- together with a number of links to some of the dive operators home pages. There were not very many of these giving details of the different locations and best areas for diving so it was really a case of letting fate decide where to go.
Our hotel was situated on the southern coast of the island in Taurito bay and was right next door to one of these operators, Canary Diving Adventures. A couple of e-mails and a telephone call later I had booked a package of dives with them.
Canary Diving Adventures are a small and extremely friendly dive outfit run by Irish brothers David and Jerry O'Connor. They are also a PADI centre offering a complete range of courses to suit all levels of diver from outright beginners upwards. Their professional approach does benefit from a very personal touch to ensure their customer's needs are met and exceeded wherever possible. Their staff are also very helpful and dive briefings were always thorough with the emphasis on safety. Full equipment hire is also available and this is all new and good quality, mainly top names including Mares, Cressi, Buddy and Scubapro. I had brought my own gear but full kit hire was also available.
When I arrived at the hotel, I was surprised and delighted to learn that Jerry had talked my wife Sue into taking a Discover Scuba course. Before this she always had a problem even with snorkelling as she felt claustrophobic with a mask on her face. They say the Irish have the gift of the gab and certainly convincing Sue to get her face under the water was a major triumph by any measure. After an initial classroom lesson the next session was conducted at the pool by David to learn the basic skills including confidence building with mask clearing and regulator recovery. I think that sitting by the poolside watching I was probably more nervous than Sue was. David's relaxed supportive manner took her from one skill to another gradually building her self confidence until she was happily swimming on her own. Swimming freely underwater for the first time is an exhilarating experience for most people and Sue seemed quite relaxed as she enjoyed the newly discovered freedom.
PADI do have a structured approach to promoting scuba diving from the very first taste through basic certification right up to professional training levels. Each stage does have a cost which is clearly identified (some bright spark once told me that PADI stands for: 'Put Another Dollar In').
The 'Discover Scuba' course is the beginners entry level and is the basic taster available to those people wanting to try scuba diving for themselves. It is often found in resort locations as well as being offered by most PADI training centres. After this entry level course it is possible to proceed to the next stage with training to 'Scuba Diver' level which takes these basic skills and builds on them to allow diving to 12m when supervised by professionally qualified divers. The 'Open Water Diver' is the next stage of development and leads to an internationally recognised certification. This really is the basis of further training and specialities which can lead ultimately to a full professional career in diving.
PADI does have a number of critics but the support and training is first class. It allows students to take training in centres and resorts around the world with confidence in the quality of the services received. This does allow the student to progress at his or her pace and build up experience based on the type of diving they want to do themselves.
Club based divers can be critical of letting new divers venture into the water poorly prepared but PADI training is thorough with an emphasis on practical experience. We all get pleasure from diving so getting into the water and enjoying the experience in a variety of settings leads to better divers in the long run.
In my wife's case she made her first proper dive in the bay of Taurito later in the same afternoon at the same time as a guy from Birmimgham called John. In addition to Jerry and Chris, a staff divemaster from Canary Diving, I followed the group with a camera to record the event. Sue looked completely petrified as we kitted up but she was determined to give it a go. Suddenly images of Jaws and similar films seemed to take on a new meaning to her and I am sure she expected a Great White rather than the few reef fish we were most likely to see. Other than making reassuring noises, I deliberately kept clear so she could take her instructions from Jerry rather than looking to me for inspiration.
She had a great dive to around 7m swimming to a small wreck (well stern end of a small boat) that was a magnet to some of the local fish life. She kept good buddy contact with Jerry throughout the 35 minutes of bottom time. Much better than John who thought it would be cool to fin off at every opportunity to take pictures of anything that took his fancy
I have to say I was very proud of Sue's achievement and she did extremely well on the day. She would like to take the training further at some time in the future and would like to dive anywhere the water is warm and vis is crystal clear. I do not think the 5m training platform at Gildenburgh on a cold Saturday in May is her cup of tea but for the future she could be convinced to combine a holiday with dive training. I would not push her too hard but if she wanted to do this it would be a great way of enjoying the diving experience together.
The Serious Stuff - Dive Site Descriptions
The area of Taurito bay has three hotels, The Taurito Princess and sister hotel The Suite Princess which are both 4 star. There is also an all inclusive hotel called the Lago Taurito which was called 'totally crap' by one of the Geordie open water students I was talking to one day, he was convinced the beer was watered down and the food was 'shite' and believe me I had to edit his comments before putting into print.
Taurito Bay
I did a total of 8 dives with Canary Diving. The nearest to the dive centre being the bay of Taurito which is a shallow (max. 10m) dive suitable mainly for beginners. The entry is from the shore through a mild surf and the bottom slopes reasonably quickly down to 3 to 4m. The Atlantic waves make the first few metres very murky as sand is continually circulating but after this area the vis was never less than 12m.
The interesting areas are to be found by mainly heading to the right of the entry point. After the small wreck there is a small rocky outcrop and this man made structure, which runs parallel to the shoreline, is home to most of the more interesting fish life. There are some medium to large sized sea urchins lurking between the rocks but not so many to cause any concern. In fact I did not really see any of the infestations reported 4 years ago by Jason Poynting on any of the dives I did.
The rocks are home to many cuttle fish. You often see these in pairs and the male is always the one to make the approach with two tentacles raised in typical threatening posture warning the intruders to back off. Squaring up to a large bubble producing diver really seems to hold no fear for them. It is worth spending some time looking at the colours displayed on their backs. These mimic bottom conditions almost exactly and the colour changes are really dramatic from one state to another. Try getting a gloved hand underneath and see what happens. Many types of small fish abound together with quite a number of octopus which seem to be quite diver tolerant. They will retreat under the nearest rock if you try to poke about with them but seem perfectly happy to get on with their business if left alone.
Further along the coast is a cave area with a few swim throughs. There is also a short blind section which ends in a small cavern with air pocket to the rear. If you surface in this the swell makes the air pressure bounce which can cause interesting if slightly disconcerting effects to your ears. Further along to a sloping rear area are lots of glass shrimp lurking in the depths. A torch is essential to pick up some of the colours in these recesses. A number of Moray eels are to be found in the area but these are generally quite shy and will keep to themselves during the day.
We did do a night dive here with myself, David O'Connor and three Advanced Open Water student divers who were doing the night dive as the last of their core dives. These being an Italian couple, David and Lara and Lee who works with Canary Diving. The reef takes on a completely different character at night. I love night diving, it is almost a meditative state and always leaves me feeling really calm and centred. It was interesting to compare this to my first night dive in a muddy lake.
Navigation is straightforward by keeping the reef to the right shoulder on the way out and left on the return to shore. We saw a large octopus in a quite open area and Moray eel well out of his normal hiding place. The newly qualified advanced divers had fun playing with the flouresence and we turned back to return to the entry point after 30 minutes of bimbling along the reef. Some 55 minutes later we had seen most of the varieties of life by the time we got back to around 2.5m depth some 15m from the shore when we noticed a large mound on the sandy bottom. Carefully approaching this we were directly overhead at a distance of no more than arms length when it decided to make a move. This turned out to be a 2.5m + wingspan ray which was absolutely fantastic to see so close up. Needless to say when it took off we tried to follow but with no chance of keeping up. What a thrill to the first time night divers. David and the Italian couple were strolling through the surf to exit when myself and buddy Lee spotted an Angel Shark also sitting on the bottom in under 2m. We watched it for a while until it also took off at a pace presumably looking for a quieter place to get it's head down.
I have to say that this was one of the best night dives I have made to date, the encounter with ray and angel shark were real high spots to an already good dive and we all spent the next few days boring anybody who would care to listen with all of the graphic details.
Mogan Wreck
The wreck outside the nearby harbour of Mogan can be accessed by boat. As there is no natural harbour at Taurito bay this means a shore entry and short swim to the RIB mooring. After de-kitting and clambering aboard it is off to find the wreck. This is where we found the boat skipper (Captian Del) was not exactly sure of the position to drop us. When he thought the location was right, Lee went into the water with a line and buoy. Unfortunately the wreck was not even near this position. After a twenty minute circuit, with Lee getting steadily more knackered, he asked for bearings from the support boat for the local tourist submarine and finally we dropped right on top of it. Lee took a line to the upper structure and the rib was tied to this. There is no permanent buoy to mark the position so this procedure depends on the local knowledge of the skipper. There are plenty of visual references on the shoreline and our experience on this trip was quite exceptional by all accounts.
I was buddied with Neil an experienced diver from Wales who does almost all his diving on holiday, the water being far too cold for him at home. There was a slight drift on the surface so we quickly descended the line to the bow section of the wreck. This can clearly be seen from the first few metres down and it has broken in midship into two main sections with some scattered debris in between. The sea bottom at around 18 metres is mainly sandy with a few rocky areas. The fish life here is prolific with many different varieties. Along and underneath the keel we spotted at least six decent sized Moray eels. An octopus was in the open area between bow and stern by a rocky outcrop. It seemed totally unworried about our presence and uncurled to around 1.5 metre legspan as it moved around. There were a number of barricuda in mid water and many large shoals of different fish around the wreck itself.
There are some clear swim throughs on the wreck but no real need for penetration. A lot of crustaceons including spider crab, various shrimp and hermit crabs are to be found here. There is plenty to spot by looking around the bottom of the keel area. A torch is well worth taking to see into the darker areas.
Neil was a confident diver and our air consumption was fairly well matched. There were lots of interesting areas to see and with the visibility of over 15 metres the sense of the scale of the wreck was good at all times. We started to surface after 50 minutes of bottom time and made a safety stop at 5 metres. Neil was exactly on 50 bar by the time we exited and I was pleased to see 80 bar remaining on my gauge. The dive was very relaxed and Neil rated it as one of his best ever dives. I also thought it was great and would have repeated it again the following week if I had still been here. Definitely a dive not too be missed.
Arinaga - El Cabron
Arinaga is a 30 minute drive to the north of the island and is a site of a designated marine reserve area. I dived here the first time with David O'Connor and Mark from St Ives in Cambridgeshire.
The shoreline is the remnants of an open caste mining area which has been left as a bare rocky plain where all the useful minerals have been cleared. The shore is a rocky shelved area and is very popular with dive operations from all over the island.
The entry and exit area is interesting to those of a masochistic nature who have their 'balancing on slippery surfaces' speciality badge. The rock surface closest to the entry is wet and covered in grassy seaweed. This has the adhesive qualities of runny snot. You need firm buddy support and a combination of crawling on all fours to get to the water's edge, don your fins and get in before the swell smacks you back onto the rocks. Regular divers make it look so easy it's enough to make you spit in your mask! Don't even think about how the hell you are going to perform with the exit yet - it is best to drop down to the 4 metres bottom here as soon as possible and fin out over the top of the reef to one of the walls which slope down over the edge to 20 - 24m.
The rocky outcrops under the water teem with all sorts of fish life. There are some very interesting swim throughs, arches and natural pipes and chimneys which add to the variety. Lurking near the caves are large grouper, pipefish, spider crabs and glass shrimp. At the base of the rocks moray eels sit waiting for lunch to pass by.
There are some incredibly large shoals of silver fish swarming just off the edge of the rocky area. In the distance, barricuda are on patrol looking for stragglers. We saw bat rays swimming up the cliff face and large rays in the open water. The variety of species is quite staggering. OK this is the Atlantic and not the Red Sea but the mixture is very wide and the colours, shapes and sizes are really diverse. The more you look the more there is to see and with visibility of 15m + there is plenty to spot.
The first dive we did here was a total time of 46 minutes. The shape of the place makes it a multi level dive and a regular checks on the computer helps confirm remaining dive time. The deepest part of the dive was around 24 metres. The topography does help with off gassing as you come back up to a plain that slowly rises from 10 to 3 metres over a distance of some 100 metres or so making a natural safety stop of over 5 minutes. The tide and swell had risen by the time we got back to the exit point and I made a complete cods of removing my fins and floundering on the snotty rock surface. With some assistance I got back to terra firma but I have to say it was all worth it for such an enjoyable dive. I was down to a lamentable 25 bar and Mark was still at around 70 bar. We were diving with 12 litre cylinders which had been fully charged to 230 bar before the dive and in my case the exertion of the entry and probably the thought of the exit was the biggest stressor - I really had to relax next time.
After a surface interval and light lunch of sandwiches and friut, second dive here was much better. OK I was more cautious on the entry and the swell did threaten to bounce me back onto the shallows but being fairly well padded anyhow this was no problem. The descent was the same as the first dive but this time we had decided to drift along the reef to exit slightly further down the coast.
At what we had decided to call the fish feeding station where most of the shoals seemed to congregate we were lucky to see a beautiful triggerfish which followed us with some other large silver fish waiting to be fed. There are so many divers here the that fish are used to being fed so it does help to share your lunch if you can. This sort of interaction does cause problems however to those divers without such offerings and really should be avoided or kept to a minimum if possible. We also saw a large shoal of Barricuda cruising in the distance but guessed they were looking for more than ham rolls.
There are some caves and rock formations which make the dive more enjoyable. As well as giving some intersting swim throughs they provide refuge to some of the more cautious residents of the reef. There was a large grouper in one of these near to a vertical swim through. A camera would give you some great memories to look back on and is a must for the next time I dive here.
There was more time to spend looking on this dive. The bottom time was 54 minutes and I surfaced with a more respectable 50 bar while Mark was at 40 bar. The exit was through surf into a vee channel with an easier step up to the edge of the water. This was around 400 metres south from the entry point and myself and Mark stayed with our gear while David went back to get the Range Rover - what a nice chap!
I dived here again 5 days later and buddied with Neil from Wales as we had similar air consumption on the previous dive together. We were accompanied by Jerry from Ireland, Jacko from Holland and Steve from Mansfield. This time we did the reverse of the previous dive entering the water from the southerly point then returning to the same point to exit. The wind was almost non existent and the swell was also quite weak making this a much more relaxed dive. My buddies were swearing about the difficulty of entry and exit but I was being really cool until I slipped onto my knees just at the water's edge.
The depths were from 22 metres averaging around 18 metres and the fish seemed even more prolific. The triggerfish appeared again for us and was very happy to take some fresh boiled egg (saved from the breakfast buffet in the hotel) in favour to the salami salad roll a buddy had brought. Dave brought his new MX10 camera and got some good pics. We had time to explore some of the caves. These are generally wide and flat, there is no overhead exit but they are mainly fairly shallow. One of them opens up inside to a large gallery after moving through a low roof which leads from a wide mouth. You do need to keep fin movements to a minimum to avoid stirring up too much silt but it is a worthwhile experience. We finished this first dive with over 50 bar in a 12 litre cylinder after 54 minutes bottom time. I thought it was one of my best dives and was getting very comfortable with the area.
The next dive was made after a surface interval of 1.5 hours and having had a light lunch again while talking over the dive and reviewing information on the area in a book written in Spanish but with some excellent maps of the area. This time myself, Neil, Steve and Jerry were on 15 litre cylinders. Dave had his macro lens and frame viewfinder and we spent some time trying to coax a shy octopus out from under a rock and played with some cuttlefish. Why is it that the time you do have a camera all the underwater life becomes so shy?
As we reached the fish feeding station I felt somethine pecking at my head and looked up to see my mate, the triggerfish. All the other divers in our group were wearing hoods and he obviously thought my blond (OK greying) locks looked like food. My buddies thought this was highly amusing and certainly would have changed their viewpoint if they were on the receiving end. I could not have been particularly tasty because it soon got fed up following us and moved back to take it's usual station on the reef.
At the lower end of the reef wall there is a recess where one of the larger Moray eels lives. Dave was determined to get a shot of it. It was quite used to visitors but he had made a point of telling us how he got bitten by it a few weeks ago so took the precaution of wearing gloves this time. It was quite docile and after taking some bread from him moved out from it's recess to let him stroke it. After a while he gestured to me to come closer. 'Who me?' I signed, 'Yes you' he nodded enthusiastically. I approached slowly and let him take my (bare) hand and stroke the underside of it's neck. I was absolutely amazed, firstly that I was actually daft enough to do it, and secondly what a beautifully silky soft feel there was to the Moray eel's skin. After a few minutes of this I thought about how I might be able to stop particularly as the teeth that had recently sunk into Dave's flesh were in full view. Carefully after giving the silky flank of the eel's muscular body one last stroke I drew my hand slowly back and felt elated to have had such an experience. My buddies were also impressed and Dave gave me a sign not shown in the diving manual regarding the size of my cojones - either that or he had an itchy crotch!
On the way back to the exit point my Mares Tutor went into decompression mode and insisted on 5 minutes at 3 metres. I checked with buddies for their readings at 5 metres where we were resting anyhow. Even Jakco the Dutch diver who had the Mares Surveyor which is basically the same model with a backlight was showing plenty of time left so I waited at 5 metres for 3 minutes without any change then went to 3 metres for the 5 minute deco time to run out. The total dive time was 62 minutes. I had 210 bar on entry with a 15 litre tank and came out with 55 bar. I have always had fairly good air consumption and am not a heavy breather but I was very happy with this for such a long dive. The Mares Tutor is a very conservative unit but this was the first time I had got into deco. With such a relaxed dive I was not too concerned as the workrate was very low and I have to say that for me this was the best dive of the week.
I can honestly say that the holiday was a very enjoyable all round. David, Jerry and the guys at Canary Diving were a great bunch and were more than helpful in all respects. I would have absolutely no hesitation in recomending them to anyone looking for a variety of diving in Gran Canaria.
Canary Diving Adventures have a website which I found at: