LizSpinks
Registered
In the first week of June we traveled to Santorini and thought we should sample the diving in Greece. Having read here and elsewhere that the island has been overfished, we kept our expectations low.
After Scubaboard and TripAdvisor searches we chose Santorini Dive Center, but decided to start off by only booking a 2-tank dive the day after we arrived. If Santorini pleasantly surprised us, diving-wise, we could add some more diving later in our trip. Spoiler alert: we dove just the one day. The other 3 things which made me settle for this operation was a very thorough response to my initial email questions from Paul, the owner, the fact they picked up/dropped off customers, and they use a covered Dive Boat not an RHIB/Zodiac-type.
Dive 1: by boat to the Old Volcano (Palea Kameni). Paul, led this dive which is mainly to see the volcanic rock formations. This was just rocks to me, nothing unusual or startling. Maybe the viz wasn't good enough to truly appreciate the landscape. And very little marine life, which is the main reason we love to SCUBA dive. All we really saw were sponges (some big black ones were interesting), spirograph worms, and a couple of schools of very small fish. 8 divers on boat with giant stride off back of dive boat. We started in a bay and followed wall at bay's 5m depth clockwise to where it opened up below us and then dove to 21m still following wall, then returned same way. At one point Paul guided us one-by-one into very shallow cavern to view multiple sponges decorating inside. 42 minutes.
Dive 2: by shore on the house reef at Caldera Beach, near Akrotiri. DM was Marc Lopez. This was the better of the two dives. Firstly, because there was much more sea-life here. We saw some great nudibranchs and some small but colourful (ornate?) wrasse and parrotfish, and one medium-sized barracuda. A groupler is a usual resident, but he was absent on this dive. The shop owner has an agreement with local fisherman to leave this area alone and it shows. Not really good levels of fish, but not too bad (compared to Caribbean). Since this was a Greek Islands dive, it was cool to see a large, undamaged amphora (a huge pot with two handles near the mouth). This was shore entry over sea grasses initially then along a wall at @ 20m. 7 divers this time. 47 minutes.
On both dives, water temp was 20C and viz was @ 40'. Dive time was dictated by the biggest consumer. We humped our own equipment on and off boat but were helped with kitting up seated on edge of the back of the boat. Good dive briefings ahead of each dive. We had a couple of young divers who were attended by another DM and quit the first dive early due to cold without affecting the others' dive. 4 of us were AOW and the DM on 2nd dive accounted for that during briefing by saying we could follow at a deeper level.
We wore long 5mm with booties as provided by shop. Equipment and shop well-maintained. Bathroom, outside warm shower, storage cupboard for customers, rinse buckets, whiteboard with dive details (useful for completing log book), water provided in long interval at Dive Station, benches for kitting up, tables & chairs and sunloungers under palapas for paperwork/interval. T-shirts available.
They picked us up by van (with their logo) at a central spot in the town we were staying. For us this was at the Oia bus station/taxi stand at the complete opposite end of the island to their Dive Station. As we picked up divers along the 30 minute journey, we managed to get 10 people in an 8-seater van which helped everyone get to know their new dive companions quickly.
All the staff were punctual and organized, competent but friendly. 1 diver was DSD and didn't join us; she did shore dive during our boat dive.
I spoke to Demetrios, who was our driver, about the Marine Park agreement and how it's coming along. He said there are many bureaucratic hurdles still, but the main, current one is WHO will police the park. The existing Santorini/Thera Park Rangers (on land) don't want to. The fisherman would, but they'd want to be paid. Sounds like this is a few years away.
Would we dive Santorin again? Yes, if we were coming back anyways (and the island IS amazing), we'd do a couple of dives, and very likely use Santorini Dive Center again. If the Marine Park goes through I could imagine this being a real dive destination. This could make us return just to check out improved sea life if we heard that was happening. Apparently they used to have seals, turtles and dolphins here (rare sightings now), but with no food for them, they moved on. The first coin of Santorini had 2 dolphins on it.
The best part of diving Santorini for me, and why I'm so glad we didn't skip it, was seeing a couple of notable nudibranch. One type was a b&w cow spotted nudi (I'll provide a link below to a blog where you can see a pic), and there were several of these. The other was awesome... A pale blue and yellow MONSTER. It was over a foot long (other divers agreed with me!!), and very solid. I didn't think they could get this big. I've searched google images and although I can't find an exact match, it's not dissimilar to a Felimare type, certainly in body shape, but it was pale blue (underwater).
Finally, this blog has a write-up I read before we went and just reread and is a close match to our experience, but with photos!
Liz
After Scubaboard and TripAdvisor searches we chose Santorini Dive Center, but decided to start off by only booking a 2-tank dive the day after we arrived. If Santorini pleasantly surprised us, diving-wise, we could add some more diving later in our trip. Spoiler alert: we dove just the one day. The other 3 things which made me settle for this operation was a very thorough response to my initial email questions from Paul, the owner, the fact they picked up/dropped off customers, and they use a covered Dive Boat not an RHIB/Zodiac-type.
Dive 1: by boat to the Old Volcano (Palea Kameni). Paul, led this dive which is mainly to see the volcanic rock formations. This was just rocks to me, nothing unusual or startling. Maybe the viz wasn't good enough to truly appreciate the landscape. And very little marine life, which is the main reason we love to SCUBA dive. All we really saw were sponges (some big black ones were interesting), spirograph worms, and a couple of schools of very small fish. 8 divers on boat with giant stride off back of dive boat. We started in a bay and followed wall at bay's 5m depth clockwise to where it opened up below us and then dove to 21m still following wall, then returned same way. At one point Paul guided us one-by-one into very shallow cavern to view multiple sponges decorating inside. 42 minutes.
Dive 2: by shore on the house reef at Caldera Beach, near Akrotiri. DM was Marc Lopez. This was the better of the two dives. Firstly, because there was much more sea-life here. We saw some great nudibranchs and some small but colourful (ornate?) wrasse and parrotfish, and one medium-sized barracuda. A groupler is a usual resident, but he was absent on this dive. The shop owner has an agreement with local fisherman to leave this area alone and it shows. Not really good levels of fish, but not too bad (compared to Caribbean). Since this was a Greek Islands dive, it was cool to see a large, undamaged amphora (a huge pot with two handles near the mouth). This was shore entry over sea grasses initially then along a wall at @ 20m. 7 divers this time. 47 minutes.
On both dives, water temp was 20C and viz was @ 40'. Dive time was dictated by the biggest consumer. We humped our own equipment on and off boat but were helped with kitting up seated on edge of the back of the boat. Good dive briefings ahead of each dive. We had a couple of young divers who were attended by another DM and quit the first dive early due to cold without affecting the others' dive. 4 of us were AOW and the DM on 2nd dive accounted for that during briefing by saying we could follow at a deeper level.
We wore long 5mm with booties as provided by shop. Equipment and shop well-maintained. Bathroom, outside warm shower, storage cupboard for customers, rinse buckets, whiteboard with dive details (useful for completing log book), water provided in long interval at Dive Station, benches for kitting up, tables & chairs and sunloungers under palapas for paperwork/interval. T-shirts available.
They picked us up by van (with their logo) at a central spot in the town we were staying. For us this was at the Oia bus station/taxi stand at the complete opposite end of the island to their Dive Station. As we picked up divers along the 30 minute journey, we managed to get 10 people in an 8-seater van which helped everyone get to know their new dive companions quickly.
All the staff were punctual and organized, competent but friendly. 1 diver was DSD and didn't join us; she did shore dive during our boat dive.I spoke to Demetrios, who was our driver, about the Marine Park agreement and how it's coming along. He said there are many bureaucratic hurdles still, but the main, current one is WHO will police the park. The existing Santorini/Thera Park Rangers (on land) don't want to. The fisherman would, but they'd want to be paid. Sounds like this is a few years away.
Would we dive Santorin again? Yes, if we were coming back anyways (and the island IS amazing), we'd do a couple of dives, and very likely use Santorini Dive Center again. If the Marine Park goes through I could imagine this being a real dive destination. This could make us return just to check out improved sea life if we heard that was happening. Apparently they used to have seals, turtles and dolphins here (rare sightings now), but with no food for them, they moved on. The first coin of Santorini had 2 dolphins on it.
The best part of diving Santorini for me, and why I'm so glad we didn't skip it, was seeing a couple of notable nudibranch. One type was a b&w cow spotted nudi (I'll provide a link below to a blog where you can see a pic), and there were several of these. The other was awesome... A pale blue and yellow MONSTER. It was over a foot long (other divers agreed with me!!), and very solid. I didn't think they could get this big. I've searched google images and although I can't find an exact match, it's not dissimilar to a Felimare type, certainly in body shape, but it was pale blue (underwater).
Finally, this blog has a write-up I read before we went and just reread and is a close match to our experience, but with photos!
Liz
