sa totoo lang, scuba diving is not part of my bucket list... for some reason, I've always been anxious about having to rely on equipment to breathe... I would rather have gone bungee jumping, or parasailing or even skydiving
but i'm always for new experiences--so when an invite came, sayang naman to let it pass
this trip was at least a month in the making.. my colleagues, Lem, who is a certified scuba diver and Andrew had initial discussions around it, and since they had to form a group min of 6 pax, Jeff and I were invited to go na rin, alongside other HR colleagues and STAs
this was originally planned on a Saturday, but since October 26 was declared holiday in PH, we decided to move it earlier para we have more time to rest too. there were also initial plans to go overnight, but we ended up deciding to just go on a day trip .. initially din we were supposed to be at least 9 pax, but because of the "threatening weather" brought about by tropical storm Ofel, we were down to 5
we met past 5 am at the Petron gas station along SLEX, had breakfast muna and was relieved to see relatively clear and sunny skies. We left the station a little past 6 am and nag-convoy na lang kami all the way to Anilao. Good thing it was not that long of a travel thanks to the Star Tollway.
we arrived at Acacia Resort and Dive Center before 8 am
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| Reception Area Acacia Resort and Dive Center |
from the parking area, we had to go downhill to get to the reception area where we greeted with waiver forms. we left that area with only 2 out of 3 waivers signed though, haha.
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| Jeff! waiver mo! |
down a flight of stairs and into the dining area where we met Lem and Joyce's diver friends.
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| the relatively calm sea | view from the dining area photo from my Instagram account @jobnacpil |
we were also introduced to Penn, our dive instructor, who in fact turned out to be a 'mentor' back from my JPSTD days. small world talaga! what's interesting pa is that he used to run Fish Philosophy workshops for us before.
since we're starting at 10 am, we had breakfast muna (not knowing it was on top of the day trip cost pala, haha) good thing too since I had to calm my nervous muna. I was really starting to get anxious, so it was a relief that i had at least 1.5 hours to condition myself on what's coming ahead
at 9:45 am, we went down another level to the preparation area to leave our things and start fitting the gear
p.s. by this time we had 3 out of 3 waivers signed :)
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| tambak |
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| Penn using a lighter on the mask |
10 am we started with the basics--lecture/discussion on the equipment (ang BCD na parang North Face bag lang, air tank not an oxygen tank), hand signals, safety tips
then off to the wala nang atrasan portion--gearing up!
thankfully I got my share of hand shakes and high fives (which means I 'passed' the exercises)
by 11:45 am we were done (which was just about time since I was freezing and it started drizzling rin) and had time to 'scuba' (or more like snokel) around the pool
we were given a choice to have lunch first or go for the open water dive na; and since sabi nila mas masarap kumain pagkatapos mag-dive--we decided to postpone lunch muna, rest for a bit and opt to have the second dive right after...
by 12:30--this is it... time to conquer the sea!
the boys had a little struggle with the fins; i was able to gear up first, but good thing i had mine double checked kasi one side pala was not strapped together...
at 1 pm we attempted to go down; however I had a bit of a challenge equalizing and we were totally lacking in direction.
Penn decided to go towards the buoy and follow the rope underwater; however Jeff and I still had problems submerging. so in the end we had to do it 1-1
Andrew sure enjoyed it a lot--even going 2 meters deeper than planned
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| shots Andrew had taken underwater |
boo to me and my problem equalizing--pang-snorkel lang ata ako, haha.
it was really frustrating not to have maximized my first scuba diving opportunity; I think it would be best to have myself checked too like Andrew before I go on another dive
but I think overall it was a really great experience! I think Penn was particularly effective as an instructor being the trainor that he is, the dive spot was okay though a bit murky and siguro nga I would have appreciated it more if I had gone deeper and the Acacia Resort experience i.e. facilities, service, food, I must say was pretty good. looking forward to an overnight stay next time :)
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sorry Jeff--you can't claim a refund from Lem with that smile |
thanks again, Lem and Joyce for signing us up and for introducing us to diving :) (pati na rin for taking photos during the entirety of our Intro Dive class)
'til the next lakad! sana more than 5 na tayo :)
