Specialty Instructor training on Malapascua, Philippines during March 2012
Mating mandarin fish at Lighthouse
Stéphanie from Paris in France contacted me before the current
IDC by email and she was interested to complete some specialty training with me, the deep and digital underwater photography specialties.
Because the thresher shark dives on Monad Shoal are early morning dives, where you leave at 5am, it was no problem to schedule these dives during the IDC, since I would be back in time at the dive center before the IDC classes for the day would start.
Two chromodoris Annae
The three dives we did were really awesome. Two dives at Monad shoal during which I saw around 6 Thresher sharks and a dusk/night dive at Lighthouse where I saw a massive amount of nudibranches and plenty of other interesting animals I hadn't seen before. Highlight of this dive were the mating mandarin fish, as shown on the top photograph.
A Thresher shark in profile
The two dives at Monad Shoal were great since I saw my first Thresher sharks for one and secondly, since about half a year the dives are now being conducted at other parts of the shoal and the thresher shark sightings have gone through the roof. Some cleaning station sees one or more thresher sharks cruising around and being cleaned for 20 minutes on an end. Rather impressive. The sharks swim by you withing a few centimeters distance.
A thresher shark seen from the back, with it's typical tail
During the dives Stéphanie and me had lots of fun and we both enjoyed the dives tremendously. Some new hand signs were learned by me and it was also interesting to learn about her dive background with a different dive organization.
Stéphanie and me in front of the Sea Explorers office on Malapascua
Stéphanie logged a total of 13 dives during her stay and was about ready to get on the boat to Mactan/Cebu, to start a job there in a local dive center, when almost when she was on the boat, she got hired on the spot by Sven, the manager of the dive center. They needed a French speaking instructor! Stéphanie is definitely living the dream!! Good luck to her and I hope she will find out soon enough that teaching diving is indeed her destiny.
Camille
vLabels: Malapascua, Philippines, Specialties, Training
