November 2010

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• Introduction
• Divers - friends from around the world
• Students - November
• Staff Profiles - Harry, Jeff and Corey
• Dive Sites - Harry's Reef
• Season - great diving in the winter dry season
• Special Offer - hooded vests

October and November have been a busy couple of months. We have had the pleasure of diving with divers from Japan, Singapore, Holland, China, USA, UK, Australia, Korea, Germany, New Zealand, Russia and Norway. A truly international group of divers and all great fun. It is always interesting to meet people from all over the world- all joined together with a common interest in diving

In this month's newsletter we have more about the new friends that we have made as well as some short staff profiles. With the winter months fast approaching and the return of the bigger fish to the area we have written a short piece on what to expect in the dry season as well as an introduction to Harry's Reef. Winter also means great viz and big fish. To keep you warm on your adventures we have a special offer on hooded vests.

Finally we have to mention our new email signature [below]. This pair of happy critters were spotted following the boat to Verde Island. The one on the left seems to be a bottlenose dolphin, but on the right? A free case of beer to the first person to 'name-that-fish'

It's always fun to dive with people from all over the world. This year we have had divers from as far apart as Iceland and the Navajo Nation!

This month Keith Rustvold and his friends Jack, James and Brian joined us from America. They managed to pack in about 20 dives each, including a trip to Verde island and had great meals at Hemingways. Both Brian and James came as fairly new divers and left with a lot more skill and experience under their belts. Looking forward to seeing you next year guys !

Chris Eyo also came over with an experienced group of divers from Singapore. Chris, Kenneth, Simon, Stella, Chung, Paul and Sam had some great dives with Harry.

Kenneth turned night into day with a selection of his great LED dive lights. His compnay Aunoc makes a large selection and we now have their 700 lumen model if anyone wants to try it our on a night dive.

Check out their lights at www.aunoc.com

Paul [not the shy one]

I am finally able to take a rest from teaching as Corey Froelich joins us as our new PADI instructor

October has been a busy month for courses with Jason Mataga and Scott Badger coming back to do their PADI Deep specialities. This in addition to advanced, wreck and nitrox earlier this year.

Bob Albondico [top right] flew in from Nevada and completed his PADI Tec 50 class in four days. After doing his previous tech courses in the high altitude cold waters of Lake Tahoe, he was surprised to find that you can see fish when diving ! Bob will be back in January for his Advanced Trimix course.

Another Bob, Robert Stinnisson lives in the far warmer Thailand. He spent a few days fun diving and then completed his SDI Solo Diver Course. He is now happily diving on his own on our easier sites, swimming and taking photos at his own pace.

We have had several open water students this money. Sam came from Singapore and was our instructor Corey's first student at Frontier Scuba.

From Japan we had both Mr and Mrs Sugita take us up on our special offer for Computer Nitrox Diver.

Finally a special mention has to go to Alvis Wu [photo above]. He not only completed TDI Trimix and Advanced Trimix but also did his first dive to 100m. Well done !

Above Rick and Mr and Mrs Sugita analyse their tanks

Harry Ambong is our head divemaster while Jeffrey Cabujal drives our banca, MV Spitfire

Harry is 27 years old and has been working for us for eight years. He started out filling tanks and cleaning the dive centre and now he is our chief divemaster. Harry has thousands of dives experience and a very kean eye for unusual animals. If you want to see frogfish, seahorses or mandarinfish then Harry is your man. He is married to Sheryl and has one son, James.

Jeffrey is also 27 and has been with us for five years. He drives Spitfire and does all the Verde island trips. Jeff is also a diver and first aider. He is married with three children

Corey Froelich is originally from Ohio, USA. He became a diving instructor in Honduras in central America. He has been in Puerto Galera since April and is a keen photographer, with a canon G11 as his main camera. He is fitting in realy well at Frontier and is keen to teach as many courses as possible. Welcome to the team !

It never ceases to amaze us that we are still finding new dive sites.

The latest is Harry's reef - a great muck dive in the bay near Puerto Galera. What's a muck dive? It's a site that superficially seems to be just sand and gravel, but when you look closely amazing creatures can be found.

Harry's is not a deep site - max is about 18m. On the sand we have found up to 19 sea horses on one dive. Hidden under the coral can be seen banded pipefish as well as different species of cleaner shrimp. If you remove your regulator, some species will even walk into your mouth to clean your gums - yum !

The sand is also home to quite a few flying gurnards. These fish spread their 'wings' not to fly away, but to make themselves look larger to passing predators.

Amongst some seaweed we have even found the deadly blue-ringed octopus. At just 8cm it packs a punch that far outweighs it's size as it has some of the most toxic poison known to man. Truly the Manny Pacquiao of the underwater world.

Harry's Reef is just another one of our great dive sites, just waiting for your next dive trip to Puerto Galera

Above a common helmet 'flying' gurnard with wings spread

top

Seasons - Winter [December , January, February]

We are now enterning one of my favourite times of the year to dive - Winter. Ok, the water does get a bit colder, but the big fish come out and there is so much more activity on the reef.

Winter starts by Xmas with the sea dropping to 27 degrees. By the end of January it will be 25 degrees, with occasional upwellings to 22 degrees. On land the temperature is perfect as the winter is also the dry season. Nice warm, sunny days.

All this cold weather does attract larger fish. The whitetip reef sharks [photo above] come back to the Shark Caves. Often the larger sharks are pregnant females and by the end of Winter we can usually find a few shark pups in the cave, or hiding under rocks.

Over the past four years we get thresher sharks coming into Coral Cove, Kilima Steps and Sinandigan Wall. This are truly magnificient animals and it is a thrill to see them. The largest so far has been about 3.5 meters long. We have also heard of a thresher cleaner station close to Batangas which we will be checking out this month. If it is there then we will have even more chances to see sharks.

As we are in the dry season (January to mid-July) there is nothing better than heading out to Verde Island, or the Hot Springs for some great diving and barbecue on the beach. We usually do three dives on sites which for many people are the highlight of their vacation. Be sure to enquire about Verde when booking your next trip.

Whatc to bring in the way of wetsuits? We recommend a 5mm suit in the winter, or 3mm with hooded vest. If you are slim and really feel the cold then consider adding a hooded vest to a 5mm suit. Check out our special offer below !

Special Offer

Just in time for the cold . Why not add a hooded vest to your equipment bag. It's great way to keep warm in the winter and can turn a cold 3mm ful suit into a winter warmer.

These WaterProof vests from Sweden are exceptionally well made and will last for many seaons.

Available in both men's and women's sizes we are offering them at

U$69

[20% SRP of $82]

Donsol Whale
Shark  tours 2011

Apo Reef Liveaboard cruise

April 30~4 May
[5 spaces remain]

May 14~18
[4 spaces remain]

U$660+
marine park fee

Contact Rick and book now

SDI Computer Nitrox Diver

U$170

includes 2 nitrox dives, manual and
certification