Living and diving in Moalboal, Cebu

2011-07-18T23:32:00.001-07:00

Next Dive Safari: August 27 - 30. Price is 660$ for 4 days, starting in Mactan. Email us at info@kontikidivers.com for more info!

2009-09-04T22:16:00.000-07:00

Cave & Wreck Diving Expedition

Two days of wreck and cave diving: On Sep. 1st and 2nd we went back to the wreck in northern Cebu for some serious deep diving. Most of our diving staff joined. We started in Mactan and had 2 deep dives (40m) on the San Juan Ferry the first day. The second day we started off on a deep cave dive (35m) in Mactan, followed by a deep wreck dive at the San Juan Ferry (35m) and a dive at an airplane wreck back in Mactan (22m). Afterwards, we went back to Moalboal where we joined some very happy divers in whale shark party in our dive center. What a trip. Here are some more pics from the wreck. A video will follow soon, also some more images from the cave and the airplane wreck.

2009-08-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

Abraham Borg: 25 Years of Diving and Teaching Scuba Diving.

Abraham Borg received his official membership recognition from PADI's regional manager Jimmy Christrup for 25 years of teaching scuba diving. Abraham, an English national raised in Malta, has been fascinated by scuba diving from an early age. Even as a 6 year old he tried to construct his own scuba device out of old water bottles and tested his scuba units in the bath tub at home where h was “rescued” by his mother. As a 12 year old boy he saw, while swimming in the ocean, a scuba diver diving below him. He followed him, questioned him on diving and signed up on a course at the local dive club. By the time he had completed all his dive training, he knew he wanted to become a diving instructor so that he could travel around the world teaching scuba diving. By the time he reached 18, he was already a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor. In 1988, at the age of 23, he became one of the first Course Directors in Malta and conducted PADI Instructor Development Courses (IDCs) in Malta and England. His scuba diving expertise was also used in 3 Hollywood movies shot in Malta, namely “Popeye, the Movie”, “Trench Coat”, and “Columbus”. He also got involved in commercial diving, where he had a change in direction and became a medical attendant to the recompression chamber facility, which he held for three years. Life took a different direction then, Abraham left Malta to join the English police force in London. But once again he found himself leaving, this time to work as a commercial pilot in America. Later he returned to the U.K , but this time he wanted to own his own business and became an entrepreneur in IT which gave him his own financial independence. Unfortunately all this kept him from scuba diving which he loved so much and wanted to return to. So he sold his business and took a trip to the Philippines in 2001 to enjoy the scuba diving lifestyle again here in Moalboal, Cebu. Since then he ventured into technical diving, conducting regular deep dives to 118+ meters just on our house reef to visit the resident thresher sharks living there. Abraham still enjoys teaching all kinds of dive courses, from beginner to instructor level, here at Savedra Dive Center. And if you are one of his students you can feel very confident of being trained by one of the best in the dive industry.

Abraham’s instructor ratings include

PADI Master Instructor
SSI DiveCon Instructor
BSAC Advanced Instructor
IANTD Advanced Nitrox Instructor
SAA Advanced Instructor
EFR Instructor Trainer
DSAT Tec Deep Instructor
DSAT Gas Blender Instructor
Recompression Chamber Instructor
Emergency Oxygen Provider Instructor

2009-08-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

Deep and Wreck Diving: Wreck Expedition in Cebu

Thanks to John Melendres of Scuba Den we joined a wreck expedition to a sunken ferry not far from Cebu City. What a dive spot! We were diving on a ferry sunk in 2002 under mysterious circumstances. Hardly anybody knows about the wreck. It lies on his side in about 50m, the top is about 35m deep. Deep divers and tech divers only! We plan another expedition in about 2 weeks, to explore more of it and make it our deep and wreck diving destinations of choice. More info soon….

2009-06-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

Moalboal's Backpacker Lodge Open!

Directly in the heart of Panagsama Beach, Moalboal's Backpacker Lodge offers beds from 199 Pesos (about 4 US$) upwards. Contact www.moalboal-backpackerlodge.com for more info.

2009-06-04T01:15:00.000-07:00

Reef Survey at Sunken Island

The Research and Monitoring Team of Coastal Conservation and Education Foundation (CCE) conducted a ref survey at Sunken Island (Badian, Barangay Lombok). Sunken Island is a marine reserve by municipality of Badian. Only hook and line fishing is allowed. CCE’s dive team consisted of 5 divers plus our dive instructor Dino, who was in charge of dive safety and acted as dive guide. The team conducted 2 dives to 90f / 30m and surveyed fish abundance, diversity and biomass. Aileen Maypa, the Research Coordinator, was impressed by the beauty of the dive spot. Here are the Preliminary Findings: Dominant numerically fish are fusiliers (6 species). Northern and southern side is high density of fusiliers, about 5000 on each side. Coral dominant forms are foliose and encrusting corals.

All in all a fantastic dive spot.
Pictures will follow soon.

2009-03-04T00:08:00.000-08:00

New website from Cabana

Cabana Beach Club Resort has a new website with lots of pics and some video of Panagsama Beach and Moalboal. The website gives you also a lot of info on scuba diving in Moalboal. Check it out at www.cabana-cebu.com.

2009-02-26T00:28:00.000-08:00

Whale Shark Pics

Stefan, Willi and Ingo send us the latest whale shark pictures from their dive last month. So far, not so many whale sharks this month, but March has been always a month with a lot of whale shark sightings. We keep you updated....

2008-12-30T18:01:00.000-08:00

New Years Whale Shark Encounter

It seems the whale sharks want to send us a message for the new year: We are still here, waiting for you, don't give up diving. This pictures are from Chrissie Choo who was diving with her friends on Dec. 30 and had an incredible whale shark encounter in Pescador Island. Here are some of her pics.

2008-12-26T18:26:00.000-08:00

Good old days...

Our regular visitors know our dive mastes Dome (Swiss) and Eusel (Filipino) very well. Here is a picture when Dome visited Moalboal in 1982, featuring a much younger Dome and Eusel. I marked the guys otherwise you wouldn't recognize them. The pic was taken at Chief Maui Bar, from where you had a seaview in the good old days...

2008-12-26T18:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas Whale Shark

In time for Christmas a whale shark was spotted in the morning on our house reef, just in front of Cabana Beach Club Resort. The place is often visited by whale sharks, we guess its because there is often a very big school of sardines there, accompanied by some hunting mackerels.

2008-11-28T19:46:00.000-08:00

Baby Shark in Pescador Island

Our resident white tip sharks in Pescador Island got a baby. The baby, Sharky, as he is called by our divers, is relaxing and spending the better part of the day in the shadow of a big table coral in just 5 meters of water in Pescador Island. We hope he will join mama and papa shark soon and make diving in Pescador even more exciting as it is now.

2008-11-18T17:11:00.000-08:00

Cebu Dive and Adventure Travel

After many nights worked trough the new website of our in-house travel agency, Cebu Dive & Adventure Travel, is online at www.cebu-travel.com. Offered are new tours, like awesome live-aboard diving in Truk Lagoon, shark diving at the Faju Islands and dive safaris though the archipelago of the Visayas with the new custom-build outrigger boats Royo and Goya. You will find lots of pictures and video like a cool underwater video of mantas, thresher and white tip sharks in the Malapascua section. Take a look at the site and if you have the urge to go to one of these places drop us an e-mail.

2008-11-12T00:46:00.000-08:00

Whale Shark in Moalboal - Video

Whale sharks have been cruising by Moalboal again lately. Tony Exall, a British dive instructor and underwater movie maker I met recently on a live-aboard in Tubbataha, spend 3 weeks in here in Panagsama Beach to shoot underwater videos for our website. All the videos you see on www.savedra.com has been shot in only 3 weeks, including the manta scenes (Pescador) and the whale shark (Sunken Island). Actually we got the whale shark on Tony's very last dive, we had poor weather conditions and we planned only a video shot about boat diving with Savedra Dive Center. Joe, our beautiful dive master candidate from England, gave the briefings and off we went... and was that a dive! Here is the video in case you haven’t seen it yet.

2008-10-29T21:13:00.000-07:00

Here is some feedback from our diver Joachim:

Hello Abraham,

Finally have received my Nitro certificate today. It was fun attending the course. Hopefully find time soon for more diving in Cebu. All the best and dive careful.

Cheers! :)

Best regards

Joachim

2008-10-24T00:20:00.000-07:00

Precious Dive Equipment

We used the last couple of weeks and renovated the dive shop. Loads of new quality dive equipmen t is also for sale, thanks to a nice deal we cut with Scuba World Philippines. They provided us also with a mannequin called “Viagra”, which we proudly display in our dive shop.

According to our secretaries it was a good idea to lock her in the glass cabinet, because sometimes they see some of our male divers passing the cabinet, hunched over, hissing something like “my precioussssss”….

2008-09-28T21:05:00.000-07:00

SPLASH FOR TRASH!

On our International Cleanup Day last September 20th we gave free dives for everyboady who wanted to help us cleaning our reefs. The weather was a little bit stormy but that just incresed the fun we all had. Hope some of you guys join the next time.

2008-08-22T20:52:00.001-07:00

DIVERS ALERT NETWORK SEMINAR IN CEBU

The Philippine Commission on Sport Scuba Diving (PCSSD) in Cebu hosted a Seminar by John Lippman, Executive Director of Divers Alert Network, South East Pacific (DAN). John gave us an overview over marine life injuries and reviewed recent scientific research in hyperbaric medicine. Other dive medicine topics related to the Philippines were also discussed.

2008-06-29T23:30:00.001-07:00

Hi guys,

Our dive instructor Abraham was awarded a Certificate for Excellence from PADI. They received the following statement from one of Abe's students:

Certificate of Recognition for Excellence
Awarded to Abraham Borg # 17567 for outstanding customer service and professionalism in PADI scuba instruction as acknowledged below: "PADI should know how lucky it is to have an instructor like Abraham Borg on board. Forget his super qualifications, Abraham is patient, kind and instills loads of confidence in his students. With Abraham, a diver couldn't feel any more cared and safer. Abraham really cares so much about his students and is one of the best instructors, if not the best that I have come across in my lifetime. Thank you to PADI for providing such a high level of instruction and to Abraham for his unwavering patience and care."

2008-06-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

Tubbataha Liveaboard

Did a trip to Tubbataha on of the liveaboards of Expedition Fleet. Awesome diving! Eat, dive and sleep is all you do on these trips. Here is some video footage my friend Tony from TLX underwater videography did for me. You will see more video and details Tubbataha trips soon on our website www.savedra.com
.

2008-06-06T23:56:00.000-07:00

Whale sharks, whale sharks, whale sharks...

Over the last couple months we got really lots and lots of whale sharks in Moalboal. Many of our divers can tell a story or two about these encounters of the big kind. There are for example our friends and guests Diana and Joern whi dive with since so many years. This time they stayed about 10 days with us. It just happened that both of their birthdays were within these 10 days, and it just happened that on Diana's birthday a whale shark passed by and on Joern's birthday a couple of days later, another one. Joern is also the one providing these beautiful pictures and videos from these 2 dives.

2008-03-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

We've got a wonderful e-mail from our avid diver Valeria, who was diving with us last year, which we want to share with you:

Dear guys....

i miss you so much that i cannot explaine....
My crazy feeling for you....
My best part of my life was been there with everyone...
every day i think of you..
i remember each your fantastic smile...and each sunset...

i was very happy with you...
every day of my life was full of color...magic...
I know ...you are special and everyone go there and spend time with you can think the same...
Only one word .....thank you!

2007-12-31T18:09:00.000-08:00

Properties and Lots for Sale in Moalboal, Cebu

Over the years we had a lot of our divers coming back to us again and again.

Some of them purchased properties and settled down here in Moalboal.

So if you are interested in a decent property, drop us an e-mail and we get you in touch with trustworthy people who sell lots with a clean title and who will help you with the paper work.

2007-12-31T17:37:00.000-08:00

New Year Dive - Some of us must live under water, right?

Traditionally, some of our divers cross over into the New Year under water.

Shortly before midnight our Swiss instructor Uli gathered the willing flock and descended at the house reef. They emptied several bottles of champagne at midnight.

We think that Rachel took a little bit too much, as you can see her mask filled up with some fluid we think is champagne...

We wish all scuba divers and friends of Moalboal a happy new year, and let us know if you want to join us next year.

Your Savedra Team

2007-12-11T19:38:00.000-08:00

Savedra offers now PADI Assistant Instructor Courses

After the latest IDC update with PADI Course Director Mario Tapales our Master Instructor and "Tecki" Abraham Borg conducts now PADI Assistant Instructor courses in our dive center.

The PADI Assistant Instructor Course is part of the Instructor Development Course (IDC) which comprises of two parts.

Part 1 Assistant Instructor

The Assistant Instructor course is a minimum of three days. It introduces you to the teaching techniques for skill and knowledge development. The course concentrates on duties and programs Assistant Instructors may conduct independently. On successful completion of the Assistant Instructor course candidates can move on to obtain training to become Open water Scuba Instructors.

2007-11-22T18:06:00.000-08:00

We got an amazing e-mail from our PADI Dive Master Candidate Akio which we want to share with you guys:

Dear, Karl, Dino and all my friends in Savedra Dive Center,

I am very sorry not to write for a long time since returning home.

I was very busy for many things that had been waiting for me during my absence in Japan.

Here, it is a complete Autumn now, and the winter is approaching just there.

I did cut and trimming trees in my small garden and cultivated beans, green onions, ginger roots etc, in the countryside.

Thank you very much for supporting me during my long stay in September and October.

Thanks to your steady supports and warm advices, I finally could become a DiveMaster and also could be a member of you.

I am very much happy and proud that I could conquer and pass all the ordeals, such as 60 dives with other guests, training assistant, stamina training and even the interview with a medical doctor.

Now, I could remember your (Karl's) words on e-mail before leaving Japan.

You said that Savedra would offer me the very rigorous and strict training and that after the success of the training you would be sure that I would be a real DiveMaster.

Now, thanks to Dino, I am confident that I have become a REAL DiveMaster with his kind and serious instruction and his very tough training.

I did write the story of these 4 week's severe training and delivered by e-mail to many friends of mine, not only diving friends but also old friends of my high school, university and company.

And I got many many many replies from them.

They mostly say; that they are much surprised at my energy, spirits and efforts, that they are much envious of my life, that I am a superman they can never imitate, that I am passing the ideal human life and that they thanked me for providing them with living energy, etc.

Dear, Karl, Dino and all my friends,
I am sure that I will come to Moalboal again, maybe in February and it would be much appreciated if I could join you and assist you. I also would like to bring some friends of mine with me sooner or later.

Lindy and Dino, thank you very much for everything during my stay.

Hermann and Bhiebs, thank you very much for many things including extension proceedure of my visa.

Please let me ask you the same proceedure again.

Raquel, thank you for all arrangements at everytime.

Jaymi, I will mail the pictures soon please wait for a while.

Now thank you very much again, everybody.

akio (^:^(

2007-10-05T21:59:00.000-07:00

Whale Shark Mania!

Guys, the whale shark are back. BIG time! Our dive instructor Tommi has 2 PADI Open Water Students, Michael and Christian, and dives the house reef all the time. Here is the Log Book entries of the dive students:

Oct. 2, 2007: Open Water Dive 1 (this is the very first Open Water dive in the course): Whale Shark

Oct. 3, 2007: Open Water Dive 2: Whale Shark

Oct. 4, 2007: Open Water Dive 4: Whale Shark

So these students saw in 3 out of their 4 certification dives whale sharks. Right now we have a giant school of sardines at our house reef and hey are spawning. We assume this keeps the whale shark around for a while. Our certified divers are not going boat diving anymore, everybody is just diving the house reef. And, I guess, Michael and Christian, our PADI Open Water Students, are spoiled for life...

2007-09-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

Thresher Sharks in Moalboal

Our Japanese business partner Noriaki Hashizume (www.savedra.jp) is just passing by for a short visit from Japan. He has his Tech Gear still with us and jumps every day in the water for a deep dive. And nearly on every dive he encounters tresher sharks. This is a trend we observe already since a couple of month. More and more often we have encounters with treshers. Nori had up to 4 threshers on Sunday, Sept. 23 and yesterday, Sept. 24, a big tresher shark in Pescador Island. In Pescador we have usually white ship sharks, the appearance of threshers is new to us. It seems that laws in Philippines against illegal fishing methods are improving and the proof of it is just on our house reef. Only set back is they are really deep. like 60m/200f or deeper. One reason more to learn tech diving...
Unfortunately Nori didn't bring his camera. We post some pics taken before from our friends at artifishal.com.

2007-05-24T22:45:00.000-07:00

Project AWARE’s Dive For Earth Day

Each year during the week of Earth Day, 22^nd April, thousands of people across the globe make a difference for the underwater environment while having fun and getting wet to celebrate Dive For Earth Day. We joined the global effort to make a difference this April. We organized in partnership with Project AWARE a Beach and Underwater Cleanup. Divers, snorkelers, their families and friends helped us to make a difference for our local dive sites.

Here is more info on the Earth Day and Project AWARE:

Earth Day began on 22 April 1970 to raise the status of environment issues to the global stage. On the 30^th anniversary of Earth Day in 2000, Project AWARE began to help organize dive volunteers and put aquatic issues on the Earth Day map. Since that time thousands of divers and water enthusiasts in more than 115 countries of the world have helped protect underwater environments and educate local communities each April.

Project AWARE Foundation is the dive industry’s leading nonprofit environmental organization working in partnership with divers and water enthusiasts to conserve underwater environments through education, advocacy and action.

For more information about Project AWARE conservation initiatives visit www.projectaware.org.

2007-04-12T18:56:00.000-07:00

Divers Blog

We got a nice feedback form Jorge, Carmel and Fernando. They came all the way from Spain and spent 2 weeks of scuba diving here in Moalboal. They were diving with Tommi and Dino. Jorge took a lot of impressive pictures and published them in his blog http://jorgedive.blogspot.com. Even the blog is in Spanish the pictures speak for themselves. Copyright of all pictures are by Jorge, of course. Thank you, guys.

2007-04-07T18:54:00.001-07:00

Whale Shark Special

Yesterday we had a very special whale shark encounter. Over the last couple of days, many divers reported whale shark sightings along the coast line, so we knew that some are in the area. We just came back from a wonderful dive at Pescador Island when Ryan, our “quappo” boatman, suddenly spotted the tip of a whale shark fin, just in the middle of the sea. Excited he stirred the boat into the direction of that fin. Everybody expected that the whale shark would disappear once the boat came close. But to our astonishment this whale shark was not bothered at all by the boat. It just stayed close to surface, barely moving and so all of our divers entered the water with mask, snorkel and fins (and the luckier ones with their u/w camera). Even then the whale shark couldn’t be bothered by the presence of a handful of divers and snorkelers in the water. I slowly circled the boat and swam a little bit acting like a photo model. This was going on for more than 20 minutes. The staff in the dive center saw the boat floating in the middle of the sea and assumed engine trouble. Abeth, the assisting manager, tried to call the boat on their cell phone (all our boats are equipped with one for emergencies) but nobody was picking up the phone (they couldn’t be bothered…). Assuming a break down of the engine or some other kind of emergency she arranged for another boat to go out and help our divers (that’s another nice thing here at the beach, most dive center work together. In this case, thank you Seaquest Dive Center). When the “Rescue” Boat arrived the whale shark swam off. That was a really nice whale shark encounter, and in the evening, when everybody sat together end exchanged stories, the size of the whale shark increased with every beer consumed.Thank you Silke and Jojo for the nice pictures.

2007-03-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

Whale Shark with baby - Video on YouTube

Click here for nice video from a whale shark encounter just on our house reef from Patrick Devine. What makes this video special is that you can see a tiny whale shark baby beneath the big one at the end of the video. The picture is from Yoris, a dive instructor who spend a lot of time in Moalboal and is now in the Maldives, I think.

The other day Jesper (owner of Neptune Dive Center), Lars (one of the owners of the Chili Bar) and some other divers had an encounter with 4 whale sharks in Sunken Island. This is unheard of and supports our impression that we have more whale sharks, and turtles, than before.

Of course they celebrated in Chili for the rest of the day.

2007-03-14T18:35:00.000-07:00

Moalboal community - what's up with Patrick?

Many of you know Patrick Devine, an airline Captain who is PADI instructor and IANTD Trimix Technical Diver, and Stella, his beautiful wife. Both of them are living several month of the year in Moalboal.

Patrick, who always looks for something extraordinary, married his Stella at his motorbike dealer at a biker wedding in Florida. Check http://www.polarisindustries.com/en-us/VRA/Insider/BlogWedding.htm for more details.

Patrick contributed some also awesome whale shark videos and shark pics he shot just on our house reef. These videos and picture galleries can be viewed on our upcoming new website, maybe sometime in May or June.

2007-03-12T17:59:00.000-07:00

Dive Safari Moalboal, Sumilon Island, Apo Island, Balicasag island, Cabilao Island

I just came back from a 5-day dive safari. The weather was perfect and we had only experienced divers on board, which allowed me to do some relaxed dives on my own. My dive buddy for the first 2 days was Werner, a German CMAS diver who is very experienced. We did a couple of very nice dives in Sumilon (frog fish, nudibranches, blacktip sharks) and Apo Island (schooling jacks, giant bumphead parrot fish). Apo, as usual, had some very strong currents at Coconut Point. This is by far the best dive spot in Apo, but you can’t dive there often because it usually has high waves and strong currents. The next couple of days I dove with Elvis and his group of Honk Komg Divers, all very experienced. They belong to a dive club in Hong Kong and are used to dive in difficult environments, such as limited visibility and strong currents. Again, this made my job easy and I could relax and enjoy the upcoming dives. We had excellent dives in Balicasag (schools of jack fish on 2 dives, large school of big barracudas on 1 dive) and Cabilao. Especially the dive spot called Light House in Cabilao offered us some fantastic dives, schooling barracudas in strong currents, napoleon fish and much more. Even our last dive in Mactan Island proved to be impressive, thousands of sardines surrounded us, and again a huge barracuda, about 2m in size. All in all a very nice safari with lots of exceptionally good dives. Lucky Tommi is embarking today on the next safari…

2007-02-22T18:58:00.000-08:00

Thresher Shark at White Beach

Our lovely dive master Maricel just came back for a dive at White Beach. We had already several whale shark encounters this week. But this time we had something special, a huge tresher shark. Unfortunatly Maricel dirdn’t bring her camera on this dive. This encounter is insofar uncommon since Moalboal is not known for thresher sharks. There are there, but usually only seen by out Tekkies in depth greater than 70m. The picture you see here is courtesy of Achim from www.artifishal.com, who visisted us some years ago.

Here is some info on thresher sharks from Wikipedia:

Named for and easily recognised by their exceptionally long, thresher-like tail or caudal fins (which account for 1/3 (33%) of their total body length), thresher sharks are active predators; the tail is actually used as a weapon to stun prey. By far the largest of the three species is the Common thresher, Alopias vulpinus, which may reach a length of 7.6 m (25 ft) and a weight of 348 kg (767 lb). The Bigeye thresher, Alopias superciliosus, is next in size, reaching a length of 4.9 m (16 ft); at just 3 m (10 ft), the Pelagic thresher, Alopias pelagicus, is the smallest. Thresher sharks are fairly slender, with small dorsal fins and large, recurved pectoral fins. With the exception of the Bigeye thresher, these sharks have relatively small eyes. Coloration ranges from brownish, bluish or purplish gray dorsally with lighter shades ventrally.

More info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thresher_shark

2007-02-18T15:39:00.000-08:00

Whale Sharks

The whale sharks are back. We had 2 sightings yesterday, one at Kasay Point early morning and one at Sampaguita late afternoon. Diving conditions are excellent at the moment anyway, bright sunshine and visibility up to 30m (100f).
For more info about shale sharks in Moalboal check out http://www.savedra.com/shark.htm

2007-02-15T21:33:00.000-08:00

Tommi and the weight belts

This is Tommi. Tommi is PADI and SSI Instructor. When it comes to weight belts, he is very often confronted with questions like “How heavy is this piece of weight compared to that piece of weight?” or “What is the weight of my weight belt exactly?” It happened that last Sunday he was strolling along the public market in Moalboal town. Suddenly he saw a pocket scale and after some bargaining (you know Tommi…) he purchased it for 20 Pesos. We checked the scale and it is surprisingly accurate. So now, whenever a diver wants to know the exact weight of his weight belt, Tommi pulls out his pocket scale and is ready for action…

2007-02-09T16:44:00.000-08:00

Moalboal Newsletter

This is Lars Starner (...no, not the green plant, the handsome guy with the beer). He is co-owner of the Chilli-Bar, a cool open air bar just opposite our dive center. Lars, as you can see, is usually in a relaxed state of mind and he publishes a newsletter for everybody who is interested in Moalboal and its residents. Find below a sample, and if you like to join drop him an e-mail (starner@hotmail. com).

Moalboal newsletter #56
Date: Jan 9 2007 - 8:49pm

Moalboal 2007

Happy New Year, friends of Moalboal!!

2007 has not really given us any nice weather. Lots of rain,
yesterday the whole basketball court outside Nelsons dive shop was
submerged. First time I have ever seen that. 24 Celsius in the
morning…………COLD man.

The Philippines is now starting to take off in many ways. The stock
market here just got over 3000 points, something that was last seen
back in 1997 and before the Asian crisis. The Peso is getting
stronger by the day, now below 49 to the $.

Internet has been slow here in the Philippines. The earthquake in
Taiwan destroyed a lot of cables so internet and phones have been
slow.

ACTIVITIES:

Soccer every Monday & Friday. Jochen (Planet action) has now had new
goals made. Roland (Ruffas husband) took care of the net part.

BIRTHS, SOCIAL AND GOSSIP:

Simon, dive instructor at Visaya divers had a diving accident before
Christmas. According to his girlfriend, Jing-Jing, he had 9 sessions
here in Cebu at the re-compression chamber. He has now had 3 in UK.
He has full function: waist up. Feeling in his toes and getting some
feeling in his legs

PRACTICAL:

Emma's old restaurant is now a Thai restaurant. For those of you that
does not know where it is. Just walk past Visaya dive shop and go
south 200 meters on your left hand side. Very good food but also a
bit slow now during start-up.

Retirement visa, they have now lowered the requirements for getting a
retirement visa. If you are above 50 years old, you now need to bring
in 20 000US$ (before it was 50 000) into the country. Cost right now
is 1500US$ and you will then get a lifetime visa and no more hassle
with going to immigration. Interest now is 5% for the US$ and more
for the Peso. I found Florence, business manager at Commerce bank,
Fuente circle, very helpful. Her e-mail: fypebenito@bankcom. com.ph

The ASEAN summit that was going to be held 12-15 December got
cancelled. Typhoon was coming and the thought it safer to cancel. The
ASEAN summit will now be held 12-15 January this year. Be prepared
for huge delays in flights and traffic.

WHALE SHARK SIGHTINGS:

Next letter I will give you the exact dates and location where they
were spotted. I know of at least three times that they saw them in
December. Looks like white beach area is where they hang out these
days. Please, if you see whale shark, go to Chili and write where &
when you saw them. There's a list on the notice board and Chili will
give you a free Ning-Ning when you write.

GENERAL:

If anyone has any information that they think would be interesting
for people on this list, please do let me know and I will add it in.
If you know anyone that would like to receive this letter, please
tell him or her to send me an E-mail at the address below and I will
add him or her. I've found it to hard to do it through
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/moalboalmail

Regards, Lars Starner
starner@hotmail. com

Moalboal home page:
http://www.moalboal.org.uk

Copyright (c) Lars Starner 2007. All rights reserved

2007-02-08T17:02:00.000-08:00

We found some nice video clips about diving and snorkeling at You Tube. YouTube is a popular free video sharing website which lets users upload, view, and share video clips. Videos can be rated; the average rating and the number of times a video has been watched are both published. Check out http://youtube.com/results?search_query=Panagsama
We still have a lot of whale shark footages from Panagsama, probably we will upload the clips in the near future.

2007-02-07T20:31:00.000-08:00

Another diver who found his love in the Philippines

Our diver Uli, second time here in the Philippines and currently under Tommi (PADI and SSI Instructor) for Divemaster Training, is another diver who found his love in the Philippines. He’s getting married soon, a big party is coming up at the 14th. Good luck, Uli, and don’t get to much distracted from your DM course.

2007-02-07T20:14:00.000-08:00

Pygmys again – this time just on our house reef.

Under water photographers can not have it easier. Our living diving legend and Dive Master Lindy, who logs more than 10.000 dives, has found 2 Pygmy Sea Horses at our house reef in about 25m, just before the Cabana pier. Here are some pics form Lindy and our regular customer, diver and U/W photographer, Martin Nuermiger. Thank you, Martin, for your pictures.

Here’s some more info about Pygmys from Wikipedia:

The pygmy seahorse, Hippocampus bargibanti, is a seahorse of the family Syngnathidae in the western central Pacific. It is tiny, no larger than 2.4 cm. There are two known color variations: grey with red tubercles (on gorgonian coral Muricella plectana), and yellow with orange tubercles (on gorgonian coral Muricella paraplectana).

This species is known to occur only on gorgonian corals of the genus Muricella, and has evolved to resemble its host. The tubercles and truncated snout of this species match the color and shape of the polyps of the host gorgonian, while its body matches the gorgonian stem. The camouflage is so effective, the original specimens were discovered only after their host gorgonian had been collected and placed in an aquarium.

On the lower portion of the abdomen, males have a brood pouch in which the female lays her eggs. They are fertilized by the male, and incubated until birth.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmy_seahorse)

2007-02-01T23:22:00.000-08:00

Patricia is back – for the weekend

Patricia Cueni, our famous dive master and PADI dive instructor, is back for Mario’s funeral. Patricia spend a lot of years diving and teaching scuba diving in Moalboal. She conducted many dive safaris with Mario until she left us for a manager position in a big company in Europe. She came all the way from Switzerland to attend Mario’s funeral and heads Monday back to Europe.

2007-02-01T23:14:00.000-08:00

The Savedra Dive Center Family mourns the loss of Dive Master Mario Deniega.
Many of you remember Mario as an accomplished diver and a dedicated PADI Dive Master. He was as an appreciated member of our dive family and highly regarded by his coworkers, a quiet man with a quick wit, a lot of humour and a passion for his work. He will be deeply missed by his friends and family.

2007-01-26T21:48:00.000-08:00

Pygmy Sea Horses in Moalboal

Maricel, one of our lovely dive masters, enjoys taking pictures. Here are some pics form a pygmy sea horse, which are found more and more often at our shore reefs.

2007-01-15T22:19:00.000-08:00

This week we have been visited by famous TV sports producer Rolly Baron and his lovely wife Berna. They made a nice feature about diving with Savedra Dive Center in Moalboal. His show Unlimited Diving is the only scuba diving TV show in the Philippines. It features beautiful dive sites and resorts all over the country. Unlimited Diving is aired nationwide via-satellite on the largest TV network in the Philippines, NBN-4, Sundays at 8:00 PM. The program is produced, directed and hosted by veteran TV sports producer PADI Divemaster Rolly Baron. I must admit I seldom have seen such an non-stop enthusiastic diver before. We let you know when the show is aired.

2006-12-31T17:04:00.000-08:00

UPDATE - Moalboal Water Usage Fee

Starting January 1, 2007, the Moalboal Provincial Government is proud to announce the Moalboal Marine Park Entrance Fee System for 2006. Tags (or tickets) are purchased for a one-time fee of 500 Pesos (about 10US$ or 8 Euro) and must be carried at all times while the guest is diving. It can easily be affixed to guests’ diving or snorkeling gear. The entrance fee system has been adapted from the well-known Bonaire and Bunaken Marine Park systems. The local government will utilize these funds to finance a number of high priority conservation programs in the park, including patrols and enforcement to abolish destructive fishing practices such as blast and cyanide fishing, village improvement programs within the park, collection and disposal of plastic and other wastes entering the park’s waters, marine conservation education of village children and adults, and reef and mangrove rehabilitation. Entrance tags and tickets can be purchased through marine tourism operators based in Moalboal, or can be purchased from one of several ticket counters. Enforcement of the entrance fee system is conducted via spot checks by park rangers on land and at sea. We greatly appreciate your support and cooperation with this entrance fee system. Conservation of Moalboal’s spectacular marine habitats requires funding, and your entrance fee is a valuable contribution to saving Moalboal’s reefs.

2006-12-30T17:07:00.000-08:00

Moalboal Dive Center Association (MDCA)

A large majority of the Dive and Snorkel operators in Moalboal have formed Moalboal Dive Center Association (MDCA).

The association's purpose is to actively protect and conserve the underwater environment and support other organizations in this respect. In addition to this, we are committed to promoting the area as the scuba and snorkeling destination of choice.

The association works closely with other organizations, such as the Moalboal Local Government Unit, the Fishermen Associations, PADI, Project Aware and anybody else who helps to protect and improve Moalboals underwater world.

Our Mission

Protect and conserve underwater environments through education, encouragement and action.

Cooperate with local government, fishermen association, PADI, Project Aware and other national and international organizations.
Protect and enhance the underwater environment by taking the initiative and action.
Promote and market the safe and sustainable growth of Moalboals scuba diving industry

Who We Are

We are a non-profit organization made up of professional scuba diving operations and dive resorts in and around the municipality of Moalboal.

What We Do

MDCA works in partnership with the local government, fishermen, scuba divers and water enthusiasts to combat challenges facing underwater environments.

First projects include:

Marine Park Project: support the LGU, Barangays and fishermen establishing the Marine Park Project, assist in collection of fees, help in implementing rules and regulations, train and educate members in scuba diving.
Marine Sanctuaries: Assist and support the LGU for the expansion of sanctuary zones to protect all threatened species in Moalboal coastal waters. Marine Protected Areas provide educational opportunities and sustain exploited species populations. Research into no-take marine reserves has shown a dramatic increase in size and abundance of commercially targeted species.
Alternative Fishing Project: Support and alternative fishing projects by creating new fishing grounds by putting up “Payaw”.
Buoy Project: Establishing and maintaining mooring buoys. Educate dive centers and boat operators on using the buoys.
Protect the Shark Project: Initiate and support a ban on shark catching and shark finning in Moalboal coastal waters.
Protect againts Illegal Endangered Species Products: Initiate and support a ban on protected shell sales in Moalboal.
MDCA website: Develop a website representing all members of MDCA, promoting the area as the scuba and snorkeling destination of choice, introducing projects and activities as well as reporting on progress and developments.
Sponsorship of events to promote scuba diving in Moalboal

2006-12-29T20:17:00.000-08:00

We started a new community service program. Here is Jaime, our first apprentice. He will follow this program:

SCUBA APPRENTICESHIP

THE MISSION

Savedra Dive Center will educate and train a young local individual with an underprivileged background to become a SCUBA JOURNEYMAN. The program is modeled after the successful system used in Europe for centuries, called apprenticeship, thus our training program is called a SCUBA APPRENTICESHIP. It is adapted to modern teaching and training methods and provides hands-on experience in the scuba industry, with formal education in sanctioned PADI dive courses, as well as language-, computer- and sales training.

Throughout the training protection of the marine eco system is heavily emphasized, several training courses and work shops are exclusively focused on environmental awareness and marine protection.

At the end of the training and passing the exams the apprentice is given the PADI Divemaster certificate and a diploma with credentials reflecting his knowledge and experience as a SCUBA JOURNEYMAN in the scuba diving industry.

The SCUBA APPRENTICESHIP is a community service program provided by our dive center and only applicants with good school records but poor family background are eligible.

The SCUBA APPRENTICESHIP lasts 2 years and Savedra Dive Center will take on one apprentice every year.

We strive to dissipate our idea to other dive centers and hope that our system will be acknowledged, copied and improved by other members of the dive industry.

We believe that the SCUBA APPRENTICEHSHIP provides a small but effective tool to fight poverty, creates high quality future employees, increases industry standards and promotes environmental awareness.

THE BACKGROUND

Apprenticeship - History & Development

The system of apprenticeship first developed in the later Middle Ages and came to be supervised by craft guilds and town governments. A master craftsman was entitled to employ young people as an inexpensive form of labor in exchange for providing formal training in the craft. Apprentices were young (usually about fourteen to twenty-one years of age) and unmarried. Most apprentices aspired to becoming master craftsmen themselves on completion of their contract but some would spend time as a journeyman.

Traditionally, an apprentice will work under the guidance of a person who has earned the title of "master" in their field. This apprenticeship is a combination of working and learning. Apprenticeship lasts usually 2 to 4 years, ending upon exams and other requirements met by the certifying agency are met.

Nowadays many apprenticeships follow a dual system, means that apprentices spend most of their time in companies and the rest in formal education. Usually, they work for three to four days a week in the company and then spend one or two days at a vocational school.

Origination of the title "Journeyman"

A journeyman is a tradesman or craftsman who has completed an apprenticeship but is not yet able to set up his or her own workshop as a master. In parts of Europe, as in later medieval Germany, spending time as a journeyman, moving from one town to another to gain experience of different workshops, was an important part of the training of an aspirant master.

The word 'journeyman' comes from the French word journée, meaning the period of one day; this refers to his right to charge a fee for each day's work. He or she would normally be employed by a master craftsman, but would live apart and might have a family of his own.

THE TRAINING

The apprentice will move from department to department according to the time table and the subjects. Training, diving and class room work are supervised by one of our PADI Master Instructors. The apprentice has to keep a daily log of all activities, a dive log book is mandatory. All manuals, dive tables and certification fees for PADI dive courses are provided by the dive center.

Schedules

4 Modules at 6 month each:

Module 1: Open Water and Advanced Course, basic seamanship, boat handling skills, language training, scuba diving

Module 2: EFR and Rescue Diver Course and other medical training, technical training incl. equipment specialist course, equipment maintenance, compressor room, language training, scuba diving

Module 3: Business Administrations, customer relations and sales, language training, scuba diving, Eco and Environment, PADI Master Scuba Diver training

Module 4: Divemaster training (if apprentice is 18 years of age), Internships with other partners in the scuba diving industry (Aquaventure / Whitetip Divers in Cebu City)

Subjects

Languages
• English
• Basic knowledge in a 2nd foreign language (German)

Ecology and the Marine Environment
• Specialty Courses:
o PADI Project Aware Specialty
o PADI AWARE – Coral Reef Conservation Specialty Course
o PADI Underwater Naturalist
o PADI Turtle Specialist

• Environment and Ecology (Project Aware Program, ecosystems of the ocean and its inhabitants)
• Organizing and conducting beach and underwater clean-ups (workshop)

Scuba Diving
• Dive experience and boat handling – diving within recreational diving limits as much as possible
• Dive courses & Certifications
o PADI Open Water
o PADI Advanced Open Water
o PADI Rescue Course
o PADI Enriched Air Specialty
o PADI Deep Dive Specialty
o PADI Equipment Specialist
o PADI Project Aware Specialty
o PADI AWARE – Coral Reef Conservation Specialty
o PADI Underwater Naturalist
o PADI Turtle Specialist
o PADI Master Scuba Diver
o PADI Divemaster

Technical Training
• Diving Equipment Maintenance - theoretical knowledge of dive equipment design and function, hands-on practical experience, maintaining and servicing regulators, BCD's, gauges, tank valves, routine maintenance of compressor systems
• PADI equipment specialist course

Medical Training
• Emergency First Responder (EFR) Course
• Marine life injuries
• Visit to the local Decompression Chamber

Business Administrations
• Basic computer skills – Internet, E-mails. Word, Excel, Access
• Basic accounting procedures
• Telephone training - telephone skills and etiquette

Customer relations and sales
• Customer service ethics
• Reception desk – professional image, effective verbal and visual communication
• Sales training – role playing and scenarios
• Sales training – with real customers

Internships with other partners in the scuba diving industry
• 4 week internship at Aquaventure / Whitetip Divers in Cebu City

2006-07-17T00:56:00.000-07:00

Stormy days in Moalboal.
We had some stormy days last week here in Cebu. Combined with an unususal high tide it resulted in some floddings at some restaurants and huts between Neptune Dive Center and the bistro Last Filling Station. However, despite the high waves we went out diving since the visibility was exceptional good and we kept our schedule of 3 daily boat rides. Below some pics from last week.

2006-07-13T22:41:00.000-07:00

You visited our dive center, liked to dive with us and want to check on us once in while sitting at you office desk? That’s why we joined the blog bandwagon. And we start off with a write-up I did some years ago about a dive in Pescador.

Join me on a dive in Pescador Island!

Many people ask me how it is to dive. How is a typical dive done? What do you see? How do you feel? So join me on a typical dive in Pescador Island, the famous Marine Park in Moalboal, Cebu.

Our dive is scheduled for 10:00 am. About 9:30 we meet in the dive center, assemble the dive equipment, get the equipment to the boat. A few divers will join us on our morning dive. After a ten-minute ride we reach Pescador Island and the boat ties up on one of the buoys the environmental conscious dive centers in Moalboal put up there. You and me pair up as a buddy team, because in Sport Scuba Diving you never dive alone. Your buddy is there to assist you in case something goes wrong and to share the fun and experience with you. First we evaluate the environmental conditions. The weather is just fine, bright sunshine, no wind, no waves. On a beautiful summer day like this it is almost like there is no water if you look down the side of the boat. You can see already the colorful coral gardens and teeming fish standing in a slight current and you long to jump in right away. But first we do the briefing: This should be a deep dive, as we have trained in the PADI Advanced Open Water Course. Because we make our dive along a steep wall, we plan to make a multilevel dive starting at a depth of 35m. There is a special point where we have a good chance to see White Tip sharks. After 6 minutes we ascend to a depth of 20m. We will stay there for another 20 minutes and then ascend to 5-6m, where we spend the rest of the time of our dive and make a safety stop to get rid of excess nitrogen in a safe way. Now we do a buddy check, means that we check out each other’s equipment: buoyancy jacket - ok, weight belt - ok, releases - ok, air - ok, and final ok. All right, we are ready to go. We sit opposite each other in our small banca, with our backs to the sea. I count:” Ready… Set .. Go!” and we let go. We are falling backwards and with a big splash we enter the deep blue water, bobbing back up to surface right away because of the air in our Buoyancy Jackets. We swim to the buoy line, release some air out of our jackets and start our descent along the line. The magic blue environment swallows us. You can not talk, but there are many sounds: the hissing of the valves in your scuba unit, the air bubbles your exhaling fleeing to surface, the current and waves moving small particles in the reef, the sound made by colorful parrot fish when they eat hard corals. Over the drop off you glide to the bottomless void. You are descending deeper and deeper, watching your depth gauge and your buddy, equalizing the pressure in your ears.

At 30 m we start to slow down, at 34m we stop our descend. The underwater world is different now. There are not so many colors anymore, and it’s darker than close to the surface. We drift slowly with the current. Sometimes we stop, looking in small caves for murray eels, big groupers, or, if we have some luck, for a sleeping White Tip shark. Suddenly I hear a sound behind me. You bang your diving knife against your tank, a diver’s way to gain attention from your buddy. I turn around to look at you. You are right behind me, where you should be, eyes wide open, pointing out in the blue. I look where you are pointing at and I see a school of big barracudas very close to us. Four, no five of them, each of them at least a meter big. They stand motionless in the current, holding their position without any visible effort. They seem to observe us with cold, merciless eyes, like if we would fit for a midmorning snack. They are joining us for four, five minutes, keeping always the same distance to us. According to our dive plan we have to ascend to a shallower depth now, and the barracudas disappear in the big blue. We continue our dive, gliding weightless along the wall, stopping here and there, exploring the colorful reef, finding many different kind of reef fish, like lion fish, bat fish, sea cucumbers and so on. At the end of the dive we encounter a sea snake. Another potentially dangerous animal, very poisonous but not aggressive. We just keep a little distance and observe the snake hunting in the reef: how it glides from hole to hole, looking for her prey. After a while the snake runs out of air and it glides in smooth, wavelike movements up to surface, gets some fresh air, and heads down again. Time is flying by and soon we are low of air, too. We have to ascend and to get back to the dive center. We are really happy, chatting in the boat with the other divers about all the things we have seen. Okay, we missed the sharks, but this gives us just an excuse to go back there again. And these barracudas …, man, they were really cool! We quickly agree to join also the afternoon dive.