Santoson

Santoson is where the Balinghai wall keeps going. It runs north from its neighbour as the same wall system, dropping to around 18 m in places, but what makes it its own dive is the plateau on top — a shallow shelf sitting at roughly 5 to 8 m, bright and easy, with the wall falling away beside it.

The highlight is a stretch where an old pipe lies on the bottom. Like any hard structure on a sandy sea floor it has become a magnet: it is thick with fish and covered in soft coral, and it concentrates life into a small, photogenic area. Santoson sees very little traffic — few boats and few divers come here — and it shows, because the fish population is visibly growing. Schools of sardines are spotted here from time to time, and green turtles work the plateau, which is how the site earned its nickname.

The shallow plateau makes Santoson a genuinely good freediving site as well as a scuba one — 5 to 8 m is a comfortable working depth for line and fun freediving — and it doubles as a relaxed Open Water training site, with the wall alongside for certified divers who want the depth. Fifteen minutes from the dive centre.