Malapascua - Exotic Island vs. TSD vs. Evolution Diving

[yuhtnav]

I dived with TSD in April. At Monad Shoal, we would always see a few other boats already there, in the same general area, but our boat did not go anywhere near them. Instead we jumped in quite a distance away, and saw many threshers and very few other divers. I don't know how true any claims of 'new' dive sites are, but the guide was very good at keeping us away from the crowds.

However, aside from the threshers at Monad, I was not impressed with the rest of the dives.

Thanks a lot for sharing.

So there're still other non-TSD divers there?

April is said to be hammerhead season (by TSD - I read on one of their blog entries). You didn't spot any?

Did you go to Gato and/or Chocolate islands?

Cheers

 

[ukdave0]

I wouldn't worry too much about the crowds at Monad. I was also with TSD a few months ago. The 1st day, in the middle of the hundreds of other divers (not an exaggeration as there were > 20 boats out there), was great as the cleaning stations were full of circling sharks. The next day we stayed away from the big group and saw several sharks swimming about, some relatively close. So it was good either way.
I thought the wall dives near the island were poor. Not much fish life and not very good looking coral. However, the day time muck dives, the Mandarin dive, and night dives were fantastic. I didn't do any of the special dives further from the island.

 

[chlorpheniramine]

Other than 3 successful early morning dives at Monad, we did:

• 1 afternoon dive at Monad, in the hope of seeing mantas. This was the only time we went to the ‘old’ site, with the rope barrier. We saw one pegasus sea moth and nothing else in close to 60 minutes.
• 1 morning dive at Kimud to try for hammerheads. None seen. TSD did warn us that the water was still too warm, but we felt like trying anyway since we had already seen threshers on all the previous morning dives at Monad and were keen to try our luck on the final day.
• Dona Marilyn. I’m not particularly fond of wrecks to begin with, and this one didn’t change my opinion.
• Evening mandarin fish dive. Suffice to say, there are far better mandarin fish sites in other dive locations.
• All other dives were macro dives which ranged from average to mediocre. Of course, I’m comparing to Anilao, Lembeh, Ambon etc. The biggest highlight for me was spotting a blue-ringed octopus.

Some positives:

• Our group of 4 was assigned a local guide on the first dive, whom we found to be excellent. We immediately requested that he be our guide throughout our stay. They accommodated us. On one later dive, one other diver was grouped with us, and she used up her air rather quickly, which cut our dive short. When we told management about this, they made sure we had exclusive use of the guide for the rest of our stay.
• Our guide, Balt, did very well at avoiding other groups at Monad, while showing us plenty of threshers. We were on Nitrox and usually stayed at almost 30 metres for the whole dive, until our computers forced us up. Balt’s also a good critter spotter.
• The breakfast provided upstairs was good.
• Marianne’s arrival briefing was the most detailed I’ve ever encountered at a dive outfit, anywhere. Quite the model to follow, I felt.
• Boats were spacious and comfortable, unless they were carrying a full load of divers.

And the negatives:

• Boats went out with up to 20 divers plus guides, which is pretty bad by itself, and seriously terrible for macro dives. Some dives were complete duds, with one being spectacularly bad – we dived at a small undersea mount, with only one side diveable because of the current. The whole lot of divers were dropped in the same small sheltered spot. I would get close to the wall to take a picture of a nudibranch, then find myself unable to move clear as there were divers left, right, above, below, and behind me. Pure chaos. The site was simply too small to accommodate so many divers at once. Had we known, we would have skipped such dives outright.
• The 2 open showers at the dive shop didn’t work. We had to fill bottles from the rinse tank tap to pour over ourselves.
• TSD’s preferred resort is nice but a bit too far from the dive shop, set on a hill, so walking back and forth was tedious. Had we known, we would have booked the resort next to the dive shop.
• Our daytrip to the wreck was delayed as TSD had some problems filling tanks. About 15 of us divers were left sitting or standing around the dive shop waiting aimlessly for an hour, with just a sour-faced apology and half-hearted explanation. I don’t think it would have been too hard for them offer us a drink while waiting, or give us an estimate as to how long it would take and tell us to come back later.

I came away feeling that Malapascua is good enough for one trip only, for the thresher sharks alone. The quality of the other dive sites does not warrant a return trip for me.

 

[Kevster]

2 good points regarding Exotic
1. They have several boats so you can often choose where you want to go each day.
2. They have an excellent macro dive site approx 100m from the beach. I think they have created a mini artificial "reef" here. This was a great macro dive. So many interesting small critters. I would be happy diving at this site every afternoon dive. I think only Exotic dive here as they have helped develop the site. I am unsure whether the other dive shops have something similar.

 

[Centrals]

2 good points regarding Exotic
1. They have several boats so you can often choose where you want to go each day.
2......

This could well be a deciding factor!!

 

[boljakool]

I would like to clarify on the NEW dive site claims. There is no NEW dive site, and it certainly is not a secret. Monad shoal is where the sharks are and always have been. When Evolution started, we dove to the south of the main Manta Point/Shark Point(which are on Monad Shoal) as local agreements meant we could not do deep dives at certain times where everyone else is. Consequently we realised that the sharks are all over the shoal and have been continuing to explore the whole area.

Anyone who's been to Monad shoal knows that you can see every other boat which is diving at Monad shoal, so it's easy to see if someone is diving somewhere different to normal. This year most dive shops have moved their main shark dives to the south due to increased success seeing sharks. TSD is certainly not the only one and in fact on most days EVERYONE is to the south now, and no one is diving the old area.

So please don't be misled by claims of any secret or special sites - any diveshop on Malapascua can bring you to see thresher sharks - in the same sites as everyone else. Which other criteria you use to chose your diveshop is up to you.

I like how Malapascua resorts improved in organizing the dives at Monad. There are now more thresher shark and manta sightings for all to enjoy. Plus, the shoal is also improving in terms of the amount of "cleaners" for the sharks.

I agree with Matt, your criteria for choosing which dive operator is totally up to you. Here's my take-home photo from one of my recent dives.

 

[yuhtnav]

I like how Malapascua resorts improved in organizing the dives at Monad. There are now more thresher shark and manta sightings for all to enjoy. Plus, the shoal is also improving in terms of the amount of "cleaners" for the sharks.

I agree with Matt, your criteria for choosing which dive operator is totally up to you. Here's my take-home photo from one of my recent dives.

You meant the resorts are working together in organizing dives so that one certain spot will not be too packed with divers?

You saw Manta too??? :shocked2:

Which resort did you go with? Not one of the 3 in discussion?

 

[limbo]

When I dived the 'old' thresher view points on Monad , February 2011, 3 or 4 dives, I didn't see any sharks but on two dives a Manta Ray.
This year in March, I saw sharks on each dive (3 or 4 again) at Monad but no Manta's or any rays at all for that matter, although plenty of devil rays were sighted earlier on in March.

 

[qian shui]

Always I dive with TSD. I have been to Malapascua five times (I think) over the last few years, the last time was April/May this year.
The first time I went I dived with a shop I won’t name (not one of the three in the OP) that’s not a stone’s throw from TSD. This first place was a nightmare. The instructors were good but the owner would decide to use the dive boat as her personal taxi regardless of whether a dive was booked or not. We were doing our AOW and the exasperated instructors quit the shop. Luckily TSD were on hand to take over our course and I’ve dived with them ever since. I took my Nitrox, Rescue and two tec courses with them and have nothing but great things to say. The staff & owners are great and have become personal friends over the last few years. I’m sure the other two DCs in the OP are great too but for me there is only one DC on Malapascua. I’ll be back there in October!

---------- Post added ----------

You meant the resorts are working together in organizing dives so that one certain spot will not be too packed with divers?

You saw Manta too??? :shocked2:

Which resort did you go with? Not one of the 3 in discussion?

The last time I was there the TSD boat spotted all the other boats at 'new' Monad and so we went to the old site and saw a ton of sharks. I don't think that was anything to do with an agreement with other DCs but the TSD boat boys using a bit of nous. Check out the TSD FB page for an awesome vid my friend too of a manta there.

 

[ScubaMoMo]

I have been three times to Malapascua in the last two years and went all three times with Evolution. They are a very professional outfit and have mostly very good divemasters. Also they usually have a small diver to DM ratio which i personally like. I rarely had more then four people in the same group.

Regarding diving i have to say Malapascua is one of my favourite places in the world and i have seen a lot including Palau, Sipadan, Tulamben, Galapagos to just mention a few. There is a huge diversity of dive possibilities. From Macro to Muck, to sharks, to corals, to Mandarin, to Cave swim through. It nearly has it all and that a bargain rates!

I suggest anybody who goes there to make the Gato Island trip. Gato is really special and offers many things like the cave swim through, beautiful corals, pygmy seahorses, cuttlefish (saw mating ones), white tip reef sharks, yellow sea horses, lots of different types of nudis and thats pretty much all gueranteed!

Monad this year was great with loads of Tresher sharks. Where else in the world you have a near guarantee to see those majestic animals?

I saw pictures of pelagic manta rays recently there as well and devil rays are also spotted quite regularly. I have seen devil rays there on my first trip, but didn't do the day dives at monad in my last two trips.

The mandarin dive can be very nice, but depends a bit on the DM. I had great experiences there, but also some pretty crappy ones on my last trip due to the DM not knowing the site.

The muck and macro diving around Malapascua itself is also great. You can see so much stuff like sea horses, frog fish, nudis, ghost pipefish, flamboyant cuttlefish and endless more.

Then there is even more options with trips to chocolate island, callangaman island, dona marilyn wreck and so on. I did chocolate island once and it was ok, but viz was bad on that day and that trip is not done so often. Callangaman island i haven't had the chance doing yet, due to it being far of and Evolution just recently i think starting to do this trip. Dona marylin i didn't do coz i'm not a big wreck fan.

Then apart from diving there is the beautiful white sandy beaches and Evolution also has a nice bar/restaurant. Small tip is though to also check out the village inside the island. Food there is extremly cheap and still very nice!