Image courtesy Martyn Willes

Learn to swim in the Philippines in 2009 in the safety of the Nomad Sports Club swimming pool, 16th March through 15th May. This is a call to action for the millions of people in the Philippines who, despite being surrounded by hundreds of thousand of square kilometers of deliciously warm tropical waters, fringed by some of the best swimming beaches in Asia, have never been motivated to experience swimming for fun or even to take swimming lessons and learn to swim.

Or is it some irrational fear of sharks that keeps people on the beach and not in the water? People come up to me almost every weekend, when I announce I am going sailing, and ask, “aren’t you afraid of the sharks?”.

Photo courtesy Trevally Boats

At the Philippine Boat Show 2009 Trevally Boats, the Philippine boat builder company, will be officially launched and will start making waves in the new, luxury sports power boat scene in the Philippines and overseas. The motivation behind, Makati City based, Trevally Boats is to provide a solution for water sports enthusiasts who want to travel the Philippine islands safely, efficiently and comfortably.

What should impress Philippine Boat Show visitors is the attention to detail embodied in every Trevally Boats product.

The annual Veterans 7-a-side Football Tournament will be held this year at the Nomad Sports Club on 28th February and 1st March, 2009. The Veterans 7-a-side Football Tournament was originally organised to give veterans (those rendered competent through trial and experience) of all nationalities a chance to experience once again their youthful poise and listen to applause rippling around the grounds as they loft a lazy goal past a slightly too rotund goalkeeper.

Today, however, the competition is taken very seriously on the football (’ soccer ‘ to the rest of the World) field and participating veterans train for weeks before the event to maximise their chance of success for their team.

Photo courtesy CamSur Watersports Complex

The 2009 Wakeboard World Series leaps into action in Camarines Sur, Philippines, on 25th through 29th March. The 2009 WWA Wake Park Worlds in Camarines Sur, is the first of five international championship events organised each year by the World Wakeboard Association (WWA). The other venues are in: Orlando, Florida, U.S.A., in June; Bourg en Bresse, France, at the beginning of August; Kiev, Ukraine, in the middle of August; and, Hamburg, Germany at the end of August.

The venue for the 2009 WWA Wake Park Worlds is the

Photo courtesy Turtle Bay Dive Resort

Scuba diving paradise of Moalboal, Cebu: OK, I accept that I am biased as I am lucky enough to spend my days running (my wife Fe will object to this verb as it implies action) a boutique dive resort overlooking Moalboal Bay and the Tanon Strait. The Tanon Strait bottoms-out at around 500meters, divides Cebu Island from neighbouring Negros Island, and is home to one of the largest collection of whales, dolphins, sharks and whale sharks in the Philippines.

Getting back to the topic of this article, I borrowed a few words from an article recently published in Plongée (in the November 2008 edition of this French Dive Magazine) and written by the well known underwater photographer from Marseille – Henri Eskenazie.

Image courtesy MyCam-Asia.tv

Free Internet tools road and street maps of the Philippines: until yesterday evening that statement was an oxymoron. As of yesterday evening the best road and street maps of the Philippines are now on-line 24/7 on the MyCam-Asia.tv website . . . and elsewhere soon. The Philippines travel and tourism industry has suffered for too long with out of date road and street maps, showing roads that did not exist and no roads where new roads had been built. No Longer!

The free Internet tools in the form of road maps are a project of OpenStreetMap.org and Google Earth (to replace the woefully inadequate road maps that Google used to display). MyCam Asia staff have joined the OpenStreetMap.org Philippine team

Photo courtesy Oceanic

James Bond Scuba Gear - DataMask

James Bond scuba equipment - DataMask - will be on display at the Philippine Boat Show 2009 for the first time in the Philippines. DataMask is new from Oceanic and really does change things for recreational scuba divers, professional and technical divers, and for people with certain physical handicaps, wishing to go scuba diving along side the more able-bodied.

DataMask combines technologies tested to exceed even James Bond’s rugged requirements.

Photo courtesy Advanced Composite Systems

Powerful RIBS at the Philippine Boat Show 2009 from Advanced Composite Systems Inc., Subic Bay. ACS will be displaying a number of Hammerhead Rigid Inflatable Boats (“RIBs”) at the Philippine Boat Show.

Among the Hammerhead RIBs will be one of ACS’s most popular models, the Hammerhead Explorer 8. This 8-meter RIB was designed and engineered by ACS’s own ‘in house’ team of Naval Architects and engineers. The Hammerhead Explorer 8 is made from industry leading materials such as stitched directional strength glass cloth, vinyl-ester resins and imported high density foams used in the decks, hulls and underfloor hull stiffening.

Directions: How to Feed A Sea Turtle. Following the success of the How To Jump Off A Boat video in the last issue, this video introduces a green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), munching its way through a sparse field of sea grass near Club Paradise island resort, northern Palawan. In this How To Feed a Green Sea Turtle video, those scuba diving nearby introduce themselves to the green sea turtle and offer some sea grass from their hands; watch as the green sea turtle politely accepts the offering, thanks the scuba divers by waving at the camera and then swims off, with its passenger load of remoras, to regain some privacy. A thoroughly civilised sea turtle.

Photo courtesy Bernadette Villaluz

Manila 10s International Rugby Festival 2009 will be held at the premier international sports club in the Philippines - Nomad Sports Club, Merville Park, Parañaque City 20th - 22nd March.

2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the Manila 10s International Rugby Festival at the Nomad Sports Club, attracting competitors and spectators from all around the World to celebrate their passion for the sport of rugby or to meet thousands of old friends and make hundreds of new ones, in preparation to meet them as old friends again next year. This year, with travel and tourism incentives that make a difference, as many as 5000 spectators are expected during the three days of competition.