Crystal Bay Dive Site

11 dive logs in “Crystal Bay”

1. This is THE place to go if you want to spot a Mola Mola in Bali!

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2. Crystal Bay is one of Bali’s most famous dive sites. It is also the one where most accidents occur.

   There are two reasons for this. The first reason is that strong and unpredictable currents hit this dive site. Currents can change without warning. A reef that felt safe a minute before can become a diver’s nightmare with raging down currents that cannot be fought against. You definitely do no want to venture too far away from the reef. It is not rare to see divers hanging onto anything they can get their hands off, with grave detrimental effects to the corals and wildlife…

   The second reason is that herds of divers eager to see the mola-mola flock to this dive site, especially in August and September. Many of those divers should not be diving along the wall and should stay well within the sheltered confines of the bay, as they do not have the necessary experience to be here. Divers often get surprised by the change of current and sometimes drop well beyond recreational depth limits or find themselves unable to ascend to shallower water.

   This dive site should only be dived in small groups (4 divers is an absolute maximum) with dive guides that have hundreds of dives of experience at this particular dive site. Divers who are not Advanced Open water or above with some experience in currents should also accept dive centers’ recommendations and understand that they need more experience before they can access the wall that borders the deep channel beyond the bay.

   That being said, it is a great dive site. The bay itself has got stunning corals with large bommies and much soft corals. Divers usually start inside the bay and head out along a small island towards Nusa Lembongan. The wall there has also got some great corals full of macro.

   However, the main attraction here is the mola-mola. It is a great place to see it since the oceanic sunfish comes close to the reef in relatively shallow water in order to get cleaned by bannerfish. Several mola-molas can sometimes be seen together. Please give them some room if you are lucky to see them. You will ultimately be the ones to benefit from this since the molas stay in the same spot for a long time if you don’t bother them.

   IMHO, Crystal Bay is not the best place to see the mola since the number of divers means that quality encounters are not as frequent as on other dive sites, such as PED, Sental, Toyapakeh, Blue Corner or Gili Mimpang/Tepekong.

   Many pelagics beside the mola-mola can be spotted here. Dogtooth tunas, large trevalies, leopard sharks, mantas and even dolphins have been spotted here playing in the currents. Keep an eye in the blue when looking at the great critters on the reef…

   This dive site can be dived with operators from Padang Bai, Sanur and Nusa Lembongan.

   By Cedric Saveuse

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3. We did we did 6 dives in Crystal bay 2 years ago, we are all experienced divers, with dives logged from 300 dives to 3500 dives… in search of the Mola Mola, we were pretty unlucky and it wasnt til our last dive we actually saw a Mola Mola, we swum out to the wall, saw the Mola Mola & got a down & hang on signal from our dive guide – we had an extreme down current experience that was absolutley terrifying, emerging safely from the water with bleeding hands from hanging on to the poor reef. It was the first time that I can recall ever getting out of the water and all the divers sitting on the boat not saying a word. counting our blessings there were still 5 of us. Even our guide was silent. I’ve logged over 1000 dives and I would never go back to crystal bay – its nice when its good, but if its bad its very bad and I dont need to see something so badly I risk my life. very sad to hear about the deaths of experienced divers there last year. RIP.

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4. We lost our 16year old son while snorkeling at Crystal Bay in May 2012. We were on a family surfing holiday but on this day the swell was very small. We were approached by a man on the beach who offerd to take us to Crystal Bay to snorkel. We had no idea that this place was so dangerous and that numerous accidents had occurred there until reading this website. Had we known, we would never ever have put our children or ourselves at risk and gone there. We will never know 100% what happened to our son on this horrific day. He was out of our sight for only a few minutes, we were not worried as he was a strong swimmer and would often snorkel and spearfish with friends back at home. He was bought to the surface by two divers and within a minute of pulling him up and onto the boat, he bled out (pulmonary Barro trauma). Whether he took compressed air from these divers we will never know, or whether the undercurrent pulled him down beyond his depths.
   Please be aware of diving in Indonesia, there doesn’t seem to be any regulations

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5. Pingback: Crystal Bay - Nusa Penida - Wonderful Bali

6. Wow I’m so shocked to read these stories about Crystal Bay!

   I dived Crystal Bay as part of my Open Water course. I remember this dive because we experienced a lot of current and I found it very challenging. When I told my cousin, an experienced diver, she was quite shocked that I went there as a novice.

   I’ve never been back so I couldn’t say whether it was a good day or a bad day for the conditions, but it was certainly the most memorable dive!

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   • I am shocked to read all this. i went there today and fotunately i am still alive, the current was not that strong today. i only have 22 dives before (all in the last 2 months). the dive center told us that if the conditions are bad we won’t go. We got lucky and saw a mola mola that was getting cleaned so we could not ask for a better show as he stayed there for more than 5 minutes. our dive master warned us about the down current and was always asking us to stay near the reef. after the dive i learned that we were actually at 26 m depth which i am not supposed to go to (i did not have a dive computed so i dont really pay attention to depth).next time i ll look up the dive sites before i go diving.

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7. Wow! Thanks all for sharing your stories! Indeed Crystal Bay can be a very challenging site at times, but this dive site is a lottery… you never know. The best advice is to trust the locals, if they say it’s safe to go, they know it is. The opposite applies… if you’re told by an experienced local not to dive there on a certain day, you should take the advice!

   Oh and Ana… congrats on spotting a Mola Mola!!! It’s a once in a lifetime kind of experience isn’t it ?

   Safe Bubbles Divezoners!

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8. I just dived at Crystal Bay yesterday. The water is really cold but the current was okay, and visibility is not really that good, a maximum of 10 meters. We saw one Mola just finished being cleaned at 31.5 meters depth near the wall. We stayed close to the wall to avoid the down current that sometimes happen. My DM told me emphatically to stay behind him and maintain reaching distance to a nearby rock or wall. After 10 minutes at 31 meters depth my dive comp beeped and we went back to shallow waters, between 15 to 9 meters deep. The current here is shifting and rather strong, but they are side current. As long as you dive upwards, you are safe. The shallow waters have colorfull corrals and I saw a lot of pieces of soft corrals that were broken and drifted with the current, I don’t know how they were broken. Surgeon fish, clown fish, parrot fish, angel fish and butterfly fish are those I saw on shallow waters. The water in shallow water was not as cold and so much clearer than the Wall. A lot of big corrals looking like hills and cathedrals in these area.

   Indeed, this is not a spot for beginners. I’ve logged around 60 dives before Stiva from Penida Dive Center allows me to dive here. I really recommend using Stiva from Penida Dive Center as your DM.

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9. I have a very similar story to most others here. I was taken here as an inexperienced diver (less than 10 dives under my belt and going for my AOW), and we had insanely strong currents that easily could have killed us. Our guide had 3 of us students who barely knew what we were doing flying along the reef. My brother and I were separated from the guide after the third student was struggling, we couldn’t even see our guide at one point. My brother crashed into a rock that was jutting out on the wall but fortunately was okay. We tried to swim against the current until we caught up with the guide, and then did a safety stop before heading to the surface. Almost at the surface, we had an awful downwelling that quickly pushed us to 67 feet under water. We inflated BCDs and kicked as hard as we could until we eventually surfaced….very lucky that one of us didn’t get swept away and that we were able to surface. In hindsight, I cannot believe the dive company took us here when:
   1. We had very little experience as divers and zero experience with currents
   2. The dive briefing did not cover how strong the current can be here and how to exit if downwelling happens…all we were told was to enjoy the ride.
   3. Just 8 months earlier, 2 people died from this dive and 5 others went missing and were found alive 3 days later.

   And again, they took us here as very inexperienced divers.

   After this experience, I would highly suggest that anybody do their homework about dive sites they’d like to visit and avoid this site unless they are experienced divers. I will never dive with that company again and will likely never dive at Crystal Bay again.

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10. My husband, myself ( both AOW with years of diving experience) and our guide had a very cold dive with poor visibility due to the heavy current.
    We went straight to the wall where we dropped over the side onto a ledge and due to the constant bombardment of extremely severe high currants we had to hook onto the reef and keep our heads and bodies tucked in as close to the ledge as possible.
    My husband began to move across the ledge uneasily looking very uncomfortable and it was only when we surfaced did he explain that he was being hounded by a scorpion fish that was hell bent on being underneath him as he hung on for dear life.
    We did see a solitary Mola Mola but unfortunately as soon as the Mola appeared so did a whole host of divers that promptly scared it off. Heading back the way we had came to our safety stop I noticed how many of these divers were being supported by 2 guides dragging them along as they were obviously very inexperienced and not coping well with the bad conditions of the dive.
    We saw nothing of note after the Mola Mola as the general visibility is very poor with not a lot else to see.
    This is not a dive I will repeat, I’ve done the Crystal Bay dive 3 times and although the Mola Mola are a sight to see, I don’t think the dive offers anything other than a fleeting glimpse and is far to over populated by dive groups to be enjoyable.
    If this is a dive you definately would like to do, then please make sure you dive with a reputable dive company that will put your safety over a quick sighting of a Mola Mola, the conditions of this are unpredictable at best and downright terrifying at worst.

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(65 votes, 3.20/5)

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