Friwen gets it’s name from the two islands where it is located, Pulau Friwin and Pulau Friwinbonda.
Friwen wall is a great dive site located in the north eastern Dampier Strait in Raja Ampat. As the name suggests it’s a wall dive and actually the only wall dive in the central area of Raja Ampat. The dive site gets it’s name from the two islands where it is located, Pulau Friwin and Pulau Friwinbonda.
A narrow channel separates the two small islands and the dive site actually starts on the northern tip of the smaller island Pulau Friwinbonda, and then takes you in a south westerly direction through the channel.
The starting point is a collection of cliffs made out of limestone that sink down under the water to 25 meters depth and form the wall.
When there is a stronger current in the channel a few bigger fish species can be drawn in as well as some schooling fish, and there is an opportunity to find Moray Eels and Octopus here too, but this site is more well known for high concentrations of macro life.
If you are a nudi lover, this is the place for you. We lose count of how many different varieties of Nudibranchs we see on this dive. The amazing macro photography opportunities at this site are amplified by the extensive hard and soft corals booming with colour on this site.
The wall is also crammed top to bottom with Whip Coral, Gorgonian Fan Corals and Sponges. A word of warning though the visibility at this site can get a bit average, and sometimes light is not the best in the shadow of the cliffs so take your macro camera set up with lighting over your wide angle gear.
We will drop into this site with a positive backroll entry at the northern tip of Friwinbonda, in the channel between the two islands close up to the Friwinbonda north face. Here we will drop down to 20 meters to start the dive.
Right at the start there is actually 2 small caves in the wall which are quite cool to check out. As we make our way south west there are also some nice overhangs to take a look at and see what fish are hiding about in these spots.
Once we get to the western end of the dive site, the wall changes to a sloping reef, here we can find a lot of hard coral housing plenty more macro subjects for our photographers.
Also right at the western end are some great bommies a bit deeper off the slope. Some nice shallows right at the end make for a relaxed safety stop to end up a great dive.
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Topography: Wall dive that turns into a sloping reef.
Max Depth: 25 meters.
Typical Current: Mild to Medium.
Best For: The only wall dive in central Raja Ampat and a great place to see macro diversity.
Snorkeller friendly.
9 Days 8 Nights
Dive in Friwen with our 9 Days 8 Nights itinerary, an extended itinerary to the North of Raja Ampat
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