Aquaventure Dive Club

Aquaventure Dive Club membership is a great way to get the most out of your diving.

Great company, great offers and great deals await members of the Aquaventure Dive Club. Aquaventure Club members get discounts on dive travel, accommodation, equipment and dive courses. Members can also avail of 90-day interest free loans on equipment bought at Aquaventure. They also get invited to regular parties organised by Aquaventure – and everyone knows that Aquaventure's parties are the envy of the industry! Recently, members travelled to Sipadan to experience some of the best diving in S E Asia. A one-time payment of P300 gets you into the club - or graduate from any dive course at Aquaventure for free membership.Contact any Aquaventure outlet for more information at (+63-2) 8992831 or Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Text by Heneage Mitchell

There is an abundance of fabulous diving to be had around La Union. Listed below are some of the best dive sites around the Lingayen gulf; while not a complete list, it shows that La Union has all the challenge and excitement that divers crave, and is one of the best areas in the Philippines to learn SCUBA, due to the presence of numerous shallow reefs and protected waters. It is also home to the Philippine PADI Director, Tim Aukshun of OCEAN DEEP, and a number of other PADI International divemasters and instructors.

Text by Paul Clapp

Once in a while, you wish to leave the harsh noise and pollution of the city behind. A safe place, where you can walk along the beach at night to enjoy a lazy dinner, sophisticated night clubs or just stargaze. During the day, how about SCUBA diving, snorkelling, Putt Putt, Lawn Bowls, horse shoes, darts, windsurfing, golf, pool, game fishing or going on Safari (P.T. Style see Bill Forgan at the Bali Hai for details and bring your drinking shoes...).

Text by Denny Ski

They call it Barretto, they call it the Barrio, they call it Subic Bay. What exactly are we talking about? The tourist belt of the Olongapo/Subic area. Heading north on the euphemistically titled "National Hiway", from Olongapo City towards Subic City is a stretch of beach starting from Ocean View Resort running through to Baloy Beach, about 4 miles of sand, sea and fun in the sun.

The tourist belt is made up of hotels, resorts, restaurants, clubs and every kind of tourist attractions and activities for travellers. With the beach bordering the highway like it does the Subic Bay Resort Association (A group of over 50 tourist related businesses), decided to change the name to Beach Boulevard.

Text by Gunter Bernert

Over the last few years, Coron has become renowned for its excellent wreck diving. With more then 12 WWII wrecks around Coron & Busuanga Island, most of them from one to two hours from Coron, every day is a special day amidst the beautiful scenery of Coron and Busuanga Island.

Most of the wrecks are lying in diveable depths. The average depth is between 25 and 30 meters.

Text by Bob Manas

We set out on our expedition on the 26th day of January 2000. It was around 6:30 am when the three of us arrived at a sleepy village, alongside a rocky river, nestled between the steep hills of Montalban. This was rock-climbing country and a center for sport climbers from the city.

Bonifacio's Cave was located on a 500-ft. slope along a mountainside across a gushing river that was dotted by huge boulders. Wearing our wetsuits, we swam across the cold river currents and hiked up the 500 ft. slope hauling two 40cuft. tanks, a crate of scuba gear, ropes, climbing equipment and cameras to document this insane endeavor. We finally reached the cave's mouth but found the entrance barred by a locked steel gate! Fortunately, we were able to slide ourselves and our gears through.

The newly created Culion Municipal located on Culion Island, Calamines Group of Islands has just completed a 2-year study of the marine environment. Culion Island and 6 smaller islands. The study, funded by the local government with help from the Hyme Foundation, University of the Philippines and the Peace Corps, has identified 10 areas that will become restricted areas. The gathering of all classes of shellfish and net fishing will be banned. The only fishing activity allowed will be by hook and line.

The biggest area to become restricted will be the northern side of Chindonan Island, an area of more than 3 kilometers in length and covering 700 acres.

The Culion Municipal, created in 1995 whilst limited in funds, has, along with identifying coral reef areas, set aside other areas to be protected. Qumming Island will be restored with giant clams. Certain mangrove areas will become restricted also.

1) TAMPUAN/TINOTO WALL COMPLEX (The Wall)

The Tampuan/Tinoto Wall runs for about 10kms with a reported depth of around 200m. It is situated about 50km from Gen. San. in the vicinity of Tinoto Village. It is easy to reach via the US Aid funded road so the journey takes only about 45m minutes. From the road to the waters edge is only 25 meters or so making access very easy. From the High Water Mark to the top of the wall is no more than 50 meters with Coral Gardens in between. In some areas, these Coral Gardens have been viewed as equal to any in the world by Jack Jackson, the Author of "The Dive Sites of the Philippines".

The corals are fine but the wall itself can only be described as awesome. The wall is well covered with sea fans, hydroids, sponges, tunicates and many other life forms that are home to nudibranchs, cucumbers, crustaceans and reef fish.

Text by Tuna City Scuba Center

Photography by Tuna City Scuba Center

Southern Mindanao is an area that has not been visited by many divers or studied by many Marine Biologists, so it is still relatively unknown to the Diving Community.

In General Santos City, Tuna City Scuba Center is now promoting the area as a water sports destination.

Sarangani Bay, our home water body, is not only excellent for Scuba but with fresh winds most of the time should also be good for Wind Surfing and Sailing.

In the early morning of September 24, 1944 at 05:50 am, Task Force 38 took off on a flight to their target 350 miles away from their aircraft carriers. A total of 180 aircrafts, F6F Hellcat fighters and SB2C Helldiver bombers were on their way to Coron Bay. This was the longest distance a Task Force flew at this time in history.

At 09:00 am, the planes reached Coron and found 15-18 large enemy ships anchored in the bay. Only 45 minutes later, they left the bay, leaving behind a hell of burning oil, manganese and exploding, sinking ships. One of these sinking ships was the AKITSUSHIMA, a real impressive Japanese warship about 140m long.