diving in Europe - Med - any good?

trebor · 04-25-2007, 11:58 AM

Hi,

I'm in Byron Bay in OZ at the moment and have just compeleted Rescue - diving here is great and I'm a bit worried what its like back at home - obviously the UK is out but what's like around the Med for diving or the Atlantic e.g. Portgual - what are the temperatures like? - I heard some diving around the Greek Islands can be good?

diverepublic · 04-27-2007, 06:15 PM

Don't discount uk diving. You'll need to do a drysuit orientation and maybe hire one but diving around the uk can be great - thousands of wrecks from the ancient to ww2 to the Scylla which was purpose sunk a couple of years ago off Plymouth and is just superb, basking sharks (in season) and virtually guaranteed diving with seals in places like the Farnes. Even sunfish in summer.
If that still doesn't appeal and you want to go to the med there is good cave diving in Malta, good wreck diving around Cyprus, and good generic diving around Sardinia, Sicily, Corsica and on the coast of Croatia. Last but not least there is great wreck diving on Las Palmas in the Canaries which is technically spanish but is in fact in the atlantic just off Africa's west coast. You'll need a semidry 7mm for the Canaries and the med in summer or a drysuit for the uk year round or the med in winter. A few hardy souls dive in the uk in a semi in summer.
Hope that helps.

trebor · 04-28-2007, 02:36 AM

Hi,

What a semidry suit (I know it sounds obvious but I haven't heard of one before) - I thought the Med would be alot warmer than the Atlantic?

diverepublic · 04-28-2007, 10:42 AM

A semidry is basically a normal wetsuit but with tighter wrist and ankle seals to drastically reduce any water flushthrough. They start at 5mm and the average thickness of most seems to be 7mm though you can get thicker ones or two-piece suits. The med isn't that much warmer than the atlantic. I fact in winter it gets cold enough that most dive centres are shut because the drysuit culture hasn't really caught on there. In the med water temp is normally from 13 in winter to 25 in august. I'd say most people in my experience dive in a semi between 23 and 18 and a drysuit from 18 downwards.