Bohol Tour Part 5: SCUBA Diving Experience

SCUBA (self contained underwater breathing apparatus) diving is one of the many adventures I planned to fulfill in my entire life. And it was accomplished on the fourth day of our Bohol tour. Thanks to our friends Mar and Jade for introducing us to Genesis Divers at Alona Beach. Genesis Divers is a Filipino-German owned diving center at Panglao Island that offers diving courses for beginners like SCUBA Discovery (it’s the course we took) to advance packages for rescue divers and dive masters.

SCUBA Discovery is a basic course Genesis Divers offer for newbies like us. It teaches the principle of diving, the DOs and DON’Ts of diving, familiarization of equipments, diving trial, and the actual dive. The package costs PhP 3,150 each for a minimum of two persons and it includes all equipment needed. Our SDI instructor for the day was Mr. Lür Herderhorst.

The course started with a 15-minute lecture of everything we should know about scuba diving like the effect of pressure to our body, hand signals for communication underwater, safety measures, and signing of waiver before diving. It is an important part of the course so listen and understand it carefully.

All equipments used for diving was explained thoroughly by our instructor from scuba tank, dive regulator, buoyancy control device, wetsuit, mask, fins, up to the weight system. By the way, the scuba tank we had weighs about ten kilograms or more, thus making it difficult for some (like my girlfriend) to carry it.

All we learned during the lecture were tested first in the shallow waters before going to the actual dive. We performed how to recover our regulator just in case we lost it, how to clean our mask underwater, how to use the buoyancy control device, how to cope with pressure change when diving, and how to save someone if he/she is out of air. On that stage of the course we had our first taste of breathing underwater. We practiced until we were confident enough to make the big dive.

After awhile of familiarization on using our scuba equipment, we headed to the deeper area of Alona Beach using a speedboat. We went to a specific location which is marked with a buoy about 300 meters from the shore. We entered the water with a fancy move called back roll entry which I usually see on Discovery Channel and other movies. The experience was fantastic!

At first we just stayed near the buoy’s rope as we adjust with the surroundings and also as a safety precaution. We were very careful not to lose each other from our sight as directed by our instructor. As the seconds pass by we became confident enough to dive deeper and we were able to stand at the sea bed and watch schools of fish and beautiful corrals.

The scuba diving experience was great! It gave me a new kind of experience that I will never ever forget. Scuba diving showed me the beauty that lies underneath the sea. It made me appreciate my country more for having that natural treasures. The experience was so remarkable that we almost consumed all of our tank’s air. So after hours of exploring underwater, we hopped on the boat and call it a day.

That ends our fourth day in Bohol. We spent the rest of the day at Alona Beach and enjoyed its beauty and great food before we went to the airport on the next day. We left Bohol via Tagbilaran airport. By the way, the car service from Beach Rock Resort to Tagbilaran airport costs PhP 400.

We will surely miss Bohol but this will not be the last time that we visit it. We will surely come back and explore other attractions we missed. See you on the next post! 🙂

Part 1: Bohol Tour – The Summary
Part 2: Bohol Tour – Bohol Countryside Tour
Part 3: Bohol Tour – Alona Beach
Part 4: Bohol Tour – Balicasag and Virgin Islands
Part 5: Bohol Tour – Scuba Diving Experience