2009 Newsletter

Hello, everybody, season's greeting from Dive Gurus, Boracay, Philippines! We wish you all had a happy and fruitful year, and we wish you many, many more!
Everything is fine at Dive Gurus. Ga, Odessa, Edwin and I are still there, still smiling. This year Ga made a huge progress as diver. She became a Master Scuba Diver last spring, then a Divemster just 1 week ago! She was the best divemaster student I'd ever had for the 15-minute float; she just went to sleep while floating like Anu did last year, but with both her hands and feet above the surface! Odessa shortly considered going abroad to work, but decided to stay, and we are very happy she is still with us. Edwin took part of the Dragon boat race, it became his passion. A new instructor, Jenny from England, joined the team for the season - come and enjoy her fish drawing skills. George Wegmann came to visit us 4 times this year and is hoping to come back more often next year.
Weather was fairly good whole year. Of course we had a few tropical depressions, but nothing major like what hit Manila last October. The wind breaker was pulled down over a week ago, and we were again amazed by the beautiful ocean view we had. Swine flu didn't reach Boracay, didn't visibly reduce the number of tourists coming here.
Underwater, more white tip sharks than ever, again babies are in the crack at Yapak. Hey, the first time I found them, there was only one. However within days there were two, then three, and now four of them. Did they clone themselves? Are they all siblings from the same mother or babies of different mothers are sharing the shelter? Eagle rays are around again, the best place to see them is Yapak, the new wall we discovered last February. Stone fish sightings have become common, there are more frog fishes than last year, and the three giant sea hare babies I spotted first last February are growing steadily.

There is much more news to share, please read previous postings, or drop us a line, or even better, come diving with us again. Dive Gurus wishes you all a happy, wet 2010!

O2 or no O2?

An Enriched Air Nitrox student of mine asked whether oxygen should be administered to a diver suffering from oxygen poisoning - who was exposed to too high pressure of oxygen by not paying attention to the maximum depth while diving with nitrox, who had a convulsion underwater and passed out. Once the diver is brought to the surface, should oxygen be given to him as first aid? It was an interesting question of which I didn't know the answer. I read the Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving, checked DAN (Divers Alert Network)'s website, but couldn't find the answer. My own feeling was that the diver should be treated as a near drowning victim, so oxygen should be given. Fortunately a diving physician came to dive at the shop, he got interested in the issue, so did a little research for me when he went back home to Germany. He couldn't find any specific mention of O2 or no O2 administration to O2 poisoning victim divers, his conclusion was that as once at the surface, emergency O2 pressure will be maximum 1 bar, so cannot worsen O2 poisoning, and also as the diver may have swollow some water while unconscious which may cause a malfunctioning of his lungs, an Oxygen toxicity victim diver would need emergency oxygen like any other near drowning victim. He also added that an acute oxygen toxicity is completely reversible. I did find on the internet that pulmonary O2 poisoning can happen with O2 pressure of less than 1 bar but only after a very long exposure to O2. So, don't worry, divers, just give oxygen.

I am looking for a partner for a little research. After seeing melibes for three consecutive years(please read my postings of April 07 and March 09), I started understanding when and where to find them and what to check to identify different species of melibe, and I want to learn more! Next year between late February and early May I'd need a partner who wouldn't mind going out night after night to study these little weird creatures. I'd need a diver who can handle buoyancy at 2-3 meters deep well enough not to disturb the bottom even during picture taking, who can take clear pictures of tiny details such as rhinophores, or tips of cerata, and who are passionate about muck diving. Anybody interested?

Boracay November news

Hello, everybody, winter is on its way, but water in Boracay is still 28'C. However wind has changed, started blowing from East-Northeast, so the beach in front is calm. Diving has been really exciting lately, eagle rays are back in Punta Bunga and Yapak K. Klaus, the diver after him the Yapak K was named, was back earlier this month, of course he wanted to go back to the place, and since he came back, every time divers went to Yapak K, they saw eagle rays. Yapak 2 has right now a great barracuda hanging right after the Sweetlips corner, and also two new babies in the long crack. Stone fishes have become quite common, there are two at Friday's, and I saw a beautiful one during a beach night dive (photo courtesy Martin Everkes). The island is still quiet, but season seems to start early this year, we are all busy diving. Do hurry and join us soon!

Bad weather in Boracay?

Hello, everybody, first of all I'd like to thank all those who called or wrote to us because of the bad weather in the Philippines. Thank you for your concern, and no worries, we are all alive, kicking and diving. Typhoons usually pass by the north of the country, Boracay is way too south to be affected other than by a few days of wind and rain. The last one which caused such a bad flooding in Manila gave us 3 days of rain and wind, including one day of no diving!, but the current one, Parma, though it was much stronger, was so far from us that it hardly even rained in Boracay.

Last December we had a wild time, so many nice customers loved diving and partying at the shop, we all had a great time. Some of that crowd was back lately. Craig has been back three times since, Jonatan came back for 10 days and did 4 specialties, and left for Palau, Leo who did the Open Water course and met Young Hee (aka Michelle, one of my divemaster students last year and who was living in the island), and fell in love with her then, came back with her, and guess what! They are now married and Young Hee is 5 month pregnant! It was great to see them together again and we had a good many laughs. On the other hand, Young (aka Bebe, who did the divemaster course with me last April) is now in Tonga for a diving holiday, so she lived through the tznami, we were all worried about her, but she is fine and is still diving there.

Many divers like drift dives, as one just goes along with the current, one doesn't need much effort and can see a large area... as long as the current goes the way you like. Last week I went for a channel drift dive, which should be done during a low tide only. But when we jumped in, I found that the tide hadn't been yet changed, so the current was going the wrong direction. I couldn't drift with that current, as the boat wouldn't find us and we might have to wait for the boat a long, long time. I had two choices - first, go back to the surface, call the boat over, and jump again somewhere else to drift the opposite way, or, as the current was quite mild, swim against the current and surce near where the boat would be waiting for us. The tide was supposed to have changed one hour ago, so could change any time, and wind was very strong, our usual pick up point was already quite rough. So what do you think was the best solution? If you are likely to do many drift dives, I'd recommend to take a Drift Diver specialty, drift dives may not be as simple as you think!

September Boracay News

September is still off season because of weather, however apart from a few days of bad weather, it has been gorgeous. Water is still 30'C and very, very clear. Three days ago during a channel drift, I saw a school of 6 eagle rays! Frog fishes have also been popping up everwhere. Last night during a night dive I saw a brown long lure frog fish, and I noticed something new. It had a pair of leg-looking growths under the chin, was also using them to move!!! I had seen hundrends of frog fishes but never noiced these short extra "legs"... Diving is so fascinating, no matter how long you have been diving, you keep seeing new things or new behaviors. We also saw a moray eel inside a sea urchin, it was using the spikes to anker itself in order to hunt. So everybody, keep diving, you never know what you'll find. By the way the PADI Nitrox course is now available on line, please check PADI website eLearning.

OK, safeguard!

Hello, everybody, I have been really lazy about updating the blog, sorry! Maybe because weather was so bad most of the month of July. We did very few dives, I was busy surviving the boredom. Early August weather became good again, sunny, little breeze, water warm, and 30m visibility!!! I had a short diving holiday in Dumaguete, which is great for macro stuff. Unfortunately one of the best macro sites, Pier, had been cleaned, so nothing lived there any more, hopefully it will be divable again in a couple of years. I saw my first stargazor during a night dive, and I found it myself! I was simply waiting for my buddy to finish taking pictures, suddenly I saw teeth on sand, then found eyes, then the whole fish followed (see the picture attached). I saw another one (probably the same one) a couple of days later, then George Wegmann saw another one in Cebu a few days later, I wonder whether it's a seasonal fish? Since I came back, I have been searching for them in Boracay, but not luck yet. On the other hand frog fishes started showing up everywhere, and 5 sharks including a gray reef, at Yapak.

PADI Rescue course is always a fun for the instructors to teach, however it's common for students to want to kill their instructors. Students have to do tough excercises, when they finish and are getting out of water, the instructor will throw in a surprise or two. My latest Rescue student, Craig, ended up mistrusting me so much that he wouldn't believe whatever I said, so I had to learn a navy expression (he was an ex-Australian navy) to show him I was telling truth. Instead of crossing your heart, swearing on the bible, or spitting on your palm, you can say, "I saw two whale sharks mate, safeguard", and divers will believe you!

Green Turtles

Hi, with the month of June, Habagat (summer wind from southwest)came, it's pleasant to sit at the shop with a little breeze coming in. Weather can be sometimes rough, so during this season, we grab any good weather day. Our latest Divemaster-certified, Bebe, is enjoying now her last week of stay in Boracay - she, after the certification, worked at the shop for one month, but for her final week, decided to just enjoy the island. One morning we woke up to a beautiful blue sky, the wind was so weak that even the top of palm trees was hardly moving, so we decided to go to Panay island for two quick dives, no food (no time to prepare). We started with Lapu wall. Those of you who have been there know that it's not an easy place to find, especially when current is strong. I adjusted the drop for a strong low tide current, but once underwater I found that it was still a high tide current, luckily for us, not a strong one. We could swim against the current, however had to swim for minutes over sand to reach the wall. Every time this happened at Lapu Wall, I saw something special, and this time was no exception. We had two green turtles right at the beginning of the wall, and a third one near the end of the wall. If our drop had been good, we may have had missed them! It was my first time to see turtles there, I was hoping for eagle rays but not turtles! How do you know whether your turtles are Greens (see the attached pictures) or Hawkbills? Count the number of plates on the forehead - Greens have two, Hawksbills have four.