El Hierro - Canaries June 2014

alwayssideways

Thinking of going to the island of El Hierro in the Canaries for a week of diving in early June.

I've never dived in any of the Canary islands so looking for feedback from people who have dived in El Hierro itself or any of the Canary islands before I pull the trigger and book it.

Thanks in advance.

yankinlk

www.shane-gray.com

locum-motion

I've dived in El Hierro with SG about four times in the last ten years. Going back again in October this year.

Lovely diving, chilled out island

Highly recommended.

Saruman

yankinlk wrote: »

www.shane-gray.com

Wonder is Shane Gray associated with the Scubadive West Gray family. Same town listed.

locum-motion

Saruman wrote: »

Wonder is Shane Gray associated with the Scubadive West Gray family. Same town listed.

Yes, Shane is Cillian and Breffni's father, and he started SDW.

Saruman

Ah, thought it would be something like that.

Mermaria

Hi I'm from Gran Canaria.

La Restinga is amazing and has warmer water than Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. The diving holiday is a easy life, tiny town and only boat dive. Dive site of all levels and laziness.

Shane Gray and his wife moved to live to Tenerife time ago. He regularly helps with transport, boats. El Hierro is an island with very little population, little tourist accommodations and environmentally orientated which means a small airport with very low air traffic because they want on this way.

La Gomera and La Palma have same dive site but nothing remarkable. Lanzarote has a similar type of diving.

In Fuerteventura worthy for Jandia, the same place were people practice windsurf and kitesurf.

Las Palmas and Tenerife has the typical diving directed for tourist besides the south resorts and from boats. It is ok but nothing like the other diving sites.

In Las Palmas (Gran Canaria)

The marine reserve, El Cabron, is great but with a challenging entry/exit point, el agujero. Once you know the technique is for all levels. I learnt to dive there. I mean most of my OW course was there.
Sardina is very popular, moreover at this time of the year, angel sharks annual party! it is an extremely easy dive site and very shallow comparing the general deeps.
Besides Sardina there is Caleta. I love it. But the entry and exit are incredible tough.
Gran Canaria has also same great wrecks, ships and airplanes, and of course an scenic dive called La Catedral. I think all the islands have a Catedral dive site

El Cabron is the only marine reverse that still open to everyone. The rest are restricted to scientifics. En El Hierro there is one at the north side, banned even for snorkers and even swimmers. El Archipielago Chinajo is protected but snorkel and free diving is permited in same sites. Las Islas Salvages only for scientifics.

When I began to dive in the late 90's, El Archipelago Chinajo and Las Islas Salvages have no restrinctions ... who could dive over there they still saying that are by far the very best places ... let's see what's go on with Marrocco digging petrol near them

locum-motion

Mermaria wrote: »

...

La Restinga is amazing ... only boat dive...

Not quite. You can get a nice shore dive by going in at the last set of steps on La Restinga pier.

Mermaria

locum-motion wrote: »

.... a nice shore dive by going in at the last set of steps on La Restinga pier.

That's right and it's a lovely night dive also. Thanks for adding it.

Tenerife island sites are missing also. I like Los Organos and there is a charming dive site that I can't remember the name. It has nothing special, it's simply a beautiful bathing place.

alwayssideways

Just said I would update this thread for future reference.

The diving was excellent, loads of life, beautiful topography, swim through's etc.

The resort of La Restinga itself is a very quiet, relaxed fishing village.We dived with Centro de Buceo based in the centre of the town. Excellent facilities, would highly recommend.

A picture says a thousands words, a video says even more!

locum-motion

Thanks for that. I'll have a look at the vid when I'm not at work.

Did you travel with Shane?

If not, what did you do for travel from Tenerife Airport to La Restinga? Did you hire a car?

And where did you stay?

alwayssideways wrote: »

Just said I would update this thread for future reference.

The diving was excellent, loads of life, beautiful topography, swim through's etc.

The resort of La Restinga itself is a very quiet, relaxed fishing village.We dived with Centro de Buceo based in the centre of the town. Excellent facilities, would highly recommend.

A picture says a thousands words, a video says even more!

alwayssideways

locum-motion wrote: »

Thanks for that. I'll have a look at the vid when I'm not at work.

Did you travel with Shane?

If not, what did you do for travel from Tenerife Airport to La Restinga? Did you hire a car?

And where did you stay?

No, we didn't travel with Shane. Oceandivers organised the trip, we got a bus from Tenerife airport to Ferry, where we boarded as foot passengers. On the El Hierro side the dive centre picked us up.

Not sure on the name of the apartments, but here they are on Google maps. Clean, decent size. One major downside was the pool, it was not open as they didn't have a certificate to say the water was safe to swim in.

https://www.google.ie/maps/dir/27.640437,-17.9839115//@27.6400996,-17.9840295,257m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m3!4m2!1m0!1m0

locum-motion

The next apartment block down the hill is the one that we've usually used.

Re the pool: Sure what do you want a pool for? You've got the sea just right there!

locum-motion

Nice vid, BTW. Is that your own footage?

I liked the half-dozen barracuda swimming over El Bajon, and that was a nice angel shark.

alwayssideways

locum-motion wrote: »

The next apartment block down the hill is the one that we've usually used.

Re the pool: Sure what do you want a pool for? You've got the sea just right there!

The pool did not affect me but there were a number of non divers on the trip that would have liked the pool to be open.

locum-motion wrote: »

Nice vid, BTW. Is that your own footage?

I liked the half-dozen barracuda swimming over El Bajon, and that was a nice angel shark.

Thank you! Yes that was my own footage, just done using a GoPro. El Bajon dives were fantastic, best dives I have ever done.