Bangka Island · Indonesia · Muck & macro · Sand slope
Sipi
Muck diving on a sand slope, without crossing to Lembeh
Area photo: Fabio Achilli · CC BY 2.0
Sipi is Bangka's own muck dive, and the local argument for not making the trip across to Lembeh. A sandy bottom slope begins at 3-4 m and runs down to 25 m, with the small life rather than the coral doing the work. It is dived slowly and close to the bottom, which suits divers who are happy to hover over open sand and let a guide do the finding.
Where it is and how deep
1.7724° N, 125.1306° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
You drop onto the top of the slope in 3-4 m, where the bottom is sand rather than reef, and follow it down. The profile is a straight descent along an incline that bottoms out at 25 m, so most teams run it deep first: work along the lower slope while the tank is full, then climb steadily back up the sand as the dive goes on. There is no wall or structure to navigate by, and the slope itself is the route.
The diving is search work. Everything here depends on how carefully the sand is read, so the pace is slow, the fin kicks are small and the guide is likely to be stopped over a patch of bottom for minutes at a time. Good buoyancy matters more than usual because a careless kick over silt ends the visibility for whoever is behind you. The shallow top of the slope is where the dive finishes, which makes the safety stop easy to hold.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Fair |
Season follows Bangka Island: Mar–Nov is the settled season with the calmest channels; the north-west monsoon from December to February brings wind and swell.
Know before you go
- Silty sand: a kick cycle too close to the bottom clouds the site for the rest of the team, so trim out and use frog kicks.
Questions divers ask
How deep is Sipi?+
The sandy slope starts at 3-4 m and runs down to 25 m, so it can be dived as a shallow macro dive or taken to the bottom of the incline.
Is Sipi a muck dive?+
Yes. It is a sand-slope muck site, dived slowly for small life rather than for reefscape, and it is the alternative to travelling to Lembeh for the same style of diving.
Sources
- Sipi dive site — Scubago
More dive sites in Bangka Island
Pinnacle
Vertical cracks and caves in volcanic pinnacles, sharks below
Wall
Coral slope from 3 m to a wall that drops to 30 m
Pinnacle
A canyon-cut plateau at 15 m before the drop to 40 m
Pinnacle
Three pinnacles stepping from 5 m down to a base near 30 m
Coral garden
Three coral blocks on a garden falling from 3 m to sand at 30 m
Coral garden
Healthy coral garden from 3 m down to 18 m off the village
Reef
Coral blocks on sand, with schooling fish over a slow slope
Coral garden
Coral garden from 1 m to sand at 13 m, straight off the beach
Similar dives elsewhere
Two jetties over a steep sand slope to 30 metres
Fine sand and rock past 30 metres, dived for the small stuff
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Zebra crabs sheltering in the spines of purple heart urchins
Black sand to 27 metres, at its best after dark