Blue Corner

Blue Corner sits off the northwest tip of Nusa Lembongan, a steep slope with a plateau around 20 metres where operators plan to spend the bulk of the dive, though the working depth runs closer to 30 metres and PADI lists a maximum near 40. It is worked as a drift and wall dive, dropped into moving water rather than swum as a circuit, and the current is the headline: strong enough that PADI's own site page calls it an adrenaline rush, and a reef hook is standard kit for holding position in the flow instead of fighting it. Visibility and water temperature both swing with the tide, and it is not unusual to drop into cold, cloudy water on one slack and clearer, warmer water an hour later.

The site shares Nusa Penida's July to October upwelling with Crystal Bay, and mola mola are the reason most divers book it, but a local operator is candid that the odds are no better here than anywhere else around the island: conditions have to line up, and on a bad day it is a dive with nothing to show for it, while a good one can turn up several sunfish. The current is the more consistent hazard, with down currents that can appear on the plateau with little warning, which is why some operators restrict the site to Advanced divers with dozens of logged dives and their own computer. Sharks, big rays, turtles, whales and dolphins are all logged here independent of the sunfish.