Sipadan Drop Off

Verified2026-09-30 checkedWallDrift

Three metres from the jetty the reef ends and the wall goes to six hundred.

Depth: 3–40 m10–131 ft
Difficulty: Intermediate
Entry: Shore · Boat
Typical current: Moderate
Coordinates: 4°6.720′N 118°37.698′E
Activities: Scuba · Freediving

Sipadan is the top of a seamount rising 600 m from the floor, and at Drop Off you can stand in waist-deep water at the jetty and be over that drop in three strides. The wall is sheer, covered, and busy: green turtles in numbers nobody believes until they count them, bumphead parrotfish grazing the top at dawn, and whitetips asleep on every ledge. Only 176 permits are issued a day for the whole island and nobody stays on it — the resorts are on Mabul and Kapalai, half an hour away.

Boat from Semporna via Mabul or Kapalai, about 30 minutes. Permits are allocated by the resort, usually one day of your stay.

Best season

ExcellentApr–Jul
GoodAug–Mar

Before you get in

Past 30 m, where no-stop time and gas both go quickly and nitrogen narcosis starts to show.
A wall. There is no bottom in sight to judge against, so depth is kept by the gauge alone — and it is easy to end up deeper than intended.
A drift dive: you do not come back to where you went in, so boat pickup and an SMB are part of the plan rather than extras.

Taken from this site’s recorded depth, type and current, and nothing else. An empty list is not a safe site — the sea on the day, the local geography and the boat traffic are not in it. The briefing on the spot comes first.

Conditions

Water temperature: 30.9°C88°F
Wave height: 0.3 m1 ft
Air temperature: 28.7°C84°F
Wind speed: 9.1 km/h5.7 mph

Updated 2026-10-07 16:15 UTC · Source: Open-Meteo

Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0)

Conditions are reported for information only. Assess the site yourself and follow your guide and your training.

No live conditions for this site yet.

We only show numbers we can attribute to a source.

Sea state and tide

On a date

Tide · 10/8

High03:481.54 m
Low10:08-0.18 m
High16:131.48 m
Low22:16-0.16 m

Forecast heights against mean sea level. Real tides in a bay, a harbour or over a flat can differ — check an official tide table before you get in.

Pick a day to see its tide

Only wave height and wind are scored, because those are what close a boat ramp or a shore entry. Water temperature is reported and never scored: 12°C is an ordinary dive in a drysuit and punishing in a 3 mm, and a number that cannot see your suit has no business marking it down. Stars do not decide whether you get in — you and your guide do, on the day.

Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0)

Marine life you may see

Green turtleChelonia mydasCommon
Hawksbill turtleEretmochelys imbricataCommon
Bumphead parrotfishBolbometopon muricatumCommon
Whitetip reef sharkTriaenodon obesusCommon
Bigeye trevallyCaranx sexfasciatusCommon
Staghorn coralAcropora spp.Common
Feather starCrinoideaCommon
Moorish idolZanclus cornutusCommon
Titan triggerfishBalistoides viridescensSeasonal

From divers

What people who were in the water reported. Not a forecast, and not a judgement about whether the site is safe to dive.

No recent reports from divers. If you dived here in the last two weeks, you can say how it was.

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