The AM-1 SkyRaider attack aircraft, the 75mm M3 Half-Track, the USS New York, and the Coral Garden near the bay entrance are all incredibly compelling dive sites.
Subic Bay served as a U.S. Navy base in the Philippines from 1901 to 1992, living through both World Wars — and as a result, the waters are littered with sunken military hardware waiting to be explored. Warships bristling with heavy guns, aircraft of every type, and tanks are among the biggest draws for technical divers who return again and again. At the same time, Subic Bay offers plenty of dive sites suited to recreational divers: the AM-1 SkyRaider attack aircraft, the 75mm M3 Half-Track, the USS New York, and the Coral Garden near the bay entrance are all excellent options. Even if you're not a technical diver, passing through this area can deliver a truly extraordinary diving experience. Beyond diving, the Subic Bay Freeport Zone has plenty to offer on land as well — a zoo, shopping malls, casinos, diverse dining options, a water park, and golf courses all make for great activities when you're out of the water.
As a special economic zone, Subic Bay also benefits from strong public safety standards, and there's no shortage of great restaurants within the area. American steakhouses, Korean BBQ, Japanese yakiniku, and authentic Filipino cuisine are all on the table — so your stomach will never feel lonely during your stay.
The Course: Content and Challenges
With nowhere to be during the holiday break, a few friends and I decided to head to Mango Valley Hotel in Subic Bay, Philippines, for TDI Advanced Wreck, Decompression Procedures, and Advanced Nitrox training. The main goal was to learn and complete the procedures and skills required for closed-overhead wreck penetration diving. We joined a course led by George — an internationally renowned advanced wreck instructor trainer — and local advanced wreck instructor Dantee. Unlike past dives where we could only explore the exteriors of wrecks, this time we were heading inside the hull. The inability to simply ascend to the surface when problems arise, combined with the very real possibility of losing your bearings in low-visibility passageways between compartments, made for an enormous psychological challenge. But the rewards matched the challenge: it was an entirely new kind of diving experience — threading your way through wreck after wreck, feeling as though you'd stepped back in time to witness these colossal vessels from construction, through battle, to their final rest on the floor of the bay.
A breach in the hull of the EL Capitan — a convenient entry and exit point for the interior compartments.
The course started with line-laying drills around the LCU, a smaller vessel, covering the rules and techniques for working on a line underwater. We gradually progressed to entering the El Capitan, a considerably larger cargo ship. Stepping into a pitch-black ship compartment for the first time hammered home just how critical line-laying technique really is. It also became clear that navigation inside a wreck can't rely solely on the line — being aware of the surrounding environment and the changing layout of each space is just as important, using a progressive exploration approach to gradually map out each vessel's structure. The bulk of the course took place inside El Capitan. Skills such as zero-visibility exit and zero-visibility buddy breathing pushed us to our limits: dive buddies had to support each other in total blackout conditions, feeling along the guideline by touch to exit the wreck. The lost-line recovery procedure was even harder to master. Of all the drills, the most entertaining was probably the lost buddy recovery — essentially a game of underwater hide-and-seek using the guideline, trying to locate a buddy hiding in a dark corner of the wreck and guide them back to the main line.
After passing all the practical assessments, we moved on to the final exam and the highlight of the entire trip: the USS New York (ACR-2). This massive warship participated in both World Wars, and its complex interior compartments and remarkable state of preservation make it an outstanding site for both training and sightseeing. The enormous 8-inch main guns on the hull and the winding passageways inside are genuinely thrilling to explore. The final dives of the course were spent weaving through this great ship, and I personally highly recommend the boiler room route. Along the way, you get to watch Dantee navigate the wreck with jaw-dropping skill. Remarkably, many of the valves in the boiler room haven't seized up despite nearly 130 years of corrosion — they can still be turned by hand. If you pass through, try spinning a few and see which ones are still in working order!
A rotary valve in the boiler room of the USS New York — still operable after 180 years.
Squeezing through this narrow opening can genuinely get you stuck — especially when there's so much good food nearby.
Why Do This? Where's the Fun?
The greatest reward of technical diving like this is being able to observe and experience these underwater historical artefacts up close, and for extended periods. Advanced wreck training opens the door to entering these remains — and when you surface and research the history and story behind each wreck, it feels as though you truly traveled back in time during the dive, living each vessel's story firsthand. The depth of these wrecks can be a bit awkward (15–30 m), but completing Decompression Procedures and Advanced Nitrox training allows you to safely and efficiently manage your bottom time, plan proper decompression schedules, and extend your time on the wreck.
Instructor Dantee demonstrates an underwater twin-cylinder doffing and donning drill.
The 20mm cannon on the AM-1 SkyRaider aircraft.
The Costs — What Everyone Really Wants to Know
A double room at Mango Valley Hotel costs 2,900 PHP per night. A private transfer from Manila Airport to the hotel is 8,000 PHP one way (six-seater vehicle). Each dive costs 1,400 PHP, nitrox fills are an additional 350 PHP per tank, and decompression cylinders are 600 PHP each. The advanced wreck course local tuition fee is 850 USD. Rounding up a group of four and going for five days and four nights, the total per-person cost for accommodation, transport, and the course came to approximately 63,200 PHP. Food prices in the area vary considerably, so we'd suggest figuring out what type of cuisine you're after before hunting down a restaurant. And don't forget to tip your hardworking service staff!
The prices above reflect what we personally spent on this trip and are not a guarantee of future pricing. Please treat them as a general reference only — your mileage may vary!
When you eat, you eat well! A casual meal and the bill already hits over 20,000 PHP.
A super-sized pizza — delicious and great value.
A local specialty: potato skins — literally deep-fried potato skins. Surprisingly tasty and worth a try.
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