Bad Boracay Diving

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comcomtech

Registered
Messages
44
Reaction score
19
Location
Canada
# of dives
50 - 99
I was disappointed with the Boracay dives I did in January 2015. I had planned to dive for 9 days, but one was enough. Visibility was 10 m or less and marine life scarce. Despite occasional patches of colour, most of the soft coral was dead and marine life bigger than small fish scarce (Friday's Rock and Angol Point).

The poor viz may have been due to January plankton bloom, however that wouldn't account for the generally poor conditions.

One dive operator was taking a group to Aklan island, just to the south, but said not to expect anything better. I tried to charter a boat to Carabau, to the north, but 20 dive shops turned me down. One said it would go for a few hundred dollars, then changed its mind. Another said $1,000. The Carabau dive sites are about 20 minutes past Yapak, off the northern tip.

I did my first dives on Boracay 30 years ago. Viz was 50 m and better and the range of marine life vast. The island had no paved roads, as I recall and few concrete structures. Today, Boracay is a poster child of unsustainable development. Construction rubble is omnipresent and there is barely room to walk on the packed sidewalks. Most of the divers seem to be newbies, largely from Korea.

Most shops were avoiding the back side of the island (Crocodile Island), because of wave action.
 
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Boracay is an experience for new divers! It's a disappointment for experienced divers. Better area's for experienced divers are Puerto Galera, Anilao, Bohol, Moalboal, Malapascua, Subic Bay, Coron, Dumagete, Leyte, and more!
 
Boracay has become over commercialised and will be its downfall. However the diving there is geared for new divers. Plankton bloom does reduce viz but it's never more than 20m. No one goes to carabao due to its with problem with people on the island, particularly powerful locals who forbid diving around large chunks of the island without prior asking, so it's not worth the effort for most dive shops. Angol point and Fridays rock are pretty rubbish dive sites, the best ones are crocodile island, Camia wreck, santos place. For macro life it's ok if you know what to look for but otherwise it's sparse. Can't compare to rest to ppines. It's a party island and if you fancy getting wet then it can be ok but never great.
 
Boracay is an experience for new divers! It's a disappointment for experienced divers. Better area's for experienced divers are Puerto Galera, Anilao, Bohol, Moalboal, Malapascua, Subic Bay, Coron, Dumagete, Leyte, and more!

Then-glad we did Moalboal & Dumagete a couple years ago.:)
 
Grateful for the warning, comcomtech; and to pughio83 for the added insight.
 
Also share the sentiments of comcomtech, Tourism has been the downfall of Boracay.

Suggest don't waste your time and money (excess baggage) diving in Boracay . In addition dive bancas can no longer land on white beach so regardless of dive shop you must proceed to station 1 area and wade into water and look for your bancas. Having been certified in 1998 in Boracay the dive in dec 2014 was both expensive and disappointing. destroyed corals, poor viz and less than diver friendly practices
 
My only visit to Boracay was about 14yrs ago, no intention to go back ever again.
I hate to think what will happen to Puerto Galera in 5-10yrs time?
 
I did my cert there in 2010, it was not what I went there for, in fact had never considered diving. Had a blast, but at the time I had no benchmark. Sorry to hear the current state as I have considered going back.
 
Boracay maybe a nice vacation destination with its white sand beach, big parties and activities, but for diving maybe not the best for experienced divers. For great diving in the Philippines i would recommend Malapascua, Dumaguete -Apo Island, areas around Bohol like Alona Beach, Cabilao and Anda. If you're up for a real treat check out tubbataha, but its only reachable by liveaboard.
 
Boracay has his own ideology for diving, but if you are already around in this area, why you did not try to jump over to Antique...it's just an hour away on the main island of Panay and there is s lot to experience with less crowd. Well it is not really at the map like the already known spots, PG, Anilao, Bohol, e.g. but in fact the area pays you all back, what ever you want to do. Specially in Pandan, Antique or Culasi with Malalison island can compete for sure with the already known spots.
 

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