My stay at Marine Conservation Philippines
Everyone has power. But it doesn’t help if you don’t use it - Sylvia Earle
My first weeks at Marine Conservation Philippines was spent getting settled, getting a refresher and visiting the reef. Then it was time to start the learning!
My first course was of course Advanced Open Water which was wonderful since we got pick from a list of specialties available, and I decided to pick Underwater Naturalist. We also did navigation, deep diving (30m) and night diving which was so interesting!
I won’t say I wasn’t scared for a bit but I was so fascinated by the wonderful life all around me. Bioluminescence made the dive absolutely fantastic. To be fair, we spent a lot of the first night dive session in a very dark area over sand which is a part of the training. It got us used to the darkness that the ocean has outside of coral reefs and how to swim with a flashlight in case we need it.
After getting my AOW it was time to move onto becoming a certified Rescue Diver!
This course is very physically demanding and can sometimes feel like a lot but looking back it’s honestly the most fun course I’ve ever taken in my entire life!
You have to learn how rescue an unresponsive person and of course how to self rescue.
We even learn how to carry a person and I carried a older man who probably weighed 90kg just on my back which really showed me how strong I can actually be!
I felt like a superhero carrying him more than a few times out of the water but he really encouraged me and was so proud when I passed. Stevie, you really are gem!
I would honestly recommend this course to any diver since you learn so much and it’s really fun.
We of course didn’t spend all our time diving and I must take a minute to recognise how wonderful the stay at MCP really is. The welcoming arms of Helle & Søren (the founders) all the instructors and playing volleyball in the afternoon are some of my favourite memories.
We dove every day except Sunday so Saturdays was “BBQ night” and the designated night for all the people who wanted to have some drinks and sometimes they were used to celebrate new Dive Master graduates which always included a theme night and fun games!
We had a wonderful chef who created the most delicious vegan food every day for us and occasionally on saturdays some meat.
Of course during all our courses we spent a significant time doing marine conservation including beach clean ups every week and learning about marine life.
But the biggest course was next, my Divemaster course!
I won’t say it was easy, I passed all my exams but some of them really are hard. I feel happy knowing that all PADI Divemasters go through this course because it really taught me a lot.
But the team that we had was so wonderful, we really got to know each other and helped each other get through our harder moments.
To my fellow trainees, Emma & Luis - I’m so grateful we had each other during our training and hopefully we’ll meet again some day.
And to our wonderful instructor Aoibheann - you really are a light in the world and I’m so happy seeing you do so well in marine conservation even to this day.
So, in conclusion, this is just a huge appreciation post to thank MCP for all the wonderful things they’ve done for my character. I will always hold the values I learned there close to my heart and don’t think I’ll ever let go of becoming a bigger part of marine conservation in the world.
All my dive jobs have focused around one specific goal and that is to become the kind of diver that educates and helps our oceans.
