Samran Pinnacle

The rock is one structure, and what is published about the dive is its shape: a top at 9 metres, sides falling to 28, and a rock pattern along the bottom that takes you slightly deeper again if you follow it. No route, mooring or entry point is described anywhere for the site, so which face you work first, how far down you go and where you turn is the guide's plan on the day rather than something you can read in advance.

What is documented is the life. Schools of barracuda, fusiliers and trevally hold in the water around the rock, and the rock itself is where the small things are — hermit crabs, white-eye moray eels and pink anemonefish. That splits the dive between looking out into open water for the schools and working slowly across the rock, and the 9-metre top gives somewhere shallow to finish. Nothing is published about current, visibility or how the site is run, so take the conditions and the plan from the boat.