Helsinki Finland Dive Sites.

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tracy_from_oz

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Hi.


Wondering if anyone knows of some dive sites close to Helsinki.
We were thinking some wreck dives or anything under 25 meters.

We were going to go with Live & Let Dive http://www.liveandletdive.fi/en/index.html .

Thanks
 
George, thank you for the link, this place looks amazing.
 
Aland Islands, August 27, 2007

I thought I had lined up two days of diving with Jan-Ola Karlsson at Sirius Dyk (E-mail: jan-ola.karlsson@aland.net. www.aland.net/siriusdyk/english/contact.html. Mobile: +358-40-584-5122. Tel/Fax: +358-18-19019) three months ago. I had told him I was coming to Scandinavia for ten days from Africa just to dive and sent him e-mail reminders 2 and 4 weeks before my arrival but got no sign of life so I started calling. He assured me this would be fine and even offered accommodation in a house and sent me helpful weblinks about the islands. But now there was no answer on either his mobile or regular number. Finally, the day I was supposed to be flying to the Aland Islands from Helsinki on Air Aland, I got a response to my text message saying he had boat trouble and parts would take two weeks to arrive. He was sorry he couldn’t take me diving. I immediately texted him back about doing a shore dive. No response and again no response when I tried to call. Was he even on the islands?

This is the 60ieth “country” I have dived in any I never cease to be amazed at how lackadaisical most dive operators seem to be about serious dive inquiries. They go through all the trouble and expense of having a nice website, even have an English translation for foreign visitors, but then don’t respond to e-mails or return phone calls. But then many of these same operators are quick to complain about how fickly divers are…

I searched the web fruitlessly for another dive operator in the Alands, but flew out to Mariehamns, the capital of this Swedish speaking self governing province of Finland on Air Aland anyway. (Buy your tickets from Stockholm or Helsinki at www.airaland.com. The flight is about 50 minutes. You can also get to the islands by frequent ferry from either of these two Nordic capitals). I spent the night at the very pleasant and reasonably priced Park Alandia Hotel in the center of town. This hotel is owned by Viking Line so you need to book through them or directly with the hotel. E-mail: parkhotel@vikingline.fi. Tel. +358-18-14130. The hotel had some tourist material and lo and behold, there were two other operators listed as offering divers I had been unable to find via google.

First thing the next morning I called Oxygene Aland, Elverksgatan 12 in Mariehamn. www.divealand.com or www.oxygene.se. Tel. +358-18-21010. Mobile: +358-407-068045. Lennert Lunquist (aka “Ville&#8221:wink:, the owner and NAUI and IANTD tech instructor told me that it was the end of summer and so there were only dives going out over the weekend because they needed a minimum of three divers to go out. I didn’t have time to spend a week on the islands and offered to pay to go out by myself. He told me this was possible for 180 Euro. including large boat hire (shore dives are apparently not very good on Aland and so only used for training dives), divemaster and dry suit and equipment hire. Fifteen minutes later the divemaster picked me up to go the well equipped dive center—a world record on flexibility and service!

Oxygene Aland mix nitrox, blend trimix and supply argon and even have a room with sauna and 2 bunk beds where guests can stay at moderate costs. A two tank dive is 80 Eur. A 2 day/2 night package with dives is 220 Eur. 3 days/3 nights and 6 dives is 300 Eur, 4 days/nights and 8 dives is 385 Eur. And 5 days/5 nights and ten dives is 465 Eur. Oxygene Aland also offers ice diving courses in the winter. Water temperature ranges from 2C on shallower wrecks in the winter to 16 C on the surface in the summer. The deeper wrecks range from 2-4 at 30 meters pus year around.

There are plenty of wrecks (Russian, Dutch and Scandinavian), including some old wooden schooners and the brackish Baltic Sea water and strict laws which prevent penetrating the wrecks and removing artifacts means that many are well preserved. Aland islanders apparently bought up loads of the old wooden sail ships very cheaply when steam ships came into vogue in the early 1900s, and by the 1930s had the biggest fleet of wooden ships in the world. There is a unique four-masted wooden ship, the Pommern in the harbor which you can visit and a maritime museum next door which will give you a better idea of what you are diving.

After picking up gear at the dive center, we boarded a spacious boat with lots of deck space and a cabin which was berthed just around the corner from the dive center. Half an hour later we dove the Plus, a three masted barque (similar in design to the Pommern) sunk in December 1933 on her way from London back to Mariehamn for Christmas. The captain was from Mariehahm and grew impatient that there were no pilots available to take the boat in due to a fierce storm. He thought he knew his home port and decided to try to enter the harbor without a pilot but one of the lighthouses had lost its lights in the storm and he steered off course. The captain and about a dozen other crewmen perished when they couldn’t find the shore—only 4 men survived. The masts were blasted off because the boat sank in the middle of a shipping lane (where ferries still pass overhead today), but most of the wooden structure is intact. You can also see the ship’s figure head which looks like a doughnut, davits, dead eyes and portholes. The ship lists to one side and there is a layer of silt on it so it is very easy to inadvertently silt the wreck by stray fin kicks. Viz was 5 meters at the surface and less than 1 meter on the bottom. Bring a strong light.

This was a most enjoyable dive with a high quality operator. The standard of diving, divemastering, seamanship and equipment is all first rate and excellent in every respect. I especially liked the fact that they accommodated me on no advance notice and were still willing to let me do a dive even though there was no organized dive for me to join. Highly recommended place for technical training and or simply diving.

The tourist office also lists Hagge.nu in Mariehamn as offering diving trips with accommodation on board, but I ddn’t contact them so am not sure whether this means they do liveaboard diving. Mobile +358-40-552-8572. The tourist office is very helpful and may also be able to help. Tel: +358-18-24000 or www.visitaland.com.
 
Finland (August 30, 2007)

Judging by the number of dive centers you find by typing “Helsinki” “diving”, “scuba” or “PADI” into google, you would think this was a diving mecca. But trying to line up a dive here proved very difficult. Two months before my arrival in Finland I tried e-mailing about 5 of the larger (ie. PADI 5 star centers) but got no response. A week before my arrival I started calling. Some dive shops only sold equipment, some only did pool sessions with check out dives in tropical affiliated resorts, some said they didn’t take people out during weekends, some said they didn’t take people out during the week, one man said he was a pilot and too busy flying to take divers although he had a website. Most of these shops advised me to “try Divemaster” but getting hold of them wasn’t easy at first. I finally succeeded and spoke to the efficient Jan Komaro, who quickly set me up for two wreck dives.

He and his partner Tommy opened their dive shop in Feb. after acting as divemasters for other dive shops and noticing that none seemed to offer local diving or had their own boats. They now run a well stocked dive shop 10 minutes from the center of Helsinki stocked with gear that they have used and can vouch works in Finland’s chilly conditions. They take divers out several times a week from a small RIB—whenever they can find enough divers to make the trip worthwhile. They also run trips to more distant places in Finland. He was happy to take me wreck diving during the week. Two dives with a drysuit and all equipment costing Eur. 100. I also bought a well made Finnish trilam dry suit from him. With the right technical underwear ( Norwegian and a Weazle Extreme undersuit I would be good to dive even in -1C water without the weight necessary with a neoprene drysuit. The best kind of souvenir for a diver.

On a bright blue sunny day, we met in front of the Blue Peter restaurant on Lauttassari Island (15-20 minutes from the city center. This is right in front of the yacht club (there are toilet and even sauna facilities available!) from where Divemaster’s RIB leaves from and Jan can park his van right in front of the RIB so it’s easy to get gear on board. Two other Finnish divers joined us. After kitting up we set off to the Crown Prince Gustav Adolf wreck. It took about 15-20. Getting there is half the fun as the boat goes FAST!

The Gustav Adolf is a Swedish wreck which was sunk in 1788. The wreck was discovered in 1995 and became Finland’s first underwater park. The wreck lies a few nautical miles southwest from the lighthouse island of Harmaja. The remains of the ship lie at 18-20 meters and are in part scattered on an area of approximately 100 x 100 meters. The wreck consists of the bottom of the hull, the sides, which have fallen down, different parts of the structure, cannons, cannon balls, and a variety of loose articles. All in all 71 cannons have been found at the site. Three of these were raised, conserved and examined. There are also two big anchors at the wreck. A descent rope and guide rope with signs explaining points of interest ring the wreck. Viz was good—4-5 metres so we had an excellent dive. The water temperature was 6 C which meant that it was about the same warmth as the early morning surface temperature. We did two 30 minute dives with a surface interval in between.
We then had an excellent and very reasonably priced (8 Eur.) buffet lunch at the Blue Peter restaurant. This is the oldest wreck I have ever dived on during my dives through 61 countries.
Here are Divemaster’s contact details:
Jan Komaro
Dive Center Manager
PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer #78032
Emergency First Response Instructor
*************************************************
Divemaster.fi PADI Dive Center S-5239
Pääskylänkatu 7 Open:
FI-00500 Helsinki mon-fri 11-18, sat 10-14
Finland
 
Hi Pole

My apologies for not replyig sooner, this information is amazing and thank you for sharing it.
I certainly do not want to fly from Australia and be left in the dark by a dive operator
 
Hey Poleinahole!

Just got hold of Jan, so far so good. Should be diving with him in three weeks. Thanks for sharing on your post, completely helpful.

SgtChunk
 
About 100 km from Helsinki is Hanko with an Eira wreck.
 

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Well, wanna dive in Finland, hope u got a dry suit.
And btw, Finland is a nordic country not scandinavian.
Never been diving in hanko yet, it's known as the sunniest part of Finland during summertime.
George, when did u dive there ?

That was the geographic point of the day ;-))
 

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