Jeju Island, South Korea

I'ved logged about 70 or so dives in Korean waters but diving Jeju has been elusive for me. It is an island located on the South East coast and takes about an hour by plane from Seoul. It has the reputation as the best diving area in the country and while I've planned several trips, something always seems to prevent me from going there. This past week, I finally made it down there. I dived with Ralf Deutsch of Big Blue 33. They provide professional service in English and several other languages. I was very impressed by how laid back they were. For the first time in a long time I didn't feel rushed on the dive boat. Maybe it was because we only had a maximum of 6 divers on the boat at any time I was there but we were encouraged to relax and take our time. I appreciate that very much when I'm on vacation.


(Click on the photos for bigger views)
I didn't really expect a lot. I assumed that the diving was exaggerated by overzealous Korean divers and dive magazines. No way. The diving was excellent. I didn't see a huge amount of fish diversity but the corals were excellent. Some hard coral and lots of soft corals in shades of orange and purple. They literally cover the boulders and crevices of the dive sites. Large walls of little orange trees.





Lots of pretty anenomes and nudibranches to see. I found most of them in shallow water. There were quite a few photos opportunities that were wasted because I had condensation on my housing lense. On land, it's a simple thing to correct but underwater you have to wait until the dive is over. My problem seemed to be that I left my camera in the sun and when we hit the water, the cold caused the lense to fog. The water temps were pretty warm (20-22 degrees) but cold compared to the 35 degree air temperature.






Of course, I can't forget to mention that I hit a milestone on this trip. I did my 200th dive. It was mostly a solo dive in about 5-8m of water starting off with a front roll entry. Ralph was doing a discover scuba dive with another person so I stayed in the shallows under the boat and puttered around for about 30 minutes. It was a great dive in Supsom Little Bay. Lots of light for my camera and lots of little critters to watch playing around.

I had a great time on this trip. I've always enjoyed the East and South coasts but Jeju surpasses those places by far. There are so many things to see. I didn't make it to many of the dives sites and I'm a little disappointed that I didn't dive Munsom. But it'll be there for next time. Hopefully I'll be able to make it back here sometime.