How I became Aquaboy...

Part 3

After I had learned to dive, my dad opened up a dive shop in Bacolod city. I think we were the first ones to ever open up a dive shop there. Id work there during the summer selling gear and talking to people interested in learning how to dive. For the people that wanted to learn we would take them to Dumaguete for the check out dives. So when I was in High school id go to Dumaguete during the weekends. We also built a small facility there for the Bacolod divers to fill up their tanks. It was in Dumaguete where my cousins did their O/W course under my dad.

In 1998 we wanted to do a historic project for the Philippine Centennial Celebration. There was this wreck in Sipalay called the S/S Panay, it brought guns for the Filipino guerrillas fighting the Japanese in Negros. The ship was bombed in March 1942 by the Japanese then the Filipino fighters with the help of American soldiers dove the wreck to retrieve guns and ammo. We made a documentary about this and was even able to interview the last surviving diver who dove the ship right after it was bombed by the japanese.

I went to Don Bosco Technical Institute for my high school since my dad wanted me to learn how to work with my hands. I learned how to use the lathe machine, weld, shaper machine and many more. After I graduated high school I moved to Manila to go to Culinary school. When I moved it was a while since I had gone diving since life was kinda hectic during 3rd and 4th year. My first dive trip outside the Visayas region was with my Kuya Nate and Kuya Christian. We stayed in Balai resort in Anilao that weekend, driving in early saturday morning. That was my first experience of the famed ANILAO CURRENT!!! We went to Mainit and the current was ripping, a few seconds into the dive all of us lost each other already, all going in different directions. Talk about a wild ride.