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This is a great dive site to visit while you are around the Padar area, famous for its view of rugged mountains at the hiking point.
Located just 300m from its famous big brother dive site Castle Rock, lies Crystal Rock in the north of Komodo. This site gets its name from the crystal clear visibility that many people remember it by. Although Castle gets most of the fame, Crystal by no means needs to be hiding in the shadow of the fame of its nearby neighbour.
This is a truly impressive dive site and although similar, has a personality and life of its own. Again, Crystal rock is north of the main island (Komodo Island) and then about another 1.5 km north of a smaller island called Gili Lawa Darat. Strong currents underwater mean it’s not recommended for beginners, but snorkellers will be ok here as they can pear down at the often-exposed pinnacle of the seamount at low tide. Also being located a bit back into the shelter of nearby Gili Lawa Laut surface currents are not as bad as Castle Rock.
This site is covered in amazing corals as well as marine life. You’ll find giant sea fans, barrel sponges and all sorts of soft corals covering the walls and slopes of the pinnacle and seamount.
For the marine life, you can see Grey Reefs Sharks, White Tip and Black Tip Reef Sharks, Bat Fish, Giant Trevallies, Tuna, Eagle Rays, Snapper Species, Fusiliers, Napoleon Wrasse, Angel Fish, Parrotfish, Anthias, Yellow-ribbon Sweetlips, Butterflyfish, Moray Eels, Damselfish, Triggerfish, Pufferfish, Surgeonfish, Crocodile Fish, Groupers, Barracudas, Nudibranchs, Pygmy Seahorse and Frog Fish. Another special visitor that is a bit rare, but you may have the chance to see is also a dolphin.
We will typically be descending with current at Crystal Rock, depending on the strength it can either be a negative or positive entry. After taking the plunge we quickly discover an array of stunning rock formations below us.
As always how we dive the site will depend on the current of the day, but we will try to fin down to about the 20m mark where we will find the saddle between some pinnacles on the seamount. We will then keep going down the slope to around 25m and start our exploration of some of the stunning coral and sea creatures.
The average water temperature is around 28C from June to September. The maximum depth is 30 meters, but the average dive depth is around 25 meters. One great little feature of this site we have found is that around the 17m mark there is some plate corals which often act as White Tip Reef Shark pup nurseries. If they are there, we can find these little fellas just resting still under the coral.
When it’s getting time to finish up, we head back to the main rock on the eastern side of the dive site. It’s a great place to hide from the current while raising our profile and has a beautiful coral garden around it in a nice little protected nook.
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Topography: Seamount and sloping walls
Max Depth: 25 meters
Typical Current: Strong
Best For: Great visibility and big marine life
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