Diving Iles d'Hyeres

[Mike Price]

I am in the very early stages of planning a club diving holiday around the Iles d'Hyres in the South of France, and would appreciate any information / recommendations / travel tips from anyone who has been here before. We will be based at Cavalaire-sur-Mer as my boss has an aprtment here that sleeps 8 and if I make my sales target he says he will let it out at a good rate!

I am after a mix range of diving, from the 30-50m wrecks (Donator, Togo etc) to scenic diving around the islands themselves. The idea is to charter a boat for the week, so if you know of a good operator in Cavalaire then that would be good.

Many thanks in advance

Mike

[Chris Cherrington]

There are several operators in Cavalaire but the last time we were booked there got called off so my stuff is a bit too out of date to be useful. Sorry.

To dive France in general be aware that you will need a medical certificate of less than a year old. UK Sport Diver certificates are OK.

Also the maximum depth for CMAS 2* is 40m with a dive guide. To dive beyond that you must be CMAS 3* (BSAC AD or above, OWI is 2* BTW)

Chris

[Alison Boler]

Our TC webmaster, Mike Busutilli lives in the SOF and has dived out of Cavalaire, organised boat charters etc for years. He will probably notice this post, but is pretty busy at the moment so you might do well to post him at
webmaster@bsac.com - I'm sure he will be glad to steer you the right way.

All the best

Allie

PS Have you read our trip reports on the area, we have two really good ones on Cavalaire - look in the index at

http://www.bsactravelclub.co.uk/reports/index.html

[Alex Diamond]

Hi Mike,

I run a company specialising in diving in the South of France - you can check us out at www.diamonddiving.net

Long and short of it would be that I would be happy to help, and even have particularly good contacts with a very strong dive centre in Le Lavandou that gives access to the wrecks you are talking about.

In any case check this, give me a call or e-mail (info@diamonddiving.net) and we'll see if we can help.

Regards,




Alex Diamond.

[Josepherely]

Hello, I have been diving from Cavalaire sur mer for 14 years, and know most of the operators down there very well and have dived with all of them.

First thing:
Location depends on what you are into. If you want to do wrecks you have in the Cavalaire Bay 4 excellent wrecks, and just outside of the bay you have another 4.

If you want to dive on the islands themselves (which have the 2 excellent wrecks (donator and the Grec) and also a couple of sites on the island of Port Cros which are as good as it gets in this part of the med.

You say that the diving should be mixed and you mention up to 50m (there is a very rare German completely intact flying boat at 97m:D )
50m should be enough to get most of the wrecks, however a few interesting ones are in 60m.

Alternative locations could be along the coast at Lavandou, Cavalaire (another one) or on the presque iles d'giens. The problem with all of these is that they are much more difficult to dive the bay of cavalaire dives (but see below) The problem with Cavalaire sur mer is that it is more difficult to dive the islands (ie take your pick).



Second thing
Boat The dive operators normally have 2 boats, a large RIB taking up to 8 divers or so, and a hard boat that can take up to 25 or so. As you know the RIB gets there quicker, the hard boat takes longer, but is more confortable (usually)

Third thing:
When If you want to go between mid July and end of August forget it on the organised boats, they have their set up going for the high season and will not be over welcoming or want to accomodate anything that doesnt fit in with their normal programs. you are better off outside of these periods and will get a lot better service and have a lot better time. I have found that from April through to November it is good.

Fourth thing (what you are looking for:) ):
Recomendations:
Live aboard: The espadon http://www.espadon-croisieres.com/port.html
This will overcome a lot of the probelms of the location "where" bit, as you jump on the boat and go where you want to dive, tying up in different ports. It lets you get along the coast and do all of the classic dives. I have good reports of the boat and team, although I have not dived with them myself, but have been aboard it for drinks and dinner.

Day boats: Eperlan http://www.espadon-croisieres.com/port.html They have 2 boats, a hard and a RIB, they have two skippers that alternate, you have Momo and Jules, they are very nice people, however they are very serious dive operators who oversee a lot of deep diving (the French are into deep diving, and it is nothing unusual to go to 60m) and consequntly have to deal with the inevitable DCS hits, so if they seem paranoid about security and decompression procedures it is for a good reason. Having said that the chamber facilities are second to none (having tasted them myself), as the main naval base for the French navy is at Toulon.

The other day boat I would recomend is the Eau Bleue run by Arnaud and his wife, this is a smaller (but faster) boat but is limted to 12 or 13 divers.
Details are: Arnaud Niel -
Eau Bleue
Les Pléiades, Avenue des Myrtes
83240 Cavalaire
Tél.-Fax : + 33 4 94 05 42 03 - GSM : +33 6 08 23 72 51
however no web site that I know of.

Both Eau Bleue and Eperalan have facility to mix gases and provide nitrox and trimix, they also welcome rebreather divers of all types.

I hope that helps you. Just a word of warning about diving in France and the French law:
1. You have to have a medical issued by a doc less than 1 year ago (self certification isn't accepted)
2. If you are a CMAS 2 start diver you will be limited to 20m (diving with another 2 star) unless you dive with a CMAS 2 star instructor or a First Class Diver, in which case you will be limted to 40m. This is the law, there is nothing you can do about it and the dive centers will apply it strictly
3. Dive instructors or divers overseeing other divers (dive leaders) must have 2 fully independent regulators (ie two 2nd stages on one first stage isn't enough). This is normally accomodated without having a twin set, but with a H valve on one tank.

Have fun, there is some really fantastic diving down there (engine room of the Togo at 55m, rear section of the togo 75m, hellcat 60m) :cool:

Joe

[stockie]

I agree with the comments stated above. I went a few years ago and found some operators to be more flexible than others so its worth looking around.

What I would add though is that the diving is pretty good for Med. Most of the sites that are decent tend to be 30m+.

I remember the following as being def worth a look (depths approx from what I did):

Le Donator - 50m
Le Barge aux Congres (no guesses for what are under the plates) - 50m
Le Wildcat (v. small but intact plane) - 55M

Plus there are some good reefs, but I remember the best bits as being 35m +

Hope that you have a good trip :D