Solomon Islands · Solomon Islands · Cave & cavern · Wall
Custom Caves
A guideline swim in the dark that exits onto a soft-coral wall
Area photo: Leonard Clifford · CC BY 2.0
A cave dive that starts on land: divers walk in through mangroves in full kit to a freshwater pool about two metres wide, drop through the murk into salt water below it, and follow a guideline through a passage in near-total darkness. The exit is the payoff, opening at 35 m onto a wall covered in soft coral and awash with fish.
Also known as Cave of the Custom Shark.
Where it is and how deep
No published position for this site — the map shows Solomon Islands and its other sites; operators know the mooring.
The dive
The approach is part of the dive. You walk to the entrance through mangroves in full gear, with a hand carrying it if you want one, and the site starts at a freshwater pool roughly two metres across. The descent goes through that fresh water first, and it is murky going down; as you pass into the salt water underneath it, both the temperature and the visibility improve, and only then does the dive proper begin.
Inside, the passage is run on a guideline, because for most of it there is almost complete darkness and nothing to navigate by. Lights pick up what lives in there: soldierfish holding in the recesses, and the occasional lobster. The exit comes at 35 m and opens straight onto the outer wall, covered in soft corals and awash with fish, which is where the dive turns from an overhead swim into an ordinary, if deep, wall dive and where you start working your way back up.
Marine life and season
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Fair |
Season follows Solomon Islands: April–November dry season is calmest; December–March brings cyclone risk and rougher seas.
Know before you go
- The passage runs in almost complete darkness and is navigated on a guideline; overhead training, redundant lights and a team that stays on the line are what make it manageable.
- The cave exits at 35 m, so the deepest point of the dive arrives at the end of the overhead section — plan gas and no-decompression limits around that exit depth before going in.
- The descent passes from murky fresh water into salt water, so the first minutes are the worst visibility of the dive and buoyancy changes as the density does.
Dive videos
The Cave of the Custom Shark - Part 1 · Miguel Garrido on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is Custom Caves?+
The cave exit is at 35 m, which is the deepest part of the dive and comes at the end of the overhead section rather than the start. No shallower profile figure is published for the passage itself.
Sources
- Diving Sites Solomon Islands — Dive The World
- Diving Solomon Islands — Dive The World
In The Logbook
- Cave diving: what it takes and where to goCaves & caverns · 12 min read
More dive sites in Solomon Islands
A Corsair upright on the sand at 54 m, dived only by tech teams
Wreck
Masts above the surface, a three-level engine room below
Similar dives elsewhere
Cave & cavern
Leru Cut
Florida & Russell Islands · Solomon Islands
Sunbeams in a jungle-roofed cut that ends in a surfacing pool
Cave & cavern
Mirror Pond
Florida & Russell Islands · Solomon Islands
Swim-through into a jungle pond, then pygmy seahorses on the wall
A hidden air chamber lit through small holes in the rock
Cave & cavern
Wundi Cave
Biak & Padaido Islands · Indonesia
A tunnel through an undersea cave in the Padaido Islands.