Guam

This is about the NAUI open water certification to my girl friend, CC, when I took her to her first diving trip to Guam in 1997. Thanks to CC's detailed dive log, which I taught her at the beginning of the course ;-), I could finish this as if we were there again. So if you are an instructor, you can save some time logging your dives, just make sure your students do!

Guam Access

We flew to Guam from Hong Kong on Continental Airlines - the only airline offering direct flights to Guam from our origin. Guam is also a major transit stop for dive trips to other parts in Micronesia including Palau, Yap, Chuuk, and Pohnpei. I was even recognised by the same immigration officer on my Palau trip 3 years later who pointed me to the same officer chop he had on my passport!

Access in Guam is easy. Car rental is most convenient. Otherwise choose a dive operator which offers you pick-up service. Of course I chose the former, at the end what is more convenient than going anywhere to want! With a rented car, we were able to do a sight-seeing, shopping, eating out at the many Japanese restaurants, the American style all-day breakfast coffee shops around the Tumon Bay. On the no-fly day, we headed to the Fish Eye Marine Park, Latte Stone Park, and Talofofo Falls. We even visited the Guam University!

Back to our dives, every morning we drove to our dive operator, Micronesian Divers Association, from there we started off.

First Training Dive Encounters

CC's training dive #1 was taken along the Piti Channel, a shore and easy dive recommended by our dive operator. Not only is this easy to start off for a newbie, it also helped me save some boat fees :-). CC was doing her mask cleansing while 2 eagle rays came towards the shore. This was CC's first underwater encounters! And this was our only spotting of eagle rays for the rest of this trip.

We did another 6 boat dives afterwards, covering Piti Channel, Piti Bomb Hole, Hidden Reef, Western Shoals, Gab-Gab II, SMS Cormoran Wreck and Tokai Maru Wreck. Amazingly the 2 wrecks are done in one single dive. Such a dive still remains as the only one I ever had!

Barracuda as a pet?

One funny thing came up. While surfacing from a dive from Piti Bomb Hole, we were greeted by a giant barracuda about 2 feet away. This was the biggest barracuda I had ever seen then, and for the first time I pulled my dive knife out of instinct, ready to defend...later we were told that this barracuda was in fact a 'pet' by some boatmen and would cause no harm to any divers.

Our dives ended on day 4. CC was granted with her C-card. She did great and in fact she's got her NAUI leadership qualification now! This trip was so much fun having your love one as your only student in class!






Budget (per person):
US600 (Flight + hotel)
US110 (5-day Car rental with Budget)
US300 (6 dives with Micronesian Divers Assocation Inc.)

Ref:
http://www.visitguam.org/
http://www.mdaguam.com/
http://www.budget.com/

NAUI Instructor 16807L