Old Volcano

You drop onto the top of the cliff at about 5 m, where the rock is still in bright light, and follow the edge until the face opens up beneath you. From there it is a wall dive: the volcanic rock plunges past 60 m, well beyond any recreational limit, so the plan is a chosen depth along the face rather than a descent to the bottom. Set a turn depth before you go in and hold to it, because the visual pull of a sheer cliff makes it easy to drift deeper than intended.

The interest is in the texture of the face. It is broken by coral-encrusted overhangs and boulders that shelter and feed the resident life — moray eels backed into the cracks, shrimp working the coral, and Spanish dancers out over the coral. Holding one depth band and looking into the holes returns far more than swimming the length of the wall does.

The shallow shoulder where the cliff starts, at around 5 m, is the natural end of the dive. Coming back up onto it puts rock and coral under your safety stop instead of open blue water, and it is a useful place to burn off the last of a tank after a deeper leg on the face. Divers who want the deep part of the wall should treat it as a deep dive and plan their gas for it rather than improvising on the way down.