North Point / Deep slope Malapascua

The dive

North Point is the reef off the northern tip of Malapascua, five to twenty minutes from the Bounty Beach shops depending on which one you ask. The description the resident operators give is consistent and unglamorous: Kokay's Maldito Dive Resort calls it a largely sandy and coral area undulating between 8 and 24 m, with large coral heads you cruise around at a leisurely pace depending on the current. Malapascua Exotic Island Dive Resort gives 6 to 27 m and 15 to 20 minutes out; Thresher Shark Divers list it at 22 m and five minutes; Evolution Diving describe it as a site they run Open Water classes on, with whip corals and juvenile boxfish.

What you look for here is small. Kokay's list nudibranchs, a lot of crabs and several kinds of shrimp, best on a night dive, plus frogfish. Thresher Shark Divers name frogfish, fire urchins, zebra crabs, candy crabs and nudibranchs — and the occurrence records for this pin carry Zebrida adamsii, the zebra crab that lives on fire urchins, along with flower urchins, painted frogfish, blue-ringed octopus, banded pipefish, harlequin sweetlips, bigfin reef squid, mandarinfish and several commensal shrimps. That is unusually direct agreement between what the shops say they show you and what has actually been recorded on the bottom here.

The catalogue holds this pin under two names, North Point and Deep Slope, and that reflects a real split in how Malapascua shops label the north side. Sea Explorers sell a site called Deep Slope — a mixture of sand, rubble, reef and a small wall under soft coral, with a sand dune holding groups of garden eels, plus flamboyant cuttlefish, pygmy seahorses, frogfish and nudibranchs — and do not list a North Point at all; the shops that list North Point do not list a Deep Slope. Whether the two names are exactly the same drop or two ends of the same north-side slope is not something any published source states, so treat the pin as the north-side sand-and-coral dive and let the guide tell you which name is on the boat plan.

Current is the one variable. Kokay's say plainly that it could be strong and that it tends to change direction around the coral formations, while still rating the site for Open Water divers.

• Zebra crabs and candy crabs on the fire urchins
• Large coral heads to work around on a sand slope
• One of the island's better night dives for shrimp and crabs
• Shallow enough for Open Water training when the current allows

Conditions

Short banca ride from the Bounty Beach shops around to the north of the island, then a sandy, coral-studded slope between roughly 6 and 24 m. Water 26 to 29 °C for most of the year, about 24 to 26 °C in January and February. Current may be running and may change direction mid-dive. No operator publishes a visibility figure for this site; island-wide, Thresher Shark Divers report 10 to 15 m as common through the Amihan and much clearer water from March.

On current: The resident operators and the overseas dive-travel write-ups disagree sharply about this site, and the conservative reading is the local one. Kokay's Maldito Dive Resort, Malapascua Exotic and Evolution Diving all rate North Point for Open Water divers, with Kokay's noting only that the current could be strong and tends to change direction around the coral heads. Dive The World, by contrast, describe North Point as a 15-30 m wall with overhangs and caverns, unpredictable strong currents and negative entries, suited to experienced divers only — a much bigger dive than three shops that run classes there describe. Plan for the local version and treat the current as the thing that decides the day.

Best months: Mar, Apr, May