:: The calm after the storm…. ::

Gillian McDonald was a bit surprised to do her 400^th dive with us here in ASIA DIVERS. Her plan was to go back to England after dive number 397 but she was so lucky that a tropical storm hit Puerto Galera and all boat traffic stopped. She and Alison Freeman were both stranded and we could all see smiles on their faces when they realized that she couldn’t leave the island. What to do… continue diving of course! Gill did her dive number 400 a couple of days after she had unpacked her dive gear again. Most of the diving she did together with Kjell and they were all very shallow. The favorite dive site was Sinandigan where she was swimming around with her big camera and took hundreds of pictures of all the nice things they found on top of the reef. In the same time she showed Kjell parts of the dive site he never seen before. Thanks Gill and Ali, it was nice to have you here and we all hope that we will see you soon here in Puerto Galera.

Norris Hickerson’s Facebook comment about the week said it all:

“Norris Hickerson is back from the Philippines - Nephews (Matt Hickerson and Ben Weeks) both returned alive - 2 x Open Water, 2 x AOW certifications, 6 x meals per day, 12 x shooters per day, and they drank a whole bunch of other crap too......yee hah! Fun time had by all.”  The boys kept Alli and Instructor Intern Alistair  happily submerged this week and also kept Alistair busy some nights as he helped the boys discover sightseeing in Sabang. Great to see Norris and Minda back this way and hope it won’t be so long until we see you again.

Congratulations to Ike Subardiaga (who started more than four years ago!) and Hal Smith for successfully completing their RESCUE course with instructors Jamie, Troy and Alistair. And what a great job they did with 2 fully packed days of Rescue scenario's they both looked quite exhausted by the end. But they are eager for more as they both took the Divemaster crew pack home with them and are coming back next weekend to start the Divemaster Course.   

Todd Richins arrived just over two weeks ago with the vision of becoming a DM. Already he’s completed Advanced Open Water, Rescue EFR and Deep, Nitrox, Naturalist and Digital U/W photography courses. “And That’s Not All” He‘s also taken a big chunk out of his DM course to boot, “And That’s Not All” He intends to do Wreck specialty and apply for Master Scuba Diver!

My goodness we’re running out of things to do! Maybe it’s time to hand him over to Warren! We’re going to have one huge DM–Master Scuba Diver party at the end

Well Done Todd.

:: Photographer of the Week ::

Rudolph Gimpert from Switzerland, has been diving with us for several years and has especially enjoyed some of his close encounters with some of the weird and wacky things at “The Big B” and The Giant Clams.   Take a look at a couple of Rudi’s fantastic photos below.

:: More Happenings ::

This past weekend it was fiesta time in Sabang. Luckily not too many casualties here as the whole crew actually made it in to work except for one on Sunday.

It was a thriller of a night as we pulled out the white gloves and had a grand send off for a music icon…

:: Dive Travel ::

:: Chefs Corner ::