One of Sogod Bay’s most famous dive sites, Max Climax combines a shallow gradually sloping reef with a steep drop-off into the depths.
Sea snake checking you out, Max Climax, Sogod Bay, Philippines, March 2025 © [email protected]
Max Climax is the house reef right in front of Sogod Bay Scuba Resort. It’s a long reef with a gradual slope from 5 metres down to a proper full on wall at about 18 metres. The wall drops away into the depths hundreds of metres below.
Schooling yellow snapper, Max Climax, Sogod Bay, Philippines, March 2025 © [email protected]
A typical dive on Max Climax will start in the shallows and immediately head to the cliff edge of the wall, follow the edge along, and then gradually shallow up. Usually you’ll drop in from the boat so as to get down to the drop off faster, and then do a shore exit at the end of the dive.
Lizardfish on the reef, Max Climax, Sogod Bay, Philippines, March 2025 © [email protected]
The slope and wall are fairly uniform apart from one area called The Bite where it looks like a huge crescent has been chopped out of the wall.
Yellow snapper at the bommie, Max Climax, Sogod Bay, Philippines, March 2025 © [email protected]
The Bite is about 10 metres across and its recess makes it a gathering place for schools of fish out of the currents along the main wall. There’s a big school of yellow snapper that likes to hang around this area
The coral bommie at The Bite, Max Climax, Sogod Bay, Philippines, March 2025 © [email protected]
A big coral bommie stands guardian right at the edge of The Bite, making it a useful landmark.
There’s a lot of life across the reef. The healthy corals themselves are clustered in big clumps across the white sand.
There’s plenty of damselfish and other reef fish hovering in clouds around the hard corals, with some spectacular bommies around 10 metres which look like skyscrapers full of life rising out of the flat white sand.
Sea snake across the reef, Max Climax, Sogod Bay, Philippines, March 2025 © [email protected]
Sea snakes are fairly common at Max Climax, and not just the baby-sized ones – there are some mature, over a metre long sea snakes around on Max Climax. I had a memorable encounter with a big sea snake at Max Climax on one of my previous visits, where the snake was completely unbothered by presence and the flash of my strobes.
Grey and orange giant frogfish, Max Climax, Sogod Bay, Philippines, March 2025 © [email protected]
Frogfish are also quite common at Max Climax – so common in fact you might see two together. Sogod Bay has an impressive variety of frogfish, from tiny clown frogfish to medium size black frogfish to giant grey and orange frogfish – you are unlikely to not see one if you spend a few days diving here.
Scorpionfish in the coral, Max Climax, Sogod Bay, Philippines, March 2025 © [email protected]
Scorpionfish are everywhere too, often lounging within plate corals and blending seamlessly into the background waiting for their next meal.
Sea snake heading to the surface, Max Climax, Sogod Bay, Philippines, March 2025 © [email protected]
As you can guess from all the above, max climax is a big dive site – you can dive here over and over again and be covering new territory each time.
