Hello!!
My wife and I are looking to dive on some easy/intermediate house reefs in Koror for 3 days before heading out on a liveaboard. We want to warm up and practice our underwater photography skills. Would love to get your recommendations on dive centers / hotels that have a house reef where we can do unguided dives. We are experience divers with 250+ dives. Below are a few options I'm researching into:
1. Sams tour dive center - I think i read somewhere that they do have a house reef, but i'm not 100% sure. Also I do not know if they offer just gear/tank rentals for unguided dives. I have emailed them.
2. Fish n fins - They do have a house reef but they want me to book boat dives with them to get access to their house reef. I am most likely going to hit all the boat diving dive sites with the liveaboard so I don't want to spend more on doing the same sites!
3. Palau Pacific resort - too pricey
Any other you guys recommend? Or have more info on the above options?
@diver2005
As a fairly serious u/w photographer that's been to Palau numerous times, I have a bit of advice
First - the unfortunate news. It's against local regulations to dive without a guide in Palau (there is no unguided diving anywhere in the country). This is primarly to protect the marine habitat (something the government and the diver operators take very seriously) however it's also to provide steady business for the dive tourism industry. Just because it's not legal, doesn't mean it doesn't happen... but you'll have to work pretty hard to dive w/out one. The Palau Visitor's Authority will confirm this if you don't believe me.
If you are a novice u/w photographer, it's a great idea to get in some time before jumping on a liveaboard. However, it really depends what kinds of subjects you want to shoot from the LoB (and to some extent, your camera gear).
If you are diving with a TG6 or compact camera, you may be able to shoot both macro and wide angle on a single dive (depending on your set up) but if you're diving with anything larger, you will likely need to choose what you are setting up for ahead of each dive.
There is some decent macro in Palau (however there are dive sites where you have to search for the subjects pretty hard). Because of this, anything outside the reefs is primarily wide angle (large shools of fish, mantas, sharks, turtles, etc.). So if this is what you want to practice - none of the "house reefs" are going to prove very satisfying. You can only shoot large clams so many times before eventually wanting to shoot something else. However, if you want to practice shooting macro subjects, anything inside (including Sam's) will be fine (just lower viz). The area around the Palau Pacific (near Splash) is a little more varied than the lagoon behind Sam's. I've seen some interesting critters in there (incl. several juvenile pinnate batfish). Splash offers guided beach dives in this area, which would let you dive at your own pace.
If you want to practice wide angle (what you are going to see "outside," and why people come to Palau) then you're best bet is to join a day boat (Sam's, Fish n' Fins, etc.) to practice. However, if you do this, you'll be assigned a guide and included in a group of 4-6+ other divers - there isn't going to be a lot of "stopping" on a dive, so hard to slow down & "practice" if that's the goal. On the plus side, you'll get the chance to see (& try shooting) some of the more interesting wide angle subjects in likely very good vis.
If you do go this route, pay for a private guide - this will allow you to slow down, dive at your pace, and shoot as much or as little as you want. As long as the dive shop isn't completely fully booked, they'll have a private guide for you (at an extra charge).
Also - I wouldn't worry about repeating sites (at all). Palau's most iconic sites are so good they are worth repeating (multiple times). They also vary quite a bit - you can dive German channel on an incoming tide and get really good viz and increase the chance to encounter mantas, whereas if you dive it on an outgoing tide the dive is completely different (but often still really good). Most of the best sites are similarly different based on tides, number of other divers on the site (and is several cases, moon phase). This is nature, it's not scheduled - you increase your chances of seeing "stuff" the more you dive these sites.
Last - I took my daughter to Palau just after she started shooting with a Sony A7III, with a w/a wet lens, and a single strobe. She came back with some very reasonable images from the trip, but she did have to remember to focus on subjects that were both closer to her, and slower moving (or stationary). As an example, she got some great images of sea fans, some unique fish species, and some iconic manta shots... The challenge is that that the sharks and other large animals are going to pull your attention away, but they end up teasing you by staying just out of "close" range. The sharks are wary - the white tip reef sharks may get close (or more correctly, you may be able to get close to them), however the Grey Reefies and the Bull sharks (down in Peleliu) aren't getting close to you unless you get "lucky..." (like during the spawning periods, etc.). You can get close to the mantas if they are feeding or at a cleaning station. Generally, you are going to want to avoid just aiming your camera up into the blue with a shark (or several sharks) swimming along the wall, 25+ feet away from you (unless you're taking these pictures just as reminders of your trip). The most iconic images of the large animals in Palau are usually taken within 10ft of the animal (often even closer) - this is hard, and will usually require very few divers to be around you (like only you and your buddy, or just you). Blue Corner is a great example of this... the more divers, the more the sharks stay off into the blue. I didn't believe this entirely until a guide was able to personlly illustrate this. He had me hang back when everyone unhooked and drifted away. After about 5 or so minutes, the Grey Reef sharks were swimming just a foot or two off the reef plateau at the very edge of the corner...totally different experience when no other divers were on the site (and much better for capturing images).