Scuba Diving in Coron
WW2 Japanese Shipwrecks Coron
I had never Scuba dived before the Philippines. It was always something I wanted to do, but for whatever multitude of reasons, I never got around it. With 4/6 of the Philippines gang wanting to give it a go and 3/4 of us never doing it before – it seemed like Scuba Diving in Coron was the best place to get to grips with Scuba diving.
Learning the Scuba Diving Ropes
There are lots of choices of companies to learn with, offering multiple courses and qualifications etc. We opted for Sea Dive Resort Coron. Simply, only because we drank at the Hell Divers bar the night before and made friends with the owner whose shop was next door!
Scuba Diving Companies
I and the gang explained we were newbies and that it was our first ever time and the owner set us up with a beginner open watercourse.
This included the boat for the day, lunch, San Mig beers for after and three dive spots. All for around 45GBP each.
Learning to Scuba Dive
Arriving the next day at 8.30 am we were all kitted up in our gear, put in a room with around 5 other people. Then held captive until we watched the introductory Scuba online video.
Halfway through the power cut out on the island and the owner went “yeah, well, you will be fine. hopefully” and ushered us out. Having always been a physical learner I was hoping for a more practical lesson.
On the boat and at our first shallow dive spot – a seabed with a huge coral drop off, we started to learn our scuba basics.
Once at pro at hand signals, we had to lower ourselves in shallow water, inflating and deflating our lifejackets, clearing the mouthpiece and changing goggles, it seemed like we were good to go.
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Mike was off doing his advanced scuba Steve stuff; whilst myself, Carly & Bean were put with two instructors to our little group of three.
Typical Lianne, I had chosen the shittest mask, that within seconds would instantly steam up. On the verge of half a drowning cant see panic attack VS Strop hissy fit, lovely Jonah, our instructor, swapped his pro set for my not so pro set.
Thank god, because I watched the poor guy have to de-steam his/my old mask around 30 times in the 30 minutes we were exploring the coral. Something I wouldn’t have been able to do myself in my first diving experience.
Scuba Diving WW2 Shipwrecks
The best stop and the stop I loved the most was the sunken Japanese WW2 Warships. It was split in half with both ends of the ship upon a diagonal, I could explore through the middle and see the coral attached to the bottom of the boat.
Swimming through the hull was quite freaky but exciting. Especially trying to avoid the HUGE fish that was blocking one of my window exits.
I ended up having a guide to myself for the majority of the trip. This dude loved to show me how he could blow bubbles, find Nemo homes & get starfish to dance for him.
It was pretty much a one on one tour of the sea. I was lucky enough to be shown all the sea had to offer, I found it so interesting and loved every minute!
I’ve just discovered Scuba Diving, and now I am hooked. Scuba Diving in Coron, Philippines was an incredible place to learn. It’s a shame I found it so late into my travels, but my wallet is probably better off for it.
I can’t wait to look into courses for when I revisit Thailand and see what the underwater world has to offer there. It will be pretty hard to beat the incredible waters of the Philippines, but I’m excited to find out.
