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This dive is for the experienced only. It is usually visited for excitement when the weather is too rough for Yapak 2, and is best dived on a flood tide. A wall rises to 30m (100ft), running east-to-west all the way to Yapak 1. Divers must quickly descend to the wall and get into its shelter.

The wall itself has plenty of interesting soft corals, gorgonians and stony corals, together with a myriad of reef fish, but the main object of the dive is to look out into the blue water where, in a strong current, almost anything could pass by. Shoals of jacks, surgeonfish, Rainbow Runners, sweetlips and batfish are common, but larger animals are often seen, including large groupers, Napoleon Wrasse, turtles, Whitetip Reef Sharks and Grey Reef Sharks. Back to Top

Yapak 1

Location: Located just northwest of Guiniuit Point, the northwest point of Boracay.

Access: 20min north by boat.

Average Depth: 115ft

Maximum Depth: 210ft

Conditions: These sites are best dived on a strong flood tide, when there are strong and unpredictable currents. Surface conditions can be rough with visibility up to 80ft.

By common consent, this is the most exciting diving off Boracay and the site that all the dive masters head for when they have a strong enough group.

The dive requires a fast descent to the shelter of the wall, regardless of surface conditions. The main object of the dive is to look out into the blue. There are large shoals of fishes. These are dives only for the experienced and not for anybody.

Yapak 2 - Punta Bonga

Location: Located west-southwest of Guiniuit Point.

Access: 15min north by boat until opposite Punta Bonga.

Average Depth: 60ft

Maximum Depth: 150ft

Conditions: This site is usually dived in clam conditions, with little current and visibility can reach 20m (60ft).

This site is the start of the series of walls that run on to Yapak and Bel-At. The main site is an easy dive with a drop-off, which is covered, in soft corals, while the sandy bottom has patches of stony corals with jacks, stingrays, groupers, triggerfish, sweetlips, angelfish, butterfly fish, cornet fish, trumpet fish, puffer fish, lionfish, sea stars and sea cucumbers.

Baling Hai Beach

Location: Located northwest of Diniuid.

Access: 10min north by boat.

Average Depth: 50ft

Maximum Depth: 80ft

Conditions: Calm with occasionally a slight current with visibility up to 80ft.

A rich coral garden runs down a gentle slope from 23ft to 10m 33ft, then you go over the drop-off down to sand at 80ft. The drop-off itself runs north-to-south for 656ft.

The coral garden has profuse soft, leathery and Acropora table corals, and there are good stony corals down the drop-off. There is a fine variety of reef fishes.

Friday's Rock

Location: Located southwest of Diniuid.

Access: 10min north by boat.

Average Depth: 60ft

Maximum Depth: 60ft

Conditions: Calm with some current. Visibility up to 80ft.

Friday's Rock itself is a large boulder rising from sand at 60ft, with its top at 23ft. Local dive operators use the sand beside the rock as a fun dive with fish-feeding, so the fish come at you as as you approach (but please don't be tempted to feed them).

On the sand there are Blue-spotted Lagoon rays, moray eels, ribbon eels, Linckia starfish, Choriaster Cushion Starfish, Pincushion Starfish and sea cucumbers.

Lobster Rock

Location: Located west of Balabag.

Access: 10min north by boat.

Average Depth: 45ft

Maximum Depth: 52ft

Conditions: Calm with occasionally a slight current with visibility up to 65ft.

Lobster Rock, a large rock is the standard night dive for advanced courses locally. There is a small colony of Spiny Lobsters, plus surgeonfish, angelfish, butterfly fish, damselfish and sergeant majors, most of which hide in holes in the reef at night, when crabs, shrimps, moray eels and shellfish come out to feed.

Green Yard - Angol

Location: Reefs in front of Green yard and Angol.

Access: 5min by boat or a long swim off White Sand Beach.

Average Depth: 23ft M

aximum Depth: 33ft

Conditions: Calm and visibility can reach 50ft.

This is the house reef that runs down the front of the beach, used for novice training dives and check-out dives, as well as for its good snorkeling.

Crocodile Island, South Side

Location: Located northeast of Manoc-Manoc.

Access: 15min by boat south and then east along the Tabon Strait to the south side of Crocodile Island.

Average Depth: 33ft

Maximum Depth: 80ft

Conditions: Can be rough with strong currents with visibility can reach 25m.

This island resembles a crocodile from a distance. The shallow reef-top is good for snorkeling, although snorkellers should be careful of the currents.

Laurel 1

Location: Located at the northeast side of Laurel Island, east of the southern tip of Boracay.

Access: 20min by boat south and then east along the Tabon Strait.

Average Depth: 16ft

Maximum Depth: 65ft

Conditions: Calm, but currents can be very strong with visibility up to 100ft.

This small island has a remarkable tunnel, 8m long where you can swim through at shallow depth. It is best dived as a drift when the current is strongand the soft corals on its wall fill up to a blaze of colour. It is also a good night dive for the cup corals on its roof. This is a fine dive for photographers and suitable for snorkellers, though the latter should be careful of the currents.

Laurel 2

Locations: Located directly east of Laurel Island.

Access: 20min by boat south then east through the Tabon Strait.

Average Depth: 50ft

Maximum Depth: 65ft

Conditions. Usually a drift-dive in rainy season, but it can have strong currents and visibility averages 65ft.

A north-to-south wall that is not dived often, so there is little anchor damage and good fish life.

Channel Drift

Location: Located at the Tabon Strait.

Access: 15min south by boat to the Tabon Strait.

Average Depth: 60ft

Maximum Depth: 115ft

Conditions: Very strong currents (up to 7 knots); it can be rough on the surface. Visibility can reach 20m (65ft).

Strong tidal currents flow through the Tabon Strait with great force, taking divers along a sandy bottom with patches of coral, canyons and crevices where smaller fish take refuge and bigger fish wait for the current to bring them food. There is an excellent drift-dive at 60ft.

Unidos Point

Location: Located on the east side of Caticlan.

Access: 20min by boat south and then east thru the Tabon Strait.

Average Depth: 50ft

Maximum Depth: 80ft

Conditions: Usually dived as a sheltered site in bad weather with visibility up to 65ft.

A bad-weather site, shelving off to 80ft on sand with coral outcrops, groupers, snappers, batfish, sweetlips, moray eels, garden eels, angelfish and butterflyfish.

Nasog Point

Location: Located at the northwest corner of Panay Island.

Access: 25min south by boat.

Average Depth: Anything

Maximum Depth: 115ft

Conditions: Calm with a gentle current, but it can become very rough with a strong current with visibility averages 80ft.

The site is a slope from 5m to 35m with boulders and canyons, so that unwary novices may find themselves indulging in saw-tooth diving. The fish life is limited, except when a strong current is running, but there is a good chance of seeing a turtle. But this is a dive to do for its topography - to swim thru the rocks.

Dog Drift

Location: Located south of Nasog Point.

Access: 25min south by boat to the west side of Panay Island.

Average Depth: 65ft

Maximum Depth: 100ft

Conditions: Usually calm, with a medium-strong current. Visibility up to 80ft.

This 200m to 300m wall, running north-to-south, drops from 6m to 30m and abounds with caves, holes and crevices. There are lots more fish here than at Nasog Point.

Buruanga

Location: Offshore from Buruanga village.

Access: 35min south by boat until off Buruanga, on the west side of Panay Island, south of Dog Drift and Nasog Point.

Average Depth: 65ft

Maximum Depth: 130ft

Conditions: Sheltered, though there can be strong currents. Visibility can reach 30m.

The reef-top is a gentle slope from 5m to 7m covered in good soft, leathery and stony corals. From 7m the drop-off goes down to 40m where there is a cave. A photographers' dive.

Black Rock

Location: Located south of Buruanga.

Access: 35min south by boat to the west face of Panay Island.

Average Depth: 80ft

Maximum Depth: 130ft

Conditions: Usually calm, but it can get rough with a strong current. Visibility can reach 25m.

Black Rock sticks out of the water and offers very good diving. The west side is a wall with caves at the bottom; good pelagic fish life and occasionally you may see Hammerhead Sharks. The east side is shallow and sheltered, with canyons, caves and crevices. There are plenty of fishes as well as pelagic species.

Carabao Island - Cathedral Cave

Location: Located the northern end of Carabao Island.

Access: 1hr 20min north by boat.

Average Depth: 115ft

Maximum Depth: 130ft

Conditions: Make this journey in good conditions, but there can be a strong current with visibility up to 80ft.

This is a very big cave with a large entrance, so apart from the depth; it is safe for novice divers. At the back of the cave there are many cracks and fissures, which often contain sleeping big fish. There is good fish life, and there is the chance you will see some large pelagic species.

Carabao Island - Village Reef

Location: The center if the east face of Carabao Island.

Access: 1hr 10min north by boat.

Average Depth: 50ft

Maximum Depth: 80ft

Conditions: Calm, with occasionally a slight current with visibility can reach 25m.

A rich coral garden on a gentle slope followed by a drop-off down to sand at 24m. The coral garden has profuse soft, leathery and table corals, and there are good stony corals down the drop-off.

Carabao Island - Village Mountain

Location: Located just north of the southeast corner of Carabao Island.

Access: 55min north by boat.

Average Depth: 65ft

Maximum Depth: 100ft

Conditions: Calm, but there can be a strong current with visibility up to 25m.

A large coral head drops down to sand at 30m. There are lots of good fish, including shoals of jacks, fusiliers and snappers and plenty of colorful reef fish. With luck you may see some large pelagic species.

Carabao Island -West Wall

Location: Located at the southwest face of Carabao Island.

Access: 50min north by boat.

Average Depth: 80ft

Maximum Depth: 130ft

Conditions: Calm, but can be rough; usually some current, which can be strong with visibility up to 25m.

A big wall, 200m long, drops from 10m down to 40m with caves, good soft, leathery and stony corals on the reef-top and prolific fish life on and off the wall.

Maniguin Island - North Face

Location: Located at the northernmost point of the reef.

Access: By boat.

Average Depth: 50ft

Maximum Depth: 150ft

Conditions: Variable - can be rough in bad weather; in good weather it is calm, with currents varying with the tide. Visibility 100ft.

Most of the reef-top is a gentle slope from 10m to 17m with a mixture of coral heads on sand interspersed with fresh blast-fishing damage. The blast-fished areas cover only a small portion of the total expanse, the rest being top-quality soft, leathery, stony and whip corals harboring a myriad of reef fish.

Maniguin Island - South Face

Location: Located at the south face of the reef.

Access: By boat. To find the greatest number of sleeping sharks in caves, line up the lighthouse with the prominent large white rock, while over the drop-off.

Average Depth: 65ft

Maximum Depth: 150ft

Conditions: Variable - can be rough in bad weather; in good weather it is calm, with currents varying with the tide. Visibility up to 100ft.

Drifting west with the current, it can be possible to cover most of the face in one very long dive. The wall and reef-top are very similar to the North Face; perhaps blast fishing has damaged slightly more areas, but the majority of the dive is beautiful, with abundant reef and pelagic fish life.

At the western end of the face the top of the wall becomes shallower; the reef-top offers excellent snorkeling when there is no surf running.