Layang Layang or Sipadan

[Mokkaran]

Guys.....I'm planning on my vacation whether to dive at Sipadan - Mabul or Layang Layang. My main objective is the wide angle things not the macro. Any comment and advice would be really appreaciate

 

[Zippsy]

I have not been to Layang Layang but if you go to Sipadan - stay on the island itself. Mabul is great for macro but if you stay there, you travel over to Sipadan to see the big fish. I believe most operators on Kapali / Mabul only will do two dives per day at Sipadan as well. I can't believe you'd be disappointed by choosing Sipadan.

 

[Rickg]

Zippsy once bubbled...
I have not been to Layang Layang but if you go to Sipadan - stay on the island itself. Mabul is great for macro but if you stay there, you travel over to Sipadan to see the big fish. I believe most operators on Kapali / Mabul only will do two dives per day at Sipadan as well. I can't believe you'd be disappointed by choosing Sipadan.

Mokkaran,

Zippsy's recommendation is "dead on". Don't go to Mabul if you want to shoot wide angle. Macro is what Mabul is all about.

He is also correct about staying on Sipadan. The dive operators on Sipadan provide 3 boat dives and unlimited shore diving so you can get up to 6 dives a day in (3 boat dives and 3 beach dives). The boats that come from the Mabul and Kapolai resorts do only 2 dives a day at Sipadan . And unless things have changed, the boats that come from the Mabul and Kapolai resorts aren't allowed to let their divers off the boats onto the island when they come over on the day trips.

Hope you enjoy your trip.

Rickg

 

[Albion]

Went to LL in april which is prime Hammerhead season, lots of them there then. Not sure what the Hammerhead chances are away from that time of year. Some of the staff were saying they are there all year round just not so common outisde of peak season.

They are very strict about depths, 40M is the MAXIMUM, go past that and you will get banned from next dive, repeat and you lose a day's diving. They have no chamber on island and you are maybe a day away from one if you do get bent so it is with good reason they enforce this rule. so dont go thinking you can sneak off deep for a quick look, I went deep on my last dive and was spotted.

But wide angle is great, lots of Reef Sharks, we had to push past the Grey reefs to get out to see H Heads, also vis was 30-40M.

 

[Mokkaran]

Thank you so much guys for your useful information. So I think I would rather go to Layang Layang on April since it's the prime season for hammerheads. BTW, Any recommendation on the dive operators on the Sipadan island itself? Beside, the dive agency here has just recommended me on Manado and Bunaken. Any one been there before? Is it all about the macro stuffs? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks again for your help.

 

[cmdasia]

I have dove at resorts were deco = no more diving that day.

BTW, PADI rule for recreational diving is:

Deco for less than 5 minutes = no diving for 6 hours
Deco for more than 5 minutes = no diving for 24 hours

 

[Zippsy]

I thought that was for a deco dive AND a missed deco stop. I could be wrong though since I usually am.

 

[Albion]

Well i didn't go deco but hit 46.9M, so according to PADI i could still dive

 

[cmdasia]

A missed decompression stop stop gets you 24 hours.

46.9 meters is not a recreational dive according to PADI but a technical dive (which requires specific training) - so you have exceeded PADI limits, which they counter for with an emergency deco stop for an accidental extension of the NDLs (as I am referring to PADI /recreational then all deco stops are emergency deco stops) - if its less than 5 mins go to 5 meters for a minimum of 8 minutes - if more than 5 min then you need a minimum of 15 minutes in deco at 5 meters.