Diving Deep

It's been rather busy of late.  Not only has the work started to pick up at site but there never seems to be a dull moment during my spare time.

When I stayed with the Australians at the home-stay when I first came to Subic, I learnt that they also operate a diving school (Dive Shop Subic Bay).  I've never taken up diving as I've always been happy to just flap around on the surface of the ocean with a snorkel and fins but I figured that as I was in the right location, with the right people and the right opportunity to do the PADI open water course, I thought why not?

So I told Nathan (the owner) that I'd be interested in doing the course but I kept putting it off as I was usually doing something else trivial, but my interest was reignited once they had acquired and renovated their new (old) dive boat, the Polaris.  Nathan gave me the text book to swot up on the technical side of diving but I was rather lax in reading it, which too me back to my school days learning efforts.

The Polaris Dive Boat

Then suddenly I had a phone call from Nathan and there was a spot for me to do the training and join some other newbees that were also doing the course.  The first part of the training was done in a swimming pool and so on a Friday evening last month we went up to Kalayaan (a housing estate within Subic Bay) to use the public pool there.  This was a good move because I've never been to that part of town before and it's a very nice pool in terms of actual swimming, rather than larking around, as it is a decent length, depth and has good lane swimming facilities.

I initially thought that the pool training was all I'd being doing that weekend as I was under the impression that the rest of the course would be spread out over several weeks, but then Nathan said that he'd see me tomorrow on the boat and so the penny dropped that I'd be doing the whole course that weekend.  Consequently, back at home that night I had to really swot up again on the reading for the following day's training and examination.

On the Saturday there were two other Brits on the boat as well: Simon who was working in Singapore and already an experienced diver and his friend Mel, who's a Mancunian that lives in Slovenia but who seems to spend most of her time travelling the world on a shoestring budget, although she'd splashed out to do the same training course as myself.

Looking Good in Rubber

In some ways Subic Bay is a great spot for diving but not in others.  The waters within the bay are warm, very benign and free from strong currents.  In addition, there are plenty of wrecks to dive on within the bay that are largely a by product of the American presence.  Most are scuttled craft but some are casualties of WWII.  On the downside, the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo left a thick deposit of ash on the seabed that is easily stirred up by currents, tides weather and divers, making the visibility poor.  However, during the weekend of my dive training we were blessed with exceptionally clear waters.

Man (and Woman) Overboard

After some initial training tasks in the water we did our first dive in a place called Grande Island Canyons followed by a second dive at the Grande Island Barges, which as the name implies is a group of barges sunk off the coast of Grande Island (Grande Island is located at the entrance to Subic Bay).  The dive at the Canyons was made absolutely phenomenal when we found ourselves in school of huge, bright, silver Jack Fish that swam around us looking at us curiously through their beady, big bright eyes.  At that point I knew I had to have a dive camera, especially when I saw the results of the brilliant images and HD video that another diver had taken on his Canon G10 with an underwater casing.

I never really thought there was much to this diving malarkey - just strap an air tank on, jump in and breath away but when you start going into it, it's really quite involved and I'm glad I did the training with good instructors, with excellent equipment and facilities so that I now understand the complexities and dangers involved.  

And best of all, it gives me something else to do at the weekend to keep me occupied and out of the pubs.