Tarifa, Spain diving notes, June 2011

[Tjack]

Just back from diving Tarifa Spain, here are some notes. Tarifa is an ancient port town at the southern tip of Spain. This is the southernmost point of Europe, located on the straights of Gibraltar.
The point at Tarifa is where the Mediterranean and Atlantic meet. You can see Africa from the fortifications of the walled city.

Tarifa is considered some of the best diving on the Costa del Sol, Southern Spain. Shops from Torremolinos and elsewhere do long range trips to dive here. We dove with ideal weather as there was no wind, this was unusual as Tarifa is primarily known as a windsurfing mecca. I was told they usually have substantial surge and current, we had light current on both the surface as well as at depth.

Our first dive was the San Andres wreck of 1856, a paddlewheel steamer, she sits on a hard bottom at 100’. Mostly broken up the San Andres provides good structure for wildlife. The second dive was at La Piscina which has a nice boulder landscape full of critters and tight swim throughs.

The diving reminded me of California diving without the kelp. Water temps were from 60-63 degrees and visibility was less than 20 feet. We did sea an abundance of fish from schooling Sardines to colorful Wrasse, Scorpion fish, larger game fish etc. Beautiful yellow cup corals covered most vertical surfaces. Mediterranean eels were abundant. We saw four species of Nudibranch including a spectacular Giant Doris, great wildlife.

I dove with Yellowsub Tarifa. YellowSub Tarifa | Diving in Spain | PADI Courses in Spain. Their office is located at the harbor about 100 yards from the boat. They run regular daily two tank trips with full rentals for 75 Euro. Mandatory dive insurance was 6 Euro for the day. They rent two piece 5mm wetsuits with integrated hood. This was not sufficient for me to stay warm in 60 degree waters. I would bring a 7mm or a dry suit next time.

The dive staff were a little rowdy but good in the water with decent English. Two Swiss dive masters guided two groups based on their certification level. Captain Chiqui runs a small but adequate hard bottom boat to the nearby dive sites. The office is well run, with prompt reply to Email, Yellowsub struck me as a reliable outfit.

Overall Tarifa is a very interesting town with some fine cold water diving. I could see spending 2 or 3 days diving here if I had proper thermal protection, I would dive with Yellowsub again. As part of a driving tour of southern Spain this was a great diving diversion. Visiting the old town of Tarifa was a highlight of the trip.

 

[Tjack]

Wondering if others here on Scubaboard have dived Tarifa? If so what kind of visibility and conditions did you have?

 

[gcarter]

I have not, but have been in that area ~ 10 years ago (Malaga) before I started diving, and was considering a trip back with my family thinking that diving might be part of that. I am surprised at what you are saying about temps. I would have thought it warmer.

 

[Tjack]

Hey G, i heard that water temps in the Med go up as you go east toward Italy or Turkey but still top out in the 70s (25C) Tarifa is right on the Atlantic so colder but more fishy. I would dive there again but with my drysuit. I was there in late spring as well, wonder if it warms up over summer?

 

[gcarter]

I would suspect not - I was in Victoria in September, water temp was ~ 9C. They told me at a dive shop that the temp only varies by about 2C over the course of the year. 7MM john + shorty was fine in those temps.

 

[tyesai]

I live about 75 minutes from Tarifa and I've dove with Enrico / Yellow Submarine 5 times so far and I've only got good words for them. They are prompt about answering e-mails and I’ve always got a hold of them at one of the two phone numbers I have for them. The dive shop doesn’t have a lot of choices as far as purchases go but it has everything you need for rental equipment.
Although I don't dive nearly as much as I'd like, my family and I go to Tarifa quite often in the summer (whenever the wind report is favorable). It has some of the best beach I've seen in Spain, even with a little breeze there is essentially two sides to the beaches so it is possible to escape the wind as long as it isn't whipping. Snorkeling is always possible and some of the coolest critters I've found have been snorkeling in the shallows, including a ten-minute staring contest with an octopus.

The water is a bit chilly, even in the summertime. The warmest I've seen it was 63 F or approximately 17-18 C. I've got an inexpensive ill fitting wetsuit 5 mil / 6.5 mil with hood, 5 mil booties, and 3 mil gloves and I'm quite comfortable in the water, even in the fall. There can be some current, I've sat out before because I wasn't comfortable but that was only one dive of the five and it was my second after training. I simply saw people pulling themselves along the tagline and decided I wasn't interested in doing that.

The visibility isn't that bad but honestly I don't have much to compare it too. I guess the visibility has been around 40-50 feet when I've been diving there. The dive sites are usually around 60-65 feet deep and once I get a few feet below the surface the bottom is plainly visible. As far as things to see I've seen crabs, tons of sea urchins, starfish, sea cucumbers, lots of various species of small fish, stingrays, octopus, sea anemone, and a couple of different eels however they are usually black or purple with yellow spots and about 3 or 4 feet long.

The crew has different levels of proficiency in different languages. My Spanish is very bad but I can get the gist of what they are saying and they've always had someone that is proficient in English on the boat anyway. Both boats are small but they get you where you need to go which is only a 5-minute boat ride anyway. One day one of my coworkers and I went diving in the same location via a very long surface swim, actually it was markedly longer than necessary thanks to the local police but that is another story. The point is that a yacht is not required.

Tarifa is a quaint town with several hostels and few very nice hotels up and down the coast. Lots of places to eat, parking is sometimes impossible to find in the summer time on the beach unless you get there around 0800. At the dive shop parking is equally hard to find but you can park in the ferry parking lot for a time based fee, usually I spend 7 euro or so in parking, but it is only 150 yard walk to the dive shop from the ferry parking lot. As someone else stated there is a castle there you can tour and several operations take people whale watching. A couple of my friends have gone on the whale watching trip and all but one couple has gotten sea sick so be advised.

I've also gone diving in Nerja, which is about three more hours north of Tarifa with Buceo Costa Nerja. They were really great as well, however there is quite a walk with your gear/tank on from the shop to the beach, it had to be a 200 yards plus including crossing a road where I almost busted my ass as my foot slipped on the painted surface of the crosswalk. Then you have to swim (a few feet) to the rib, take your gear back off, hand it up to the boat crew and then board the boat. In the summer or for a person in poor physical condition it would suck, actually I thought it sucked. The staff was super nice however and it by far made up for the rucksack like march to the ocean and back. They do insist on carrying the equipment for the ladies but guys need to nut up.

The diving conditions in Nerja were very similar to Tarifa as far as temp, visibility and critters. The dive shop is located just behind a beach called Playa Burriana. The next day I took the family back to the beach as it had tons of cute open air restaurants, showers, ice-cream shops, a banana boat ride (which my kids are still talking about, they LOVED it!), kayaks for rent, jet ski’s, a few small playgrounds, volleyball, ect. Next year we may spend a few days there however the beaches in Malaga, Nerja, and Torre Del Mars are kind of rocky, not nearly as nice as the beaches farther south.

Either place is worth diving in my opinion.

Jason

 

[Tjack]

The water is a bit chilly, even in the summertime. The warmest I've seen it was 63 F or approximately 17-18 C.

I guess the visibility has been around 40-50 feet when I've been diving there.

Jason

40-50 visibility sounds sweet, might even see a Mola Mola swim by? They are known to be in the area, there is a divesite up the coast towards Malaga where they are supposedly regularly seen, now that would be something!

 

[tyesai]

40-50 visibility sounds sweet, might even see a Mola Mola swim by? They are known to be in the area, there is a dive site up the coast towards Malaga where they are supposedly regularly seen, now that would be something!

It would be! I'm not sure where it is up the coast but I know that some of the Spanish dive shops and clubs have pictures of the Mola Mola on their websites. Honestly other than the eel's I haven't seen but one or two fish bigger than a foot long around the point of Tarifa. Doesn't mean they aren't there though or they won't show up. Even though it is a protected area I see people fishing on the point and around it in boats. This may contribute to the lack of large fish. There is a few different species of dolphins, whales including orca's that traverse that area between the Med and the Atlantic though so you never know. After the point that the lighthouse sits on it is open ocean to the coast of Africa.