Difficulty
beginner
Viz (last reported 154712h ago)
Max Depth
Unknown
Snorkeling and Scuba Diving at Piti Bomb Holes Preserve
At the end of the pier is a round, hollow building, with windows UNDER WATER. Entry into this building is not free, but is the ideal chance for non-swimmers to watch & photograph you while you're diving. Entry is via the beach, and a long walk in shallow water alongside the pier. Around 3/4 of the way out, the bottom becomes sandy and filled with pleasant finger corals. Light is abundant, and depths reach no more than 30'. You are more than welcome to "buzz" the windows of the manmade underwater building, and look at the displays set up on "windowsills" there. Excellent for non-divers, snorkelers, night diving...anything. Aside from the long walk through shallow water, this is a nearly perfect, utterly tame and safe, relaxing dive.
Drive South-East from Tumon Bay. Pass Hagatna (the capitol city) and continue until you pass MDA, a large red barn like dive shop on the left side of the road. You'll see a looooong manmade pier on the right, and a large SCUBA/restaurant/wedding resort across the street from the pier. Along the beach adjacent to this pier is a ribbon like parking lot, adequate for 60 cars. There're pavilions with benches, and a stinky bathroom.
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shore
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Seth Bareiss
Aug 22, 2004, 12:00 AM
scuba
Aside from a long walk in shallow water, this is one of the easiest, safest dives you'll ever do. It's particularly worth recommending to divers traveling with non-divers, since the snorkeling's GREAT and even non-swimmers who hate boats can pay $10 and go into the oceanarium at the end of the dock, to watch YOU diving just outside the oceanarium's underwater windows!!! Ranged around the oceanarium is a thriving community of antler corals. Fish include crocodile fish, half-beak birdfish, schools of skipjack and unicorn fish, triggerfish, and clownfish. Viz is typically 50'. Stay close to the pier and oceanarium, since the rest of the area is a bit shallow and boring. Avoid the left-hand side of the pier, out near the end, because it's where "seawalker" tours send helmeted tourists down to walk around & stir up an already silty bottom. Excellent place for open water training dives and zero-stress first-time night-dives. DO NOT use the pier for your SCUBA activities, as the owners are quite adamant that you're not covered in their insurance, and they don't need the extra traffic on their pier. Lighting's strong & this dive doesn't get beyond 30' deep unless you bring a shovel, so consider bringing a one-use Fuji Quicksnap snorkeling camera (rated to only 15', but actually good to 30~35' deep). Warning: This is a popular stop for tourists' intro-dives, so expect it to get a bit crowded. GREAT BIG WARNING: There's a 5'-long Great Barracuda there. He's usually fed hotdogs by insane tourists, so DO NOT POINT AT HIM WITH YOUR FINGERS. This is a poignant reason why the hand signal for "danger" is a fist, not a finger pointing. This barracuda has already taken one unfortunate tourist's finger, thinking the extended finger was a sausage offering. Aside from the barracuda and occasional small lionfish, this site is utterly safe. The name "Piti Bombholes" is a misnomer: The "bombholes" are actually natural sinkholes in an otherwise shallow, flat, slab-like reef.
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