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Malapascua's Thresher Shark Divers & Tepanee Resort Review
There are very few regions where scuba divers can observe large marine animals in settings within recreational scuba diving depths.
When we had a chance to dive in a region and possibly observe thresher sharks in their natural environment with Thresher Shark Divers in Malapascua, it was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up, as thresher sharks are not common, let alone being able to dive with them. Yet one place in the world yields fairly consistent sightings to divers, which one again is in Philippines, our favorite dive destination!
Malapascua is a small island north of Cebu, Cebu being a large island in the Philippines. Cebu is accessed by the Mactan airport, an International airport serviced by many carriers.
Philippine Airlines regularly flies to Cebu, often times with a short stopover in Manila, other times direct.
Our Philippines adventure began when we arrived at Mactan airport on Mactan Island in Cebu. Unlike many large International airports, for its large size, it is really quick to get through customs and get your bags.
One of the things the Cebu Customs does that is rather odd though is if they know you are carrying electronic equipment such as digital camera gear and video gear, they usually ask for a substantial deposit refundable upon departure. This can be several hundred dollars, although they accept a credit card debit as a deposit. Their idea is they are worried that you may sell your electronic goods and avoid duties. Divers should be aware of this policy in the event you verbally tell them you have camera gear in your bags.
Once in Cebu, we had a chance to visit the excellent Mactan Island Aquarium run by our friend Dylan Taylor, a marine biologist. They have a really nice setup there, and their website is regularly updated with stories about inhabitants, like the eel that jumped out of its large tank in the night, and was found the next morning motionless on the ground covered in dust, but the story had quite the amazing ending, but you will have to read it for yourself! Since most kids nowadays are into Mortal Kombat and texting, places like the Mactan Aquarium get young people in touch with the fact that they live in a marine paradise, and it encourages them to become environmentally aware, so I encourage all to show up, spend an hour saying hello and seeing their place and show your support, as it is a future scuba diver breeding ground. Besides, the staffer girls are really smart, even the one who had been their only 3 months but already had the names of fish, invertebrates and animal biology all right-impressive!
Our good friend and in-country production coordinator John Keiner arranged an overnight stay for us at the Regal Business Park Hotel conveniently across the street from the really nice Ayala mall.
To head up to Cebu's northernmost port called Maya, one can either take a bus from the Ceres bus terminal, or take a taxi all the way north, or better yet, let Thresher Shark Divers arrange for an aircon car for you. With this arrangement, you all can stop at will for a bathroom break or a snack break or if you want to take a photo or two.
Although the public bus is only about 200 pesos or about $4 USD, they are not air conditioned. If you are from Florida, you may be OK with that. Also, the public buses take about 4 hours, whereas a private car takes about 3. Bargain with the taxi driver and figure on paying no more than 2500 pesos, or $50.
Along the way there are ample photo opportunities and food stops. Once you get closer towards the north end of Cebu, you will cross verdant sugar cane fields of green with mountains as backdrops for great photo ops.
Eventually you will arrive in the tiny port town of Maya, your last land destination. Here you can either pay 50 pesos or about $1 for a public bangka boat to Malapascua Island, or Thresher Shark Divers normally picks up guests. You can grab a last minute cold drink or snack item in the local store within a minute walk. I like to wing almost everything, as getting around in the Pinas is so easy, so we paid the 50 pesos, only to have the Thresher Shark Divers bangka pull up, so we just switched bangkas and told the other to keep the 50 pesos as a tip.
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The public bangkas run till about 1 p.m., although private ones are available for about 1500 pesos through darkness weather permitting.
One thing I find odd about bangka boats in this particular region is the boarding plank is not a 2 foot wide affair like everywhere else, but they are the bangka equivalent to a gymnastic balance beam. They will offer assistance boarding, but towards one of the private bangka ferrys I did hear a loud crash while waiting and one of their huge blocks of ice they polywrap cover was sent to its briny demise by a previously sure footed local porter. It is one thing to drop a block of ice, but don’t drop your camera gear unless the housing is buttoned up!
On clear weather, you can easily see Malapascua Island to the north from Maya port, and the bangka ride is about a scenic 30-45 minutes depending on weather.
We jumped on one of the Thresher Shark Divers bangka boats docked in Maya and off we were to Malapascua.
The weather had been quite strong the week before, and I arrived on the tail end of that storm, so the Thresher Shark Divers bangka boat slid up to the shoreline on the lee side of the island. Local motorbike drivers from Thresher Shark Divers grabbed all our gear and gave us a whirlwind ride through the village. Even though much of the narrow pathways were loose sand, these motorbike drivers were the island equivalent to sure footed mountain goats.
We let Thresher Shark Divers choose for us from different resorts on Malapascua, asking them to pick a nice place close by that is really clean, well maintained and with modern rooms, and has great food. It turned out trusting them to choose was the right choice, as we were quite pleased with Tepanee Resort
Tepanee is a small Italian owned resort that is a 10 minute short walk from Thresher Shark Divers’ dive shop.
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Situated on a knoll, one finds about 12 cottages at Tepanee. These are done in a mixture of local architecture with a bit of a European flair.
There are 4 cottages that face the east overlooking the bay. Those cottages have the most scenic view, but lack air conditioning.
Our cottage was part of an attached fourplex, with two cottages on the top floor. Although more of a walk from the resort grounds exit, by virtue of being the highest, more of a breeze could be had during the day.
The resort generators are turned off at 9 a.m. and back on at 5 p.m. so air conditioning comes back on in the evening. We understand as of now that the island has 24 hour power.
After quite welcomed fresh water showers in our room and a change of clean clothes, it was time to go get our gear assembled!
Thresher Shark Divers is right on the beach and consists of one large two story building. In the front on the bottom is the office and retail end of the shop. Behind it are two bathrooms, two external fresh water showers, two gear rooms, a compressor room and the rinse tanks.
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Let me back up and say the creation of Thresher Shark Divers and how owners Andrea and Trevor came to be is a great story in itself. Andrea and Trevor were both doing their divermaster internship at the same dive shop in Thailand. Shortly after Andrea’s arrival in Thailand. both Trevor and Andrea were on a dive boat and during a surface interval in between dives, Andrea decided to go for a swim with no gear other than a bathing suit.
Andrea had misjudged the developing current and it became very swift. After trying to make her way back to the dive boat, she developed a bad cramp and could swim no more.
Trevor spotted Andrea afar and jumped off the dive boat and in to help her. The current was so strong that Trevor, even in spite of being a rather strapping lad, he decided the current was almost too much for him too, so upon reaching Andrea, he removed his wetsuit, gave it to her for buoyancy, and off he struggled for a long time to finally make it back to the boat to alert them where they can pick Andrea up, forever cementing a new relationship that forever endures.
We asked Andrea how she and Trevor came to create Thresher Shark Divers during an interview with her.
“Trevor and I moved to San Francisco where I had been living for 10 years previously and we opened our own dive school. We taught mostly OW courses on weekends. Some of the diving was incredible, especially the sea lions and otters of Monterey. But after a couple of years of this, we tired of cold water dry suit diving and longed for warmer waters again.
So we sold the business (which is still today operating as Andrea's Aquatics) and decided to take off traveling and teaching diving, with the thought to eventually open a 'proper' dive shop somewhere tropical.
A convoluted story brought us to the Philippines and we came to Malapascua for 2 weeks just to see the thresher sharks. We immediately loved it and were lucky to be offered a job at a local dive shop. The owner was trying to sell up and put it in our minds to stay on the island. Although we did not take him up on his offer we decided that we loved it so much we would to look no further - we had found our paradise." said Andrea.
"Thresher Shark Divers started as a tiny dive shop based in a couple of small rooms. Trevor and I did everything except crew the boats. We were the DMs, instructors, office staff, booking agent, tank filler and buyer all rolled into 2 exhausted but happy bodies. We have now grown into a bigger, shinier dive business and look back fondly on those days.”
With a great story like that of chivalry and a shared passion, how could we not resist finding out for ourselves what all the excitement with Malapascua was?!
Upon continuing to explore our new home for the duration, Thresher Shark Divers has partial pressure Nitrox and trimix blending available, with two large German compressor systems that looked quite new and well maintained. They also have pure 02 available for rebreather divers if coordinated in advance.
On the wall external to the gear room is 3 large dry marker white boards where the days dive itinerary is written. If a guest wants to dive a particular spot, just ask that your name be added.
Behind that is 5 rinse tanks noted for various equipment, including a dedicated rinse tank for camera gear.
On the top floor of Thresher Shark Divers is their restaurant called Oscars and their pub aptly called “The Pub Upstairs”. This is the most popular local watering hole where divers tell tall tales with old and new friends. Breakfast is served starting at 8 a.m. and includes American and European style plates. I particularly liked their American style breakfast of eggs and Canadian style bacon. Food and drink prices were all reasonable.
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There is two large dining areas, one covered and the other uncovered towards the front with a view. We noticed everything was really clean, and the staff of locals were always happy, laughing and friendly. That is one of the things that always strikes me is Philippinos are such a warm, happy, welcoming people who share a strong culture of family, hospitality and humor. All the staff seemed happy and at home, and I often found them being playful and laughing over something.
After all our gear was assembled and checked and the videocam equipment was set up, it was time for dinner at Angeline’s at Tepanee.
Angeline’s is the Italian owned restaurant at the bottom of Tepanee Resort. Now I confess that when I heard there was an Italian restaurant there, we were a tad skeptical, as I have been to Italy many times and always thought authentic Italian food in Italy is incredible. Angeline’s kitchen was immaculately clean and the restaurant featured a large pizza oven. We immediately thought we may be in for a good surprise just upon seeing the inside, and one look at the well laid out menu with photos of the described dishes and we knew we were in for a treat!
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The first order of business was skipping the large appetizer list and going straight for seafood risotto. Fresh Italian bread appetizers with freshly chopped tomato garnish was delivered and red and white wines were available along with the standard drink fair.
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Even the lilt of the Italian language drifted through the air from the many guests from Italy.
It was early to bed at Tepanee after another refreshing shower, as it as up at 5 am the following day. You will fall asleep quickly at Tepanee as it is really quiet and peaceful.
Early the next day I decided to just above-water film the divers. Thresher Shark Divers guests have all their gear stowed in one or two large orange plastic milk crates that the staff load on the bangka boats for you. You just show up at one of the two designated early morning dives heading to Monad Shoals.
The Shoals are a 30 or so minute ride out in what appears to be the middle of nowhere, so divers have ample time to kit-up and get ready.
All the Thresher Shark Divers’ bangka boats are large, quite well maintained and pefectly clean. They all have the bangka boat version of a private toilet on the back, and I noticed an emergency 02 briefcase always on board every dive boat.
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Over a decade ago fisherman on the shoal called Monad Shoals saw the occasional thresher sharking breaching the water in pursuit of fish, its primary diet. Locals determined that the plateau of Monad Shoals was about 20 meters deep, or 65 feet in depth, and as shallow as 40 in one area where the bottom can be seen from the surface. Early in the mornings, they saw the occasional thresher sharks making slow circles near the bottom looking for wrasse to be cleaned by.
Over the years, divers started diving the Monad Shoals, and as time progressed, the sightings became more frequent and consistent, and the first days dive was going to live up to that.
The image below marks the arrival of Thresher Shark Divers at the Monad Shoal buoy, where I then I filmed everyone gearing up and over they went following the sole Monad Shoal mooring line.
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One thing I always noticed, and Monad Shoals was no different, is that multiple bangkas will tie up to each other in succession, that way they needn’t damage the reef with multiple anchors. Great cooperation instead of competition.
After filming for a day, the following day it was my turn to start diving at Monad. Once one descends, it is about a 5 minute slow swim over the the encounter area. This is either near the edge of a dropoff of a bit back. I never noticed any currents, and there were plenty of little critters flitting about. As a means of raising our encounter chances we sometimes moved to an slightly different area underwater.
We all kneeled in a formation line and eventually off in the distance one could make out a silvery blue highly elongated form. Back and forth it would go, coming closer each time till one could clearly see a magnificent large thresher shark that at times would come within 10 feet of divers if one stayed still on the bottom.
Their long whip-like tails were almost as long as their deep, robust bodies. What an awesome sight that was repeated almost every morning! Although a strong storm had passed through the area the week prior and we were on the tail end so visibility was reduced, we shot great HD footage of many thresher sharks.
After 1 long dive at Monad, which one can and should do on nitrox if properly trained, it was back to shore for breakfast.
The following day we did local diving at some of the more popular sites. Malapascua turned out to be not only great for large pelagics, as many guests saw large spotted rays, but Malapascua holds its own for a muck diving site with commensurate critters without a mucky bottom. We ran into some long spined sea urchins that held several dark purple and white striped Stegopontonia commensalis shrimp that seek protection in the sharp spines. I had never seen those before on my hundreds of Philippines dives throughout the country. What a cool find and yes, you can bet we got some good HD footage of them!
We ran into plenty of whip corals, many with tiny gobies hugging the stalks, and one with a perfectly camouflaged Dasycarus zanzibaricus shrimp on the stalk.
We encountered plenty of frogfish, colorful shrimp, a sea turtle, and lots of weird small critters too numerous to mention.
After several days of thresher shark encounters in the early am and great critter diving at local sites, it was time to do a day trip to Kalanggaman Island. Kalanggaman is the traditional spelling and in the Cebuano language it means “place of many birds”.
Below is the view we saw from afar as we approached Kalanggaman Island.
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It was pretty hard to dive there after seeing the picture postcard perfect shoreline from afar, but the diving was wide angle style with exceptionally clear waters. After 2 dives, it was lunch time via as surface interval anchored on the most spectacular remote tropical island sandbar I have ever seen.
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I took a quick photo of the divers enjoying a prepared lunch on the bangka, but with a once in a lifetime view like this, lunch would have to wait for me, as taking photos, shooting HD video footage of and just being their to soak up the most stunning, picture postcard perfect visual experience was so much of a once in a lifetime opportunity, eating was the last thing on my mind.
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The sand bar runs several hundred meters long as varies from just below the surface to just breaking the surface. At the end is small area about 10 meters in diameter where as one looks out over the edge, it is like walking on water.
The waters were a warm, gin clear turquoise and everyone browsed about for a great photo-op. Local fishermen relaxed in the shade of a structure just off an idyllic tiny cove and were quite accommodating about having their photos taken.
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