Shipwreck diving in Coron Bay, Philippines is world famous for a reason. It’s more spectacular and epic than you could imagine. Our time here was world’s apart from island hopping in El Nido or Boracay!

After reading about the many WW2 Japanese ships that were attacked by US forces on September 24th 1944, and how you can dive at great depths through the entire sunken ships, we knew we had to go.

We stayed at a dive resort in Coron Town called Sea Dive Resort. They conveniently had a dive school within the resort, where I signed up for the PADI Advanced Open Water dive course. I hadn’t planned to, but I’m so glad I was persuaded to. It was an absolute bargain of $338 which includes 5 dives, book and certificate.

We admired the many shipwreck photos on the dive shops walls, eager to get out there and explore them.

Our first dive was actually in a lake called Barracuda, on the north shore of Coron Island. A short 20 min boat ride away from Coron Town.

It’s not your average lake though, it’s one of the most unusual lakes in the Philippines. Comprised of 60% fresh water and 39% salt water, there’s an unusually strong thermocline where the deeper you go, the warmer it gets – up to 38 degrees celsius! 

Even getting there was a fun surprise. We had to swim from the boat to the edge of the lake by climbing over limestone rocks and scrambling over trees, all with our gear on!

Diving in a lake where you can swim your way down to a hot, steaming bath is a very surreal but amazing feeling.

After practicing our buoyancy skills and getting a few refreshers, we set off on our first shipwreck dive.

Altogether I dived Tangat, Olympia Maru, Kogyo Maru and East Tangat wrecks.

Tangat Wreck

Tangat Wreck was a fantastic introduction with a maximum depth of 26m. The ship was upright, allowing us to swim through dark, narrow and murky passages via the front of the supply tanker.

It was actually pretty eerie since the visibility was not great at all. The current was pretty strong at times, therefore swimming through such narrow passages was a challenge since your buoyancy has to be spot on. I was also conscious of not kicking up a cloud of dust for the divers behind me.

Olympia Maru

My dive the next day was penetrating Olympia Maru (this is the terminology they use!), a Japanese freighter sitting upright at 30m depth. This was a big ship, 122m long and 17m wide.

This dive was just amazing. We swam through a very dark passage crossing the engine room, guided by the glare of our torchlight. We then emerged out to a huge circular boiler with large pieces of construction and equipment surrounding us.

We swam over 100m through the entire length of the ship, with little windows of light shimmering across us every few metres.

**Read before diving**

These wrecks are not for the faint-hearted. If you’re in any way claustrophobic, don’t do these dives. It was honestly one of the most terrifying yet exhilarating things I’ve ever done. Many times I had to remind myself to keep calm, take deep, slow breaths and not have a full on panic attack. The passages were much more narrow than I had imagined, not to mention pitch black. It’s important not to panic and use up your air quickly either, as this will considerably shorten your dive. In fact, we did a few dives using Nitrox so we could stay down for longer.

You also have to be a confident, relaxed diver, and not have the need to hold on to your mouth piece the whole time. At the start I had such a fear of letting go of it, which made controlling my buoyancy whilst swimming through a narrow tunnel AND holding on to my torch light to see where I was actually going, very difficult!

You can imagine my delight when I then immediately got foot cramp and had to stop as my group slowly immersed into the murky depths of the ship. I cursed my feet issues, mentally forced myself to breathe calm and easy, waited for the cramp to go and swiftly followed on.

Sadly I don’t have many photos of how spectacular the ship was to really capture the experience, since my camera doesn’t go that deep.

To be honest I’m impressed with anyone who can dive these wrecks and take great pictures at the same time!

Kogyo Maru

The Kogyo Maru was another favourite of mine. The 129m long and 18m wide Japanese freighter was carrying construction material for the war.

Lying on her side at 34m depth, this wreck allows fantastic swim throughs in to 6 different holds, through the engine room and bridge. We passed through a narrow passage to enter a large hold lit by portholes on the side of the ship. We swam through each hold in different directions, up along levels, side to side within levels and forwards through to the next hold.

You can imagine how disorientating these wreck dives can be, especially with the ships lying on their side. After a while I had no idea which way up I was!

This ship was well lit in comparison to the others which I was so relieved about. There’s also a famous bulldozer that you can swim past, letting your imagination really picture how life must have been on these ships.

Three dives in one day can definitely consume your energy, especially when they are as thrilling as they are. I always have such a huge appetite after diving.

Of course I indulged in my favourite Pork Tocino breakfasts with lots of steamed rice and fresh seafood for dinner. Always joined by our charismatic dive coach, Timmy!

The instructors at Sea Dive took care of us and treated us to impressive BBQ lunches on the boat. They guided us through the most mind-blowing and exhilarating dives that I feel very lucky to have experienced.

After getting over the initial nerves, my confidence in diving definitely grew. I feel like surely no other dive will phase me after this!

I would say that the dive masters are very relaxed with diving rules here. My advice would be to know your own limits with diving and don’t let anyone pressure you in to doing dives that you’re not comfortable with. It’s your own health and experience at the end of the day, safety is no doubt the most important thing.

If you’re a keen diver, or want to see what world-class wreck dives are like, I absolutely recommend a visit to Coron. It truly takes diving to a whole new level.