Diving Blue Cathedral in Siargao, Philippines

In September of 2026, I dove Blue Cathedral with Palaka Dive Center, by boat out of General Luna, Siargao, Philippines.

This is one of the most unique dives I've done in my life, and it also had some of the toughest conditions.

Blue Cathedral is a crater on the Pacific side of Siargao with a sea tunnel running through the bottom of it. It is not a site I would recommend to a beginner diver.

Getting There

Palaka's shop is in General Luna, so to reach Blue Cathedral you leave from the beach and make your way around to the Pacific side of the island.

This dive is usually done in the morning, but a Coast Guard parade pushed ours back to 1 p.m. That changed a couple of things about the dive.

There's two ways to get to Blue Cathedral, a short way and a long way. At low tide the short way is not really possible, since the boat could easily hit a rock.

So we took the long way. The captain said there was no way we would make it past the waves that day. They were some of the largest I've ever seen in my life.

We turned around and went really slowly through the shallow patch instead.

The Dive

At the site, the captain tied off to a mooring buoy. From there, a down line leads to the bottom of the mouth of the crater, where the dive begins.

Until you reach the protected part of the crater, the current on that line is extremely strong. It caused the purge on the regulator of the girl in front of me to start free flowing. If you weren't paying attention, you could lose your grip on the line.

Once you make it down into the crater, you're protected from the current. The mouth of the crater is around 70 ft (21 m) deep.

At the bottom there's a long sea tunnel you can swim through. It's around 120 ft (37 m) at its deepest point.

There was so little light in the tunnel that my camera tried to compensate and warmed the tones in the scene, which is why the footage looks red.

We exited the tunnel at around 107 ft (32 m) onto a sandy plateau. This area wasn't as protected, and the current started picking up again.

At 120 ft (37 m) you're breathing through your tank around 4.5 times faster than at the surface, so we didn't have much time out there. We turned around and swam back through the same tunnel.

Back in the crater, Camille showed us a much smaller cave on the other side where some lobsters were living.

After around 30 to 35 minutes down there, we made our way back to the down line. We did a longer safety stop than usual because of the depth and the exertion on this dive.

Pretty much as soon as we got out, a pod of dolphins was circling under the boat.

What to Know Before You Go

I'd recommend having at least 100 dives under your belt before attempting Blue Cathedral.

The current here is pretty much always ripping, and the depth on this dive can be overwhelming to a beginner diver.

Whether you can reach the site depends on the tide and the swell. Our captain had to take the long way around and then still turn back from the waves.

The Dive & Conditions

The water was warm enough that I dove in just a rash guard and shorts.

I dove Blue Cathedral with Palaka Dive Center, who run trips to the site out of General Luna.

Palaka requires at least one dive with them as a check dive before they take you to Blue Cathedral, to get familiar with their equipment, boat and way of working.

If you've dove Blue Cathedral, tell me what the current was like on your day.