Komodo Island Dive Trip Review

If you have been planning to visit Komodo Island for one of the best scuba diving in the world, here is my Komodo dive trip report after several dives which I did here. This was my third time visiting Komodo Island in Flores, and on two of those three visits I managed to do some serious scuba diving here. One even on a liveaboard boat. Anyway, onward to the dive trip report.

I have also written an article about diving at Komodo Island, which covers the basics, and this article will focus on diving there. For one of the trips, I did three dives at Komodo Island, all arranged by Orca Dive, a trusted dive operator highly recommended by many divers. Their dive boat was a twin 150-hp speedboat complete with a full top cover, and the descent was the standard rollback style.

The dive boat I used for my Komodo dives.

Pink Beach Dive Site

My first dive spot was, of course, the famous Pink Beach dive site, together with dive buddies Kiersten from the USA, Henry from Australia and Jac from Singapore, and the four of us were given the mandatory dive check before descending. The first impression was wow, super clear visibility and healthy coral life. As usual, my descent is always the slowest due to my sinus problem, where I have to equalise every meter on my way down.

Looking down 10 meters below me, I could clearly see the rest of the divers, with the divemaster already exploring the corals. Kiersten was trigger-happy with her GoPro, shooting away while the rest followed. As I caught up with them, the pure myriad of colours just kept me in awe as I passed various types of coral life. A beautiful mix of hard and soft corals dominated the seafloor, with various types of coral fish swimming around.

Our divemaster pointed out a spotted blue stingray, moray eel, turtles and some nudibranchs or sea slugs. Overall, the landscape was beautiful and picture-perfect for underwater photographers. Currents were mild during the dive, where not much effort was put into finning, and this made the dive very relaxed. Eventually, we surfaced after about 50 minutes underwater with huge smiles on each of our faces.

Divemaster giving a briefing before going down at the Pink Beach Dive Site.

Manta Point Dive Site

Next spot was Manta Point, but this was quite debatable due to the offseason of Mantas, and since we were already here, the divemaster had said that if we were in some serious luck, there could still be a couple of manta rays around, so he left us with the choice, but being a first time for the four of us, why not.

Back-rolled and again, a slow descent for me while the other divers were already on the lookout for those majestic manta rays. Well, not quite, as they would be found at various cleaning stations, and these were on flat terrain; therefore, you could see far, provided visibility was super clear.

For our Manta Point dive, the visibility wasn’t that great, as it was just past noon, and we were getting about 15 meters. Currents were decent and approaching the first cleaning station, but it was empty. Our divemaster signalled us to follow him to the next one, and to our disappointment, no one was home either. So, throughout the dive, we checked several cleaning stations with no luck, but the corals were pretty, and the marine life was thriving.

After reaching the end, most of us still had about 120 bars left, so I decided to do my safety stop and head on up the boat while the others continued to explore the area. On the boat, our divemaster was pretty apologetic about not being able to see any mantas, but we already knew that it was a 50-50 chance of spotting them at this time of the year, well, more like a 90-10 chance if you ask me. However, it was a great experience overall.

The divemaster briefed us about the Pink Beach Dive Site’

Batu Bolong Dive Site

This was a bonus since all of our tanks were still full of air; our divemaster took us to the Batu Bolong dive site as a surprise, which is touted as one of the best dive sites in Komodo Island. He told us that he’s taking us to a special place and that we should sit back and enjoy the ride.

Here, a small rocky island divides the strong currents flowing into the channel, and from the surface of the sea, you can see the sheer power of the currents, which is scary. The boatman had to be extra careful to position his boat between the current splits. When I asked about the currents, the boatman told me that if we jumped in, we would be carried away really fast, so going down was crucial; if you got caught in the current, you would just have to wait it out.

We were told to gear up for a quick check dive for this site, and our divemaster said that you wouldn’t believe how rich and beautiful the marine life was down below, so everyone got really excited. After a few good minutes of repositioning the boat for a safe descent, we back rolled in one by one and quickly descended, following the divemaster.

On my descent, I could already see the fascinating marine life that hung around the base of the rock island, with hundreds, possibly thousands of fish swimming in all directions. Turtles were seen eating off the healthy corals, while larger fish were lurking in schools in the deeper areas. Truly, this was a scuba diver’s haven for photography, and yet, one needs to be extra cautious not to get caught in the strong currents here.

With all the excitement going on, I had trouble descending as when I reached three meters, I could not go and deeper, probably due to my almost empty tank with 80 bar. I kept forcing myself to go down, letting all the air out of my BCD and exhaling to the max, but I just couldn’t. and thing I learned about diving is that when you can’t, don’t force it.

One of the live-on-board boats at Komodo Island.

So I decided to surface back to the boat and kept looking down to see the amazing view. However, I did not immediately climb up the boat when I hung on to the ladder; I kept looking down with my mask to see what else was there. In general, there was too much going on, and I told myself that the next opportunity I get to come back here, this would be one of the must-visit spots of Komodo Island for me.

So there you have it, my little dive report on diving in Komodo Island, where I was fortunate to experience three dive sites, well, just two and a brief third site for me. Overall, the feeling was amazing, as there was just so much to see here, and there was no sign of coral bleaching during any of my dives. Marine life is simply incredible, and for photographers, this is indeed one of the best places I have seen in my years of diving.

A post shared by Kiersten • The Blonde Abroad (@theblondeabroad) on Sep 26, 2016 at 4:13am PDT

Conclusion

Huge thanks go to the team of Skyscanner Indonesia and also Indonesia Tourism, as this was part of the Wonderful Indonesia campaign to promote these places to the rest of the world. Skyscanner provides information on the cheapest flights to get via their app or website, and for this collaboration between them and Indonesia Tourism. I have also written an article on how to get to Komodo Island for anyone interested.

The main entry point to Komodo is Labuan Bajo, and I have also written a list of things to do there for anyone planning to visit this beautiful place in East Nusa Tenggara.

Again, I am just a casual diver and more of a travel writer; this was one of my best diving experiences to date, after diving in Jordan and Sipadan Island. I hope you enjoyed my Komodo Island dive trip report, and if you have questions, please ask in the comments section.