to doing it the more I do. While relaxing, a group of divers who run the website Wetpixel arrived at El Galleon.

I met James, Matt and Drew who were all staff for the website. It’s nice to talk with and pick the brains of professional underwater photographers. Talking to Matt who is in his early 20s, and seeing his photos made me feel like an old beginner photographer. I need some catching up to do in order to be competitive.

- jason

Classroom and Pool Lessons

Low tide in front of El Galleon resort. Kids love to check out and collect the sea life from the low tide.

I woke up around 6 AM to work on my knowledge development and confined water teaching presentation. As with everything during my IDC, I was to be evaluated for each presentation. I managed to eat my free breakfast at El Galleon before class—during my IDC, I have free breakfast and lunch at the resort I’m taking my class at. Class was at 8:30 AM. I did my knowledge development presentation first which was on the Project AWARE Specialty course.

It’s very structured regarding how you’re supposed to teach a knowledge development presentation. For example, in the beginning, you’re supposed to think of a “contact/value” that may be a story or interesting thing that relates to what you’re going to talk about and gives value to that. Its purpose is to excite the students about what you’re going to talk about. Then you give some key points, tell the students to open their books, present your main lesson, tell how it relates to local environment and other components of the course, and then promote a continuing educational course and dive equipment.

I took too long with the presentation again and actually did worse than the previous presentation. I find it hard to fulfill all the required steps in a short amount of time. I took 30 minutes that my instructor said should have taken 10 minutes.

I ate my free lunch with Warren at El Galleon. It’s always nice to eat at El Galleon because they have a nice, relaxing view of the ocean. It’s a great break from the classroom. After lunch we took a short break and then got our gear setup for my confined water presentation in the pool.

Before going into the pool, I had to do a practice Discover Scuba workshop. I simply explained some basic scuba concepts with a flip chart. Warren got Ruben, a Divemaster, and Maziar to help out and be “students”. They also helped out in the confined water.

My confined water teaching presentation was on teaching students how to do the snorkel to regulator exchange with their face in the water. It involves giving a briefing, doing a slow and exaggerated “role-model” demonstration in the water, have the student try it, solve any problems, and then debrief the student on their performance. It sounds easy but there’s a lot of required steps to go over and you have to anticipate and solve any student’s problems. I was super nervous doing this.

After the pool and cleaning up, I went back into the classroom to learn about Conducting Open Water Training Dives. It went over briefing, organizing, executing and debriefing an Open Water Training dive. My assignment for the night was to plan out an Open Water Training dive on a Buoyancy Weight Check and a Free Descent with Reference.

Imminent storm just outside the Point.

I made my way to the Point bar for a much needed beer. From the bar I noticed a storm in the distance. After two beers, it began raining heavy. I wanted to go back to my room and cook and study but couldn’t go in the rain. I decided to wait it out at the bar with some food and beers.

- jason

Ghostly Picture

Sunset view from the Point bar.

I had my Instructor Development class all day today. I had to do my knowledge development presentation which I would be evaluated on. I was quite nervous and it showed in my voice. By the end of it though I got a pretty good score. My biggest problem is that I took too long.

Lee performing a role-model demonstration of drinking beer through a snorkel.

At around 6 PM, there was a Divemaster BBQ party for Rosina and Lee. Well, Lee is already an instructor, but, didn’t have a Divemaster party when he became a Divemaster so this was his makeup. Free food and beer which is always nice. For their final “skill” they had to do, they had to drink beer through a snorkel. Lee did it quite well but Rosina had a little trouble. Regardless, they both passed.

An example of the slow sync flash setting and how it can produce "ghostly" pictures.

Everyone went up to the Point bar afterwards to hang out. There, I took a picture of a Filipino bartender. I shot the photo with a slow sync flash setting which exposes the entire scene properly and adds a flash. The effect is that you can see everything in the frame (including the far background) but if something is moving it will be blurred. When I took a picture of the bartender, she moved then the camera flashed. This made her look a little ghostly.

A simple picture turned out to be a big deal. The bartender was frightened by the picture and wanted it deleted immediately. I normally don’t delete my photos even if someone tells me to, but she seemed seriously frightened by it and concerned. Even after I deleted the picture, she was very scared because she said she knew someone that died after seeing her “soul” leave her in a photo. The bartender thought that her soul was going to leave her and she would die too. I, and several others at the bar tried to convince her and show her that it was a simple camera effect. She didn’t understand.

- jason

Rotten Tooth Teaching

Morning just outside El Galleon.

I looked into the mirror and found a worm has eaten through my tooth. I found the worm - it was thin, white, and still moving. I managed to pick it out from the tooth. I removed my decayed tooth and surrounding tissue and put them in a clear sealed bag. The tissue was still alive and twitching in the bag.

Someone I knew kept on disturbing the bag which annoyed me. I wanted to keep the bag away from harm, and undisturbed. I made an appointment to see my dentist but had trouble getting there in the rain. Someone disturbed the bag so much that the tissue stopped twitching, and everything in the bag started decomposing. The tissue turned into mush.

There was a small hole in the bag. The smell that leaked out the hole was rancid and the tissue inside turned green because it was exposed to the air.

I woke up. I went straight to the bathroom to brush my teeth.

Today I spent the entire day in the classroom. It was interesting though in that I learned how to teach a class in general using micro teaching technique. I’m starting to feel good about the course and not worry as much about the final exam. I’m feeling more confident in what I do and how I do them. I’m also realizing that I may have been worrying more than I should have.

After class, I prepared for a presentation I had to give the next day. There’s a certain sequence you have to present information in and certain psychological techniques to get students to learn it best. I didn’t know there’s so much structure and thought into a lesson plan. I’m also realizing how good the PADI system of education really is. PADI really strives to best accommodate students and have them excel and retain what they’ve learned.

Later in the evening, I hung out at the Point bar with Peter and another Instructor at Asia Divers.

- jason

Bad Skills Disco

Today was my first day of the Assistant Instructor part of my PADI dive instructor curriculum. In the pool today, I did another “skill circuit” demonstration of 20 dive skills. I did much better than the last time I did the demonstration except for one skill - the fin pivot.

I was quite disappointed in my performance of the skill - fin pivot. Maybe it’s because of my new wetsuit, my weights, my nervousness. I found it hard to pivot underwater on my fins because my legs kept on wanting to float up. I was so disappointed in my performance, when everyone left, I stayed in the pool until I could get it right. I discovered that if I placed my weights lower on my body it was a lot easier to do.

I decided to get a drink in the evening at the Point bar to make my day a little better. At the bar, I met a staff instructor at Asia Divers, Josh, and his girlfriend Charity. After a few drinks, he invited me to go with him to downtown Sabang and to check out some disco bars.

All the disco bars in Sabang are girly bars where girls dance around in very little clothing and solicit “going out” with you for 2,000 pesos ($50 USD). There’s no cover charge, drinks are decently priced unless you buy a girl a drink, and there’s sometimes good music. If anything, there’s good eye candy and sometimes good company. We ended up going to 4 discos, but some of them only had a couple customers in it. Generally it was a slow night and we all headed home fairly early.

It was good though to get out and get my mind off all the studying and worrying about things.


- jason

Rescue day

Sunset view from the Point Bar.

Today I went into the pool with Warren and Mazi where Warren tested me on some self rescue skills and simple surface rescue skills. I felt pretty confident doing the skills since I recently reviewed a lot of them during Mike’s rescue diver class the week before.

Later, we went into the ocean where Warren had me do an unconscious diver at the surface rescue. This is one of the more complex rescue exercises. It involves approaching the “unconscious” victim, establishing buoyancy, checking for breathing, calling for help, applying barriers (pocket mask), giving rescue breaths while towing and removing both our equipment. To add to this, you have to do it in a fairly timely matter.

I felt that I did pretty well at the exercise. I managed to tow the victim (Mazi) to my goal and take off both our equipment (we kept our wetsuits on) in a timely matter. My only problem was that I was going in the wrong direction while swimming at one point. Out of all the exercises I’ve done so far, this by far is the most confident and relaxed. Now I need to work on all my other skills.

Later in the afternoon, I had some free time to study. I managed to finish all my book work for my nitrox (enriched air - higher oxygen content than nitrogen) diver course. I need to finish this class as soon as possible to start using nitrox because I need 10 dives before I can start my Nitrox Instructor course.

Happy hour at the point was more happy than I thought it would be. Happy hour - 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM - is “buy 2 cocktails for the price of 1”. I just wanted a couple beers but ended up with way more than that because other people were generous to buy me drinks.

For dinner, I actually made it home and cooked some chopped up pork, with spaghetti, and spaghetti sauce. It wasn’t that good but it served its purpose. I was so tired from the day, I just passed out after dinner.

- jason

Adventure Dive and Exploring Downtown

The dock at Asia Divers.

Today, it was the third day of general review for my instructor course. At around 8 AM I met up with my instructor Warren, and Mazi who is working his way up to a PADI Divemaster (two certifications below Instructor) from two certifications below Divemaster (Advanced OW). Warren briefed us on what we were going to do which involved tying knots, Peak Performance Buoyancy, and some navigation exercises.

We went out on a boat to a shallow dive site. We did some skills at the surface (which I was quite rusty on) and then descended down to do some skills. Underwater, we did a lot of buoyancy exercises, knot tying, and navigation. It was actually quite a fun dive. After the dive, Warren debriefed us on our skills.

There wasn’t much else planned for the rest of the afternoon so I decided to explore downtown Sabang a little bit. I needed cash and unfortunately there isn’t an ATM around. At the Tourist Center, I was able to charge my credit card, and have cash given to me that way. It’s quite expensive though with the surcharge to being around 7.5%. Around town I found a few restaurants, a hardware store, several markets, and a few places selling BBQ chicken (lechon minok). I needed a can opener to open my corned beef but couldn’t find any place that sold one.

It’s amazing how much more expensive things in general are here. I thought Alona Beach was pricey being a tourist location. Here in Sabang, a BBQ chicken costs 230 pesos versus 160 pesos in Alona Beach. That’s too bad because I love BBQ chicken. I went to a meat market (no, not a disco, a real butcher) and was thinking about buying meat there until I saw the butcher standing on the cutting board with his bare dirty feet. Moving on.

The barista at Team Rocks cafe.

I decided to try a coffee at this one decently looking cafe I actually went to last year-Team Rocks. They actually have a proper espresso machine and seem to have decent technique. I had a cappuccino which wasn’t too bad, nor was it great. The foam was a nice dense foam but the coffee itself was stale tasting and just not good. I didn’t stay long because the flies in the sitting area were getting to be annoying.

Since I was near the market, I just got some groceries and went home. Made dinner, watched TV, worked on some Nitrox diver homework, and went to sleep.

- jason

Surf's up!

Storm waves reminded me of small surf in California.

I woke up at 4 AM because I wanted to try to finish the remaining Knowledge Reviews (of 16). I was left with two knowledge reviews to go. Unusually large surf today - reminded me of California. I eventually find out, it’s because there’s a typhoon passing north of where I am. Surprisingly, it was only partially cloudy outside.

I wish I had my surfboard.

Today I went into the open water for a dive practicing some Open Water Diver skills. Setting up a buoy marker, weight belt removal, 5 point descent, etc. I was rusty on some of the techniques, but I’m slowly getting the hang of demonstrating skills. I’m quite nervous at times but I feel that’s something that I will overcome. That’s why I’m here.

Afterwards, I ate lunch, finished 16 Knowledge reviews, and went back to the classroom to take an PADI Assistant Instructor General Standards exam. To my surprise, I did really well on it. So far so good for the in-class tests, but I need to work on my water skills. I’m out of practice.

- jason

First day of class

Today was my first day of my IDC prep class at iDAP college (Asia Divers). It was a frightening day as I was scheduled to have an exam on Dive Theory - physics, physiology, Recreational Dive Planner (RDP), Equipment, and General Skills - and do a pool session where I have to demonstrate 20 diving skills. For both I wasn’t so sure how ready I was. I was quite nervous honestly.

The dive theory exam was two hours long which was longer than I thought. Thankfully, it was all multiple choice. My most concerning subjects were physics and physiology (how diving affects the body). To my delight I felt the exam was fairly easy and after it was graded, I passed all the sections. It was a great feeling to have a grip on something and to see all my studying has paid off.

After lunch, I went to the pool where I had to demonstrate 20 skills to the instructor along with Mazi, a divemaster candidate. It’s been 2 years since I last did this type of thing and I have to admit I was quite rusty. This is something I will have to practice. After getting used to what the instructor wanted, I was starting to feel more confident and comfortable. To my surprise, the instructor actually said I did some things well and that I just need polish.

After cleaning up from the pool session, we all met up at the “Point“ bar for some happy hour drinks (any cocktail or beer, 2 for 1). It turned out to be a welcome gathering with all the instructors and staff which was very nice. I met a good amount of people and had a good amount of free drinks. I still needed to study by reading and doing a lot of questions in the book (Knowledge Reviews). Lets just say, I was unable to do that when I got back to my room. I decided to just sleep, sober up, and study early in the morning, 4 AM.

- jason

Shopping

Early afternoon fishing.

I woke up in the morning with a hang over. I walked down to the local store to buy 6 liters of water. I drank about a liter. The heavy rain from the night reduced to just a drizzle (in California, we would call it rain though). For the day, I decided to do some shopping for a wetsuit and groceries. I also needed to get my scuba regulator repaired because it corroded.

I first went to the Asia Divers dive shop to look at their wetsuits. The lady there had me try on one that I didn’t really like the look of. Additionally, it was extremely tight fitting but she said it was normal and that it will stretch. I know a wetsuit will stretch a little, but not that much. The wetsuit was $250 USD and that was the only size.

I shopped around and went to see the wetsuits at the dive shop I planned on getting my regulator serviced. They had a wetsuit that I liked but not in my size for only $59 USD! They weren’t selling the brand anymore so they had to liquify that brand (Aqualung). I had them order me the correct size and send my regulator in for repairs.

I ate lunch at a small “international” restaurant that eagerly offered me their free internet while I waited. I ordered some satay and check the internet. About half hour later, I realized I haven’t got my food yet. Turns out they never placed the order!

After lunch, I went to the local market to get groceries. It’s at least twice as expensive to eat here in Puerto Galera than Alona Beach. So, I need to try and eat out less. The market had most of the things I needed - rice, pork and beans, corned beef, oatmeal, salt, and meat. It’s actually much harder to get meat in Alona Beach than here. I guess because there’s so many more foreigners here. I later dropped off my groceries back to my room.

I got my books, and headed straight to Asia Divers and studied in the classroom in the “iDap College”. Another part of the resort that just trains instructors. All it is though is mainly a classroom. I studied there for 6 hours straight and it was hard to concentrate.

- jason

Looking around

Dog living the island life.

It rained heavily today. In my search to find my instructor, I met Peter - a staff instructor at the diving part of the resort (Asia Divers). He’s a nice guy from Australia I think. Eventually, I found my instructor - Warren Dixon - who is a PADI Course Director and the manager at Asia Divers.

Delicious Korean food at Club Mabuhay.

For lunch, I went to Korean owned Club Mabuhay Resort; the resort I stayed in a year prior which is next door to El Galleon. I was craving Korean food, and I remembered this place had good Korean food. I feasted on all the small Korean appetizers and a dish of bulgogi beef. It was delicious. I think the last time I had Korean food was back in the US.

My study area in my "living room".

Afterwards, I went to El Galleon which has a nice bar. There I met Lee, a Taiwanese guy who was recently certified as a PADI Instructor. After a few drinks, I just went home to study. There I read a lot about dive theory. Oh fun. Later, I went back to El Galleon and dropped in on their main bar, called the “Point”.

At the Point, I met Allen, Peter, Mazi (Iranian), Dave, Daabi, and a few others. Allen, one of the owners of El Galleon, bought me a beer upon arrival. I mainly stopped just to check out the place but ended up drinking 4 beers, and for shots which were all bought by other people.

Sleep.

- jason

The long road to Sabang

Smooth and comfortable ferry ride to Sabang Beach.

I only got about an hour of sleep the night before. Waking up I felt extremely tired. Oh boy, I thought, it was going to be a long day. To add to that, it was raining heavy outside with no respite in sight. I took some time to cover myself and my bags with plastic trash bags to protect them from the rain because I had to drive on my motorbike to Alona Beach. I needed to go there to pack my scuba gear and drag it along the beach to the car that was taking me to Tagbilaran airport.

The drive to Alona Beach was miserable from the large raindrops pounding against my eyes and skin -making it hard to see and having the feeling of pins and needles all over my skin. I got to Alona safely, with only my face and feet soaking wet. My travel plans for the day included taking a car, airplane, bus, ferry and walking across a beach - from Alona Beach to Little Lalaguna, Puerto Galera.

The car ride to Tagbilaran was chilly. I was wet and at the same the driver turned on the air conditioning. My shoes were soaked and my feet were cold. Not surprisingly, at Tagbilaran airport, my ticket needed to be validated. I was slightly upset about this because the airline told me before that I didn’t have to validate the ticket. This though, was after they asked me to drive all the way to the Tagbilaran airport from Alona Beach to validate it; It’s really stupid actually, and highly inefficient. So, to validate the ticket I had to go to the airline office, wait around, and they had to look at my ticket. It was easy to do and I don’t know why they wanted me before to take a side trip up to do it when I did it an hour before my flight left.

The flight was fine except my feet were really cold. There wasn’t much I could do as my shoes were soaking wet. After the hour long flight, we landed at Manila which was a nice warm experience. There, I found a brand new taxi that didn’t try to rip me off with a fixed rate. He took me to the bus terminal so I can get a ride down to a ferry in Batangas.

At the bus terminal, once the taxi trunk opened, touts grabbed my bags and asked me where I was going. Once I told them, they led the way to the right bus. Of course, when they stowed the bags, they demanded a tip. I really don’t like this, especially when I have no chance of getting to my bags before them. I’m fine carrying my own bags and can find where to go. On the bus, I tried to find a seat with plenty of leg room and one most likely where someone wouldn’t sit next to me.

The 3 hour bus ride was only 150 pesos ($3.50 USD) and left just 15 minutes after I sat down. It was a fairly comfortable ride and nobody sat next to me until after about 2 hours of travel. I was just hoping the bus could arrive in time to the pier before the last ferry left.

At the pier, touts bothered me for my bags but I didn’t let them carry it. I was glad to find that there was still a ferry leaving in 45 minutes to Sabang Beach (200 pesos) - exactly where I needed to go. Knowing I could catch a ferry was a big relief. I don’t know what I would have done if I couldn’t get a ferry; well, actually, I did, but didn’t want to stay over. The ferry ride was smooth, relaxing, and only one hour. Of course, when we docked, touts boarded the boat and offered to carry my luggage. In fact, a small boy, probably no older than 10, offered to carry my big heavy scuba bag. Um, no thanks!

It was about 6 PM by the time I dragged my luggage across Sabang Beach in the rain to El Galleon Resort (where I was taking my instructor course) in Little Lalaguna beach. Now, I needed to find a place to stay. The receptionist at El Galleon said my instructor recommended a room at Sha-Che, down the beach a little.

Sha-Che consists of a bunch of different style bungalows which are clean, with hot fresh running water, a bed, kitchen a living area and free electricity and water. They are nice actually, and I settled in one for 10,000 pesos/month ($244 USD). The landlord was a little pushy in trying to get me to commit to a 1.5 month lease. I told her I’d let her know the next day. I was tired and cold with soggy feet. I decided I needed a break and ate dinner at El Galleon.

Fish special with potatoes and mango juice. Prices here are at least twice that of Alona Beach. Back at my room, I was so exhausted I couldn’t stay awake to do anything... so I passed out.


- jason

Rescue Packing

Rose life among desolation by the rain.

I assisted Mike with another part of the rescue class he was conducting with Erich and Sara. The weather was fairly stormy with a lot of swell - perfect conditions to conduct a rescue course. This time, the scenario was rescuing an unconscious diver at the surface. This skill is probably the most common skill practiced and used. The review of it helped me a lot since the last time I did it was two years ago. Afterwards, I cleaned up and went to Coco Vida to do internet with Martine.

A security guard watches the rough surf in Alona Beach.

Since I was planning on going to Puerto Galera (Sabang Beach) to start my PADI Instructor training tomorrow, I needed to pack and could only afford a little time on the internet. Not surprising, I spent a few hours on the internet - far too long. The internet tends to draw me into it even if I can’t think of a website I want to visit. It’s almost as bad as television but at least you can blame television for not providing interesting content versus me not being able to think of interesting content to look up.

I went home to pack and clean up my place a little bit because Erich was going to move into my house while I was away. Of course, it was more work than I anticipated but I got everything I wanted to before going back to Alona to meet up with Sara, Martine, and Erich for dinner. By the time I met up with them, it was already 8 PM and I felt bad they waited around so late for dinner.

The scoreboard at Killer.

We decided to go to Trudi’s for dinner since I was craving Chinese type food. Trudi’s sells a squid in xo sauce dish that I love. Dinner was delicious and cheap. Afterwards, we walked down to Trendi’s place to shoot some pool and drink some beer.

Mike taking a shot at Killer.

The reliable "God's Well" security at Trendi's.

Bettina's turn to shoot.

Shortly after we arrived, Mike and his friend Bettina joined us. It started raining a lot and so we kept on playing pool until the rain subsided, at least a little. We played until 4 AM and then I decided to just go home in the rain. I was soaked when I got home but at least it was warm rain.

I still needed to pack a few things plus I had to be at the airport for my domestic flight to Manila by around 6 AM. I basically had only an hour of sleep that wasn’t that solid. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.

- jason

Rescue Disco

Martine taking in the morning view.

Martine and Sara stayed over at my place the night before because they didn’t want to drive all the way home from Alona Beach. In the morning, we had our usual instant coffee. Afterwards, we all drove to Alona Beach where I assisted instructor Mike with his rescue class with Sara and Erich. I did it to help me review some techniques and to also get more experience on how Mike conducts his class. It was a fun and great review and afterwards we did a dive which was nice also.

Surprise! Mike has Erich panic at the surface for Sara to practice rescuing.

After the first dive, I cleaned up and hung out with Martine at Coco Vida where we went on the internet and chatted a bit. When Sara was done with her second dive of the day, we went back to Genesis to hang out.

Since it was Saturday, it was disco night at Oops. Sara, Martine, and I hung around with each other until disco. As usual, Sander and Mike joined us at Oops later in the night.

- jason

Ticket, Bob, Funnel Clouds and Trendi

After journaling on my laptop, I went to studying

My morning to mid afternoon was fairly boring as all I did was journal and study diving physics and physiology. It’s been two days since I put my airplane ticket validation responsibility into the hands of Alona Kew and still haven’t heard from them. It was time to see what’s up.

I went to Alona Kew Resort and talked to the receptionist that helped me. She told me she forgot to contact Philippine Airlines because she was sick, bleah, bleah, bleah. Not surprised, I insisted she figure out what I needed to do with my ticket. I really saw no point in calling Philippines Airlines because they already told me what I needed to do. Regardless, she called the airline and I talked with the same agent I talked to before.

The agent told me that I had to validate my ticket by 11 AM the next day. I told her that it was too hard for me to go to Tagbilaran. She asked me what kind of open ticket I had. I said “S”. I heard her type something into her computer, and she said I don’t have to validate the ticket anymore. Problem solved. Why didn’t she just ask me more about my ticket beforehand?

A slight digression... I’ve noticed while working with Filipinos in service related jobs here, a lot of them don’t try to help the customer more than what’s minimal. In other words, they don’t seem to try to think of alternative solutions or ideas that would make things easier for the customer. Sure, driving all the way to Tagbilaran and presenting my ticket receipt would have solved the problem, but at the expense of the customer. It was the easiest solution for the agent because she didn’t have to do anything. This was the same for the previous travel agent at Sunshine Travel. The easiest solution was to just buy me a ticket even though I already had a ticket but it was open. For her, it was easier to buy one because that’s what she’s familiar doing, not scheduling an open ticket. Even after she bought the extra ticket, her co-worker advised me to cancel my ticket and just use hers.

After finally booking my ticket, I went to Coco Vida to go on the internet shortly. Sara texted me to have a beer with her and some others at Genesis so I made my way over there. At Oops, I saw ex-Oops bar manager Bob, which was a pleasant surprise. This time, he was on the other side of the bar (customer side) which he said was much better. I had a beer with him and his friend Perry.

At Genesis, I had a round of beers with Sara, Martine, Mike, Luer, Sky and his girlfriend, and met Erich. Sara said Erich was looking for a place to stay for about 6 weeks. Perfect, I could use someone to stay at my place for that amount of time. This would make it so I don’t have to pay rent at my place for the time I am away doing my IDC in Puerto Galera.

Waterspout in the far distance from Alona Beach.

While we were enjoying our beers, storm clouds rolled in and someone noticed a waterspout in the distance. It was too far away for us to be concerned about it. Shortly after, it started raining very hard. Sara, Erich, Martine and I decided to run to Oops for dinner.

Sara aims for a ball to shoot in while playing "Killer".

Marcus and others have a good time at Trendi's.

After dinner, the rain subsided and we walked to Trendi’s to shoot some pool. Good times.

- jason

Baking my Phone

This morning, my cellphone screen wouldn’t turn on. Being someone fairly technical, some would say geeky, my experience with technology hasn’t been too lucky. It’s so bad in my opinion, I actually maintain a list of things that have broke. I digress. So, I did notice some water drops in and around my phone which I thought was odd. When I drove home the night before it didn’t rain. The table I got the cell phone off of was wet. Hm, probably condensation from my drink that pooled up on the table where my cell phone lay all night.

I took out the battery and put my cellphone outside in the hot sun to dry out. In short time, there was condensation on my cell phone screen. I left it outside while I studied for my IDC. Throughout the time, I tried turning on the phone with no luck of a working screen. It wasn’t looking good for the phone and I was dreading going into town to buy a cell phone. I got my fan and blew it full blast at my phone. Then, after about 5 hours of baking in the sun, the condensation started receding. Once all gone, I turned on the phone. Miraculously, the screen lit up.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I studied and finished reviewing the Rescue Diver manual. Checked email at the internet cafe and bought groceries in Panglao. At home for dinner, I cooked spaghetti and watched TV.


- jason

Scheduling my flight, myself

Large, spider in my room that I had to drive out.

Now that I have a phone number that looks like it will work, I called Philippines Airlines in the morning with my cell phone to try to schedule my open ticket for May 12th. I successfully connected with an airline agent but while she was scheduling my flight, I ran out of load - prepaid call time - and was disconnected. I actually had to go out to a store to find load and reload my phone. Bummer.

I needed to do a few things at home before I ventured out to find a place to load my phone. So, while at home, I made lunch and worked on my journal so that when I go to Alona I can just upload my journal. Sometime in the early afternoon, I went to Panglao to get gas and check for a place that sells prepaid load cards. Nope. I drove to Alona Beach because I knew there is a place there I can load my phone and plus I needed to go there regardless.

Once I loaded my phone, I went to Genesis and called Philippines Airlines again. I explained to the agent what I needed and what happened and she immediately scheduled a flight for me. She was very competent and did what I needed in half the time as the previous agent. However, she wanted me to either drive to the airport in Tagbilaran or hire a driver from a resort to take my ticket receipt and have it validated. Isn’t there a better way to do this rather than drive a half hour to the airport? She said there wasn’t.

While at Genesis, I decided to try and fix my 1st stage regulator from the grips of corrosion. With a little force, a vise, and a few other tools, I managed to free the yoke screw from the yoke. I discovered that some of the threading on the yoke screw was bent and making it still hard, but possible, to screw in.

The rest of the day I spent at Coco Vida updated my seriously backlogged web journal, photos, and downloading the new free Nine Inch Nails album “The Slip”. Awesome, free music.

Since I didn’t want to drive to Tagbilaran to validate my ticket, I decided to hire some driver to do the dirty work. I went to the resort that the airline agent recommended, Alona Kew Resort. The receptionist at the resort seemed to know what was needed, took my ticket information, and said she would text me the next day once she did what was needed.


- jason

Dead Cat Diving Ticket

Moray eel at Kalipayan

In the middle of the night, I woke up because I heard loud noises just outside my bedroom window. The noises sounded like someone walking on the rubbish just outside my window. Fearing it was someone trespassing on the property, I grabbed my combat knife and looked out the window trying to see what was going on. A few intense minutes passed by and it became clear that the noises were caused by my landlord’s dogs rummaging around. Back to sleep.

In the morning, I noticed a dead baby cat on the property’s lawn. It was small, thin, and lifeless. I couldn’t tell if the dogs killed it or found it already dead. Perhaps it was the baby of the previous cat they killed? Regardless, it was gross and thankfully my landlord is good at cleaning dead cats up.

I drove to Alona Beach to figure out the status of my open plane ticket from Tagbilaran to Manila. I took it to a travel agent there 6 days ago hoping they can just schedule the flight for me. I previously got a text from the agent that they booked a flight but it will cost money. My open ticket is paid for, just not scheduled. This isn’t a good sign. When I got to the travel agent, she was on lunch break. I had to come back later.

I went to Coco Vida to check email and to meet up with Sara and Martine because Sara wanted to dive in the afternoon. Martine stuck around Coco Vida doing work while Sara, Sander and I went to go dive. We dived at Kalipayan which I didn’t mind doing again. The main thing we were looking for was a ghost pipefish.

Ghost pipefish after I blew it away and swam back down.

The dive was great though at one point in the dive I felt a little uncomfortable for some reason. The first thing we saw immediately on descent was a moray eel. I tried hard to find the robust ghost pipefish around the wreck but couldn’t find any. Later in the dive, Sara found an ornate ghost pipefish in a sea fan. It was beautiful, but at one point I accidentally blew it away with my bubbles while taking a picture of it. Sander found it above us and managed to push it back down to the sea fan.

The low angle of the sun makes nice lighting along the reef.

Large lionfish with a nudibranch in the background.

We saw a lot of life underwater. After the ghost pipefish, we saw several different nudibranches, a shrimp, a yellow frogfish, and a large lionfish. Towards the end of the dive, in the shallows, Sander spotted a blue-black nudibranch on the sand. Then, I spotted a couple others, and he found a few more. We ended up finding at least 8 nudibranchs in the same area. We swam farther and found at least another 10 nudbranchs! We called it the nudibranch fiesta.

Sara examines the live urchins the staff at Genesis were eating.

After the dive, we hung out at Genesis until dinnertime when I went to Oops for dinner. It was getting late in the evening and I was too lazy to drive home and cook. I forgot to go to the travel agent and ended up leaving Oops at 8:30 PM when the travel agent closes. Luckily, the agent was still working. I dropped in to ask what the deal with my ticket was.

After 6 days of waiting for my ticket to be scheduled, all the travel agent did was buy me another ticket for the time I asked. I thought she knew what an open ticket meant but I don’t think she does. I asked them what I should do and another person there said it’s probably best to cancel my open ticket and use the one they bought. Couldn’t they just call the airline -- which they already did -- to schedule my open ticket? I insisted they cancel the ticket they booked and I will just call the airline as long as they gave me the number to call. The number she gave me was completely different from the number on the airline’s website. Wonderful, that was a big waste of time.


- jason