Scuby Dooby
Guest
Hi Caloy,
Yeah, 'New' Bahura (the tagalog stuck in my mind, sorry
) has some absolutely ripping currents. I've dived it 2x, out of ~5 attempts, its usually too strong to dive there. My first suggestion is the right boatman, I think you are an Aquaventure regular also Caloy (if i remember right) and I usually go with Junior for this and Mapating, though I guess Mapating has a Buoy now. Not easy to find the right spot to anchor at New Bahura I guess, some bankeros have simply refused when I asked them to try.
My first dive there was a hand over hand descent down the anchor line and then jamming my knife into a rock and flapping like a flag in the breeze for 20 minutes! The second was, amazingly, almost without current.
The dive itself consists of a bunch of big 'rocks'; most the size of say 3 tennis courts put together, some larger; that jut up from a sandy bottom. Depending on where the anchor catches you end up with a depth of between maybe 90 at a minium on top of the highest mounts. With little / moderate current you can swim from mount to mount across the open water in between. We went down deep toward the bottom of one of the mounts and we hit 145', looked like about 20 feet to go to the actual bottom. It's a very surreal dive with good viz, you see these big rocks that look like they were thrown there by the gods playing a game of jacks. The distances are very deceptive because of the huges size of the mounts, I thought it would take a minute of so to cross over to one to find that it actually took us about 5 minutes of very fast finning. When the current is running I am told it is a good place to see reef sharks, we didn't spot any but we did see eagle rays on one of the dives. The conditions are pretty good, coral ok, lots of big gorgonians taking advantage of the current (i have a 'fetish' for gorgonian fans, i really love them) and a fair number of fishies fighting to stay on the rocks just like you are!
Very cool dive , very strong currents, very deep - one that I'd like to do more often but the conditions don't seem to cooperate.
PS Midwestdvr, Basura and Bahura are very different meanings - though i honestly don't know the translation for bahura, if any. Help us out pinoys!
Swisstrav. You do backtrack a bit doing San Agapito point on the way to PG but I think it is well worth the extra 45 mins. You get to do the dive with a much smaller group and it will end up costing much less if there are a few of you. I did Balihibong Manok (chicken feather) on the way back from PG to Anilao, a good suggestion! Another is to go around the 'backside' of maricaban island and do Mapating (shark cave) on the way back to Anilao from PG.
cheers guys
Yeah, 'New' Bahura (the tagalog stuck in my mind, sorry
) has some absolutely ripping currents. I've dived it 2x, out of ~5 attempts, its usually too strong to dive there. My first suggestion is the right boatman, I think you are an Aquaventure regular also Caloy (if i remember right) and I usually go with Junior for this and Mapating, though I guess Mapating has a Buoy now. Not easy to find the right spot to anchor at New Bahura I guess, some bankeros have simply refused when I asked them to try.My first dive there was a hand over hand descent down the anchor line and then jamming my knife into a rock and flapping like a flag in the breeze for 20 minutes! The second was, amazingly, almost without current.
The dive itself consists of a bunch of big 'rocks'; most the size of say 3 tennis courts put together, some larger; that jut up from a sandy bottom. Depending on where the anchor catches you end up with a depth of between maybe 90 at a minium on top of the highest mounts. With little / moderate current you can swim from mount to mount across the open water in between. We went down deep toward the bottom of one of the mounts and we hit 145', looked like about 20 feet to go to the actual bottom. It's a very surreal dive with good viz, you see these big rocks that look like they were thrown there by the gods playing a game of jacks. The distances are very deceptive because of the huges size of the mounts, I thought it would take a minute of so to cross over to one to find that it actually took us about 5 minutes of very fast finning. When the current is running I am told it is a good place to see reef sharks, we didn't spot any but we did see eagle rays on one of the dives. The conditions are pretty good, coral ok, lots of big gorgonians taking advantage of the current (i have a 'fetish' for gorgonian fans, i really love them) and a fair number of fishies fighting to stay on the rocks just like you are!
Very cool dive , very strong currents, very deep - one that I'd like to do more often but the conditions don't seem to cooperate.
PS Midwestdvr, Basura and Bahura are very different meanings - though i honestly don't know the translation for bahura, if any. Help us out pinoys!
Swisstrav. You do backtrack a bit doing San Agapito point on the way to PG but I think it is well worth the extra 45 mins. You get to do the dive with a much smaller group and it will end up costing much less if there are a few of you. I did Balihibong Manok (chicken feather) on the way back from PG to Anilao, a good suggestion! Another is to go around the 'backside' of maricaban island and do Mapating (shark cave) on the way back to Anilao from PG.
cheers guys
