What Dive Equipment to Bring to the Philippines

Although most of the time the water is warm enough to dive just in a bathing suit, given the many opportunities to come in contact with scraping, burning and stinging organisms, it is a good idea to wear some protective cloths. Most divers choose to wear a 3mm wetsuit, which can be rented at local dive-shops. While the water temperature in the Visayas as constantly around 27C, it can drop in Puerto Galera to 22C around Chinese New Year end of January. Even in the warm season a Lycra dive skin is also a good option as small stinging Jellyfish ar not uncommon the Philippine waters.

You can rent a wide range of equipment and accessories at most major dive centers in the main dive destinations of the Philippines like Puerto Galera, Subic, Moalboal and Panglao. In almost all cases, equipment standards are high. Established dive-centers replace their equipment once a year or each 18 month. Most Live-aboards can supply rental equipment, but may charge a high additional fee is they sourced the equipment through a third party.

Snorklers should consider bringing their own mask, fins and snorkel if visiting remote locations. Sometimes rental equipment is decidedly substandard, although if there are dive-centers around you will likely be able to rent suitable gear. You can also buy most well known brands (ScubaPro, Mares, Cressi) at many location throughout the Philippines.

If you are into digital underwater photography make sure to bring enough memory space and batteries. Some remote places suffer from frequent brownouts or have only a few hours power per day which can be barely enough to charge your batteries.

For those who decide to bring their own gear, almost every major equipment manufacturer and many smaller ones have a distributor with repair facilities in the Philippines and the prices are quite competitive. Reputable dive-centers - and that encompasses 99% of the international owned operators- will require a certification-card and possibly a logbook before renting scuba equipment, and most will insist that you will dive with a supervised group.

Be aware of local regulations which could be different in some destinations in the Philippines. World known Apo Island for example does not allow wearing gloves and using reef-hooks for scuba diving and snorkeling.

Bring a well equipped spar-kit with O-rings, fin-and mask straps and mouthpieces, especially if your equipment has uncommon straps and buckles. You don't want to miss out on a dive trip because of a broken fin strap.