gee13
Contributor
This is a little belated report from May 2009 but due to so many questions about diving in Sipadan I thought this review might be helpful.
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I remember coming across about Sipadan whilst randomly sifting through google earth and found this remote island just off the tip of East Borneo. Sipadan is actually a tiny tropical atoll island which drops down 600m to the bottom of the seabed. Its located in the Celebes Sea along the Indo Pacific basin and is rich in marine life diversity. Jacques Cousteau came here in the 80s once and saw an untouched ecosystem which captured his imagination. So before long it got transformed into a top international dive spot. After an early morning flight from KL, I arrived in Tawau, Sabah 3 hours later and transited via a 1 hour bus ride to Semporna a tiny fishing town before jumping on a speedboat to Mabul, an island 20 minutes away from Sipadan. I stayed at Sipadan Water Village, which is very much a resort on stilts much like the original ones in the Maldives.
It was low season and I was told that I would have a good chance of a few diving days on Sipadan. Only 120 permits from the 10 or so dive operations are shared and SWV had about 14 of these per day. So its the luck of the draw whether you got the gig and had to wait at 5pm for the good or bad news. Fortunately for me I managed to get on 1 of 2 boats for the next day for 3 dives on Sipadan.
That morning we took a 20 minute speedboat ride to the island After a brief check in at the booth for an ID check we were off to our first dive - South Point. I heard this site was known for its pelagics and when I descended could see why - greeted by black tip, silver tip and grey reef sharks was a sight to imagine , only problem was a camera leak prevented me from taking the shots I wanted. So I decided to move on and not think so much about what the dive gods had in mind for me.
The dive was pretty much along a sloping wall which had nice corals and fish life. I was taken aback by the abundance of fish, 30m plus viz with the odd black tip gliding past and we also found a massive blue pacific cray inder a tabletop coral which looked like it was 4 foot long and weighed a couple of kilos! Also the famous green turtles were in force as they swam past us. After a short SIT on the island next stop was the famous Barracuda PT and I was told spotting the tornados of barracudas were hit and miss depending on where they were. Descending on this dive was the Drop Off - 30 m or so from the beach and jetty - a massive vertical wall dropping to the deep blue. I could easily see about 40 m or so into the abyss and vertically about the same through the clear waters. Simply a magnificent site, as I descended was greeted by a school of jackfish loads of colourful coral and 15 min into the dive, when I thought we may not catch the elusive school we were looking for there they were, about 5-600 chevron barracudas swirling over a reef! What a sight to behold!!! I was now in pelagic heaven, swimming through the vortex I saw several Giant Trevally and Bumphead Parrotfish.
We headed back to the resort for lunch and then it was back for our third dive at Hanging Gardens, this was to be another highlight as a slow wall drift dive with magnificent fan corals, loads of green turtles and an assortment of more reef sharks going about their day. The wall was filled with the most colourful corals I have seen and the viz was now 50 m plus at low tide which was premium diving time in these waters. When we got back I was more than pleased to hear that I was to get another Sipadan gig the next day! I asked on of my dive buddies that day why he was the only one not using a camera and he actually said his eyes and mind was the camera - that he actualy got to see more when not focussing on taking the perfect shot. That moment I had a zen moment, leave my 'troubled' photographic career behind and I was now a 'reborn' diver as I realised I would not have seen everything that I had today if I had been concentrating on photos. This was to be my new dive mantra.
Later that evening my first dive group invited me for an evening dive as they new the DM and we went looking for the elusive mandarin fish amongst the Mabul house reef. I was not to be dissapointed as 10 min into the dive we spotted a brain coral that had housed about 3-4 of the critters. We also saw moray eels, lionfish and many pipefish in the area.
The next day we did Turtle Cave, Barracuda PT again and Mid Reef. Turtle cave is a massive underwater cavern with an arch reaching 10 m tall at around 18m depth Many turtles go there to die, and some divers have not come out alive as well! We didn’t see any barracudas on my 2nd dive there but me and my Norwegian buddy got separated from the group, only to come about a part of the reef that had about 15 reef sharks hanging about a corner, catching the food from the cross current! Amazing! At Sipadan you also do your safety stop at 5m amongst the most colourful tabletop corals teeming with small fish, what could be better.
I could go on forever, but I’ll condense the other highlights from the rest of my journey to spotting an Eagle Ray with a 2m wingspan on my 2nd dive at South Point. Also finding the rare and beautiful Pygmy Seahorse (5mm height) at Seaventures, dives on Kapalai more about the macro with lots of colourful nudibranch on the softer corals on sand and Mabul had some nice wall dives with blue spotted stingrays. Temperatures were always a barmy 27 -28 degrees in the water. In total I got 8/14 dives out of 4 full diving days on Sipadan going everyday so I was more than satisfied.
>>>
I remember coming across about Sipadan whilst randomly sifting through google earth and found this remote island just off the tip of East Borneo. Sipadan is actually a tiny tropical atoll island which drops down 600m to the bottom of the seabed. Its located in the Celebes Sea along the Indo Pacific basin and is rich in marine life diversity. Jacques Cousteau came here in the 80s once and saw an untouched ecosystem which captured his imagination. So before long it got transformed into a top international dive spot. After an early morning flight from KL, I arrived in Tawau, Sabah 3 hours later and transited via a 1 hour bus ride to Semporna a tiny fishing town before jumping on a speedboat to Mabul, an island 20 minutes away from Sipadan. I stayed at Sipadan Water Village, which is very much a resort on stilts much like the original ones in the Maldives.
It was low season and I was told that I would have a good chance of a few diving days on Sipadan. Only 120 permits from the 10 or so dive operations are shared and SWV had about 14 of these per day. So its the luck of the draw whether you got the gig and had to wait at 5pm for the good or bad news. Fortunately for me I managed to get on 1 of 2 boats for the next day for 3 dives on Sipadan.
That morning we took a 20 minute speedboat ride to the island After a brief check in at the booth for an ID check we were off to our first dive - South Point. I heard this site was known for its pelagics and when I descended could see why - greeted by black tip, silver tip and grey reef sharks was a sight to imagine , only problem was a camera leak prevented me from taking the shots I wanted. So I decided to move on and not think so much about what the dive gods had in mind for me.
The dive was pretty much along a sloping wall which had nice corals and fish life. I was taken aback by the abundance of fish, 30m plus viz with the odd black tip gliding past and we also found a massive blue pacific cray inder a tabletop coral which looked like it was 4 foot long and weighed a couple of kilos! Also the famous green turtles were in force as they swam past us. After a short SIT on the island next stop was the famous Barracuda PT and I was told spotting the tornados of barracudas were hit and miss depending on where they were. Descending on this dive was the Drop Off - 30 m or so from the beach and jetty - a massive vertical wall dropping to the deep blue. I could easily see about 40 m or so into the abyss and vertically about the same through the clear waters. Simply a magnificent site, as I descended was greeted by a school of jackfish loads of colourful coral and 15 min into the dive, when I thought we may not catch the elusive school we were looking for there they were, about 5-600 chevron barracudas swirling over a reef! What a sight to behold!!! I was now in pelagic heaven, swimming through the vortex I saw several Giant Trevally and Bumphead Parrotfish.
We headed back to the resort for lunch and then it was back for our third dive at Hanging Gardens, this was to be another highlight as a slow wall drift dive with magnificent fan corals, loads of green turtles and an assortment of more reef sharks going about their day. The wall was filled with the most colourful corals I have seen and the viz was now 50 m plus at low tide which was premium diving time in these waters. When we got back I was more than pleased to hear that I was to get another Sipadan gig the next day! I asked on of my dive buddies that day why he was the only one not using a camera and he actually said his eyes and mind was the camera - that he actualy got to see more when not focussing on taking the perfect shot. That moment I had a zen moment, leave my 'troubled' photographic career behind and I was now a 'reborn' diver as I realised I would not have seen everything that I had today if I had been concentrating on photos. This was to be my new dive mantra.
Later that evening my first dive group invited me for an evening dive as they new the DM and we went looking for the elusive mandarin fish amongst the Mabul house reef. I was not to be dissapointed as 10 min into the dive we spotted a brain coral that had housed about 3-4 of the critters. We also saw moray eels, lionfish and many pipefish in the area.
The next day we did Turtle Cave, Barracuda PT again and Mid Reef. Turtle cave is a massive underwater cavern with an arch reaching 10 m tall at around 18m depth Many turtles go there to die, and some divers have not come out alive as well! We didn’t see any barracudas on my 2nd dive there but me and my Norwegian buddy got separated from the group, only to come about a part of the reef that had about 15 reef sharks hanging about a corner, catching the food from the cross current! Amazing! At Sipadan you also do your safety stop at 5m amongst the most colourful tabletop corals teeming with small fish, what could be better.
I could go on forever, but I’ll condense the other highlights from the rest of my journey to spotting an Eagle Ray with a 2m wingspan on my 2nd dive at South Point. Also finding the rare and beautiful Pygmy Seahorse (5mm height) at Seaventures, dives on Kapalai more about the macro with lots of colourful nudibranch on the softer corals on sand and Mabul had some nice wall dives with blue spotted stingrays. Temperatures were always a barmy 27 -28 degrees in the water. In total I got 8/14 dives out of 4 full diving days on Sipadan going everyday so I was more than satisfied.
