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What’s Diving In Lanzarote Like?
MikeCJ - 6/08/2012 10:21 AM
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What’s Diving In Lanzarote Like?We’re often asked by people thinking of booking a holiday to the island: “What’s it like diving there?”


So here’s a typical day out diving here to give you a feel for what you might get up to:
You’ll be collected from your accommodation by the dive school you’ve booked with They will then take you to their centre where they will kit you out with anything you need, and load up the big van For this example, we’ll assume you’re going to the most popular dive area on the island in Puerto del Carmen On arrival, you’ll kit up in the sunshine and do all your buddy checks

Typical First Dive

You’ll jump into the ocean from the harbour wall, although there are steps if a giant stride isn’t to your liking. You’ll surface swim a few meters to clear any boats and then submerge near the harbour wall, where you’ll do more checks at about 3 meters.

Once everyone is happy, you’ll head off away from the shore and you’ll see gently sloping sand. You’ll pass by various mooring ropes where you might spot a sea horse or a squid. The water all around you will be full of small fish, and you’ll be staggered at the visibility!

Once you reach the reef (you’ll be at about 12 meters now) your guide will check everyone is OK; and you’ll drop over the edge. You’ll spot an old wrecked rib at the bottom of the wall and then you’ll turn against whatever small current there is and swim along the reef.

You’ll see plenty of nooks, crannies and caves, and tons of sea life, ranging from Nudibranches to octopus and huge shoals of sardines glistening in the light, which is still powerful, even at 30 meters.

You’ll almost certainly see some rays – stingrays are common, and you may also see an electric ray, and at some point one of the very large family of groupers in the area will come to investigate you. You’ll spot some barracuda flying in formation and looking for trouble, and if you’re lucky there will be a large moray eel in one of the caves.

Once you hit 100 bar, you’ll begin your ascent and head back up the reef wall. After finning across the sandy bottom, you’ll turn to the right and enter the Playa Chica bay. This is a great place to off gas at 6 meters – and you can spend plenty of time looking at the rock walls of the natural bay where you’ll find plenty of small critters.

When it’s time to surface you’ll simply swim to where you can stand and then walk up the beach.


Break

You’ll take a break appropriate to the depth and length of the first dive – you’ll enjoy this on shore and in the sunshine, while you eat a sandwich and drink some water.

Typical Second Dive

You’ll do a shallower dive the second time – you could travel to the same reef, but stay on top of the wall, but for our example, we’ll assume you’re going to explore the harbour wall.

Your entry will be at the same point, but this time you’ll swim along the harbour wall, towards Puerto Calero.

You won’t go deeper than 8 to 10 meters, so you’ll have plenty of time (and air) to take photos, and really investigate. Make sure you check all the ropes for sea horses, and you’ll almost certainly find some cuttle fish in that area.

There are plenty of sea cucumbers, and a myriad of small colourful fish. Keep an eye out for an octopus or two, and in amongst the rocks there will be both small and large scorpion fish.

This time you’ll go back the way you came and you’ll surface carefully away from the harbour wall, before swimming to the steps and climbing up onto land again.

After you got changed, you’ll probably stop at the little cafetería for a coffee and to compare experiences with your fellow divers.

So that’s a typical dive in Lanzarote, and once you’ve tried it, you’ll be hooked!

More:

1/ Dive sites – Playa Chica, Puerto del Carmen

2/ Black coral dives in Lanzarote

3/ Dive sites – The Rabat wreck Lanzarote