scuba_divo
Contributor
I spent the long weekend diving around Gangneung out of the Sacheon Beach area. The two most famous dive points out of Gangneung are probably the wreck of the Russian trawler Stella and The Tank (1X tank and several armoured personnel carriers), but the area has a lot more to offer. There are at least three wrecks: The Stella, The Ember (Amber?) and "the little wreck", which was still a sizable wreck (although collapsed). Aside from wrecks there are many artificial reefs and nice rock formations. Once again, the East Sea is mostly sandy bottom that won't support sea life attachment, so rocks and placed structures (wrecks, artificial reefs) are where the action is. There are about 42 individual dive sites accessible out of Gangneung.
I wasn't able to find a map for Sacheon Beach area specifically, but Gyeongpo Beach a few kilometers to the south offers accesses to many of the same sites. Although too low res, hopefully this gives a sense of the area.
There are many dive shops in the area. I ended up diving through Bobos Dive Resort (<--link) where it was about 50,000 KRW per dive (boat & tank incl.)
(Fins Dive Resort also operates out of Gangneung and covers many of the same dive sites, follow link for their FB page.)
Bobos Dive Resort:
Details:
Navi Address: 강원도 강릉시 사천면 사천진리 86-139
Telephone: 010-2332-9220 : 033)644-7850 (owner: 맹동수)
I had an awesome experience diving with Bobos. Again, not a lot of English, but the owner and the local club were extremely kind, safe, fun, enthusiastic and professional. The dive club adopted me on short notice and made the experience a truly memorable one. Also, the owner really helped me out when I experienced car trouble over the long weekend and all the service centres were closed. I had so much fun (both with people and dives) that I extended my trip to a 4-day rather than the originally planned 2-day trip. Will definitely go back.
The Resort
It's a fairly compact affair right on the water. This is nice because the boats are right there and you don't have to spend time driving/walking back and forth from a staging area farther away from the port carrying all your gear.
There's the usual washroom and shower block & an outdoor staging and picnic area, which was extremely busy over the long weekend:
This extends into the tent where there are more tables, a kitchenette, hot/cold water dispenser, rental gear, compressors, tank storage etc. and obligatory washing and drying areas right next to the dock:
Dives are accessed from this staging area . Gear up, take a boat, dive, return to port, surface time, repeat for subsequent dives. Bobos has two boats to manage demand for different sites (1 large, 1 smaller, see photo above). The larger one is usually heading out to Stella, The Tank, etc. and the smaller one often takes smaller groups to some of the less frequented dive points, but ultimately it depends on crowd size and demand. Both boats offered lifts for extraction. Another positive is that due to the popularity of the Stella, you can also dive most weekdays. Call first to make sure there are enough people to run boats (4-person minimum). They told me that they run year round. As with many Korean Dive Resorts there is an associated pension that works well if you are travelling in a group. They had flat-rate (I think) 5-person and 2-person rooms. Call well in advance to book as rooms fill up during peak season.
The Diving
Visibility is best during the winter months when the water is coldest. While I was there temps got down to around 12-13C at depth. There were hardy folk diving in 5mm wetsuits, but I was thankful for my 8/7/6 semi dry. Viz was generally sub-10m.
The Stella
As mentioned, the big draw is The Stella, a 2400 ton Russian fishing trawler that was scuttled in 2020. It offers various penetration and swim through points on multiple decks. The highlight for me came when we dived it on the Tuesday and there were only 3 of us on the wreck (It was swarming on Sunday!) As we were essentially alone on the wreck, we were able to do a complete swim through of all levels and into the engine room. It's not a difficult wreck as most accessible areas have multiple openings and good lighting. Here's the basic layout.
It's a popular hangout spot for schools of fish and most of the wreck is covered in mussels.
At the bow:
Sunday traffic jams
Tuesday freedom
Here's some footage from the Sunday dive with the team led by @yeon_possible and @vanitas_hyo (Instagram). Special thanks to them for the majority of the footage.
The Stella has already been covered extensively, so I'll just provide a link to @coralreefer_1 's thread with commentary and video.
Diving the "Stella" (Asia's largest shipwreck dive)
For extra background and pics you can see these blog posts (Korean). This shows (pics, video) of the trawler at the surface being prepared for scuttling.
강릉 해중공원의 새로운 침몰선 스텔라호
The top of this blog offers a few more context shots of the submerged wreck.
강릉 경포 다이브 리조트 with 칼슨강사
The Tank
Nearby The Stella are the military vehicles in a square formation:
Here's our team taking command of a tank!
Some Gatling gun action:
Ascent and decent on most of these dives (Stella, Tank, Artificial Reefs) is via a line due to lack of visibility, especially at the top where it is very easy to lose your bearing or become separated. For the first 6m or so visibility was maybe 2-3 meters on some dives before clearing up to about 10m at depth. In fact, I dived The Tank a second time with an experienced local who decided we "didn't need no stinking line" and we completely missed the mark and had a nice swim for 10 minutes near the vehicles before the team leader admitted defeat and we ascended. We stayed safe, but you could tell he was pretty embarrassed.
Artificial Reefs
As stated earlier, a lot of the East Sea dive sites are artificial reefs where structures have been sunk to foster the growth of sea life by giving it something to latch onto. I appreciated the variety of flora and fauna they attracted. One of special note is 해중공원 (Hae Jung Kongwon), which is a scaffold structure built up into a tower(s). This area particularly had quite a few nudibranchs and a couple varieties that I hadn't seen before. Sadly, although I did get the macro attachment for my Vaquita, I still haven't mastered macro. So with that warning, here are some really blurry shots of nudis. You've been warned!
Red Rock and the other artificial reefs were also worthwhile dives. With 42 sites, there's a lot to choose from.
As usual, haven’t had a chance to process the video footage. Will post links if/when I can.
I wasn't able to find a map for Sacheon Beach area specifically, but Gyeongpo Beach a few kilometers to the south offers accesses to many of the same sites. Although too low res, hopefully this gives a sense of the area.
There are many dive shops in the area. I ended up diving through Bobos Dive Resort (<--link) where it was about 50,000 KRW per dive (boat & tank incl.)
(Fins Dive Resort also operates out of Gangneung and covers many of the same dive sites, follow link for their FB page.)
Bobos Dive Resort:
Details:
Navi Address: 강원도 강릉시 사천면 사천진리 86-139
Telephone: 010-2332-9220 : 033)644-7850 (owner: 맹동수)
I had an awesome experience diving with Bobos. Again, not a lot of English, but the owner and the local club were extremely kind, safe, fun, enthusiastic and professional. The dive club adopted me on short notice and made the experience a truly memorable one. Also, the owner really helped me out when I experienced car trouble over the long weekend and all the service centres were closed. I had so much fun (both with people and dives) that I extended my trip to a 4-day rather than the originally planned 2-day trip. Will definitely go back.
The Resort
It's a fairly compact affair right on the water. This is nice because the boats are right there and you don't have to spend time driving/walking back and forth from a staging area farther away from the port carrying all your gear.
There's the usual washroom and shower block & an outdoor staging and picnic area, which was extremely busy over the long weekend:
This extends into the tent where there are more tables, a kitchenette, hot/cold water dispenser, rental gear, compressors, tank storage etc. and obligatory washing and drying areas right next to the dock:
Dives are accessed from this staging area . Gear up, take a boat, dive, return to port, surface time, repeat for subsequent dives. Bobos has two boats to manage demand for different sites (1 large, 1 smaller, see photo above). The larger one is usually heading out to Stella, The Tank, etc. and the smaller one often takes smaller groups to some of the less frequented dive points, but ultimately it depends on crowd size and demand. Both boats offered lifts for extraction. Another positive is that due to the popularity of the Stella, you can also dive most weekdays. Call first to make sure there are enough people to run boats (4-person minimum). They told me that they run year round. As with many Korean Dive Resorts there is an associated pension that works well if you are travelling in a group. They had flat-rate (I think) 5-person and 2-person rooms. Call well in advance to book as rooms fill up during peak season.
The Diving
Visibility is best during the winter months when the water is coldest. While I was there temps got down to around 12-13C at depth. There were hardy folk diving in 5mm wetsuits, but I was thankful for my 8/7/6 semi dry. Viz was generally sub-10m.
The Stella
As mentioned, the big draw is The Stella, a 2400 ton Russian fishing trawler that was scuttled in 2020. It offers various penetration and swim through points on multiple decks. The highlight for me came when we dived it on the Tuesday and there were only 3 of us on the wreck (It was swarming on Sunday!) As we were essentially alone on the wreck, we were able to do a complete swim through of all levels and into the engine room. It's not a difficult wreck as most accessible areas have multiple openings and good lighting. Here's the basic layout.
It's a popular hangout spot for schools of fish and most of the wreck is covered in mussels.
At the bow:
Sunday traffic jams
Tuesday freedom
Here's some footage from the Sunday dive with the team led by @yeon_possible and @vanitas_hyo (Instagram). Special thanks to them for the majority of the footage.
The Stella has already been covered extensively, so I'll just provide a link to @coralreefer_1 's thread with commentary and video.
Diving the "Stella" (Asia's largest shipwreck dive)
For extra background and pics you can see these blog posts (Korean). This shows (pics, video) of the trawler at the surface being prepared for scuttling.
강릉 해중공원의 새로운 침몰선 스텔라호
The top of this blog offers a few more context shots of the submerged wreck.
강릉 경포 다이브 리조트 with 칼슨강사
The Tank
Nearby The Stella are the military vehicles in a square formation:
Here's our team taking command of a tank!
Some Gatling gun action:
Ascent and decent on most of these dives (Stella, Tank, Artificial Reefs) is via a line due to lack of visibility, especially at the top where it is very easy to lose your bearing or become separated. For the first 6m or so visibility was maybe 2-3 meters on some dives before clearing up to about 10m at depth. In fact, I dived The Tank a second time with an experienced local who decided we "didn't need no stinking line" and we completely missed the mark and had a nice swim for 10 minutes near the vehicles before the team leader admitted defeat and we ascended. We stayed safe, but you could tell he was pretty embarrassed.
Artificial Reefs
As stated earlier, a lot of the East Sea dive sites are artificial reefs where structures have been sunk to foster the growth of sea life by giving it something to latch onto. I appreciated the variety of flora and fauna they attracted. One of special note is 해중공원 (Hae Jung Kongwon), which is a scaffold structure built up into a tower(s). This area particularly had quite a few nudibranchs and a couple varieties that I hadn't seen before. Sadly, although I did get the macro attachment for my Vaquita, I still haven't mastered macro. So with that warning, here are some really blurry shots of nudis. You've been warned!
Red Rock and the other artificial reefs were also worthwhile dives. With 42 sites, there's a lot to choose from.
As usual, haven’t had a chance to process the video footage. Will post links if/when I can.
Yeah, Korean food is great!
