Some of the most common questions Matt and David are asked in Evolution is how long have you been here and how did Evolution start? Well here is a potted history of our popular resort in Malapascua.

Matt and David met in 2009 when David came to The Philippines to train in technical diving. Matt was already living in Dumaguete and had recently set up his own freelance technical diving operation. David was due to begin a class with Matt but somehow a plan to visit the local disco in Dumaguete was immediately hatched and both went off to Why Not? for a night out. Things were off to a good start.

Over the following months David extended his stay from 4 weeks in The Philippines to 3 months and in that time hatched a plan to make it a permanent move but a Malapascua resort was not his first plan. David was originally thinking of a modest Irish bar in Dumaguete.

Over many long nights of parallel discussions – Matt musing on how to take his technical diving operation to the next level, David considering his first foray into food and beverage – a kernel was planted. They both realized that a shared combination of goals and objectives could have a much bigger impact. A Malapascua resort was born.

OK not so fast. In 2009 Matt and David did extensive research and made a long list of potential destinations starting with staying put in Dauin in Negros. The Camotes, a set of islands in between Cebu and Leyte were also on the list as well as Ormoc Bay and other possible locations in Leyte, and Malapascua.

A road trip was organised – 5 sets of double tanks, many more deco tanks and lots of diving equipment. Matt and David arrived in Malapascua and it became apparent immediately that they would end up creating a new type of resort in Malapascua. The island is so beautiful, the beach is incredible, the recreational diving is unbelievable and after 4 days it was quickly realised the technical diving in Malapascua was phenomenal.

So that’s the easy part. How do you build a resort in Malapascua? Well David and Matt managed to find some suitable land and a rental deal was struck. On one of the nicest stretches of beach on the island, they set about building their resort in Malapascua. Well it is a top rated resort in Malapascua now but at first it was a just a modest dive shop with a few tanks and a nice shiny compressor. Then the bar and kitchen opened. Not a Malapascua resort yet, just a modest dive shop with a little bar and a kitchen… and slowly one or two customers.

Previously on Malapascua there was a lot of construction right on our beautiful beach and a resort might be engulfed by the high tide. This made it almost impossible to traverse from one resort to another or even enjoy the beach at this time. Controversially the local Government ordered each individual resort on Malapascua to demolish any buildings on the beach. Luckily for our resort we had found a virgin location and our beach was in perfect, tropical sandy condition with no evened of a previous resort and its foundations under the sand.

Every year since 2009 we have added rooms and now have ten rooms on site ranging from Native Fan so our AC Deluxe. We are proud now to be an industry leader on the island and hope to be one of the most popular resorts in Malapascua. We will never be the biggest, or the most expensive, but for those looking for some of the best food in Cebu, a great location, rooms to suit different budgets, professional management and dive crew, then the Evolution Diving Resort in Malapascua is The Natural Selection!