Malapascua Island - Philippines

[diver-hloc]

Hi.... some shoots from my recent Malapascua dive trip. 1st thing 1st...... this trip 'Sucks' !!

THE BAD
1) Cebu Pacific Air 'misplace' half the planes luggage.... 2 plane was on the tarmac at The Buget Terminal, one going Cebu, the other Manila..... you guess it, our Dive Gears including my U/W camera casing took an extra trip to Manila.
2) When we did finally get our gears (the same day at 10pm)..... the dive was less than good. The Visibility was only about 15metre on the 1st dive day..... dropping to just around 7metre on day 2 & 3.
3) Due to the bad Vis...... we didn't see the Thresher..... only a friend of mine manage to sight the shark for 2 second.... while the rest of us only saw an outline of the shark for around 2 second too..... Even Gato Island doesn't have good Vis, and the water current was crazy at most part of the island.....

THE GOOD
1) At last I saw my 1st Manta Ray !! Was so excited till I keep shooting Video and forgotton to take any photo.... not as if photo would be any good due to the bad Vis.....
2) The food is at least cheap and good.
3) After seeing how the avg philippines ppl lives..... I'm glad I live in S'pore....

#1 in HDR


#2 in HDR


#3 in HDR


#4 in HDR

[diver-hloc]

#5


#6


#7


#8

[diver-hloc]

#9


#10


#11


#12


#13

[antacid]

#10 Nice pointer. I never really figured out why divers need pointers...now i know why.

[diver-hloc]

#14


#15


#16



The rest of the photos are here - Flickr - Malapascua Dive Trip


Thxs for viewing..... Hope my next dive trip (Lembeh Straits) would be less of a headach.

[diver-hloc]

Originally Posted by antacid #10 Nice pointer. I never really figured out why divers need pointers...now i know why.

Err.... Thresher Shark Divers have a strict "No gloves, No pointer" Rule...... That pointer belongs to the DM. And if you look carefully, the Nudi is not touching the pointer.

But the pointer does give a good scale to as to how big the Nudi is....

[antacid]

yup it does show the scale..but i think it spoils the photo.

sorry to hear about your sucky trip...logistics are always a PITA!

[diver-hloc]

Originally Posted by antacid yup it does show the scale..but i think it spoils the photo. sorry to hear about your sucky trip...logistics are always a PITA!

Hahaha..... I got a few more shot without the 'pointer'. But this photo is the only one which the nudi is clearly in view. Hard to shoot under the inside of a 'overhang' with current......

[lovells19]

Nicee

last time i went there the vis at the thrasher side was about 10m max, it swam over us, we almost missed it.

no mandarin fish??

[diver-hloc]

Originally Posted by lovells19 Nicee last time i went there the vis at the thrasher side was about 10m max, it swam over us, we almost missed it. no mandarin fish??

Got..... but not nice. Forget to use the Strobe's 'guild-light' with the Red filter, with all those excititment...... The DM doesn't allow us to turn on our divelight when shooting mandarinfish, too dark for the camera to focus properly. I think I only got 1 or 2 clear shot only.

#15


#16


Vis wasn't too good either..... Hahaha, the price we paid for going during 'Off Season'...

[lovells19]

Ohh ah yeah after they start mating you can shine liao!

[Gymrat76]

Lovely shots, particularly #12 and #16

[diver-hloc]

Originally Posted by Gymrat76 Lovely shots, particularly #12 and #16

Thxs Bro.....

Personally speaking..... I wasn't too happy with the photos for this trip. Was looking forward to 'Muck' diving..... but the amount of 'New' Nudi I haven't seen before was very limited..... Really considering a trip back to Lembeh next year......