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Snorkeling and Scuba Diving at Gun Beach
Gear up at your car, then walk 30' to knee-deep water, and follow a cable/pipe channel straight out. Returning, expect to clutch this cable/pipe to resist the rip tide in this cut. Once outside, head LEFT toward the hotels. Rightward is boring, and devastated by crown-of-thorns starfish who've killed the reef. Leftward is a paradise of candlestick corals, gradually sloping from 15' to 100' deep before becoming a sandy plain. Lots of spider-shells, large animals, & reef fish. Very pleasant dive. Far better than anything in Hawaii, but not as good as Saipan, and unworthy to be mentioned in the same sentence as Palau. Re-entry through a riptide, and the lack of a bathroom or shower, keep this from being perfect... but it's nearly perfect. Avoid snorkeling here if there are waves. Use thick-soled felt booties on this and all Micronesian shore dives, because spiny urchins and sharp rocks abound in the corals which you walk across in the shallows. Visibility is typically 60 feet/18 meters.
This is one of the easiest shore dives on Guam. Located at the far-right side of the tourist strip, Tumon Bay. Go as far right as possible on the paved road, past the Nikko Hotel, then follow a fairly good dirt road down to a small beach alongside the Nikko Hotel. There are no facilities (no phone, bathroom, or anything else) at this beach, but in case of emergency, the hotel's nearby & willing to help out.
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Clif Stargardt
Jun 3, 2011, 12:00 AM
scuba
Dove this on May 25th. This turned out to be an excellent shore dive. Access to Gun Beach was easy...just drive to the north end of the tourist strip in Tumon and follow the bumpy dirt road. The big sign that said 'Do Not Enter' was no longer there. There seems to be some construction going on down by the beach now. We had ideal conditions -- getting in just after slack high tide, offshore winds, good visibility. When I read about following the pipes, I pictured large culverts, when in fact they're 4-6 inches in diameter. As you walk down to the beach they're off to the left (south). Didn't have any trouble finding them. The walk out (and back) was a little tricky in knee-deep water, but we just followed the pipes until we could float off the reef and put on fins. Current was running a little bit from the north, so that's where we headed. The reef seems in great shape. Nice smattering of tropical fish and corals. The highlight was early in the dive when a black-tipped reef shark cruised by. There's a good 70-80' of relief on the reef, sloping from 40 to 120 feet pretty quickly. As I was in Guam on military business, it was impossible to get on a boat due to my schedule and the fact they were full on the days I had available. Grabbing a good shore dive was the next best thing.