The Exotic blog is back!

                

The blog is back! Apologies for the absence since Typhoon Yolanda struck. Here’s a catch up on what’s been happening at Exotic over the last couple of months.

Aid arriving

Obviously the typhoon was a major incident for everyone on Malapascua and we thank everyone for all the goodwill messages we received. The damage sustained to the resort was relatively minor in comparison to elsewhere on the island and with some people losing their homes we considered ourselves very lucky.

Taken by Exotic guest João Paulo Krajewski last week

However, there was still plenty to do to get the resort back in shape and ensure the continued comfort of our guests and this work was started by our dedicated staff immediately. We were the only place anywhere on the island with electricity for some weeks which certainly helped! Fallen trees were cleared, roofs and boats repaired. In fact, within a couple of days we were the first dive operation on the island to be fully operational again which was testament to all the staff here and their efforts.

Fortunately, the Thresher Sharks Malapascua is famous for have been in high numbers recently and we’re all thankful for that!

Happy members of Red Cross 

As mentioned earlier, not all the islands residents were as fortunate as us here at Exotic so we were proud to host several aid agencies including The Red Cross and assist them in transporting food and medical supplies to the island as well as making sure all those in need received them. A special thanks must go to the ‘Peace Riders MC and Outsider MC’, two groups of bikers from Cebu who raised substantial funds through their network and thankfully decided to donate it to the island in the way of food and building materials which were distributed to the islands residents. 

Thanks must go to everyone for all their support for the island.

Another successful Instructor Examination 

So what else has happened at Exotic in the last couple of months… loads and loads! Just three weeks after the typhoon we held a highly successful Instructor Development Course and hosted the subsequent Instructor Examination. Congratulations to Jasper who heads for a year in Australia as a newly qualified instructor! Within the next few days we’ll be welcoming three new instructor candidates in eager anticipation of this months IDC which begins on 14^th January.

Snorkel test

At Exotic we take much pride in the quality of the dive professionals we produce before sending them out into the big wide world. Our Divemaster program is top notch and in the coming weeks we’ll be welcoming several new additions to the team of interns we have here on our programme. So a big hello to Jessica who arrived yesterday as the first of 2014’s intake! Hello and go and clean my equipment… only joking! We’re very kind to our Divemasters here! At the beginning of December we held a graduation party for some of our newly qualified DM’s which featured the famous snorkel test. So congratulations to Ted, Ervin, Jasper, Jay and last but by no means least Lars who entertained everyone on the night!

The three musketeers Jay, Jasper and Lars

Towards the end of December the much anticipated annual Christmas party took place at Exotic. Many of the staff had been practicing for the interdepartmental talent contest for days in preparation and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of all the acts on show. Congratulations must go to the restaurant service staff led by the eccentric Junnell for scooping first prize with a comedy dance routine to leave everyone in stitches of laughter. I dropped my beer for laughing and that doesn’t often happen let me tell you! In fact, the restaurant as a whole claimed the top two places after the chefs delivered a superb act to claim second place. All in all a great night much enjoyed by both staff and guests alike.

Santa comes to Malapascua

A couple of days later Santa Claus made a visit to Malapascua and set up camp at Exotic. Actually, it was one of our guests, and newly qualified Advanced Open Water diver, JR Molinar who strapped on a Santa outfit for half the day in thirty degrees of heat! Nice work JR! Thanks to Toys R Us and all the individual donors who helped make the day possible. It was a total success and was great to see so many smiles on the faces of the kids which was the intention.

New Year saw Joshua, our head chef, lead efforts as the restaurant hosted a first rate buffet to see in 2014. We are looking forward to a great year and are hoping to see you soon!

Transform Lives - including your own!

Most people only dare to dream about it, the ones who does it will never regret it.

Have a look at this article and see how you can make a difference in your and other peoples life!

Transform your life and others - Padi open water scuba instructor

Exotic Instructor course info and schedule

Exotic Malapascua proudly welcomes award-winning PADI Course Director Dan Robinson.

We are thrilled to be working together with award-winning PADI Course Director Dan Robinson and are very happy to have him joining us here at Exotic Island Dive Resort completing our IDC team.

Bringing with him a wealth of knowledge and experience from diving and working all around the globe, Dan teaches all PADI courses available, all the way up to PADI Instructor level including PADI TecRec Instructor and beyond with trimix... Dan has also got his very own Technical advanced wreck speciality! 

What can we say about Dan - 

Dan is very passionate about diving and teaching!

Dan arrived to Exotic early September and dived straight in to meet with the sharks at Monad Shoal the following morning and yes, he was greeted and welcomed by several Thresher sharks!

The Exotic IDC September had 3 candidates: Rey, Janet & Florian. They all did our Gold package and are now aiming to complete their Master Scuba Diver Trainer certification. Main highlights during their IDC included unlimited diving, free accommodation and a chance to gain experience next to our instructors at the beginning of their new career as PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors, all with a minimum of 5 PADI Specialities taught by Dan. 

Dan had a lot of courses going on: The Instructor Development Course (IDC), Staff instructor course, Deep, digital underwater photography, emergency oxygen, enriched air nitrox, multilevel and computer, Self reliant (solo) and wreck speciality instructor courses! And if that wasn't enough there was also PADI Tec 40, Tec 45, Tec 50 , Tec instructor, Tec deep instructor and Cavern! 

The IDC was a great success with all candidates passing with flying colours, and Dan continue the 100% first-time pass rate without any make-ups. 

We want congratulate again the new PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors Janet, Florian and Rey. Well done!! Also a big thank you also to Rebecca, Joa and IDC Staff trainee Bjørnar who helped out through the IDC. 

During the speciality instructor training Dan made several great dives including a trip to Dona Marilyn Wreck and Gato Island which was very popular. The Dona Marilyn is also a perfect training site for Dan’s new Tec Advanced Wreck course! Dan dived most mornings during PADI IDC Malapascua with our thresher sharks, (alopias pelagicus and vulpinus).  This gave him chance to train Tec 40, 45 and 50 Divers and Tec Instructors and Tec Deep Instructors.  Dan said one of his best dives ever was when the water was very clear and the sharks very close.  He could see their silver skin and big black eyes and even identify if it was a female or male.

Dan also got to see his very first bamboo shark at Gato and also seahorses, white tip reef sharks, rays and loads of seahorses. Dan was cross that he kept missing the blue-ringed octopus, but he did find a frogfish by himself on a night dive!

The next IDC and IDC Staff course starts on 3rd December 2013, with MSDT prep specialities and technical programs. Dan and the team will be delighted to welcome you to Exotic Malapascua! 

Groups are kept small so if this sounds interesting, make sure to book your space now!

Dan Robinson

PADI Course Director

DSAT TecRec Trimix Instructor Trainer and Tec Sidemount IT.
+66 901 590739.
Skype:  DiverDanDan.

dan.robinson@malapascua.net

www.malapascua.net

www.tecidc.com.
dan@tecidc.com.
www.facebook.com/tecidc.
twitter.com/IDCdan.
pinterest.com/tecIDC.
th.linkedin.com/in/danbrobinson.

Look what our Divemaster Paul spotted at East Garden!

The Hairy Frogfish surely looks like its' name - Hairy! The "hairs" are actually fleshy extensions covering the whole of its body resembling hairs. The hairy frog fish is also known as striated frog fish and can when necessary change colour to help blend into the environment and hide. This adoption takes anything between 2 -5 weeks to complete. 

All frogfishes, Antennarius hispidus is a voracious carnivores which will devour all right-sized prey that passes within reach, usually other fishes but sometimes, even its own kind. It can swallow prey its own size. Hairy frog fish has also been seen to stalk prey along the bottom....

If you have ever seen a frog fish swim you will have noticed how poor swimmers they are. They would mostly move by "walking" along on the bottom. 

Males grow to sizes of 12 cm, females to 25cm, so based on the previous information : a male who is trying to find a new partner, needs to be cautious as the females can literally swallow a partner she does not fancy!..... talk about a hard dating system :)

Exotic Malapascua - What do people think?

We would like to thank everybody who has been writing in our Exotic dive center guestbook. It always puts a big smile on our faces when we go through it.

Here are two of them

Thanks again for all the great reviews, we surely appreciate them! See you soon!

Pusoy and Alfi are back at Malapascua Exotic Island Dive Resort!

                                                      The boys are back in town!! 

Alfi and Pusoy just returned after a period of time on Kerikite where they have been helping out with our new resort! But we all have to dive, right?! So here they are again -as eager as always to show you around the beautiful waters surrounding Malapascua!

Yes! We swam! - Exotic FinaTHON 2013

.....so we didnt reach $3000 but we made $500! 

We want to thank everybody who donated, cheered, sent lovely messages and 

the swimmers who took the plunge and swam with us to END shark finning!

This is how it went:
At 4pm on 31st July enthusiastic swimmers from Exotic Island Dive Resort staff took Exotic 5 dive boat out to the our house reef and made a race back to the beach! There were 17 brave swimmers who battled the waves and went SWIMMING TO END FINNIG. And as expected in a country having 7107 islands they sure knew how to swim!






Here is everyone before in the water minutes before we took of!




It was a great swim and race and the Champion of our FINATHON was Tito, one of our valued boatcrews working for Exotic. Congratulations!

Note: We were aiming to give away a diving price if we reached our goal of $3000....
 - We are still giving away a diving price and if your one of the winners, you will get an email very shortly!

BIG THANKS TO ALL WHO DONATED! 

AND REALLY THANK YOU FOR HELPING US FIGHT FOR THE SHARKS!!