Learning to Dive – The Philippines

I proudly write this blog post as a Certified Open Water Diver. Yay! It’s quite a surreal feeling. Today marks 133 days travelling. The entire time we’ve been on the move we’ve been saying we’re going to learn to scuba dive once we get to The Philippines. A few days ago we arrived and spoke to Alona Divers. Before we knew it, we were in the ocean, actually learning to dive. I cannot think of anywhere in the world I would have rather done it. You guys, the water here is beautiful.

In order to be allowed to dive, you must first qualify as an open water diver. That’s the first step. Costs vary around the world and The Philippines is actually one of the cheapest places to learn. The whole course cost us around £250 each. For some that might still seem like a bit of an investment. And it is. But, you have to remember the amount of equipment and instructing that diving requires.

Firstly, you need a good instructor with whom you can communicate with well. Depending on your attitude towards diving you may require someone with a bit of patience too. For us, we wanted an emphasis on safety. We wanted an instructor that took it seriously, didn’t rush us and made us feel safe in their presence. That is exactly what we got from Viktor at Alona Divers.

Secondly, there’s a lot of equipment involved in diving. You’ll need a boat to take you out to your dive spots, a driver for the boat, oxygen tanks, mask & fins. Plus all of the technical wear that allows you to actually breathe under the water. Not to mention the guys that are on hand to help you get fitted, carry the heavy stuff onto the boats and help you into the water.

Finally, this includes your book that you’ll need to pass your tests and access to all the learning material. Now, with all the above considered, £250 doesn’t really seem like a lot.

You can’t go ahead and do this without passing the tests. But fear not, the tests are all multiple choice and we found everything to be clear and straightforward.

We walked into Alona Divers to simply inquire about doing the course. It was around Midday. The man we spoke to informed us that there was another girl who was starting her course tomorrow too. She was watching the videos you must watch before embarking on your underwater adventure. He asked if we would like to watch them too so we could all go together the next day. We agreed and sat down to our first introduction to diving. Five hours later we emerged, bored out of our minds… But, grateful that we’d got it out of the way so we could get on with the fun stuff.

If you’ve ever seen videos of people diving, you’ll probably agree that it looks simple. You swim and you breathe. That’s true – once you’ve got the hang of it. Before you can do that you have to be trained in how to deal with possible mishaps and how to control your equipment. Some of this can be explained theoretically – out of the water.

Your instructor will want to make sure that you have an understanding of your equipment & how you would handle any eventuality in the water. There are 5 sections to learn, each with a test at the end and then a final (still multiple choice) exam at the end. How your instructor orders this may vary. Personally, we experienced sections 1-3 initially before we did any practical learning.

Once your instructor is confident that you understand the theory, it’s time for your first confined water dive! This can take place in a swimming pool if it’s available. Otherwise, it will take place (like ours did) in shallow sea water. You’ll take your first breaths underwater and use all your apparatus for the first time. Tests include filling your mask with water and clearing it, understanding hand signals underwater and breathing from your buddy’s oxygen. This is an important practice for the unlikely event that something were to go wrong with your own supply. The key here is to stay calm and remember to breathe.

Before you know it, you’ll be gliding around and taking in your new surroundings. After more confined dives, a few open water dives and finishing your theory. You will be a certified open water diver! This took us 2 and a half days in total (video watching included). Most dive schools will say the course takes 4 days. I guess this depends on the speed at which you learn and adapt underwater. With only 3 of us in the group, we had enough attention from our instructor and were able to learn efficiently.

You might wonder what this means. Well, it means that now we can rock up to any dive school with our license and take part in excursions and dives all over the world. Open water is the most basic qualification, so if you’ve enjoyed it you may want to look into doing your advanced open water too. 2 days after we qualified, we took part in our first dive trip to Balicasag island. The main difference here is that we were paying for the team to make our trip more enjoyable. That meant that the crew assembled all of our equipment for us so all we had to do was enjoy ourselves.

Of course, there was still a Divemaster (not to be confused with instructor) present, who briefed us on where we would be going underwater, how long for and of anything to be cautious of (such as a strong current). Our Divemaster descended with us and stayed with us for the duration of the dive, keeping a close eye.

If the above seems like a lot of hard work, let me tell you that the payoff is so worth it. There is a whole other world down there just waiting to be explored. You’ll see fish so colourful, weird and wonderful. And, if the marine life isn’t enough to get you down there, let me tell you that what I enjoy the most about diving is the feeling of being weightless. If you can get your buoyancy right and your equipment is exactly where it should be, you will feel light as a feather. I guess it’s the closest thing I will ever experience to being in space.

Diving feels to me like meditation. All I can do is breathe slowly and continuously (as advised) and take in my surroundings. I can’t talk to anyone or allow myself to be too distracted. So, you just end up having your own time to relax and, well… be amazed. Check out the PADI website for some FAQ regarding beginner divers here.

Let me start by saying, I am not a fan of snorkelling. I can swim fine, but once I’ve got sea water coming into my snorkel and mask, I just get frustrated and it ruins the experience for me. Nowadays I take a life jacket so I don’t have to worry about treading water whilst I correct my mask and snorkel. Not quite so glamorous – I like to wear my life jacket like a nappy you see (if you haven’t done this before, try it!).

I had previously done a couple of ‘try’ or ‘discovery’ dives and really enjoyed it. In fact, a lot of dive schools may ask you to do one of these before you invest in a course you may end up hating. What I find with diving is that it is less frustrating then snorkelling, sure the risks of something going wrong are higher, but if you do as your supposed to do, you shouldn’t have any problems at all.

During our dives to Balicasag island, we had a chance to snorkel for a bit in between the 2 dives. All of a sudden, I felt like a pro snorkeler! I could get the water out of my mask no bother. I could clear the water from my snorkel panic free and with my fins on, didn’t come close to requiring a life jacket. So, for me personally, I feel like diving has overall made me way more comfortable in open water. I’ll also mention that floating around in vast open water is way less scary when you’ve been and actually seen for yourself what’s down there.

If the above is enough to convince you that diving might just be the right challenge for you. I cannot recommend doing it in The Philippines enough. It is seriously mind-blowing.

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