Layang Layang Trip Report from last week

[Bredman]

After reading the Layang Layang trip report posted in a previous thread, I had some fears that I'd be disappointed with the choice to dive the small S. China Sea atoll. As it turns out, LL was probably the best choice I could have made!

After a shaky flight in, you actually get two dives on the same day, which is great. 11am rolls around and we all suit up, head around to gorgonian reef and drop in. Before I talk about the dives, I'd to mention how well I felt the resort was run. I'm nearing 100 dives now, and I know how rare it is for everything to run on time and efficiently, but somehow everyone was there every day right on time. The twin engine catamaran boats were great against the waves too, though that was rarely a problem.

Anyway, the first dive - we hit the water and check equipment when this happens:

Some say there were 40, some say 80...whatever, I couldn't see the front of the school.

Some other things we saw that week:

And some small stuff too:

Two cons I feel I need to mention though:
1. We had a couple of professional photographers there who didn't follow the rules, chased stuff, didn't stay with the group and were generally beligerent. I might dealt with them differently - put them on their own boat perhaps.
2. We had 100ringgit go missing from my girlfriend's wallet when we were out diving and the room was getting cleaned. It wasn't a lot of money and we probably would have tipped them that anyway, but it disappointed us.


Overall, an unbelievable trip. We saw hammerheads most days, Mantas EVERY day, too many white tips, grey reef sharks, swam with dolphins and fell asleep in hammocks.
I haven't been to Palau or Raja Ampat, or the pacific islands, but when I do go, I hope they are as good as my experience at Layang Layang.

 

[Rickg]

Bredman,

Thanks for the trip report and great pics. Good to hear that the hammerheads can be seen there if the timing in right. I've always wanted to go there but lately it had slipped lower on my list of places to visit because of some of the posts I had been reading.

 

[xariatay]

WOW! Hammerheads most days! Guess it made your trip worthwhile... Thanks for the trip report. Nice video of the dolphins!

Did u encounter strong current? What is the guide to diver ratio? Seems a little crowded on the frogfish photo. ;-)

 

[Bredman]

On the issue of currents, winds and such...the weather was like this most days:

Please ignore the cute chica in the foreground

Most dives were wall dives, but I couldn't really consider them drift dives, cause you are self propelled most of the time. No waves, little wind.

Group sizes were a bit large - 6-12. It never felt crowded though, as there was plenty to see, and with the exception of the aforementioned "professionals", everyone was well behaved. The last day was the largest group, yet when nobody chased them, the sharks seemed more apt to approach a large group, so I'd venture to say it was a good thing for us.

 

[xariatay]

Thanks! U have fantastic luck with weather & hammerheads etc! (maybe a little less luck w humans -> "professionls") ;-)

 

[gnugnu]

Great report! Have just returned from Sipadan which was wonderful, but craving pelgics so seriously considering Layang Layang for the next trip. Two questions - did you have to dive to 40m+ to see the hammerheads? And did they limit dives to 45mins as they do in Sipadan?

 

[Bredman]

The school of hammerheads in the pic above was at about 35M and was parallel to us, if not a bit higher. We did see another school down in about 60m too but as you can guess, we didn't venture down there. Also saw some Mantas/Eagle Rays and Napoleon Wrasse in water too deep to explore. Most activity seems to be right at recreational advanced limits of 40, so your dive time is a bit limited anyway. We had extended mandatory safety stops once or twice.

Its not that there weren't nice things to see in shallow water(last day we saw mantas while snorkeling), but the reason you go there is really for the sharks and other big stuff. They aren't sticklers for the 45 minute rule. I would put "45minutes" in quotation marks. What they are serious about there is exceeding max rec limits(41m+) as they won't think twice about leaving you at the dock if you break the rule. They have no chamber on the island so my advice would be not to mess around with that one.


For reference, I think I was one of the least experienced in the group and I've logged well over 100 dives now. Layang Layang is not a place for basic open water divers IMO. Its good, but if you are going to get the most out of it, you are going to be spending a good part of your time at 36-40m.

Which operator in Sipadan cuts you off at 45minutes? We are considering going there in september, and I feel that if you have air in the tank and time on the computer, stay down. BTW how is diving around Darwin?

 

[gnugnu]

Thanks Bredman. I figured it would be a 40M situation - my buddy is an air hog so 40M would be a challenge for him without a big tank.

SMART in Sipadan go by the 45 min rule, and our DM didn't deviate from 45 mins at all. Not interested in how much air we had left - 45 mins was it. I'm sure other DMs are more flexible. It was a bit weird, to be honest. The diving was so easy that we could easily have stayed down for 60 mins.

Darwin is a bit inconvenient for diving - only a few days a month are suitable because of the tides, and vis is awful, but everything is there if you look hard enough!

 

[Nishan]

great report!
been wanting to check out Layang Layang so its nice to hear its worth the effort after some slightly negative reports in the past.
regards Sipadan dive time restrictions, i just returned from my second time at Seventures and they also go by the 45 minute rule. i think its more to do with convenience. but in the end its up to the dive master. on this trip we stayed nearly 60 mins on two dives and also went beyond 50m looking for hammerhead sharks. we had a group of experienced divers and my buddy and i were allowed to dive off the main group.
as for the professional photographers chasing behind fish in Layang Layang, as a marine biologist and eager photographer all i can say is that the best thing to do is to let the fish come to you rather than chase them. its amazing how curious some animals get if you just relax and let them check you out. as a photoprapher i appreciated the flexibility of the DM at Seaventures because i didnt have to worry about holding up the group while waiting for a fish to give me the "right"angle.
btw, Sipadan diving was great! bit unlucky with weather this time and had some low viz but still lots of white tip sharks, grey reefs, giant trevally, dogtooth tuna, napoleans, more turtles than you can count, and the famous schools of trevally and barracuda.

 

[zahgurim]

Nice report!

I've been looking at Layang Layang myself, am pretty interested in heading there.