20-Sep-2019 Was A Cool Diving in Nusa Penida

[Dan]

We had one day to dive in Nusa Penida on 20-Sep-2019. What a fine diving that was turned out to be. We saw 2 Mantas at Manta Point, 4 Mola Molas and a Thresher Shark at Blue Corner. Some divers even saw Great White Shark at Crystal Bay.

Check out this video

 

[MomZo]

I just came back from 8 days at Nusa Penida, including 7 consecutive diving days.
A trip report will come soon.

I dove twice at Manta point and didn't see any Manta... Fortunately, after the second day/dive with no luck, I joined the other snorkelers at the surface and saw 4 or 5 Mantas.

I dove twice at Crystal Bay, and once at Blue Corner (but we had to abort the dive due to terrific ripping current), and I didn't see any shark or Mola.

I still had a great time but I didn't get so lucky with big stuff...

 

[AlMitch]

What a lucky lucky boy you are!!
Those MMs got a bit mobbed by divers....but what a great sighting!!

 

[Dan]

I just came back from 8 days at Nusa Penida, including 7 consecutive diving days.
A trip report will come soon.

I dove twice at Manta point and didn't see any Manta... Fortunately, after the second day/dive with no luck, I joined the other snorkelers at the surface and saw 4 or 5 Mantas.

I dove twice at Crystal Bay, and once at Blue Corner (but we had to abort the dive due to terrific ripping current), and I didn't see any shark or Mola.

I still had a great time but I didn't get so lucky with big stuff...

Sorry to hear your bad luck. I think the Mola Mola season is just about over by the end of September. Manta season, however, should be all year long.

According to my guide, during this year Mola Mola season, they were found more in Blue Corner than in Crystal Bay. That’s why we skipped Crystal Bay and went to Blue Corner twice.

 

[MomZo]

The tide coefficients were huge the first few days (115+) with an important swell, so it was not possible to dive west or south during few days (no boat going there)
It got better mid-week, but with the short possible window to dive Blue Corner (only exactly at high tide if I understood) we could only try once and it was clearly NOT divable (we were 5 experienced divers, including 2 instructors and 1 DM)

 

[chillyinCanada]

It is a shame and a bit of a surprise that you didn't see any manta but not a surprise that you didn't see any mola mola due to the season being over.

Did you note the water temperature at the time of your dive?

 

[MomZo]

I saw 4 or 5 Mantas at Manta point, but not while diving. After I got back to the boat, with some other disappointed divers, we decided to go snorkeling and then we saw few of them, very close encounter.

For the water temperature, it was 23°C at Manta Point for the 2 days I got there, 19°C when I passed the thermocline at Crystal Bay the first day (23°C average on the dive), and 21°C on the second day (24°C average)
For all the dive sites on the North coast, temperature was about 28°C.
For the short dive at Blue Corner before we called the dive, it was 23°C on the plateau at 20m.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I saw 4 or 5 Mantas at Manta point, but not while diving. After I got back to the boat, with some other disappointed divers, we decided to go snorkeling and then we saw few of them, very close encounter.

For the water temperature, it was 23°C at Manta Point for the 2 days I got there, 19°C when I passed the thermocline at Crystal Bay the first day (23°C average on the dive), and 21°C on the second day (24°C average)
For all the dive sites on the North coast, temperature was about 28°C.
For the short dive at Blue Corner before we called the dive, it was 23°C on the plateau at 20m.

I think the water may have been too warm, not that those are particularly warm water temps over all but the mola mola come when water is cold.

I was very fortunate to have seen two in February, one each on separate dives but the water was so darn cold at around 20c on the surface and 18<c at depth. We also had to go quite deep the first time to find the one 30m>. The second sighting was at 20m>, which was an amazing surprise.

 

[Luko]

Sorry to hear your bad luck. I think the Mola Mola season is just about over by the end of September.

Mola mola season often extends to october. If you look at the facebook of pages of some of the best guides like Yansu Suartana, he got most of his vids in October, for iinstance he reported 11 mola mola on october 26th and then 13 on october 27th.
Two years ago, molamola were seen as late as early december.

 

[MomZo]

We also had to go quite deep the first time to find the one 30m>. The second sighting was at 20m>, which was an amazing surprise.

On almost every single dive, we went to 30+ meters, with even few times around 40m.

If you look at the facebook of pages of some of the best guides like Yansu Suartana, he got most of his vids in October, for iinstance he reported 11 mola mola on october 26th and then 13 on october 27th.

I was diving there these 2 days but didn't hear about that much Mola spotted around. This seems surprising as all boats are constantly communicating by VHF radio.
Any idea where he saw that many Molas on these days?