Diving Tenerife - Trip Report

smcmullan

Yes indeed, we had a great week in Tenerife. Getting there is a doddle courtesy of Ryanair or charter flights from the likes of Falcon Holidays. I was met at the arrivals section of Tenerife South airport by David and Nicky and brought to the dive center. The dive center is ideal for setting up and tearing down and washing kit. There's great bench space, hose down etc. Dive 24-7 www.dive24-7tenerife.com can supply 02 by decanting, sofnolime and cylinders for Inspiration rebreathers. 5Ltr stage bottles for Nitrox and regs are also available. 12Ltr and 15ltr cyls for the OC folk.

Our hosts David and Nicky were simply the best dive center operators I have ever paid a visit to. Stuff got done efficiently and with safety in mind at all times. Its nice to see DSMBs, stage cylinders, redundancy principles being highly encouraged in warm water sites. A nice change. Ditto having full boat cover for all dives.

We stayed at the Westhaven apartments and sharing between four was an absolute bargain for one of the best holiday apartments I've ever stayed in. www.westhavenbay.com

Nicky and David would pick us up at 9am each morning and bring us to the dive center 10mins away. We'd set up our kit and drive to the marina 10 mins away and then we'd be off in the RHIB to the dive site.

The sites cover a variety of interests from scenic to wreck to sheer (and I mean sheer) depth. There's the Condesita wreck in 18m or the Meridian wreck in 30m. One of my favourite sites was the “Rays” site. There's a wee wreck there and all and quite interesting it is too until the “critters” show up. Actually the critters usually make their presence felt as you're still descending. We have common rays as playful and active as puppy dogs, a beautifully marked eagle ray so elegant, massive Altantic rays with barbed whiplashes, Myrtle the Turtle, freeswimming jetblack Moray eels that look positively evil with their white beady eyes, massive scorpion fish, a very curious Trigger fish and an octopus that reckoned it could bag Stephen McElhone for a spot of lunch. All of this in a very comfortable 20m of water, 5 mins out from the marina at Puerto de las Galletas.

Another favourite site was Grouper Ridge. This was the best of scenic sites with incredible lavaflow cliffs and amphitheatres going down down down. Pick your depth – in our case 50m and then swim up along the ridge. Its the equivalent of going for a hillwalk along the edge of a mountain precipice. However the odd ray, Angel Shark and massive Grouper presented itself luring you into further depth. One grouper was about the size of my bicycle.

Dive24-7 also does not participate in the practice of feeding the fish. It was simply a joy to interact with the animals in their environment without the lure of food.

Between dives there is an excellent cafe on the corner at the entrance to the marina and evening entertainment and more superb food and bevs at the truly remarkable Leo's (Leo she is a chica) cafe within walking distance from the apartment. The decadence of Los Cristianos and Playa De Las Americas is about a 20euro taxi ride away should you want it but personally I noticed that cocktails, nitrogen and Hummer SUVs don't particularly mix well :-)

So all in all a great week of diving and thanks to my buddies Johnny, Peter and Stephen McElhone for the company and to David and Nicky (Dive24-7) for providing a truly excellent service and a great opportunity for a bit of off season diving.

More vids and stills available at:

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www.youtube.com/ctnste

http://www.youtube.com/user/dive247

photos

http://seriouslyscuba.spaces.live.com/

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