The sardine run in Moalboal is not the only reason to visit this seaside town, but it’s certainly one of the biggest draw cards, and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to float around with 87 bajillion fish.

The main reason why anyone goes to Moalboal in the Philippines is for the sardine run, but as incredible as that experience is, the best dive spot (in my humble opinion) is Pescador Island, a rocky little outcrop of exquisite diving bliss.

Have you ever been triggered by a triggerfish? I didn’t even know what a triggerfish was until this dive, and I’ve since developed a bit of a fear of their glary eyes.

I was invited to tag along on a staff sunrise dive, and while we didn’t see anything aside from a whole lot of blue, I had a blast watching the crew fool around.

Despite being deer-in-the-headlights terrified and running on pure adrenalin for the entire dive, I also had the most fun of my life when I threw myself into what can only be described as the underwater rollercoaster.

As soon as I hit the water I felt like I was constantly flipping around trying to capture the overwhelming amount of exquisite life that was flooding my vision.

I am constantly surprised by this surreal and exquisite world that I find myself submerged in, and my maiden night dive was no different. It opened up a whole new dimension.

Doing this course has made me a lot more confident in the water, and really deepened my understanding of this sport, and it’s been a whole bunch of fun at the same time.

I’m intrigued by the notion of navigating reefs because it all still seems like such foreign terrain to me and I get too distracted by all the awesome floating by to pay attention to where I am most of the time. But I have proven myself to be compass-worthy.

The second dive of my SSI Advanced diving course was technically the “deep dive”, although it proved to be a great example for the “Tides, Waves & Currents” speciality that I did the following day.