What do your scuba diving dreams look like? Clear water, colourful corals and heaps of fish? Maybe a shipwreck? Or a turtles cruising by in the blue? That’s what our dreams look like too! Unfortunately, it isn’t always the case as plastic waste and trash from on land washes in to our oceans on an almost daily basis. But this is where you can help!

Diving against debris means making a scuba dive specifically for the purpose of collecting waste from a dive site which doesn’t belong there. As a dive center in Malapascua, ocean conservation is very close to our hearts and we often host conservation events related to diving in Malapascua and diving in the Philippines.

 

Here are some tips for organizing your dive against debris (cleanup dive) based on our experience of diving in Malapascua and organizing cleanups:

 

1. Find a site

If you live near water, there’s a chance that there’s cleanup that could be done. But some places are better than others. Choose a site that’s easy to access, and shallow is better so all levels can join and dive for longer. Get in touch with a local dive center to help choose a site near you.

2. Pick a date

Along with a site, choose a date. Give people time to make arrangements and a weekend is usually better so more people can join.

 

3. Choose a name

A good name can help attract people AND raise awareness about ocean conservation. “Reef cleanup” may be quite descriptive, but “Save our ocean!” is far more engaging.

4. Get in touch with the local dive community

Your local dive center should be number one on your list – explain what you want to do and ask them to help. They stand to gain by renting gear out and it’s excellent publicity for them with you doing the leg work. You might even build an ongoing relationship which benefits you later on.

5. Get in touch with organizations

Contact regional, national, and international organizations dealing with marine environmental work and try to get them to sanction your event, and share it through their channels. Having their name on your event goes a long way towards adding credibility to it and is good publicity for them too. This will also encourage your dive center to be involved too. We love helping to organise cleanup dives in Malapascua and have our divers meet people from the environmental organizations. Here we collaborate with People and the Sea and we enjoy joining them in their weekly beach cleanup, the “Debris Free Thursday”.

6. Seek out sponsors

With the local dive community behind you and a well-chosen name, you’re ready to start thinking about sponsors – this could be money to donate to Project AWARE but could equally be gear hire or tanks from a dive center, mesh bags from an environmental body or after dive refreshments from a local food outlet! In Malapascua, businesses participate in sponsoring the weekly beach cleanup “Debris Free Thursday” by providing a free drink at the end of each cleanups. It makes it fun and a social event!

7. Work the media

Getting media coverage for your event serves several purposes. First and foremost, it spreads the word on the need for marine conservation, generating awareness. Media exposure also makes the event more interesting to sponsors.

Start by looking into local media stories to see which journalists cover relevant topics, and then reach out to them directly, by phone or email.

8. Get on social media

Use social media to reach additional people, by using your own social pages or by creating a Facebook page, Google+ page, and Twitter profile for your event, then using that to reach out to relevant groups.

Update frequently, and remember that photos are always popular on most social media platforms.

 

9. Follow-up and reporting

Once the event is done, it shouldn’t be over. Follow up by reaching out to the community, sponsors, and divers, and thanking them for their participation. Share info on the amount of debris collected, and the impact those types of debris have on marine environments. Report the result to Project AWARE’s dive against debris.

If you are planning to host a cleanup near us – let us know. We would love to be involved!
To find out more about how to conduct a dive against debris underwater and what to include in your dive briefing, look out for part II of our Dive Against Debris Series coming soon….

To find out more about diving Malapascua with us, or about our commitments to ocean conservation and thresher sharks, or to make an inquiry, use our online contact form or send us an email to: [email protected]

Is scuba diving in the Philippines and becoming a PADI Divemaster your dream come true? Here at Devocean Divers we offer unique PADI Divemaster programs to turn your dreams into reality. This could be the start of a whole new life after the Coronavirus world crisis, an opportunity for you to make a new career as a PADI Professional. This quarantine time has kept you locked in, it’s the moment to step out! It’s both challenging and rewarding and you’ll be leading the life you always dreamed of. Imagine your office being on a beach, your daily commute being on a boat heading towards the thresher sharks and your work being underwater – it’s all possible here in Malapascua!

Join us for your Divemaster Course and you’ll learn how to become a professional PADI Divemaster while making awesome dives and exploring our beautiful Malapascua dive sites – and meeting the thresher sharks! It’s a life changing experience, an incredible opportunity and it will look great on your CV! Did we mention that you’ll feel like part of our team and take home memories to last a lifetime?

 

Sign up for our Special Offer!

• Get started with your PADI Divemaster theory NOW with eLearning and SAVE 25% on the price of the eLearning material (click here to get started)
• Join us for a month for about US $1200 including PADI materials, accommodation AND unlimited dives!!
• Book now and we’ll keep your dates flexible so you can join us when you are able to travel!

PADI Divemaster Internship with Devocean

The Devocean Divemaster Internship is the original, most comprehensive and complete package available. A PADI Divemaster Internship means that you will be taken under the wing of our PADI instructors just like a member of staff and you will be taught not only the skills to lead certified divers but also the inner workings of a successful PADI 5 Star dive center.

Our Divemaster Packages

It’s possible to get started on becoming a PADI Divemaster no matter what your current level of diving experience! That’s right, if you are not yet certified to dive you can take a longer program with us which will take you through all of the necessary courses up to and including Divemaster. Imagine spending a couple of months on a tropical island becoming a PADI Pro!

 

If you are already a certified diver, you’ll need to work your way up to PADI Rescue Diver level before getting started on the PADI Divemaster Course. If you are already a Rescue Diver with an up to date EFR certification you are ready to get started – take a look at our “What do I need to know” section below OR get started now by taking the Divemaster PADI eLearning online!

If you are not yet a Rescue Diver that’s not a problem, we’ll put together a tailored program for you which takes in to account your current certification level and your number of logged dives to date. We are here to help you on your path towards becoming a PADI Professional and that means making the process as straight forward as possible.

 

What do I need to know?

• To enrol on the PADI Divemaster course you need to be 18 years old, be a certified Rescue Diver with EFR certification in the last 24 months and have 40 logged dives. If you don’t have all of these it’s not a problem. We can start your program based on whatever level you are now.
• To get started you’ll also need a Doctor’s signature to confirm you are “medically fit for diving”, we have a standard PADI form for this which we can email to you to take your Doctor.
• Malapascua is an amazing location for Divemaster training and the people here are extremely friendly and helpful. It’s safe for single travellers as well as couples and groups.
• Our goal is to prepare you for working in the industry – not just gaining a certification. Your Devocean scuba diving training in Malapascua will be invaluable, teach you how to deal with real-life situations and you’ll leave the Philippines proud of your achievements and ready for the life you have been dreaming of as a confident and capable PADI Divemaster!
• Come prepared for an experience of a lifetime, awesome diving, thresher sharks and a lot of fun!

What will I learn?

Our comprehensive Divemaster Course in Malapascua includes the following topics and professional workshops:

• The role and characteristics of the PADI Divemaster
• Supervising dive activities and assisting with student divers
• Diver safety and risk management
• Divemaster conducted programs and specialized skills
• Business of diving and your career
• Awareness of the dive environment
• Dive setup and management
• Mapping an open water site
• Conducting dive briefings
• Organizing a search and recovery project and a deep dive
• Conducting a scuba review and skin diver course
• Assisting with Discover Scuba Diving and leading Discover Local Diving programs

 

If you would like to join us, please contact us and feel free to ask any questions. We’ll get back to you with a program tailored to your needs and let you know an expected time frame and price. We will give you more details about the lifestyle on Malapascua and what to expect when living on an island. Check out our Facebook page Devocean Divers Malapascua, or our Divemaster dedicated page: Divemaster Internship Philippines, and you will see the fun that our candidates have been having.

You can also check our hashtag #devoceandiversmalapascua and scroll through our instagram pictures 😉

To book your Divemaster internship, fill in our online contact form or send us an email to:  [email protected]

 

We look forward to scuba diving Malapascua with you soon!

 

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This post was actually copied from the blog page of one of our PADI dive master trainees, Sadie. Her blog site is jetsetsadie.com for those of you that ‘SHOULD’ be interested to see what else Sadie wrote about during her travels and adventures. For those of you still indecisive whether or not to visit Cebu, Philippines and dive with Devocean Divers and the thresher sharks of Malapascua… here are the 7 reasons of Sadie.

1.Charming Locals

In many places that you travel to, if it touristy at all the locals only see you as a way to make money. In the Philippines, you don’t get that feeling. If you were lost all you have to do is ask someone. I once asked a local where a good place to eat was and he drew me a detailed map to where his favorite place to eat was. If it were the other way around and he was asking me where my favorite place to eat was I probably would just give him the name of the restaurant, or ignore him completely. Not only that, but it seems as though they want to get to know you. Whereas in other places you will visit they are only trying to get money out of you, or they’ll give you the answer you want, instead of the correct one which can be infuriating.
             

2. Picturesque Beaches

I’ve been to many beautiful beaches, but none compare to the ones I saw in the Philippines. Out of the many I’ve visited here are my three favorites. Similon Island right off of Oslob it’s 1500 pesos for the boat ride but if you get a 5 people on the boat it’s only 300 pesos for an amazing day trip, just be sure to bring some food and water. Once you’re there the water is crystal clear and turquoise, and the beach is brilliant white sand. Another beach to visit is one of Panglao’s main beaches, Alona. On Alona beach you’ll find many holiday makers, bars, restaurants, and masseuses. If you continue down farther towards the end of the beach, you’ll find that there are very little people. The water here is very warm and clear, along with the white sand and 60 peso beers from the nearest dive shop, you can’t go wrong. If you want a relaxing day while in Malapascua you can take a trip over to Kallangaman island. The boat ride to the island is 2 hours, but don’t let that discourage you. The snorkeling here is great, and is one of the most picturesque beaches that you could visit. Most dive shops offer this opportunity and it includes lunch, snorkeling equipment, the island fee, and boat ride over for only 1500 pesos. We went with Devocean Divers, and I would recommend them hand over foot for this tour, along with any other diving needs that you may have.

3. Diving

Personally I have only dived in one place in the Philippines, which was in Malapascua. That being said my two travel partners dived in Moalboal with Cebu Dive Shop. There are a few famous dive sites in Moalboal. Neil and James went to a few of them and came back recommending two. White Beach which is where you can see sea turtles and macro (large shoals of small fish and sea critters) and the Sardine run which is located right off the shore. Here there are millions of Sardines swimming around you with predatory fish diving in amongst them to feed, a truly amazing dive and one that I’d love to experience. We went to Malapascua later so that I could do my open water course, and for the guys to do their rescue course. James and I arrived a few days before Neil so we took to going around and finding the best dive shop for us. We ended up deciding on diving with DEVOCEAN DIVERS Malapascua because they made us feel at home and like part of the family. I liked it here so much that I actually decided to do my advanced course, and may even return to do my rescue and dive master training here. With that said I did nine dives here and my top three have to be Gato Island, Dakit Dakit, and Monad Shoal, but you really can’t go wrong. Every time I went down I had to remind myself that it was all real.  Gato Island is a day trip which consists of 2 dives, here you may see some White Tip Reef sharks in the swim through cave, tons of macro and maybe even a pygmy seahorse. In Dakit Dakit you’ll see plenty of fish like the Cuttle fish (one of my favorites), Damsel fish, Angel fish and Razor fish. In addition to this the coral here is just mind blowing. Monad Shoal is famous for being one of the only places that you’re able to see the Thresher sharks. Normally these sharks live 200 m down, but they come to this one particular area to be cleaned by other fish. Keep in mind that this is a deep dive so you do need to be trained in deep diving by either finishing your advanced course, or by doing an adventure deep dive.

4. Affordability

Coming from America I thought flying to the Philippines would be crazy expensive, but from Seattle it’s only $568 for a round trip. Once you’re there almost everything is cheap. A nice meal with a couple of courses and a drink will run you about $6, but just an average lunch or dinner will only cost about $2 or $3. It’s so affordable here that if anything cost more than $3, it became “expensive”. On average a room or dorm bed will cost about $8/ night for a midrange room. If you travel as a couple the price gets cut into half, which for a budget backpacker can’t be beat.

5. Less Tourists

For many travelers this isn’t important, and it’s not the presence of other westerners that is the problem. When a place becomes full of tourists the prices skyrocket and it becomes a bit seedy, not to mention you usually lose the culture and gain a bunch of drunk tourists. In the Philippines you don’t experience this, unless you go to Panglao, but even so it doesn’t even compare to Kuta, Bali. In Malapascua there were quite a few westerners due to all the diving, but it never felt that way. Everything was still affordable, and wasn’t overrun by resorts and holiday makers. Oslob and Moalboal also weren’t touristy and the locals were all charming.

6. The Scenery

All throughout my trip, whenever we would take a bus I would fight to have a window seat. The hills that look straight out of Jurassic Park, and the small villages. It’s definitely worth scoring that window seat. If you can’t seem to obtain a window seat on your way there, then just head to Bohol for the chocolate hills, manmade forest, or hanging bridges. They all can be done with a tour or you can rent a motor bike and head there yourself, with the latter being the cheapest option.

7. Waterfalls

No matter the island or city you’re in there are usually a few waterfalls to visit. However, we only had the time to visit one, Kawasan Falls. Even though we only saw one, I couldn’t say enough about the tour. For 1000 pesos or $23, we got a bus from our hostel, lunch, a bamboo raft on the first level of the waterfall and dives off ledges ranging from 5-12m as well as a water slide and rope swing. The waterfall itself is amazing, the waters are a bright blueish turquoise, it’s almost eerie how blue it is. You can get these tours anywhere, but we chose the shop right next to our accommodation, Marina Hostel.  My only piece of advice is to ignore TLC, and go chase those waterfalls.

As I think back on the last four weeks of my Divemaster course, it’s as though I’ve just had the most amazing dive and now I am holding the line at the five-meter mark and counting down my three-minute safety stop. There were so many colourful, rare and interesting things to see and learn along the way and I’m sad that it’s nearing the end. I have just a few more exercises to do before I have to ascend those last few meters and climb out of the water.

First up are anxiety-inducing swim tests. Every time I read the requirements – a 500m swim with no assists and an 800m swim with snorkel, mask and fins (all within a certain time) – I curse myself for never having learned how to do a proper front crawl. While I am the owner of a mean doggy-paddle, my front crawl is embarrassingly weak and does not include putting my face in the water. I’ll have to rely on my determination and a few instructional You Tube videos to get me to the finish line on time. The purpose of this exercise is to check whether the trainee is physically fit. After six months travelling around Asia on holiday, the result will be informative to both my instructor and myself.

Also remaining on the to-do list is an equipment exchange with a buddy under water. Sounds easy, right? Not so fast. We have to trade our BCD/tank, mask and fins while sharing just one air source. That means that while my buddy exhales his breath, I breathe from the regulator and peel off a piece of equipment as fast as I can. I then give him the regulator and I exhale while he gets out of his equipment. Piece by piece, we trade gear while trying not to choke on water or panic. This should be fun! The purpose of such a strange task? Would you ever need to do this underwater? Highly unlikely. The real purpose is to test how well I manage stress and whether I can keep calm while doing something difficult under the surface.

After all, the job of a Divemaster can be stressful. Leading a group of divers – all possibly at different skill levels – into the blue is a big responsibility. While, technically, the role of a Divemaster is to show certified divers cool aquatic life and ensure their guests have a great time, this also means keeping them safe. Strong currents, poor buoyancy, and low-air, for example, can all quickly become serious challenges. Of course, a Divemaster knows how to avoid these situations but they must also know how to manage them if they occur. While the equipment exchange tests the student, it also helps prepare them should they ever have to manage a stressful situation under the water.

The last of my tasks before the end of the course is to map a dive site. With my fellow Divemaster trainee Cat, we’ve been counting our fin kicks and checking our compass routinely at local dive sites. While my instructor will tell you otherwise, mapping is not an easy task. At least not for the directionally-challenged, like me. Strong currents at Deep Rock also prevent me from going the full way around the pinnacle and the sheer size of North Point inevitably leaves Cat mapping only part of the site. However, we persist, dive the sites a few more times, and dutifully sketch our maps.

With these three tasks completed, my Divemaster course will be finished. It seems like just yesterday I arrived on Malapascua Island but in reality it was seven weeks and three courses ago. My three-minute safety stop will soon be over and I’ll have to ascend out of the blue. I suppose it’s true what they say; time flies when you’re having fun.