Dive Gurus Boracay

April 10 Diving News

2010-04-22T11:27:00.005+08:00

It's April, and it's hot in the Philippines. Water temperature went above 28'C. The green algue is still there but started receding. Diving is good, the grey reef shark is still at Yapak. Last week it charged toward us2, 3 times to veer away the last moment, it came as close as 3-4m from me. I wondered whether it was feeling agressive, whether any of us was going to be attacked, because normally grey reef sharks would just hang in the current. However we all ended the dive safely.

Pygmy seahorses are back at Crocodile island (picture courtesy Craig Steward - Can you find it? If not, look for the tail in the center of the picture)! They are still very, very small, so I'd recommend a magnifying glass to see them properly. They were found in an area where there had been pygmy seahorses years ago. Unfortunately, however, a careless diver stepped on the fan, it got broken then seahorses left it. Luckily for us the sea fan recovered, so pygmy seahorses came back to the same fan, then a typhoon blew away the sea fan, ever since we didn't see any pygmy seahorses there till a few days ago. Let's hope this time nobody would disturb them and they would grow big and fat enough to spot easily.

A couple of days ago I did another beach night dive. I was hoping to see sea hares or melibes mate, because an instructor friend of mine saw hundreds of them mate on April 15. I knew from experience that nothing would happen the following night, but a few days later they might mate again. So I waited till April 20. Well, we didn't see sea hare or melibe mate, on the other hand, saw reeftop ghost pipefishes mate!!! Belly to belly as I saw seahorses do on TV. Craig tried but with the macro lens he had and as these fellas were turning, he couldn't get a good shot of the bellies, still you can see that these two were staying unnaturally close to each other. Later I also saw two rub their neck against each other, then seperate. I don't know whether these were the ones which I had seen mate, whether they were saying, "thank you for the great night" or whether these were different ones, and they checked out each other and decided not to go ahead??? Before I found them mating, I noticed that instead of crawling on the reef as usual, they were hovering motionless mid-water, which was a very strange behaviour. Obviously this gesture precedes a mating, so maybe they were displaying their readiness to mate? A species of sea hare, Aplysia, also swim very actively on their mating might instead of moving lethargically on the bottom. So whenever you notice a strange behaviour, even from something you have seen hundreds of times before, pay close attention, you may witness some mindblowing action!

The shop was closed on March 22

2010-04-07T09:49:00.004+08:00

Hello, everybody, sorry I didn't update the blog last month. I took a one-month holiday so didn't have much to say about diving. I came back in time for Ga's wedding. Ga and Jojo had a church wedding on March 22 in Kalibo. They had known each other for 18 years, had been civilly married for 11 years before this church wedding. Now they say they feel blessed and "clean", they are happy they can now take communions, and make confessions without feeling they are comming a sin. It was a great wedding, in a beautiful cathedral. Many people came, incluing friends from other dive shops in the island. The whole shop was invited, so Dive Gurus was closed for the day (closing the shop for the whole day may happen once a year or not even). Ga was radiant, Jojo looked proud. The wedding was followed by a reception during which I had a good laugh. Two doves were taken out of their cage, as a symbol of freedom, the MC said, however they were caught again a few seconds later and put back in the cage. I understand doves were expensive, but still it should have been done with a little more discretion, instead of catching them in front of the guests and keeping the cage in full view... The birds were experts of weddings, one of them didn't even bother flying.

About diving, a grey reef shark has been hanging around Yapak 2, ghost pipefishes started disappearing, there are two new giant sea hare babies, water temperature is higher than 27'C, and we all hate the green algue and are hoping they will leave soon. Will write more about diving next time!

Sorry, this is the picture

2010-02-19T19:21:00.002+08:00

Sorry, guys, for some reason I couldn't attach the picture to my previous posting,here comes the picture...

Donkey ghost pipefish?

2010-02-19T18:57:00.005+08:00

From January through March much more ghost pipefishes can be sighted than usual, especially during beach dives. This year is no exception. On the other hand this year two pairs of interbreeding? ghost pipefishes were found - one couple was a long tail and a harlequin (I'm not too sure of its identity, please look at the picture and tell me what you think. Picture courtesy Craig Steward)ghost pipefishes together, and the other couple was a long tail and a halimeda ghost pipefishes. As you can see on the picture, they chose a spot which would offer protection for both of them, and they stayed together for days (after three days we couldn't find them any more, they could have seperated or moved to somewhere else). Were they staying together for convenience - I scratch your back, you scratch mine?, or had they mated? If so, what will their babies look like? If a horse mates with a mule, the baby will be a donkey, which cannot reproduce. Will it be the same for ghost pipefishes?

Eagle rays were regularly seen at Punta Bunga for a while, but not any more. On the other hand we saw something which had rarely, if ever, been seen. We earlier noticed a pregnant white tip shark hanging around at Punta Bunga. On February 8, divers saw a mother and a baby (about the size of a trevally) white tip sharks together!!!!! They were resting on the bottom, but when divers approached, they started swimming away. The mother went to the right but the baby swam to the left, and the mother, seeing it, made a sharp turn and joined the baby. I have seen thousands of white tip sharks including hundreds of babies. Normally baby white tip sharks finds shelter in a crack or a hole, stay in the shelter for several months (I read on the internet a note from an aquarium expert that the baby white tips would stay in the shelter till they were about 1.4m long, which more or less corresponded to what I had seen). Occasionally big sharks were sighted around the shelter. However white tip sharks behaving as a family? A white tip female showing a mother instinct? Never seen, never heard, and an expert in Australia we contacted said that such a behavior had never been witnessed. I first thought that the baby had just been born and the mother hadn't had time to find it a shelter. So we were extremely surprised to find them again, together at the same spot, on February 18. This morning (February 19) a team of divers went back with a camera, determined to stay on the spot making very small bubbles so that the sharks would come back to their favourite place to be filmed, but unfortunately the mother and the baby were not found. Does anybody know anything about white tip family behaviour?

They are back!

2010-01-22T18:53:00.003+08:00

Happy new year! May 2010 be for all of you a year of fun, happiness, and fulfillment. We are all fine in Boracay. This month weather was grey and windy for a while, but now it's sunny again with less strong wind (surfers are complaining). Water temperature dropped once to 22'C, but went back to 24'C. Visibility, on the other hand, is very good, so though we are freezing, we still enjoy diving.

Those of you who were certified in December and January, please be patient. PADI must have been inondated with christmas mail, has been really slow at processing certificates.

As I said in my previous postings, eagle rays are back at Punta Bunga, at every dive there, we saw one to three eagle rays. Drifting seaweeds started arriving, the bottom is being covered, a condition which ghost pipefishes love. There are two or three at Camia wreck, and several around the rocks in front of the shop. We have 3 kinds of ghost pipefish here. First, harlequin ghost pipefish, a really ornate one, second, longtailed ghost pipefish (usually brown. When you see them, you'll have no doubt about their identity), and last, halimeda ghost pipefish (see picture). Halimeda is the name of a sea grass. If you find a ghost pipefish but are not sure which one it is, it probably is a halimeda. I'm still not sure how to identify a robust ghost pipefish, please help!

Seaweeds have arrived earlier than usual, so melibe (see my posting of April 07) and seahare "aplysia" (see my posting March 09) are already here. Are they one month earlier than usual, or is it because this year I intentionally searched for them when I saw seaweeds arrive?

The more one dives, the more interesting diving becomes. At first one is overwhelmed by what one sees, then one wants to spot things oneself, then one starts understanding underwater creatures' behaviors, then actively looking for certain behavior. One keeps learning, and it's so much fun!

2009 Newsletter

2009-12-05T09:05:00.002+08:00

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?

2009-11-27T08:40:00.003+08:00

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

2009-11-20T18:16:00.003+08:00

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?

2009-10-03T15:13:00.004+08:00

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

2009-09-18T08:55:00.003+08:00

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!

2009-08-28T08:40:00.002+08:00

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

2009-06-25T16:10:00.003+08:00

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.

May News from Boracay

2009-05-24T08:51:00.002+08:00

Hello, everybody! Hope that you are all doing well, and not affected by the bad economy or the swine flu. We are fine here, weather, though sometimes it rained, which is not normal for the month of May, is in general fine, and water is more than 29'C. We had a new divemaster certified, a Korean girl nicknamed Bebe (a great cook!), and Ga, our manager, has done more specialties and just become a Master Scuba Diver, congratulations!!!

This month we are seeing barracudas everywhere - yellowlined barracudas at Camia, Coral Garden and Angol Point, giant barracudas at Channel, and pickhandle barracudas also at Camia. Giant sea hares were seen mating twice! during the past month, a lot more than usual spanish dancers and octopus can also be found. The two frog fishes at Fridays are still there growing fat, and stone fishes were also sighted there several times. Though water is warmer than normal, corals are not bleaching yet, everybody please cross your fingers!

Take care and stay wet, and do write to us from time to time.

Does anybody know?

2009-04-21T08:50:00.002+08:00

I told you in my previous posting that I had just finished a Tubbataha trip. It was a wonderful trip, but I still missed my little weird creatures back home. So as soon as I came back, I did a beach night dive. It is really interesting to dive at the same site over and over, because one can notice the changes. During the dive I saw for the first time giant sea hare babies. Hmm, I saw 2 giant sea hares mate last February, it seems too early for them to lay eggs, for the eggs to hatch, and for the babies to grow up to 10 cm... Does anyone know how long sea hare eggs need to hatch?

I also found another sea hares, Aplysia oculifera, mating. Sea hares are hermaphrodites, have both male and female organs, but for reproduction, they need partners. The funny thing is that several of them will get together, form a chain to have a group sex! (please read the posting "carpe diem", 2008, I think). However these Aplysia oculifera were mating only in pairs. I found nearly 20 mating pairs, checked on them several times, but never found more than two of them doing it. Actually I mentioned their mating earlier this year, then they were doing it as a group, but at that time, they were smaller (teenagers). This time, they were all big. Does their sexual behavior change with age?

Sadly I found only a few melibes, but it is probably to be expected. They seem to like the seaweed you can see on the picture, which is seasonal only in Boracay. The seaweed is now gone, so soon melibes will completely disappear, I suppose. Though I haven't found any eggs this year, this time I saw a tiniest melibe, about half a centimer, so they are reproducing. Does anybody know the name of the seaweed on the picture?

There are so many things we need to learn about the ocean, that's what makes diving fantastic. Come back and dive with us again soon!

2009 Tubbataha

2009-04-19T15:15:00.002+08:00

On April 6, I returned once again to Tubbataha on board of Dschubba (www.moonshadow.ch). Weather was good, though there was a little more wind than expected, it was not too strong, so we could dive all the sites including Bird island and Black Rock. There were so many white tip and grey reef sharks that I did a little survey, in order to see the distribution of males and females. The few I could clearly identify seem to be evenly distributed. If you don't know how to tell them apart, look from below or the side of a shark, to check whether it has clusters (see the picture) beneath the belly, right before the tail. If it has, it's a male, if not, it's a female. We also saw a lot of turtles, and I'll be very happy if someone tells me how to tell a male apart from a female. Jacks and barracudas were also everywhere. 1 buddy team saw a manta, also hammerheads were seen twice. Several divers saw a porcupine ray for the first time. For me, the really new thing was a tuna catching a jack. I saw tunas or trevallies hunt many times, but I had never seen them actually catch something. The jack was struggling in the tuna's mouth, I wonder whether the tuna managed to keep it, as they were practically of the same size. During one dive we also saw 300! bumphead parrot fishes, don't laugh, I really counted!

This year 4 boats of Expedition Fleet company, Dschubba, and Palau Sports are doing regular trips to Tubbataha. I was told that Ocean Hunter sometimes would do special trips. Google them if you are interested. Tubbataha reef is located southeast of Puerto Princessa, Palawan, in Sulu sea. It is one of the best diving destinations in the world but not as well known as Great Barrier reef or Sipadan (though in my opinion, better diving in Tubbataha), because one can dive there only for a little more than 2 months a year, and trips have to be done on a liveaboard. Dive sites are mostly vertical walls between 5 and 60 meters, wherever you jump, you see sharks, turtles, barracudas, jacks, big rays, and other big schools of fishes. Liveaboards offer 4-5 dives a day, so all one does is to dive, dive, dive (and eat inbetween). The boats tend tobe filled quickly, so make a reservation early.

Global warming?

2009-03-08T08:36:00.002+08:00

Winter 2008 was very cold in many countries, but not in Boracay. Water temperature sometimes went down to 24'C but only for a few days then went back to 26'C. Now it's 26-28'C. This seems to be only local as friends in Puerto Galera or Donsol didn't notice it. On the one hand I am worried that corals in Boracay will bleach again, but on the other hand, no complaint about warm water! This warm sea also brought season algae (I don't know its name yet) which provides food and shelter for babies for many little things. We have been seeing so many ghost pipefishes - usual harlequin as well as longtailed and halimeda, melibes have arrived as well, this time melibe engeli and a mysterious melibe I can't identify. I wrote to an expert about this new melibe, will tell you as soon as I get the reply, and sea hares started mating, too. This time it is Aplysia species. The other night we found three medium-size ones mating, a few minutes later another one joined them. A few big ones and tiny ones were also around. It looked like that big ones were looking in with an indulgent smile (ah, the young nowadays...), and small ones, with curiosity (hey, what are you guys doing there? Can we try as well?). There are much more frog fishes around, too. Come and join us soon to see these marvelous creatures!

Yapak K

2009-02-16T16:42:00.002+08:00

I have been diving in Boracay since 1992, though I have done thousands of dives here, I still love diving in Boracay. It is so interesting to see how things change and so gratifying to visit old friends. However nothing matches the thrill of finding a new dive site. This past week we had this diver, Klaus, who loved adventures so he pushed us to go to new places or dive differently at familiar sites, and he wanted to go to Yapak 4. I have done it a few times years ago without learning where to jump from the boat, then I tried it a couple of times but couldn't find it. Edwin, Anthony, Junior (captain) and I put our heads together to decided on the drop. The first drop was wrong but we still enjoyed a nice drift dive, the second one was much better, the third one was the best. I was not too sure whether it was Yapak 4 or not, but it was a beautiful and fascinating wall formation, looked like a really good place for big things. It was not a straight wall, so sometimes we had to fight the current to stay on the wall. As the top was deeper than Yapak 2, our bottom time was pretty limited, we couldn't really map it. Now I am waiting for my next divemaster student in order to give him/her this place as map assignment, Anthony is even considering to do the course again with me to do it! We now know where to drop during the high tide, I'll also try it during a low tide, is anybody interested?

New instructor at Dive Gurus

2009-02-10T15:49:00.003+08:00

Hello, how are you all doing? The world economy is bad, I hope none of you is suffering from it too much. The island is a only little quieter than usual, maybe because some people, seeing no job available back home, decided to travel or to stay longer? That was the case for Anthony, our new staff member. He initially came to do the divemaster course, we all liked him so offerd him a job at the shop, and thinking of England in winter, without much hope for a job, he stayed on, et became instructor just 3 days ago. We are all immensely happy for him, he will head home soon, but he is coming back, for sure! George came as an instructor examiner, so we had, as usual, a great party all together.

Negative Exit

2009-01-07T08:57:00.003+08:00

Happy new year, everybody! How was your partying? We had usual fireworks from the beach + from a cruise ship, which was very nice. The sun cannot make up its mind, but at least we haven't had any rain. On the other hand wind has been really strong. Yesterday wind SEEMED to have weakened, we decided to go to Yapak. On the way I saw that waves were getting big, so decided to turn around to dive somewhere else. At that moment the engin stopped. The boat captain later said the boat had been hit by a piece of wood, but with huge waves, nobody saw the wood. Fortunately there was another dive boat nearby which came to help, and Ga also immediately sent a rescue boat. One of the boats started towing ours, we thought that our trouble was finished. NO! Suddenly the boat started taking in water really fast, within a minute or two it went under. The divers transferred to the other two boats and came home safely. Having a boat to go under was a novel experience for all of us, but nobody felt nervous. First of all two other boats were nearby, secondly the beach was not far, we could easily have swum even dive to the shore, and thirdly as we were going to Yapak, when the engin stopped, we already have all the equipments, tank, fins, mask, etc., on us. When the engin stopped, I asked the divers to keep the equipments on, but one of them put his mask down. Then when we had to leave the boat, he refused to go till he found his mask (I picked up every loose thing and put them in my gear bag, so his mask was safely in there but he didn't believe me). It was quite funny actually to see him with full gear on but wearing sun glasses, sitting knee deep in the water. He said later that it was his first time to do a negative exit. So when conditions are bad, keep everything on you, don't let things lie around. By the way that was not the Dive Gurus boat, it was a rental boat. Ga sent a second rescue boat to bring the rental boat back home and the shop is also helping out financially the boatmen so that they could fix the boat. No worries!

2008 Newsletter

2008-12-19T10:45:00.006+08:00

There's a place in Boracay called "black hole", and that's Dive Gurus! Customers find it very hard to leave us, some managed to, only to come back in a couple of days... We are having an excellent time, the only complaint is too much partying as you can see on our christmas party piucture!2008 was a good, eventful year. Ga, Odessa, Edwin and I are still here, and Anthony, after completing his Divemaster course at the shop, joined the team. We have seen this year many pygmy seahorses and slugs, white tip shark babies are still in the crack, eagle rays are back at Camia deep though not in a school, the famous typhoon which devastated Panay left Boracay untouched. We also have been doing a lot more underwater clean ups, nearly one a month, participants not only helped the environment but also saw some exciting things such as sea horses. Many more than usual Rescue, Specialty and Divemaster certificates have been issued this year, so obviously people enjoyed doing training at the shop. This month the island got busy much earlier than usual, maybe because of what happened at Bangkok airport? We are all fine, but miss you, hope to dive again with you soon! Do check other news on the blog. Best wishes for 2009 from the paradise.

November News

2008-11-27T07:57:00.004+08:00

Hello, everybody, how are you doing? We are all fine here at Dive Gurus. Weather is beautiful, water is still more than 29'c, and ghost pipefishes are back at the wreck. The windbreaker has finally come down, giving us a full view of the ocean, it's so beautiful! As it's still quiet, we have more time for ourselves and friends, we also are trying new sources of income. Hope you will join us soon!

Panagatan trip

2008-10-25T12:42:00.002+08:00

Last week I took an overtight trip to Panagatan island, 4 hours away from Boracay. Most dive sites there are deep drop-offs, so deep that some dive shops don't allow divers to go and touch the top of the drop-offs, but make them wait mid-water. when it's good, the place is full of sharks and big rays, on the other hand, it can be really boring, seeing nothing but blue water. During last week's trip we had a few white tip sharks and a couple of eagle rays and feather-tailed rays, which are rare and I had seen only before in Tubbataha. However we met a whale sharks at the surface and snorkeled with it. Weather was perfect, sea was mirror-calm, we all slept outside, and I was lucky enough to see a shooting star. all the divers were very, very happy. If you are interested in such a trip, please write to me at jungeuny@hotmail.com. These trips are not regular, shops will go when there are enough customers, and the price for the moment is about 7,000P a day.

Clean or not clean?

2008-10-06T19:47:00.003+08:00

Hello, everyone, sorry long time no update. I've been having trouble with my laptop. As many of you know, last September 20 was an international cleanup day. Many divers in Boracay went out to pick up garbage. One of the divers at the shop showed concern that we would pick up things that critters were using as shelter, but I thought that as we were going to pick up only nonbiodegradable garbage, his concern was unfounded, however... A few days ago we went diving at Bat Cave. It's a series of extremely shallow caverns at the northeast corner of the island, it's so shallow (between 1 and 3 meter deep) and an overhang environment, buoyancy control is critical and one should not be claustrophobic. There is no corral, and are very few fishes, but we do this dive to see sea snakes, lobsters, crabs, shrimps, and moray eels. It's a very special dive, and as far as I know, Dive Gurus is the only one doing it. One of the crabs we see there is sponge crab. They carry all their life a piece of sponge over their head to hide under. I indeed have seen them carry sponge as well as a real live soft coral and a half coconut shell. This time I found one carrying a plastic sac, like a rice sac. This shows the creature's amazing adaptability to environmental changes, and I now wonder whether to do a beach cleanup or not? What do you think?

Two new very happy divemasters

2008-08-09T17:01:00.004+08:00

We just had a big party to celebrate two brand new divemasters. Anu was always in good mood, always willing to do more, and Carolyn, a true professional, was always ready for the job no matter how she felt. Their course was the most liquid course I'd ever taught. However despite the partying, despite the bad weather, we finished it in three and half weeks. We worked hard and played hard, who can ask for more?

Pygmy seahorses everywhere!

2008-07-28T10:20:00.003+08:00

While 2006 was a year of frog fish and 2007 was that of eagle rays, 2008 seems to be year of little things. It started with finding mandarin fishes, then sea hares were seen mating in a group orgy, and now we keep finding pygmy seahorses. Laurel 2 always has them but we can dive there only in summer time when wind is blowing from southwest, and as current is usually strong there, it was not easy to see them. The sea fan with pygmies at Crocodile was once stepped on and broken, regrew, but finally got swept away with the December 2006 typhoon. Now we can see them behind the wreck at 30m deep, and the day before yesterday I found another sea fan with pygmies at Crocodile. These two places can be dived year-round, and the sea fans are very easy to find. So come and meet our new tiny friends. By the way, the signal is cheeks puffing, to imitate their breathing...

E-mail address change

2008-07-02T11:22:00.003+08:00

Hi, I forgot to tell you that my e-mail address for this blog had changed. Before, when you left a comment, it was sent automatically to my Dive Gurus address, but that address is no more functional. So when you write a comment, please include your e-mail address so I know who you are. To those who wrote a comment but to whom I didn't get back, I'd like to appoligise. If you'd like to write to me, you can send mails to jungeuny@hotmail.com. Sorry for the inconvenience.

After the typhoon

2008-07-02T09:19:00.002+08:00

Weather is again beautiful. Visibility recovered. Water was so clear that I could see, on the way to Camia, around 10m, all the little details on corals! This picture was taken at 6h 15 pm, I couldn't do justice to the colour of the sea, can you believe that such a tender pale blue sea was possible at that hour?

Survival Guide

2008-06-25T14:05:00.002+08:00

You may have heard of a big typhoon in the Philippines. A ferry carrying 800 people sinking not too far from Boracay was an international top news. The typhoon caused an enormous damage in Panay island. Luckily, however, in Boracay, only a few boats sank, some roofs leaked, but no other major damage was caused to life or property. Still power was cut off for 4 days, phone and planes, for three days. So what do you do when you are stranded away from civilisation? All chores - cooking, washing, cleaning, etc. - have to be done during daylight hours, once it gets dark, nothing more can be done but sitting around a kerosene lamp, chatting, rinking, singing, enjoying a quality time with friends. Try it, you will like it! The only complaint I have is that we are losing the beach. After the big typhoon in December 2006, so much sand had blown onto the street and into houses, the beach definitely became smaller. Again this time the beach lost so much sand, cement blocks you can see on the picture which were before buried, are now exposed, and at a high tide, there is practically no beach left! Well, you know what you can do, when you come back or send friends over, don't take away the famous white sand of Boracay as souvenir!

Not worth abstaining

2008-06-06T09:28:00.003+08:00

Hi, everybody, how are you doing? We are all fine, and weather is simply gorgeous. I took a picture yesterday at high tide. Sea was so calm that the shadow of the palm tree was actually on the surface, air was cristal clear, and you couldn't stay away from water. June is considered off season, travel guides say that weather is bad in June, but as you can see, it's not! Water is warm (30'c), clear, perfect for diving. So I have been doing a lot of beach night dives. One day I decided to go much later than usual 6h 30 pm-ish, to see whether I could find anything different. The most difficult thing was not to drink till 9h pm... However we didn't see anything unusual, so it was not worth delaying drinking!!! I once also tried a predawn dive, we jumped before 5h am while it was totally dark, to finish after 6h, after the sun rise. We didn't see anything special. However what was interesting was that at first there were very few kinds of fishes around, then about 20 minutes before the sun rise, suddenly everybody was awake, busy eating and cleaning. If you have any recommendation about when to dive to see something special, please let me know, but make it worthwhile not drinking!

May 2008 Boracay News

2008-05-17T10:37:00.002+08:00

Hi, everybody, long time no news. Since my last posting, I have been to Tubbataha reef. It's a huge reef southeast of Palawan. It's one of the best diving destinations in the world, however it's less well known than, for example, Great Barrier Reef in Australia, because it can be dived only about 10 weeks a year, and has to be done by liveaboards. I have been going there since 1999, and every year it's better! One can see so many different sharks (white tip, grey reef, nurse, leopard, hammerhead, silver tip, and whale sharks), big rays (manta, eagle, marble, porcupine and fantail), barracudas, turtles, jacks, and big schools of other fishes. It's wonderful to spend one week on a boat, seeing nothing but the sky and the ocean, doing nothing but diving and eating. If you are interested, drop me a line at jungeuny@hotmail.com, not at jungeuny@divegurus.com, unfortunately that address doesn't work any more.

Diving has been exciting also in Boracay. I saw so many fascinating slugs during beach dives, including my old friend, melibe engeli (please read the posting of last year), and Edwin found mandarin fishes at Coral Garden. A mandarin fish is a very colourful and extremely shy fish. They are usually hiding but will come out at dawn and dusk. That's why they are so hard to find. Nobody is diving at dawn, and by dusk, we are either done for the day or having a break before a night dive. One day Edwin's dive ar Coral Garden got delayed, so he left at shortly before 5 o'clock, and bingo, he found mandarin fishes! Since then mandarin fishes were seen 4 times at the same place, same time.

Odessa, secretary, had a church wedding in Kalibo a few days ago. The church was beautiful and Odessa was radiant. So much attention was given to all details, everything went perfectly, except that I was wearing a wrong-coloured dress. So a piece of advice. If you are acting as sponsor at a Filippino wedding, wear whitish clothes, otherwise you will be an eyesore!

This is it for today, till next time, take care, and keep wet.

Carpe Diem

2008-03-28T10:27:00.003+08:00

Remember my posting about giant sea hares' mating of last December? I told you that several of them sometimes would form a chain to mate, but that day I saw only two mate. Finally I found them having a group sex! Last night I found a different type of sea hare, found at least 45 of them in a very small (about 4m wide) area, among which two groups of 5 each were found mating. Something provoked their mating frenzy, maybe the length of daylight, maybe water temperature, maybe food (right now there is no more wind, seaweeds and plants are growing fast)? Will they be still doing it tonight or last night was special? After the dive, whole evening, we were singing "tonight was the night"... We also found again 2 melibe engeli (please read the posting of March 2007). Yes, now is the time for beach night dives, hurry up!

Learn at home

2008-03-10T18:00:00.002+08:00

Hi, everybody, sorry for a long absence. I have been really busy these past two months, yes, even on a beautiful tropical beach, life can be hectic. So why make it difficult? Go for the easy way!

Did you know that now one can start learning diving on-line? If you go to PADI website www.padi.com, you will see the eLearning option. Just click it, and you can start your Open Water Diver course then and there. Students can finish all the knowledge development part of the course at home at their leisure. No more reading the book and do the knowledge reviews while suffering from the beach party the night before! Honestly who likes to study during a holiday? This way students can do only the fun -wet- part when they arrive in Boracay. Those who sign up for eLearning will be able to choose a dive shop they want to dive with later (of course, Dive Gurus for Boracay), they can write to the shop to get in touch with one of the shop instructors, who will be available for any extra information students may need during the knowledge development. Doesn't it sound cool? So pass the word around, get your friends initiated even at home!

Dive Gurus Boracay: Camia News

2008-01-13T08:52:00.000+08:00

www.divegurus.com

Camia News

2008-01-09T09:27:00.000+08:00

Hi, everybody, happy new year! We have started a new year with the exciting news of a whale shark showing up at Camia wreck. It was sighted twice in two days, though unfortunately not by Dive Gurus. I have been diving in Boracay for 15 years, and this is my first time to hear about a whale shark here, cool, isn't it? Somebody (we don't know yet who) also put a christmas tree on the wreck. The tree is bare but the fishes more than make up for it.

Want a baby?

2007-12-28T11:09:00.000+08:00

Would you like to have a baby white tip shark? How about two? Or five? Right now at Yapak 5 white tip babies are stacked together in a single crack. They are less than 1 meter long. I read on the internet that a female white tip shark might give birth up to 5 pubs, so presumably they are all brothers and sisters. We noticed before that a baby shark would stay at the same shelter till it was more than 1m long, then it would leave, but still come back from time to time for a while. I also read that a baby shark would have to be at least 1.2m long before joining the adult world, otherwise they might get eaten by big bullies. For the moment it's nice and cozy for the babies, hopefully nobody -human or animal- would disturb them!

Season's Greetings 2007

2007-12-19T15:10:00.000+08:00

Hello, everybody, merry christmas and happy new year from Dive Gurus! Wish you another year of happiness, professional successes and personal fulfillment!

We are all well here, the island is as beautiful as ever, weather has been gorgeous this year except three weeks last September. Boats are not allowed to come to beach between Station 1 and Station 3, which makes the beach so much prettier. Boats from or to Caticlan come only to the jetty at Cagban, so visitors don't get their feet wet while alighting.

George is still working as PADI examiner, managed to come to Boracay twice this year, Ga won a TV show quiz, Edwin has become an instructor and second time father, Odessa just gave birth to a baby boy. As for me, nothing special, but no news is good news. AJ left the island, is now in Iloilo studying and working as instructor, Jojo, Ga's husband, has also become an instructor. Hermodith is back, renamed as Dive Gurus, boasts a white manta instead of a black one. After the typhoon last yeat, Pahar restaurant was closed for several months, is now reopened with a new menu.

2007 was definitely a year of eagle rays. Where as we used to see one, maximum two eagle rays from time to time, we lately have been seeing regularly big schools (5 to 10 of them). On the other hand there have been very few frog fish sightings since last May. As I wrote several times, we discovered a fantastic mini reef right in front of the shop, the latest news - a giant sea hare mating!!!!! (read my previous posting).

I apologize about our website, it's still not functioning. I'd like to extend a sincere thank you to those friends who found us again through this blog. We can now at least receive mails again at info@divegurus.com, so please write to us, give us your news, visit the blog, and even better, come back to dive with us again!

Champagne at 32m!

2007-10-28T16:12:00.000+08:00

Remember the flishlight fish cave at Carabao island I mentioned in our 2006 newsletter? My buddy then wanted to go back there with a bottle of champagne because it was so romantic? Which led me to wonder whether one could drink champagne that deep. I knew one could drink beer at the bottom of a swimming pool, but 32m??? Finally a few days ago I returned to the cave, brought a bottle of pepsi cola with us. So, yes, you can drink champagne at that depth, but I wouldn't recommend it, sea water got mixed with pepsi, it was quite disgusting... Flashlight fishes were still there, when we turned off the light, it was so beautiful, green sparks everywhere! I searched the web to find their pictures in the dark, but all the pictures show the fish in the light, so the fish looks dull and boring. We had a great dive, and thank you, Dan, for suggesting the experiment!

October news from Boracay

2007-10-11T09:42:00.000+08:00

Hi, everybody, how are you doing and are you staying wet? We are all fine here except a hangover. One of our instructors, Rocky, is leaving today, and our divemaster, Edwin, just passed the instructor exam. So we threw a party, ate too much, drank too much, and had too much fun. Sounds familiar? Edwin also had a new baby girl, whom he named Angelina. His first baby was named Brad. So he already has names ready for the next two babies, Pitt and Jolie... Weather was bad last month, but a few days ago it turned beautiful, so hurry up, come and admire the view!

Want to be a San Miguel Beer Diver?

2007-09-04T10:06:00.000+08:00

PADI came up with a cool new course - SMB diver. If you drink one case of San Miguel Beer and can still stand, will you be certified? Ha ha, maybe. However the SMB stands for Surface Marker Buoy. During the course students will practise using different baloons. I myself have experience various troubles with baloons such as sending it from too deep, being pulled up, or having the line stuck at the bottom, etc. This is a great course for everybody, especially for those who are likely to dive independantly. So don't wait, next time you go diving, take this course and carry a baloon always with you. Of course if you do it in the Philippines you will get one SMB!

2007-07-07T08:44:00.000+08:00

Hi, everybody, how are you, guys? Here we are all fine, and weather is still good. Though the "off season" started more than one month ago, business has been steady. However on June 24, we closed the shop and had a picnic. The last time we did something like this was two years ago, so everybody was excited. We filled the boat with the staff and the family, went to Laurel island, ate, swam, some even did one dive, and drank. A few divers came with us and enjoyed the Filipino hospitality. Everybody had a great time, some more than others...

June Diving Update

2007-07-03T09:56:00.000+08:00

Hello, everybody, I have been a little lazy updating the blog. It doesn't mean that we haven't been diving. Amihan (winter wind from northeast) has become much weaker but Habagat (summer wind from southwest)hasn't really started yet, so we have been diving all around the island, including our summer favourite sites such as Laurel 2, Laguna de Boracay and Bat Cave. We noticed that Laurel 2 corals were somewhat damaged by the December typhoon, but not seriously, the fattest frog fish of Boracay is gone from its usual place at Laguna, but we are searching for its new home, and there are as many lobsters and sea snakes as ever at Bat Cave. Habagat is starting now, though it's still weak, we just have built a wind breaker in front of the shop. We certainly don't want to be caught by surprise. It will be sad if we can't dive at the mini reef in front, it's such a wonderful place. Seaweeds which covered the bottom in April and May are gone, and sea plants have also reached the end of their season, but still there is so much life there. A couple of weeks ago I found a sea horse and it's still there, and during my last night dive on the reef I saw 2 sea hares. We used to see a lot of sea hares before, but since three years they were gone. Then suddenly I found two on the same rock, which got me wondering. Sea hares are hermaphroditic, meaning they have both male and female organs. When it's time to mate, several of them get together, form a chain, and serve as male to the one in front and as female to the one behind. So two of them together, maybe soon a mating? No new big things, but we are having close encounters with eagle rays, turtles, and grey reef sharks. Yes, diving is as good during the off season as during the season!

Please help!

2007-05-31T09:02:00.000+08:00

Do you know people who keep an aquarium filled with baby tropical fishes? Some people know how to take care of the fishes, may be able to keep them alive a long time in an aquarium. However for each person who knows how to, there are dozens of other people who don't know and end up killing fishes. I don't even want to start on how these fishes are caught. So please advise your friends and family not to keep fishes as pet, not to buy any souvenirs made of ocean creatures, and, of course, not to eat shark fins! This morning I found a baby frog fish in a bucket in the house. It was a beautiful brown and black thing, a colouring that I had never seen. I wanted to know what colours it would have when it grows up. However I wanted even more to let it go. The son of the owners of the house caught it yesterday while swimming, and he was planning to keep it as a pet. The parents, though they had grown up around the ocean, didn't know that the fish would need to catch other fish to eat, so filled the bucket with seaweed as its food. I asked them to free it, if I find it still there tonight, I will just steal it and let it go. I took a few pictures of it as colours were so beautiful, but you see, I'm not a real photographer.

Oooops, I can't upload the picture. Will try later.

Pilot whales

2007-05-11T13:44:00.000+08:00

Hi, everybody! Summer has arrived in the Philippines - sun, no wind, no rain, water temperature 29'-30'C and no jellyfish. We started seeing "naked" divers, as well as strange creatures. Yesterday at Yapak divers met, upon surfacing, 3 pilot whales, which had never been seen in Boracay. While they were admiring and trying to snorel with them, a marlin jumped out of water!!! Small creatures also have been busy. Now is the time for them to breed, so they are all busy mating and laying eggs. The mini reef in front of the shop where I found ghost pipefishes and melibes is full of all kinds of eggs. It also has 3 resident baby frog fishes and 2 resident spanish dancers, among other things. Underwater world is strange and wonderful, do come and share it with us.

New Look

2007-04-11T15:18:00.000+08:00

Hi, everybody, it has been a few years since the shop moved to the current location. We felt it was time to give a new coat of paint, and a roof was built again for the terrace. How do you like the new look?

Weird!

2007-04-07T11:35:00.000+08:00

Spring has come early to Boracay, and as usual in the spring, everybody (underwater) is busy mating and laying eggs. Now is a perfect time to do beach dives. Among other wonderful creatures, we have found 3 Melibe Viridis (between 8 and 12 cm) and 2 Melibe Engeli (between 6 and 10 cm). A Melibe is a sea slug, is probably the, at least, one of the weirdest looking things found in depth accessible to recreatioal divers. I saw only once a melibe before. It was a viridis during a beach night dive. When it felt my light, it went completely still, pretending to be seaweed. I had no idea of what it was, I thought it was a strange plant. While I was watching it, a baby hermit crab crawled near, nudged it. Then it couldn't "hold its breath" any longer, had to move. That's how I discovered the animal. This year we have been seeing them both day and night, on seaweeds as well as on sand. WE also found what resembled Melibe Engeli, but they are too big and too hairy. We sent the pictures to an expert and are waiting for his reply. Some other shops have also seen Viridis but nobody but us has seen Engeli, and we are very proud!

RESIDENT GHOST PIPEFISH

2007-03-09T09:08:00.000+08:00

One week ago a diver who was reviewing his skills after 8 years of no diving and I were swimming around 4 little rocks in front of the shop at 2.5m deep. I had noticed earlier that a lot of green seaweed was covering the ground, however, what I didn't expect was that the seaweed created a kind of a mini reef and it was full of life. Among others we found 2 robust ghost pipefishes and 1 harlequin ghost pipefish, all in exactly the same shade of green as the seaweed. The robust ghost pipefishes were big! All the books said they would grow up to 16 cm, but I was convinced that they were more than 20 cm. Yesterday morning I persuaded a diver with a camera to go and measure + photographe them... They were not so big, after all. They were only 12-13 cm. Now I'd like to see the real 16 cm ones, how huge will they look to my eyes? The harlequin ghost pipefish was still there, and a couple of short-tailed pipefishes as well as a dozen reeftop pipefishes also seemed to have adopted the reef as their home, but they were camera-shy.

Panay Adventure

2007-02-20T09:47:00.000+08:00

Earlier this month, our divemaster, Edwin, went for an 3-day explore trip to Seko island, Panay. Edwin met a man who used to organise a trip to the island for fishing, and decided to try diving there. 3 customers went with him, they drove 2 hours to Culasi, then a little more than 1 hour by boat to Seko. The island was hardly bigger than a sandbar, had a few palm trees growing on it, providing some shade. They camped on the island, and dived around, and discovered that the reef was as good as the famous Apo reef, Mindoro! The visibility was more than 30 m, with many turtles and big rays. There was very little current and sea, though at that time wind was quite strong, was calm. No fresh water was available on the island, but the boat they were using could carry plenty of water, so cooking was not a problem and they even managed to take one shower a day. They spent two nights on the island, and on the way back, stopped for a dive in a fish sanctuary. The trip sounds really good, and we are eager to do it again. Please let us know if you are interested, it is fantastic that we can dive where nobody else has dived before.

Partying in Boracay

2007-02-01T12:30:00.000+08:00

In January 2007, Dive Gurus welcomed back Markus Roth, Michael and Sibylle Dubi from Switzerland, who brought more than 10 family members and friends to Boracay for a one month holiday. Some of them learned diving, some of them didn't, but all of them enjoyed a lazy, stress-free life style of the island, and appreciated that they could be together and share such a quality time. The shop also welcomed Petra Schmidt, Andreas Dungs, and Rene Imhof and two friends, who liked the diving in Boracay so much that they extended their stay from 8 days to 3 weeks! As all of them were leaving more or less at the same time, the shop offered a free underwater clean up dive and threw a party. Everybody was dancing, except Ga, our manager (shame on you, Ga), and our music was so good that it had neighbors dance, too!

Thresher Shark at Camia

2007-01-19T14:35:00.000+08:00

On January 19, a lucky Advanced student, Adrian, during his 8th dive, saw his first shark at the Camia wreck, and it happened to be a thresher shark! Lately in Boracay Dive Gurus divers have seen a guitar shark, a mola mola, a thresher shark, turtles, and large groups (seven or eight) of eagle rays. Maybe pelagic fish have heard about the beautiful Boracay beach...
Let's listen to divers' stories.

Adrian :Unglaublich, bei meinem 8. Tauchgang, waehrend meinem ersten Wrack-Tauchgang hatte ich das Glueck bereits einen Thresher Shark zu sehen. Kurz nachdem ich durch eine Lucke aus dem Wrack kam fuchtelte A.J. wie wild im Wasser herum und machte mich auf den Hai aufmerksam. Aus ca 10m erntfernung konnte ich dann die auffaellige Schwanzflosse erkennen. Dann ist der Hai aber leider schnell wieder weggeschwommen...

Micaela : What a day!!!! This was my 450th dive and a wish came true. I have seen for the first time a Thresher Shark. I just came out of the engine-room at the wreck CAMIA II and I saw the head of the shark. I thought, it can't be possible, than I've seen the long tale and I started to call A.J. and Adrian. At the same moment A.J. saw him as well. So you can imagine....... we almost freaked out!!

All the best for 2007

2007-01-05T09:46:00.000+08:00

Greetings from Dive Gurus! We wish everybody plenty of joy, laughter, and air! With the typhoon which cut the power supply for more than 10 days and the shop computer crash, we were not able to send the 2006 Newsletter to everybody. So we are posting it on the blog. For some reason I can't upload the pictures of the newletter, but still enjoy!

2006 Newsletter from Dive Gurus

Hello, everybody, this is Dive Gurus, Boracay, Philippines. We wish you all a nice wet time, and we hope we will see you again soon. In the mean time, a little bit of update.

The shop is doing better than fine, for us, season has started more than one month ago. Ga, Odessa, Edwin and Jung Eun are still here, the shop has installed a wireless network, so in between dives you can surf the internet on the beach. Weather this past summer was not very good, but now it is gorgeous. All the boats leaving Boracay now depart from one place only. Therefore, less boats moored in front of the shop provides us with a better ocean view and more safety for confined water training..

The 5th anniversary of the sinking of the Camia was celebrated with a big beach party. It was nice to have people from all the dive shops together. By the way, last May there was an unusual typhoon which directly hit the island, which moved the Camia by more than 10 meters! Luckily the Camia is still standing upright, and even ghost pipefish, which disappeared after the typhoon, have come back. White tip sharks and blue fin trevallies also disappeared from Yapak after the typhoon, and have returned only a few weeks ago. On the other hand, 2006 has been a year of the frog fish. We keep finding them everywhere; black, gray, orange, white, you name it, we have it!

BASS, Boracay Association of Scuba diving Schools, started a “Plant a coral” project with staghorn corals, the fastest growing hard coral, and plans to go on with different hard corals. Reef balls at Balinghai are slowly becoming fish friendly. On the other hand, Dive Gurus’ own coral survey project has had several setbacks. We installed a steel grid first, then a nylon grid to observe coral growth, but unfortunately they were both stolen. We are still keeping an eye on the control area, but are not using another grid. Hopefully with education, local fishermen’s attitude may change…

Divers, hold your breathe! They are so tiny! After at Laurel 2, we also found two pygmy seahorses at Crocodile island.

And for the first time ever in Boracay, a guitar shark has shown up at Yapak. So far only Edwin and a few lucky divers have seen it.

The shop also started doing day trips to Carabao island where Cathedral cave is well known. However, nearby, Jung Eun found another cave full of flashlight fish (they live only in the dark and produce their own green light). Imagine underwater fireworks at 32 m deep. It was so romantic that a diver said next time he would bring a candle. Perhaps a bottle of champaigne, too?

Two new resorts, Turtle Inn and Boracay Ocean Club, have opened in the vicinity. Turtle Inn is located behind the dive shop. Although it is not located directly on the beach, it has a superb view of the ocean and enjoys a nice breeze in all weather. The other resort, Boracay Ocean Club, is 50m down the beach from the shop. It has direct access to the beach, as well as a swimming pool. Both places are ideal for families, and we can assist you with reservation.

So what are you waiting for? Come on over, join the fun. We look forward to seeing you all very soon,

Regards from Dive Gurus, Boracay, Philippines
December 2006

Mola Mola!

2006-12-28T08:26:00.000+08:00

On December 21, 2006, I was diving at Yapak 2. Seeing that water was exceptionally cold and visibility was good, I decided to swim away from the wall into the blue at Sweetlips Corner, thinking that maybe I would find a hammerhead shark. When I was about 10 meters away from the wall, I saw something big and dark below. My fist thought was "hey, a manta!". but then I realised that it was moving in a very peculiar way. I went closer and suddenly saw it was a mola mola (sun fish)!!!!! It was the 5th time in 10 years that a mola mola showed up at Boracay. It was 1.5m long from fin tip to fin tip, and it flapped them up and down in order to move. Later I read on the internet that they could grow up to 3 m! fin tip to fin tip and weigh 2.3 tons, so what we saw was only a baby... The first time that a mola mola was sighted in Boracay was December 1996. I had just arrived here for a long holiday, but George (owner of Dive Gurus) persuaded me to do an instructor course. While I was doing the course, divers saw the first mola mola. I never quite forgave George for that, now I am happy and George can relax.

Worst typhoon ever

2006-12-27T19:04:00.000+08:00

On December 9, 2006, the worst typhoon that anybody could remember hit Boracay. It may not have been strong enough to make an international news, but here, many lives were lost and many houses and boats were destroyed. Dive Gurus was lucky in that we lost only the roof of the terrace and that our boat, Hermodith, was intact. 25 dve boats were broken or missiong. Water was cut for 2 days and power was cut for 9 days, since then it's business as usual. Many foreignerw were impressed by the way Filipinos just rolled up the sleeves and fixed things instead of waiting for help from the authorities. Luckily dive sites were not affected!