Scuba Diving in Boracay

Well, this is the other thing I'm into - scuba diving.

For so many years in the past, we have been visiting Boracay Island in Aklan Province, Philippines, as often as 3 to 4 times in a year. For the fun of it, I always try a new sport or activity while in the island, other than swimming and enjoying the beach scenes. I have tried hang gliding (with a VW motor mounted on a hang glider taking off from the water), wind surfing (I had some good 10 minutes of fame standing on the board after 50 minutes of lessons), ocean wake boarding (till my arms nearly got dislocated from my shoulders, boy - this is really hard to do in the open water towed by a speed boat), and scuba diving!

You guessed it, I loved scuba diving more that any of the other fun stuff I tried above, so I got hooked on it after completing my first certification as an Open Water Diver.  Soon enough, I found myself back in the island for my Advanced Open Water Diver course.  This is where the real underwater fun starts as after the second course, I am now able to do night dives (sounds creepy when you only get to see where your dive light is directed to, not knowing what lies beside you, but fun seeing all the nocturnal creatures under water, those glow-in-the-dark-like critters which come out only at night), drift dives (diving deep enough to allow under currents to take you and
learning how to manage it, ending up over a mile away from the dive boat), deep dives (sometimes down to wreck but only around it, not penetrating or getting inside the wreck), and other fun dives.

Diving in Bora with my brother

Last year, I spent 2 weeks back in the island completing my 3rd course as a Rescue Diver, & the Emergency First Response course on CPR & First Aid, as pre-requisites to my target, becoming a Divemaster.  In the process of completing the required minimum of 60 dives, I got to dive the wreck so many times to qualify me for a Specialty Course in Wreck Diving.  I have now recently completed the required 8 exams for Divemaster, passed all of them (never studied so hard in 3 days to prepare for them), and now eagerly awaiting for the official notification of my becoming PADI Professional - a Divemaster!

(with pics from Blue Mango Dive Resort, Boracay Island, Aklan, Philippines).