Trip report: Easy Diving Coron, wrecks and barracuda lake

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FairyBasset

Contributor
Messages
178
Reaction score
91
Location
Munich
# of dives
500 - 999
Having dived with Easy Diving in Sipalay and also done their Sipalay - Moalboal Safari, I was very impressed with their professional operations and super friendly team. So it was a obvious choice to dive with Easy Diving in Coron too.

The team in Coron organised my accommodation in the hotel attached to their dive centre. They picked me up at the airport and also picked me up at the hotel for diving and dropped me back there every day.

The hotel was the Westown Lagoon resort, which was really nice, though quite far out of town. When the new Westown resort opens the dive shop is located on that new hotel site. The rooms were spacious, great beds, great showers. You will need to take a tricycle into town if you want to go out in the evening. Though I’m sure you can stay elsewhere and still dive with Easy Diving.

As the location of Easy Diving Coron is not on the main drag in town, you won’t just walk past the shop and book. So, you would be best off contacting them by mail or via the website. They can then organise everything for you.

Prices seem to be quite standard around everywhere I’ve dived In the Philippines, around 1500 pesos per dive (25€) plus park fees.

Easy Diving looked like the smartest and best equipped dive centre in Coron. I saw some of the dive shops and was shocked to see air compressors by the side of a busy road - bad air almost guaranteed. If you don’t have your own gear, Easy Diving is extremely well equipped, their equipment is really new and looks perfectly kept in their smart new dive centre, located at the waterfront. They have a well kept compressor.

The boats also look by far the newest and the best in the harbour for diving. Gaudi, the big bangka, is spacious, comfortable, has a toilet. Plenty of room for lounging in the sun between dives. Plenty of room for all your gear. They also have a small speedboat to get to sites faster, ensuring you are often the first or alone at the dive sites. The guides are friendly and knowledgeable.

I did 9 dives, including 6 wrecks, 2 reefs and barracuda lake. The wrecks I did were Skelton wreck, east tangat, Olympia Maru, morazan maru, Okikawa maru and akitsushima maru. My favourites were morazan and akitsushima. Diving through the bowels of the engine room was exciting, just thinking about the history of what happened 75 years ago this year and then seeing all the clown fish and other sea life now making these warships their homes. The morazan had the most beautiful elephant ear coral all over it. Quite stunning. Some of the wrecks were ok for less experienced divers but not all of them.

Barracuda Lake is more a rock formation dive in a lake surrounded by spectacular limestone cliffs, but is exciting because of the various thermoclines, with temperatures reaching as high as 39°c the deeper you go! You can see the thermoclines clearly. The only life I saw was some shrimps, catfish and mussels. I really enjoyed this dive, but some people will think it’s boring and nothing to see. But it’s special and unusual and worthwhile to do once in a lifetime.

The reef dives had great corals, sponges, plenty of fish including schools of jacks and barracuda and macro life. Very pretty dives, also good for beginners.

Really enjoyed coming back from the days diving and watching the sunset from the deck of the dive centre drinking a beer! Great location to chill out after the dives.

All in all, Coron is worth a visit if you are interested in WW2 history and diving on wrecks. The bay is stunning, beautiful islands and secluded beaches - though not quite as spectacular as it’s neighbour El Nido. Easy Diving is a fantastic option to take you safely diving round the area.
 
What was the viz like??
Hi! The viz was pretty good, maybe 15-20m. It wasn’t super clear, lots of particles. But a tropical storm had gone through a few days earlier so maybe it is better at other times. It was good in barracuda lake obviously!
 

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