Costa Blanca

[Howard Mason]

Going to the Costa Blanca in September , and I would appreciate any diving related info, that anybody can offer . Gonna be staying around the Alicante area , many thanxs in advance.

[Nick Kay]

Have dived with the following:

Scuba Tribe - Vega Baja
96-671-9936 or Mobile 629-608102
British team, more of an ex-pat dive club, mostly shore dives

Deep Impact - La Manga
0034-968-337220
www.diving-consultants.com
Volker Borchert and Katrina run Deep Impact both great divers / great people. Only ever did RHIB dives with them.
Highly reccomended

[donna hicks]

Nick - I'm organising a group trip Easter 2003 to the Med - wonder whether you think that the La Manga team at Deep Impact would be useful contenders? We'll be a mixed group - from OD up to AI and CCR / Trimix. I'll have a 3 and a 1 year old with me too - so need to do the family thing. Any other suggestions for a Med holiday (no, not Gozo again!) welcome. We'll be getting dive fit for the UK dive season!

[nick kay]

Hi Donna

Yes, the Deep Impact team would be good for a mixed group.

The 1st time I dived with them on a 30m pinnacle, was in a mixed group with PADI OW (Ocean Diver equivalent) and upwards.

Wolker is a Trimix Instuctor - I was trying to do my Trimix course with him when I was there last. There was a problem though with actually getting Helium (at a semi-reasonable cost) so I only ever dived air.

Nice setup, well maintained equipment, dived with them 2/3 years running.

1. The Spanish Navy sank a couple of ships for divers - totally barren around them, but of interest to 1st time wreckies
2. See if you can get into the Marine Reserve - there were issues with the Government last time I was there which were about to be resolved (Manana as the Spanish say...)
3. The pinnacles were good dives: 6m down to 35m
4. They charge German prices - which for once is good news - cheaper than most dive centres I'v dived with in the Med

With regards to other areas in the Med - I presume you've tried Cyprus?
The last 3 Easters, we've done Fuerteventura, Lanzarote & Tenerife and I'd rate Cyprus and the dives out of La Manga over those.

Give Wolker a call & see if he can provide what you're looking for...

[donna hicks]

Thank you so much Nick!

The comparison with Tenerife was particulary useful since I am looking there as an option too. Only other thing though is temp - we are going at Easter so Med may be rather chilly (drysuit) whereas we'd get away with wearing less in Tenerife. If you've a favourite Canaries island - do let me know! I'll present all of my findings to my club and see what the consensus is. Will speak to Wolker in the meantime. Cheers.

[nick kay]

I'm afraid I'm going to end up being biased towards Tenerife - for no other reason than thats (this year) where I dived with my son & therefore got in more dives than when it was a "family", i.e. sunworshippers holiday.

Diving was OK. Can still head the (wet) whoop of joy as my son saw the rays at 15m. Even more amusing was him laughing on the shotline as we safety stopped in what was a pretty strong current - he said after the dive that he was laughing about letting go and doing a two centre holiday - one in Tenerife and one in Lanzarote. FWIW, the dive centre said the currents were unusual.

If you're doing one of the Spanish islands, then watch out for the confusion over minimum age for divers - some of the PADI/BSAC dive schools wouldn't take / allow divers under the age of 16.