Cogon, Apo Island
Call this one a high-definition drift dive.
Plunging into Cogon, a site just off the island of Apo -- a green, hilly landmass that for the first two days longingly beckoned across the water from our shores -- was like watching high-definition television for the first time.
The hard coral formations here, in a well-protected sanctuary, are strikingly vivid, intriguingly shaped and in pristine condition. There appear to be endless acres of clean, colorful hard corals, such as elkhorn ones, with some soft corals and anemone squeezed in between.
Add a nice, steadily moving current to drift a mile or more through the dive site and plentiful amounts of tropical fish, a school of jacks and a turtle and you've got a top-notch site.
This dive was the first of three on Apo Island, a 45-minute journey on the hotel's custom designed, power-infused, tricked-out bangka.
One of the most fun parts of the dive trip is getting to hang out with cool divers from other parts of the U.S. and the world, who are part of this familiarization trip put together by Ernie Arellano, co-owner of San Diego-based Scuba Travel Ventures.
Not that Ernie's not cool -- he'll have a good laugh when he reads that -- but it was a thrill to be accompanied by Dr. A. Jose Jones. Jones lives in Washington, D.C. and in 1991 founded the National Association of Black Scuba Divers (www.nabsdivers.org) -- uniting dive clubs of African descent across the world and inspiring countless others to get certified. It's an organization I joined in 2008 and am proud to belong to. Jones is also a renowned marine biologist, dive instructor, martial artist and underwater videographer. We affectionately call him "Doc" and you'll be reading more about him.
I also dived today with Jim Elliott, of Chicago, who founded the nonprofit group Diveheart, to teach and certify divers with physical challenges. Elliott's work has taken him throughout the United States and around the world, including certification of physically challenged divers in Shenzen, Taiwan. Elliott, as you'll discover in later entries, is a far more gifted underwater photographer than he gives himself credit for. In the meantime, here's a link to Elliott's website: http://www.diveheart.org/
Dive Buddies: Ernie, Doc, Jim, Annette, Mike, Brittney, Rick, Eric, Steven, Paul,
Dive Guide: Kim Zudero
Max depth: 60 feet
Total Bottom Time: 50 minutes
Water temperature: 82 degrees Farenheit
Exposure Protection: 3mm shorty wetsuit
Air source: Enriched Air Nitrox 32% oxygen
Photos Copyright Gil Griffin 2009. Clockwise from top: Turtle; hard coral formations; Gil Griffin (far left), Dr. A. Jose Jones (middle), Jim Elliott; more hard coral formations; sea star in hard coral.
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