It's Hammerhead season again so here's another picture of a Whale shark

It's a Whale shark

Stop the press! It's that Hammerhead time of year again and despite there being many sightings over the last couple of weeks the Blog has decided to feature this picture which was taken by one of our guests, Dirk. After being treated to several encounters with Hammerheads at Kemod Shoal, this giant cruised by while  they were doing their safety stop. Diving Malapascua is the gift that keeps on giving and make no mistake about that.

one, two, three, four.....

Our Divemasters at Exotic are second to none in all respects ranging from their ability to find the cool stuff that people want to see, through to their attention to all things safety related. So periodically they attend days where they review their First Aid skills. The Blog poked it's nose into an Emergency First Response refresher session being held with two of our

no words needed

Divemasters Ted and JR. Above we see Ted perfecting his CPR skills while to the right we see what happens if you place two grown men in a classroom with a box of bandages! It's important to make things fun and keeping Ted quiet for a few minutes was an added bonus.





And finally, Nudibranch of the week comes roaring back to the Blog this week and with some style too. Picking up the trophy this week is Dutch rescue diver Melissa. Both she and her mother, Gerda, successfully completed the rescue course at Exotic last week and here they are all smiles after twisting the Blogs arm behind it's back to make this post. :) A well deserved appearance.

majestic entry

Melissa and Gerda

In Malapascua it's Exotic IDC time again!!

I think we’d all agree there aren’t many things to beat watching someone distracted by their phone walking into a palm tree. However, the beginning of a new PADI Instructor Development Course at Exotic last week did just that.

Yes the March IDC is in full flow so the Blog is proud to introduce in no particular order…….. Scott, Cathy and Neil. These guys met while training to be Divemasters in Mexico. After turning up at Exotic far later than planned on their arrival day the Blog was mightily amused to learn they’d left the wrong port and ended up at the wrong island before heading back to the Cebu mainland to do it properly.Since then things have been progressing far more smoothly and the Blog was delighted to be granted                                                                          exclusive access to the course for a few days.

We mentioned earlier how our trio got slightly lost enroute to Malapascua so the Blog couldn't hold back a smile as the candidates learned how to teach compass use first on dry land and then under the water. Nobody got lost which was a result.

 But what made them choose Exotic and Malapascua for their IDC? Apparently, Malapascua because of the world class diving and Exotic because of the longer than average course and all the extras, such as free accomodation which we include. 

The Blog is always curious as to where people are from and what people did for work before they chose to became dive instructors. Well Scott is from Australia and used to lay wooden floors for a living. Cathy was into internet marketing back in her native Austria and Neil was a driving instructor in England. 

Playing with lift bags is always fun although here for the first time the candidates were learning to teach how to use one safely. But still fun!! And how clear is that water....  

Anyway, it was great to join them on their PADI IDC and share in some of the action. The Instructor Examination is next week so the Blog will be back with an update on how they all got on......

Malapascua Diving Special. Monad Shoal

There's no doubt that diving Philippines is an amazing experience and no visit is complete without diving the idyllic island of Malapascua. This week we begin a series of features designed to showcase some of the very best of Malapascua diving as well as introduce some of our PADI Divemasters here at Exotic Resort. Every few weeks the Blog will dedicate itself to this project and this week we begin with Monad Shoal which has to be Malapascua's most famous spot for diving and is home to our famous Thresher sharks.

Wilmar delivers the briefing with his eyes shut. Pro.

It's early in the morning, 0430 in fact as The Blog sets its bleary eyes on our Divemaster Wilmar, who pours me a well needed complimentary cup of coffee and places it in my feeble hands. Wilmar started his career at Exotic as a member of boat crew before progressing to captain and then three years ago he became a Divemaster. As a life long Malapascuan and father of only two he considers himself lucky considering so many of the islands people have more than enough children to field their own football team. Anyway, his cheery face is a welcome at this hour as he introduces me to my French buddies, Pierre and Monique before delivering our dive briefing. Apparently, it will take only thirty minutes to reach Monad Shoal on our boat which is Exotic 2. Our max depth will be twenty three metres as that is where the cleaning stations are located and our dive will last around fourty minutes. Sounds good to me.

Charge!

Dolter secures the buoy line

After reaching Monad we wait a few minutes for the light to pick up before entering the water in an orderly fashion. We descend down Exotics very own buoy line to about thirteen metres

No-one loves me

from where we follow Wilmar down a gradual slope until we reach a rope which stretches between two concrete blocks at twenty three metres. This is the point of no return and prevents divers from trespassing onto the protected cleaning station which is located just beyond. I instantly notice a lovely nudibranch but my buddy doesn't share my enthusiasm so I don't even bother pointing out the beautiful leaf scorpion fish also close by. Pierre is after shark action as we all are.

A close encounter

Meanwhile, Wilmar stares into the distance like a sentry on duty. He points beyond the rope and after a second I notice something approaching. Sure enough it's a thresher sh-sh-sh-shark!!! OMG! Apparently, as Wilmar told me earlier, the sharks normally live at great depth and have sensitive eyes which are able to tolerate the early morning sunlight only. The fish which pick parasites from the sharks skin
wake up at this time providing a small and early window of opportunity for both to interact. After a few minutes the shark moves on so Wilmar decides to move us across to a different part of the site.

Then it all kicks off! Truly amazing. Not one but two sharks circle in front of us as well as a small eagle ray. It's quite a mesmerising sight watching these graceful creatures up close and a privilege that they appear totally unbothered by our presence and are prepared to share their space with us. Here's my video! Understandably, there's no shortage of smiles on the trip back to Exotic. Quite simply an amazing start to the day and it's easy to see how diving Malapascua has become such a fixture on the diving circuit. Upon our return, the breakfast buffet just tops it all off and it's still only 8am!!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year Buffet

Festive celebrations have been sweeping through Exotic over the last week or so with the arrival of the Chinese New Year. It’s a particularly busy period for us as people of Chinese descent as well as expats working in the region take advantage of their time off and join our other guests from all over the world. So as the year of the horse gallops away into the distance we welcome in the year of the goat. Or is it sheep or ram? There’s been some debate here as to which it is and whether they’re actually the same thing in this instance. Seems a great excuse for a vacation none the less! And what better place to be than here at Exotic enjoying our Chinese New Year buffet! Out of respect, goat/sheep/ram were not
on the menu.

New instructor with new Open Water diver

Smiles all around

The Blog reported a few weeks back on the great success of our Instructor Development Course. Well, two of our successful graduates, Katarina and Ian, stayed on to participate in Exotic’s ‘Learn to Teach’ programme. To begin with both of them shadowed our team of experienced instructors as they taught various courses. Then, both of them began to teach elements of courses to build confidence until eventually, once deemed ready and under supervision, they taught their own students from start to finish. So this week the whole Exotic team were thrilled as both Katarina and Ian posed happily with their first students! Great work!

Looks hard work from this angle

The Blog was beside itself with excitement this week as one of our largest diving boats, Exotic 2, was relaunched after a recent refitting. It takes a lot of man power to shift one of these things in and out of the water but somehow about 150 men and five horses managed to do so. And what a beauty she is!

What a beauty..

It certainly looked hard work from where the Blog was laying down, gin and tonic in hand. Well it was happy hour.

Who ate all the pies?

Indeed, nudibranchs are small in contrast to Malapascua’s famous thresher shark. But not insignificant.  It’s reported that there are people who find these creatures boring. The Blog is having none of this talk. In fact, the Blog was recently doing its usual bed time reading and flicking through a book dedicated to these amazing sea slugs when it came across a fascinating photo story. The factual story began with one species of Nudi eating another species. Nothing unusual there.
Then a member of the same species to the one who was doing the eating appeared and started eating his family member. Well, the Nudi now in the middle spat out his lunch to defend himself but eventually gave up all hope of life and stopped struggling. A routine act of cannibalism you say? Get this, the third Nudi then spat his friend out and mated with him instead. The Blog declares this as far from boring. Eating…. Getting eaten…. Getting laid! Beat that for an adrenalin rush. 

Which brings us seamlessly onto nudibranch of the week which in terms of the competition was typically fierce this week. And what a little ripper we have for you this time thanks to Bruce from Australia.This Nudi has clearly had several helpings from the Chinese New Year buffet and was spotted for Bruce by Ronel, one of our Divemasters at a local dive site named Quilliano. 

Whale Sharks on House Reef!

This week we begin with a new item titled 'Quote of the week'

Not a Whale Shark

Malapascua is well known for its Thresher Sharks. However, this week a large Whale Shark swam straight through Exotic's very own House Reef!! Close to the action was Rey, one of our instructors and his two Open Water students who were on their very first open water dive. Upon returning to the resort Rey was understandably excited and performing cartwheels through the restaurant as one of his students was heard to say,

'It was only a big fish'

Enough said and quote of the week!!!! A camera wasn't present to capture the memorable moment so here's a picture of a concrete shark which can be found on House Reef 365 days a year.

A shooting star passes Exotic

This image was recently captured from just outside the resort by Exotic's reservations manager, Mr.
Harold Pepito Felicano. Exotic is situated on what the Blog believes to be one of the most beautiful stretches of beach on the island and if you look carefully you'll see a shooting star...  What were the chances of that?! Make a wish.... More Whale Sharks on House Reef please!

It's freezing in this office

Speaking of Harold, yesterday the blog visited the reservations team in their office while they were hard at work replying to enquiries and dealing with the needs of our guests be they past, present or future. These guys love their music loud and their air con on maximum! Introducing from left to right.... Joy, Harold and Flor....

Another worthy winner

And finally, after a weeks break the much anticipated return Nudibranch of the week. The bar's been set high in previous weeks so congratulations to one of our guests, Chung Hong-won, for submitting this gathering which impressed the judging panel. The picture was taken at Gato Island, which is an hours ride from Malapascua.

A vintage year Sir..

 Not one, two, three, four, but five Nudi's for your peso this week. Chung wins a bottle of San Miguel beer courtesy of the Blog's shallow pockets. And here it is being presented by one of our bar tenders, Jay.

IDC update

Exotic Island Dive Resort, Malapascua's premier and only PADI five star IDC resort is proud to announce that within the last few days all four of our IDC candidates successfully passed their examination and can now call themselves PADI instructors!

Have we passed?

Over the last three weeks our four young and not so young hopefuls have been developing and honing their teaching skills in preparation for the two day PADI examination and beyond. Here they are at the closing ceremony being given the great news by PADI examiner Mark Van Der Poel.

Who electrified the sand?!

With the pressure off them, Sarah, Ian, Katarina and Janine were finally able to celebrate by volunteering to test Exotic's new electrified sand security system. Another success!! But not really.

We love our new t-shirts and sharks

After that shock, and as if things couldn't get any better, the guys were presented with their new Exotic instructor t-shirts and their hand carved thresher sharks.









So congratulations to all of them! And a pat on the back for the Exotic IDC team for doing a superb job! With a tear in the eye we say goodbye to Sarah and Janine who head out into the big wide world while Ian and Katarina are staying for longer to participate in Exotic's Learn To Teach Programme. However, wherever any of them are in the world they will always be part of the Exotic family :)

Returning next week...... Nudibranch of the week!!!!!

PADI Instructors In The Making

We’re well into the first IDC (Instructor Development Course) of 2015 here at Exotic. Sarah, Ian, Katarina and Janine have been hard at it for over two weeks now so the blog thought it time to follow this multinational team of instructor candidates for a day during their Malapascua IDC. And here they are sponsored by Colgate... apart from Ian who appears to be modelling a wetsuit.

They say it's more fun in the Philippines! Well just ask these Zebra Damsel fish who looked on as our candidates practised their open water presentations under the watchful eye of our Course Director. Reports are that all of them are progressing very nicely and will be fully prepared for the two day PADI examination which starts in just a few days. Fingers crossed they'll join the illustrious list of Instructors who learned their trade here in Malapascua with Exotic and who now work all around the world. Good luck guys!!  Keep up the good work.

And by popular demand Nudibranch of the week returns this week. It wasn’t easy choosing a winner from our bulging post bag but after seconds of deliberation this week’s victor is….. Jasper for this great effort taken at Ubang Bato, one of Malapascua’s finest dive sights. This handsome slug is a Dorid Nudibranch although could easily be mistaken for a cat looking out of a window. See what I mean?! 

So while on the theme of things in the water pretending to be other things, here's a picture of one of Exotic's 2014 Divemaster graduates, Jessika, doing a convincing impersonation of the starship Enterprise while on the Thresher Shark dive.... Apologies to any scuba divers out there too young to remember Star Trek.

Sea, the final frontier......