Hi everyone. Welcome to my diving website. As a boy, I loved the water and spent all my spare time during the summer at the pool and was on my high school and college swimming teams. Living in the American Midwest I did a bit of lake snorkeling, but at that time scuba diving was beyond the scope of possibilities for me. Many years later while living and doing business in Hong Kong I discovered that scuba instruction and diving was available. Feeling quite hemmed in by the hectic city life, diving provided an excellent way to escape to a completely different and invigorating environment. Although I only accomplished my open water course there, it allowed me to feel free again, express myself physically and completely captured my interest.
About a year later I made a move to the Philippines. Within six months and after a lot of study, training, and diving I became an instructor. I have worked in a variety of locations around the Philippines in large and small dive shops teaching and guiding and managing. I also have connections in the commercial diving field, particularly concerning oil production service diving and salvage.
In this website, I review the latest scuba diving gear, dive sites, and liveaboard safaris, along with providing educational and reference information of use to beginners and more advanced divers. I want you to feel free to use the comments section as a forum for questions and ideas based on your interests.
If you have any questions, stories or comments, feel free to post them here.
Happy Diving!
Joe
Founder of Joe’s Scuba Shack
Laura says
Hi Joe! I lived in the Philippines years ago as a military dependent. I was trained to dive at Clark Air Base on Luzon and spent 2 years diving south of the big island. Then I moved back to Florida.
Boy, what a disappointment after dozens on dives in one of the best spots in the world!
Do you think there’s anywhere for diving in the Southeast U.S. that is anywhere near as nice as the Philippines? It would be nice to find.
Thanks,
Laura
Joe says
Hi Laura,
It’s great to see your comments. In about a month I will be based in Angeles City again right next to Clark Field and have spent a lot of time there in the past. That has probably changed a lot since you were there. It is larger, bustling and much more modern than it was at the time of the base closing. I’ll be getting down to Puerto Galera and Subic Bay for my diving in the near future. There is a decent chance I will be involved in a dive shop with a partner in Subic Bay.
I have done a lot of diving around the Philippines and a few other places in Asia and it does have a lot of great diving. Frankly I haven’t done any diving in the Southeast U.S. I do know that there is much greater variety and number of species in Asia, though. I can only research like you to find the answer to your question. Many places in Mexico, the Keys and the Caribbean have good reputations and attractive after dive facilities.
Why don’t you come back to the Philippines sometime? I can give you excellent advice where to go there.
Good luck finding a good spot for your next diving adventure.
Joe
Dave Wood says
Hi Joe, Subic Bay has changed a heck of lot since I first visited there in 1977 while I was staying in Bulacan with my new bride’s family for 6 weeks. I always wanted to learn to scuba dive and it’s one of my biggest regrets that I never got around to it. Hopefully, we’ll return to the Philippines in September, as I’ve heard the restrictions for non Filipino nationals have been lifted.
BTW I spotted your webpage after you liked one of my tweets. I’m @LiverpoolVista
Cheers, Dave
Joe says
Hi Dave,
Thanks for getting in touch. Great to hear you’ll be coming back to the Philippines. By September I imagine all the bugs will be worked out at immigration so that a tourist visit ought to go smoothly. There are many great spots to learn how to dive that I could recommend. When the time rolls around let me know what sort of schedule and itinerary you have in mind and I can recommend a convenient place to do the training. I review more than 20 Philippines dive locations on the site under the Liveaboards/Resorts J-Z heading, so you could browse there for some ideas.
Best regards,
Joe
Christopher Polanski says
Hi Joe,
Scuba diving has been one of the activities I would like to do, and your website gives a lot of professional advice when it comes to the gear needed to enjoy it. I’ve experienced waters around the Philippines too, and I’ve found them fascinating, especially around Boracay, and more precisely, around Crystal Cove Island. The water there is so crystal clear! You can see small and really big fish in the area. Perhaps I could go back there again some day and do some harpoon fishing. Thanks for all the information on your website!
Chris
Joe says
Hey Chris,
Thanks a lot for your kind comments.
I hope you do get a chance to go back there and do some diving and perhaps spear fishing someday. Maybe we could do it together.
Keep in touch.
Joe