Dive-Monster Rhoody

I wanted to write a longer report about Linaw Beach Resort, but have a look at the video I found on youtube, I am sure you will enjoy if you decide to book there.

the roomrates are around 4000 Peso, I know it is not cheap, but Linaw has only 6 rooms and you have 100% privacy.

cheers

Rhoody

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I just came back from a three day/night trip from Panglao-Bohol. I went there to meet my friend Kim Beermonster the BIG boy of www.Dumagueteinfo.com.   

He is on a working-vacation there to kick-start his new project www.boholboard.com .

I planned to stay there for one, maximum 2 nights Man, it’s been a while since we met and my plan was to go there just over night as I am covered with work here in Dumaguete.

I took the OceanJet from Dumaguete to Tagbilaran for 520 PHP at 7 am in the morning. I would never take a ferry at that time on a Sunday morning suffering from a bad hangover due to the grand opening of Dumaguete Springs the evening before, but I had the choice between OceanJet and WEESAM Express 10 Minutes !!!! later.

Who in the wide wide world of sports makes a schedule like that.

The Ferry was nearly empty (no wonder at that time) and of course delayed. I arrived in Tagbilaran on Bohol at around 10 am where a driver was already waiting for me. It is only a 30 minute ride from the Pier to Linaw Beach Resort.
The resort is new and under Belgium ownership. The rooms are spacious and the staff very friendly. The only real complaints I had was the beer-temperature. It was way too warm…

The staff tried hard during my whole stay to get that sorted but somwhow it never worked really out.

The Dane booked me in a place called Linaw Beach Resort which is a nice quiet Resort on Panglao of away from the crowded Alona Beach, but still only a 5-10 minute ride to the Restaurants there at Alona.  I guess I am not that kind of a stabled person as right after the “Hello” I changed my mind and decided to stay 3 nights instead of one or two.

My room and the view from it was outstanding and there was no doubt that this gonna be 3 awesome days. Like I promised my friend I also brought the sun from Dumaguete and after checking in we went on a daytrip to Virgin-Island. But this is the next part of the report, what should not be missed…

Cheers

Rhoody

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After plenty of off-topics I need to get back to diving. Last Thursday I met Egon the owner of Dumaguete Springs Resort at Casablanca, our both favourite Restaurants. He ask me if I have time to teach a Rescue course at his Resort. After some calls and changes in my planned schedule I decided to teach the course.

My Student Liz was arriving from Bacolodand we introduced each other. She came with her parents and we run through the rough schedule. It is a requirement to have an EFR course (Emergency First Response aka Medic first aid). While my colleagues headed towards Apo Island I was left alone with two mermaids to teach the Rescue and EFR. the only guy helping us was “Manni” the Manequin… but as you can see on the pictures he has some important body-parts missing that I was totally left alone with the two.

In my next post I will write something about the Rescue and EFR Course, and why I think Each diver should be at least a rescue diver.

cheers

Rhoody

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Mike an UPS-pilot from the States gave me a short notice call and asked about diving. He is a friend of my partner on Dumagueteinfo and visited Dumaguete to get certified as an Open Water Diver. He explained me his phobia with a near-drowning experience and that he has a phobia. Each time he has water around his nose he freaks out and panics. Being warned I could prepare myself.

As a freelancing Scuba-diving Instructor I am in the lucky position to teach small dive-classes. In this case a one-by-one course. I like challenges and to make students overcome their problems.

Mike arrived on the Cebu-Pacific flight on Wednesday afternoon. After he checked in at Coco-Grande Hotel he gave me a call and we met at Mikes Diveshop, the facility I use when teaching classes. At 5 pm he came with Lyka, his lovely girlfriend. I tried to convince her to try a Discover Scuba Program, but she didn’t wanna do it. He came with filled in knowledge-reviews and well prepared. I gave him the typical forms and paperwork and we made the schedule for the next 3 days.

Thursday morning I packed the gear and picked him and Lyka up at the Hotel. Knowing about his Problem I decided not to go to the ocean for his Open Water dives. Instead of that we went to WellBeach-Resort near to Malatapay where I wanted to finish all confined water dives in one go. After a cup of coffee we started to assemble our gear and I briefed Mike what we gonna do under water. All skills went completely fine and I saved the “partial flooded mask clearing” skill until the end of the confined water dive one. Mike did a great job on that and had no problem on the second try. While he was doing that I watched him very closely, being prepared to pull him to the surface (from 4 feet depth) if any problems occur. His self-discipline was amazing as I could see his eyes very focused and listen to his concentrated breathing. After clearing the mask a couple of times we finished some more skills and confined water dives 1, 2 and 3 were done. I was not less happy than him after surfacing and we both laughed and smiled in our lunch break.

After lunch we finished confined water dive 4 and 5 with some minor hick-ups. This dives included mask clearing and no mask swimming. At the end of the dives I took away his mask and let him swim alone in the pool without any physical control. I threw the mask in the pool and he searched for it at the deep end, replaced it and cleared it. That was the sign that he is ready for the “big pool” the next day where our plan was to have Open Water Dive 1 and 2.

The story continues tomorrow. Than you can read about “teaching Scuba diving in a Typhoon”

Thanks for now and cheers

Rhoody

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