Compressor diving at Palawan

Old story. Last year 2010 in March I was in a small city of Raxas in Palawan Philippines. There I met in karaoke place one local man Chito and he invited me to visit their own private island on the front of Roxas. Sound interested so why not.

Two days later I went to visit on the island with the Chito's brother Cassius. Place name is Stanlake Island. Near the island Cassius said there is still one more thing to do before we can go to land. Boat man should first dive to feed the fishes on the fish cage. Cage was about 100m from the island and depth was about 10-15m. That's nothing new if you use normal diving equipment like BCD, regulator, weightbelt, diving computer and so on. This guy had little bit different kind of equipment. He did it as a compressor dive!

Before I have heard about it, but I never seen it in real life. First boat man removed propeller shaft from the engine, then connected very long hose to the engine and then just started the engine. So engine is pushing air all the time to the hose. Hose around the body, mask to face and self-made fins to feet and hose to other side of the mouth and ready to dive. There was no mouth piece on the hose. Hose just between the teeth tightly to other side of the mounth where diver get the air for breathing. Breathing out just on the other side of the mouth. Not the safest way to dive. You can only imagine what can happen when depth is something about 20-40m and engine stop. I asked from Cassius have ever they had any probles. So far no problems. Hopefully never...

Here boat man has just came back to the boat. Compressor diving is very common in Palawan area.

Cheers,

Mika