Mesmerising Malapascua Island Diving

After a 24-hour journey from London, the crystal-clear ocean and white sandy shores of Malapascua were a wonderfully welcome sight. At the shore, I could see a frantic waving hand accompanied by a huge grin. Isis, the front-of-house manager at Evolution Diving Resort, was waiting to greet me. It was the perfect welcome to begin my next diving adventure. 

I was very excited to be diving with Evolution. Environmentally friendly diving is at the forefront of any trip that I make, and Evolution has been recognised as a ‘Top 10 Member’ by Green Fins – making them one of the most environmentally friendly dive operators in the world.

Isis handed me something green and delicious to drink straight off the boat, and over a delicious breakfast at Evolution’s top-rated restaurant – The Craic House – we chatted about the numerous diving opportunities possible during my stay. 

Malapascua truly is a diver’s haven. It's a tiny island – around a half-hour stroll from one end to the other – situated off the northern coast of Cebu in the Philippines. Navigating it involves wandering through alleyways, front and backyards, chicken yards and restaurants to get to where you need.

Alongside the dive sites in the immediate surrounding areas of the island, nearby islands are only a short boat ride away, meaning you'll never be short of new dive sites to explore. Most significantly, Malapascua is the home of Kimud Shoal – home to the famous pelagic thresher sharks, attracting divers from all over the world, year-round.

Having not been diving in eight months, I was worried I’d be a little rusty, but I realised as soon as I got in the water there was nothing to worry about. Being in the warm, clear ocean was a comfortable and familiar feeling, and I realised just how desperately I’d missed being in the water. I was SO excited to be diving again.

My first dive of the trip was a short boat ride from the island to a site called Deep Slope. Our lovely guide, Albert, led me and two other guests through a magnificently colourful array of corals. Visibility was fantastic, and we had great sightings of clownfish, frogfish, sea cucumbers and even a sleeping seahorse. Albert was also an excellent spotter of nudibranchs, and as we found more and more, I soon understood the hype surrounding these little fluorescent creatures.

I was up bright and early the following morning (a perk of the initial jet lag!) to catch the morning dive to Kimud Shoal, to look for the thresher sharks. I love exploring everything underwater – little things and big things alike – but I was particularly excited to go looking for these unusual creatures.

They surely did not disappoint! One shark came into view – then two, and after a while, it was difficult to know where to look. We stayed below their eyeline to avoid frightening them. Looking around, I had one five metres to my left, another ten metres to my right and another circling dozily above. Their tails glimmered like ribbons as they cut gracefully and purposefully through the water. It was mesmerising to watch, and I imagined how powerful and precise they must be to be able to stun their prey.

Once out of the water and back on the boat, we were even lucky enough to see one of the sharks breaching – a behaviour I wasn’t even aware these sharks show. It was an incredible first sighting and the guides were very excited at how lucky we had been that morning – that’s when you know you’ve got really lucky!

Image by Matt Reed

I achieved my 50th dive by visiting the nightlife at Daki Daki. Life slows down on the reef at night, and it’s a lovely change of pace. Several crabs and octopuses were busy going about their business whilst many nudibranchs chilled among the coral, a troupe of shrimp meticulously cleaning their surroundings. Finding nudibranchs of so many different colours, shapes and patterns nestled among the corals felt like an underwater treasure hunt. We were the only divers in the water, and it felt like we had the whole ocean to ourselves.

I ventured out to Gato Island the following day. It was a morning trip of two dives, both of which were gorgeous. We started the dive by swimming through a large tunnel thick with soft coral and bursting with wildlife. I had a fantastic sighting of a large group of around 30 cuttlefish. They're ghost-like creatures, seen in glimmers as they pass and changing colours with their surroundings.

I spotted two sleepy whitetip reef sharks on the second dive, hiding in the caves. We found several more nudibranchs and saw many pipefish, too. At the end of the second dive, a playful octopus posed for some photographs during the safety stop. Back at Evolution, I enjoyed a delicious lunch at The Craic House, before heading out to explore the rest of the island and attempting to fix the GoPro that may or may not have flooded on the morning’s dive.

I found the Threshers at Kimud Shoal again the next morning. They were a little shyer than they had been previously, but it was very peaceful watching and waiting for them at the drop-off. They approached cautiously and soon gathered in large numbers at the cleaning station.

The thresher sharks have only recently moved on to Kimud Shoal. Before this, their favourite cleaning station was Monad Shoal, a short distance away. I am told the threshers were recently evicted from Monad Shoal by the tiger sharks, who now roam the area. The second dive of the morning took me to this site to search for its new tenants. There were large clusters of thriving corals, making up a large cleaning station filled with marine life. The tiger sharks weren’t to be seen this time, but the abundance of life made it clear that the area was a very desirable home!

I enjoyed delicious breakfasts of fresh mango and banana with fried toast back at Evolution. Aside from the diving, the food at the resort was easily a highlight. Evolution had an array of delicious breakfast options that were truly irresistible and after a morning of diving, I loved the ease of coming back and having something tasty to look forward to.

Over breakfast, I chatted with Matt, the owner of Evolution. He has made the island home, having lived and dived there for several years. He's a tech diver and is often found teaching or guiding tech dives around the islands. Honestly – as a relatively new recreational diver, I’m still not quite sure what tech divers do – it looks quite complicated and remarkably exciting.

The following day I made a day trip to Kalangamman Island – a tiny island a short boat trip away, with an iconic sandbar stretching out into the ocean. The underwater landscape was breathtakingly beautiful. We descended a vast wall, thick with soft coral, through a huge school of angelfish. Topography like this is one of the things I love most about diving. When surrounded, immersed, in an abundance of marine life, it's an other-worldly feeling, inexplicable to those who have never dived before.

Of all the dive sites, I don’t think I could pick a favourite. The threshers were amazing and seeing them is an experience I'll never forget. Every dive site was unique from the next and with every dive there was something different and exciting to see – be it a new species of fish, a hidden nudibranch or a grazing turtle.

Malapascua had a sense of community that I’d not experienced anywhere else. Everyone visiting this island is here to dive, and I’ve not experienced that sense of community with divers before. I’ve travelled to several ‘surf hotspots’ where the talk of the evening is always surfing, and I love how this is true of Malapascua for divers. I don’t have many friends who are divers and being here I suddenly felt a big part of an incredible community – it was so refreshing to be on an island full of people just as excited about diving as me. 

My final night was spent enjoying a party at one of the island bars, with some divers I’d met through the week. We ate at the local market, drank rum and coke, danced barefoot in the sand to live music from one of the island bands and reminisced about the endless highlights of the day’s dives. It was the perfect way to say goodbye to this little corner of paradise I’d made home. I love this island. Something about Malapascua, from the moment I set foot on it, made me want to stay forever. I’ll be back!

If you'd like to escape to the island of Malapascua for an unforgettable Philippines diving experience, be sure to check out our Malapascua diving holidays, including our Malapascua Dive Adventure. For more information or to kick-start your next diving adventure, contact our team today.