Lombok Diving Sites

Lombok Diving Sites

Blongas Bay Site

The area has a very rough look, the landscape is very impressive, with large waves pounding jagged rocks and lots of white spray everywhere. From the boat you can see some beautiful sandy beaches, stretching for kilometers but empty, because of the waves crashing some way our. The bay itself though earns its name of "Bay of Tranquility" because it is very flat and calm with nice beaches and small fishing villages. It can be reached from Lembar harbor (ferry from Bali about 4 to 5 hrs) in about an hour over a very bad road.

  • The Magnet (Sopia Lawisa).
    This dive sites is the reason why most divers come here, mainly because there is a good chance to see hammerhead sharks. This is a large rocky pinnacle jutting up from about 50m below. It lies in the open sea and 20 to 30 min. by boat. Large waves crash on top of the rock and over it and the resulting surge can be felt even down at 20 meters! Actually you can only dive safely below 15m because of the surge and all the bubbles in the water and safety stops are made away from the rock.

    For experienced divers only! You dive on the north side of the rock and make a drop right in the middle, if possible. If the currents are not so strong you can now continue the dive by going in zigzag back and forth between the eastern and western edge where the currents coming from the south can be felt strongly. The large pelagic such as hammerheads, white tip sharks, mackerels and barracudas congregate here in large numbers. If the currents are fiercer, the area where you can dive narrows with side currents pushing you towards the middle of the sheer wall.
    If the currents lessen you can even dive entirely around the rock which even then is still a challenge, because you have to fight against both current and surge.The amount of fish you see is quiet amazing and during our week there we saw a lot of really large dog tooth tunas, some mobulas (like manta rays, but smaller) and eagle rays, several sharks including hammerheads and twice we just seem to hit a wall of barracudas - great! We also went once out to the Magnet and decided not to dive, because it was too dangerous. The other dive sites are more sheltered, so we went there.

  • Coral garden.
     You dive around two larger rocks with a series of smaller rocks which lie on sand. Lot's of soft corals in yellow, orange and purple colors, whip corals, some gorgonians and anemones. We found some nice nudi branchs and shrimps and also saw a school of small barracudas. An easy dive, max. depth about 25m.

  • Wallis Pinnacle
    Wallis Pinnacle is a large rock which top is about 7m below the surface and some more rocks tumbled together and lying on white sand. We saw a black giant frogfish, sharks, ribbon eels and several species of nudi branchs. There is sheltered area with gorgonians, table corals and black corals. An easy but interesting dive, max. depth 19m.

  • Gili Sera
     This is a big junk of rock. Underwater it looks like large pieces of the rock fell down and are now littering the sand all around the island. These rocks are covered with leather corals, sponges and tunicates, but there are some more sheltered areas where table corals and black corals grow. When the currents are not very strong, this is a nice dive site for small animals such as nudibranchs, shrimps, glass fishes, scorpion fishes and even the occasional sea snake, white tip reef shark or ray.

  • The Cathedral.
    This large pinnacle rises from about 40m to the surface. Only a small rock is visible from the surface and zthe crashing waves fills the upper 5m of water with bubbles. You dive on a steep wall covered with soft corals, sponges and tunicates. There are yellow sea cucumbers everywhere. We encountered two species of sea snakes, the common banded sea krait and I think the turtlehead sea snake (Emydocephalus annulatus). The later has a much larger head and a brown color but also some lighter colored bands.The swell makes you go up and down a lot - not so good for your ears - and like on the Magnet we actually surfaced from about 10m by swimming away some distance to avoid the swell. For experienced divers.

Diving Site Around Senggigi

  • Malimbu
    A drop off between 5 and 20 meter. Sandy with coral blocks and patchy reefs. A place to find leaffish, moray eels and sting rays. There is another dive site near by Malimbu cave with several small underwater caves. All dive sites are close to Senggigi.
  • Alang- Alang wall
    Starts at 16m and reaches down to 35m with a small plateau and another wall that goes down to 60m. Everything is covered with hard and soft corals and a lot of coral reef fishes living among them.

Dive sites around the Gili islands

Gili Trawangan

  • Coral Fan Garden and 6 Basket Coral
    Colorful soft corals and many reef fish. Easy diving.

  • Shark Point
    This dive site lies along the east coast of Gili Trawangan and covers quite a large area. You start in shallow water and follow the slope which has terraces that get gradually deeper to a plateau on about 24m. The coral covering is not so interesting, but there is a good chance to see whitetip and blacktip sharks and sometimes even gray sharks and there are also often tutles here. There is also a sandy area with a lot of garden eels. A popular dive site.

  • Manta Point
    If you are lucky you can encounter manta rays in this dive area. From the end of October to the beginning of December (in the rainy season) they migrate here, when the water is rich with plankton.


Gili Meno

  • Meno Wall
    Lies west of Gili Meno, the reef is about 300m long and goes down to about 18m, covered with soft corals and gorgonians. It offers a good chance to see hawksbill and green turtles. Also good for a night dive.

  • Malang Reef
    The plateau lies on about 10m, but drops down to 40m. There are some really nice canyons.

Gili Air

  • Air Wall
    A beautiful wall (max. depth about 32m) with a coral block at 22m which is a cleaner station with shrimps. It is surrounded by a large school of glasfishes and there is often a leaf fish sitting there and feeding on them. After diving on the wall you go around a corner and come to a sandy area. Look around, you might find some interesting animals like the robust ghostpipefish and even sometimes sharks.

  • Gili Air Harbour (Frogfish Point)
    A sandy area with garbage and some really interesting critters. This is a good place to find hidden smaller animals like the ghost pipefish, special shrimps, nudibranchs, frogfishes and scorpion fishes and waspfishes. With luck you also find seahorses, short-tailed pipfishes, mandarin fishes and sea snakes. Very good for macro photography.


Gili Lawang, Gili Sulat and Gili Petangan

The islands of Gili Lawang, Gili Sulat and Gili Petangan lie in the northeast of Lombok. There are no dive operators there, but some operators in Sengiggi offer trips there and some liveaboards pass by on their way to Sumbawa or the Komodo islands. For information about diving there click here