Posts by Jacob:
Hola, hola, scuba diving in Spain
October 28th, 2009
I want to share with you a dilemma which I had about ten years ago just before I moved to Spain, that for itself is an interesting story, but we’ll skip it for now.
Ok, I’m moving to Spain, but where exactly am I going to start the new part of my life in that big country? That was relatively easy with the help of the great universe forces and what is called meditation. I sat on the floor with a map of Spain, my eyes were closed and while meditating I pointed with my finger … Valencia.
OK, never been there or anywhere in Spain, but I liked the answer since it’s located on the coast line and I’ve always loved to sit next to the sea, hear the waves and relax.
Now there was the next decision; what am I going to do? I had a few options I was thinking about, and I remembered the advice of a good friend of mine: “do what you really love…”
Easy answer… I love diving. It was also backed up with some list of facts: I was diving for about 23 years, Instructor for about 10 years, I had Navy diving experience, underwater Archeological experience, underwater photography and had an photo exhibition, add to that I’m commercial skipper and already crossed the Atlantic, the Indian ocean, the
Mediterranean and the North sea… with all that experience and skills I’ll open my dive center.
With that decision of building my Dive center, I start learning the Spanish coast to be able to find the best and the right place for the center.
The Iberian Peninsula have a shape of square, Portugal is located on the west side of that square. On top of Portugal it’s the Spanish province of Galicia, with two seas: the Atlantic Ocean on the West and the Cantabrian Sea on the North.
In Galicia you can find excellent food and very nice people… but to dive there… that’s a different story. If you are familiar with the diving around UK or Ireland, then you’ll find it similar: hard sea, high waves, strong currents and very little visibility… in summer the sea temperature can get to 16-17C and winter drops to 5-6C.
East to Galicia, on the coast of the Cantabrian Sea there are the provinces of: Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque country. All have the same hard sea conditions.
The Spanish south coast is the Andalucía province known as “Costa Del Sol” and Gibraltar. Most people think Gibraltar divide between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. But actually that imaginary “line” is going from Portugal at the point of the Peninsula to Morocco.
No matter where the “line” is, the sea conditions there are very much affected by the Atlantic: strong currents, low visibility and relatively cold water temperature.
On the Spanish East coast are the provinces of: Catalonia “Costa Brava”, Valencia “Costa Blanca”, Murcia and the side of Andalucía.
The “Costa Brava” is known for its cliffs, bays and walls dropping to the sea creating a rocky underwater landscape, in that Northern area the water temperature is 3-4C colder then of the “Costa Blanca” which is well known for the white long beaches starches for almost 400Km. these long beaches are “cut” in some points with mountains and rocky beaches. The longest “cut” is starched on about 60 Km. from Denia to Benidorm. And my dive center “Mermaid Diving Moraira” is located in the middle of it, in Moraira – An old fisherman village, hidden between bays and mountains which are made of limestone rock. Many caves and caverns were created in those mountains during millions of years, allowing us now, 10,000 years after the Ice era, after its melted sea level rose about 20-30m. To dive in those caves
That was exposed to sun light during the Neolithic period.
I will certainly return back to stories about those caves and many other dive sites in another article.
From Alicante to the southest point of the Peninsula, most of the area is mountains dropping to the sea. In there, located the town of Cartagena is the ancient Cartago, with its very deep navy port, about 800m. That area is a popular dive area, known for its deep dives with strong currents and cold water temperature caused by the deep sea.
To conclude, Spain a special dive area in Europe, with many possibilities to offer the divers, with endemic marine life that exist only in the Mediterranean trough historical wrecks and Archeology, a project we are planning at the moment.
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