I went wreck diving again in Subic last Saturday with Bel and his best buddy, Eddie Boy. Actually, Subic is not the best place to go diving if you want to see lots of marine life. The water is murky, for one thing. On certain days, visibility is good but you’re lucky if it happens at the time you’re there. If, however, exploring shipwrecks is your thing, then yes, Subic is the place. Dive Instructors prefer Subic to Anilao for check out dives because there’s no current.
The weather didn’t look too encouraging that day because Typhoon Queenie was raging somewhere in the northern provinces so Bel decided that in case water visibility is bad, we’ll just do a day dive and go home after dinner. We did just that and not because of the storm, but because it would be more costly for us to stay overnight as there’s only 3 of us.
So, 3 easy dives for me, deepest at 80ft where the wreck of the USS New York was. I saw a lone barracuda and a lot of those upside down lean fishes, with a long “snout”… don’t know what they’re called. Second dive was at the wreck site of Sunken Tin where the corals are alive and more aquatic animals to be seen like clown fishes, angel fish, spanish dancer, and lion fish. Third dive was at the wreck site of El Kapitan where I finally passed by CESSA drill (Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent) where at a depth of about 20 ft., I had to take one full breath from my regulator and exhale slowly (aaaahhhhhh…. streaming bubbles) while ascending until I broke the surface and inflated my BCD manually, making myself float. I was so proud of myself that very moment because…I MADE IT! All of Bel’s patience and admonitions paid off. I’m now a certified open water diver!!!!!
Of course, I still need to practice my buoyancy and finning pero that should come along fine eventually as I log in more dives. I look back and remember how much I struggled learning the skills during my pool sessions and how far I’ve gone since then. Now privileged to observe marine life in their natural habitat, the difficulties I encountered during the pool sessions were worth it.
We left Subic around 8:30pm after gorging on pork barbeque and rice. I was feeling so giddy that when I got home past midnight, I couldn’t sleep because I was reliving the day spent underwater.
As the Korean divers would say, “Its very OK!!”
The weather didn’t look too encouraging that day because Typhoon Queenie was raging somewhere in the northern provinces so Bel decided that in case water visibility is bad, we’ll just do a day dive and go home after dinner. We did just that and not because of the storm, but because it would be more costly for us to stay overnight as there’s only 3 of us.
So, 3 easy dives for me, deepest at 80ft where the wreck of the USS New York was. I saw a lone barracuda and a lot of those upside down lean fishes, with a long “snout”… don’t know what they’re called. Second dive was at the wreck site of Sunken Tin where the corals are alive and more aquatic animals to be seen like clown fishes, angel fish, spanish dancer, and lion fish. Third dive was at the wreck site of El Kapitan where I finally passed by CESSA drill (Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent) where at a depth of about 20 ft., I had to take one full breath from my regulator and exhale slowly (aaaahhhhhh…. streaming bubbles) while ascending until I broke the surface and inflated my BCD manually, making myself float. I was so proud of myself that very moment because…I MADE IT! All of Bel’s patience and admonitions paid off. I’m now a certified open water diver!!!!!
Of course, I still need to practice my buoyancy and finning pero that should come along fine eventually as I log in more dives. I look back and remember how much I struggled learning the skills during my pool sessions and how far I’ve gone since then. Now privileged to observe marine life in their natural habitat, the difficulties I encountered during the pool sessions were worth it.
We left Subic around 8:30pm after gorging on pork barbeque and rice. I was feeling so giddy that when I got home past midnight, I couldn’t sleep because I was reliving the day spent underwater.
As the Korean divers would say, “Its very OK!!”