We would like to thank all of the MAD team, and especially Alex Siegel for organizing what turned out to be an Awesome weekend of diving at Blue Ribbon Dive Resort.
MAD (Manila Aqua Divers) is a diving group of mainly Manila expats living in Manila, that all share the love for diving. We here at Blue Ribbon Dive Resort have had the pleasure of diving with quite a few of its members before, yet this was the first true MAD organized trip.
MAD arrived early on the morning of the 21st Jan, all eager to get back in the water. On the first day we dove at Dungon Wall, Alma Jane, Dalaruan Wrecks then Giant Clams as a night dive.
Due to the colder waters at the moment (down from 30 degrees Celsius to around 26 degrees at present), a lot more critters seem to come up from the cooler water. Flamboyant Cuttlefish seem to be in abundance at the moment. Marco our new Instructor who had only ever seen 4 in his life, managed to find 2 on one dive at Sabang Wrecks. We also had a lot of pipefish, such as the Ornate and the Robust Ghost Pipefish.
There are lots more great photos, so be sure to read the whole article!
In the evening we enjoyed the ‘MAD Buffet’, a selection of our dishes served at our International Restaurant. Everyone had quite an early night after the talking of the day’s dives.
The second day, we all went to Verde Island. The sky was blue with only a few clouds on the horizon. Verde was epic. Visibility of around 30-40m, on the wall side of the ‘Drop Off’ it was Nudibranch galore, along with a school of Jacks seeming to attack a very large Octopus. On our second dive, the volcanic activity was very visible, with bubbles of gas streaming from the ocean floor from about 20m to 25m. After we came up shallow towards the wall, we found shoals of Barracuda, Trevallies, Jacks & Sweetlips, along with the schools of Redtooth Triggerfish that are in their thousands at Verde.
Then we headed to the Sawang Beach Camp, where we found our BBQ readily cooked for us. We ate, refreshed ourselves, then left for our last dive.
We headed over to ‘The Washing Machine’ . No surface current, and no signs that the washing machine was ‘on’. So we all jumped in and had a slow drift dive towards the mini canyons. It then, as can happen at Verde, picked up quite quickly, and gave us all a bit of an exhilarating dive. Alex before the dive had told me he’d never seen the current strong at the Washing Machine. This time we all did!
We headed home, and the few of us that still could handle meat after the BBQ, had an English Roast at Blue Ribbon, while others had Pizza.
On the Monday, we did a couple of dives. Hole in the Wall, a drift dive where you often see schools of Giant Trevallies and sometimes Tuna hunting in the current, and then back to Dalaruan Wrecks for one final muck dive.
It was a great weekend, and was a pleasure having MAD diving with us.
Thank you all for coming.
Jon and the entire Blue Ribbon Team
