CNY Malapascua trip photos
- Thread starter sprain
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sprain, where are the shark pics? u know which one i am asking
ah haha..that one...don't have. couldn't get any shots that's even worth mentioning...I suck at wide angle...saw some devil rays though...
hey sprain.. i like the no8 pic.. that SUMO frogfish..
Interesting lighting with the shadow casted. The rope behind creates a little "match ring"
hows malapascua? (in term of photo opportunities..)
care to give a brief trip report??
cheers
Thanks!
I actually wrote a pretty long trip report...can put that up if you don't mind...
Ahhhh yeah yeah hahaha
Photosmart
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he is with your bro's group ...same size ...:bsmilie:
The dive Master there all asking if he was my brother..
Same here! We tell him you are his twin...:bsmilie:
Yeah. Still the A640. Think I'll be stuck with it for a while! :bsmilie:
A640 good what! i like it alot!
buy buy. From Oceanic Focus! :bsmilie:
Hey Sprain,
I'd like to read your dive report! Either that or i'll have to find out from CYK.
I'll be heading there in April. Can't wait!!
Your pics are great btw.
My A80 doesn't come up with such nice pics leh... ;p
Ok...here goes...
-----
Malapascua is a small island located north of Cebu in the Phillipines. We stayed at Exotic Dive Resort, and dived with...Exotic. Some other divers diving with us were staying at other resorts as the rooms in this resort is really limited.
The trip started at midnight. We took a midnight flight to Cebu on CebuPacific and reached Philippines at about 4am in the morning. This is followed by a 3.5 hour travel by land and boat to get to the island. It was tiring, but in the end, it really proved to be a trip worth the effort.
Day 1
Dive 1@ House Reef
First dive of the trip. Heard about the sunken Jeepneys before I went and they were indeed quite interesting. The highlight would have to be the number of cobias at the end of the dive.
Dive 2 @ Lighthouse Reef
Main purpose was to catch the mandarin fish in action. They are everywhere! Unfortunately, I was unable to get any proper shots of any mandarin fish at all, not to mention the mating.
Day 2
Dive 3 @ Monad Shoal
It has been a long long time since I woke up at 5am to do something. Heck, I cant even remember if I ever did wake up at 5am to do anything! At about 5.15am, we packed our stuff, and the crew load our gear onto the boats. By the time we reach the dive site, it was about 6am. Once in the water, we move from cleaning station to cleaning station, staying a few minutes at one spot, hoping to catch a glimpse of the thresher shark. We were in luck! At one of the cleaning stations, we stayed at the bottom, with the thresher shark moving about near us for about a good 5 minutes.
Dive 4 @ Gato Island
Beautiful dive site. The corals are just so colourful. Tonnes of soft coral there. Saw a spider crab for the first time there, and a lot of nudibranchs, many of which I have never seen before. Also saw a white seahorse
Dive 5 @ Gato Island tunnel
The tunnel starts at about 5m, goes on for about 30m, and exits at about 12m. Didnt see much in the tunnel, but right at the end, it was simply amazing. Facing the exit, with everything dark around me, and the light coming from the exit, a white tip shark was circling the entrance. The DM force me down low and motioned to me to not shine my torch at the shark. Did as was told, and the shark actually swam into the tunnel towards us! It swam away soon after though. Still an amazing feeling. Out of the tunnel, on a wall about 20m in length, I saw about 7 different species of nudibranchs. Totally flabbergasted. Not even sure what I should be focusing on...
Day 3
Dive 6 @ Monad Shoal
Another 5am wake up dive. I cant believe Im doing this. 2 days in a row! Oh well, its gotta be worth it. We did see the thresher shark again on this dive. This one came closer than the one yesterday, but didnt stay long. Was fooling around with my camera and had my macro lens on so didnt have enough time to switch modes to shoot the thresher. Damn!
Dive 7 @ Nunez Shoal
Its near Calanggaman island, a beautiful island that reminds one of paradise. Its a wall dive with beautiful corals and loads of nudibranchs (as usual).
Dive 8 @ Calanggaman Island
After a short snorkeling trip to paradise during the surface interval, we continue with our dive excursion. Nothing of note here, but beautiful nonetheless.
Day 4
Dive 9 @ Kemod Shoal
Its not hammerhead season, but this dive site is known for hammerhead spotting during April. Heard that a group saw devil rays on the previous day and we are not going to miss this for anything in the world. Oh, did I mention that this is the 3rd day in a row that we have to wake up at 5am?! Ok, back to the diving. We didnt see any hammerheads, but we managed to find the devil rays. Counted a total of 8 of them. What an amazing feeling. As a bonus, we even saw a rust-coloured frog fish right at the end. According to the DM, the last time he was at the site, the frog fish wasnt there yet. So we are the lucky ones to spot this new addition.
Dive 10 @ North Point
Our regular DM had to abandon us to take care of another group of less experienced diver, so someone else had to lead us. We have quite an understanding with DM and were obviously not too happy with the arrangement. The reason why we chose this site was to see pygmy seahorse. The replacement DM didnt managed to bring us there. What a disappointment.
Dive 11 @ Monad Shoal
Last dive of the trip. We just wanted to try our luck and see if we can spot any Mantas there. No such luck, and the dive was nothing to shout about. The only thing is, a diver dropped his camera and didnt even realize it! I picked it up and my friends told me I should have waited until we reach the surface before passing it to him. Just to make him worry a little for being so careless! Hahaha.
Overall, its a wonderful trip. The change in DM didnt really go down too well with us though, and that would be the only negative thing about this trip.
-----
Malapascua is a small island located north of Cebu in the Phillipines. We stayed at Exotic Dive Resort, and dived with...Exotic. Some other divers diving with us were staying at other resorts as the rooms in this resort is really limited.
The trip started at midnight. We took a midnight flight to Cebu on CebuPacific and reached Philippines at about 4am in the morning. This is followed by a 3.5 hour travel by land and boat to get to the island. It was tiring, but in the end, it really proved to be a trip worth the effort.
Day 1
Dive 1@ House Reef
First dive of the trip. Heard about the sunken Jeepneys before I went and they were indeed quite interesting. The highlight would have to be the number of cobias at the end of the dive.
Dive 2 @ Lighthouse Reef
Main purpose was to catch the mandarin fish in action. They are everywhere! Unfortunately, I was unable to get any proper shots of any mandarin fish at all, not to mention the mating.
Day 2
Dive 3 @ Monad Shoal
It has been a long long time since I woke up at 5am to do something. Heck, I cant even remember if I ever did wake up at 5am to do anything! At about 5.15am, we packed our stuff, and the crew load our gear onto the boats. By the time we reach the dive site, it was about 6am. Once in the water, we move from cleaning station to cleaning station, staying a few minutes at one spot, hoping to catch a glimpse of the thresher shark. We were in luck! At one of the cleaning stations, we stayed at the bottom, with the thresher shark moving about near us for about a good 5 minutes.
Dive 4 @ Gato Island
Beautiful dive site. The corals are just so colourful. Tonnes of soft coral there. Saw a spider crab for the first time there, and a lot of nudibranchs, many of which I have never seen before. Also saw a white seahorse
Dive 5 @ Gato Island tunnel
The tunnel starts at about 5m, goes on for about 30m, and exits at about 12m. Didnt see much in the tunnel, but right at the end, it was simply amazing. Facing the exit, with everything dark around me, and the light coming from the exit, a white tip shark was circling the entrance. The DM force me down low and motioned to me to not shine my torch at the shark. Did as was told, and the shark actually swam into the tunnel towards us! It swam away soon after though. Still an amazing feeling. Out of the tunnel, on a wall about 20m in length, I saw about 7 different species of nudibranchs. Totally flabbergasted. Not even sure what I should be focusing on...
Day 3
Dive 6 @ Monad Shoal
Another 5am wake up dive. I cant believe Im doing this. 2 days in a row! Oh well, its gotta be worth it. We did see the thresher shark again on this dive. This one came closer than the one yesterday, but didnt stay long. Was fooling around with my camera and had my macro lens on so didnt have enough time to switch modes to shoot the thresher. Damn!
Dive 7 @ Nunez Shoal
Its near Calanggaman island, a beautiful island that reminds one of paradise. Its a wall dive with beautiful corals and loads of nudibranchs (as usual).
Dive 8 @ Calanggaman Island
After a short snorkeling trip to paradise during the surface interval, we continue with our dive excursion. Nothing of note here, but beautiful nonetheless.
Day 4
Dive 9 @ Kemod Shoal
Its not hammerhead season, but this dive site is known for hammerhead spotting during April. Heard that a group saw devil rays on the previous day and we are not going to miss this for anything in the world. Oh, did I mention that this is the 3rd day in a row that we have to wake up at 5am?! Ok, back to the diving. We didnt see any hammerheads, but we managed to find the devil rays. Counted a total of 8 of them. What an amazing feeling. As a bonus, we even saw a rust-coloured frog fish right at the end. According to the DM, the last time he was at the site, the frog fish wasnt there yet. So we are the lucky ones to spot this new addition.
Dive 10 @ North Point
Our regular DM had to abandon us to take care of another group of less experienced diver, so someone else had to lead us. We have quite an understanding with DM and were obviously not too happy with the arrangement. The reason why we chose this site was to see pygmy seahorse. The replacement DM didnt managed to bring us there. What a disappointment.
Dive 11 @ Monad Shoal
Last dive of the trip. We just wanted to try our luck and see if we can spot any Mantas there. No such luck, and the dive was nothing to shout about. The only thing is, a diver dropped his camera and didnt even realize it! I picked it up and my friends told me I should have waited until we reach the surface before passing it to him. Just to make him worry a little for being so careless! Hahaha.
Overall, its a wonderful trip. The change in DM didnt really go down too well with us though, and that would be the only negative thing about this trip.
Thanks Sprain!
Awesome....whetting my appetite to fly up like right now. Did u say possible hammerheads at Kemod Shoal in April? My group's gonna jump excitedly at that.
I'm already thrilled by the aspect of the many species of nudibranch. Will have to check up with them on the DM thing. What's the name of the DM you had? We hope we don't encounter the same problem.
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