Advice for diving Alimatha in Maldives

Alimatha is one of Maldives most famous dive sites of all time and it has earned its reputation. I have been on 3 dives at Alimatha with 3 different boats at 3 different times of the year and I have had pretty much the same experience on all 3 occassions.

Here is the best advice. Jumpt in the water just before sunset, NOT when its dark. I tried this on my 4th time there and it was incredible, a 100 times better.

Repeat. Don't jump in when its dark, jump in about 20-30 minutes before sunset, you will have the golden hour underwater and will get the most amazing underwater shots. The action is the same.

Pretty much as soon as you are in the water, you get overwhelmed by the action. There are plenty of nurse sharks that come whizzing past you, stingrays that rub up to you like cats or uncermeniously nudge you out of the way and giant trevally that are too busy going about their business to care about mere divers.

My advice would be, to stick with your group, and there is pretty much no point in moving around too much - pick a spot, with no other groups nearby and get comfortable - I would suggest bringing a reef hook and locking in. Obviously you would need a torch and if you are shooting underwater it gets really tricky. If you are shooting stills - you will NEED a focus light, without it - it will be extremely frustrating. If you are shooting video, you will need atleast 1 powerful strobe. The best thing is, that you are just sat down and stuff comes to you - so just get comfortable, get your settings set and shoot away!

Dive Site Map