Scuba Diving in Faro

thejaguar

I'm heading to Vale do Lobo for 10 days in May - a quick Google search seemed to suggest there was the possibility of diving in Faro.

Has anyone ever dived there. A quick Google search turns up some results - of particular interest is the wreck of a US Bomber from WW2 (I think).

If anyone has any experience or ideas I'd be grateful!

thejaguar

Nobody?

thejaguar

Just in case anyone ever does want a bit of info on this - I eventually did a couple of boat dives with a company called Open Waters based in Quarteira.

The visibility wasn't great on the day we dived but we did see some pretty decent sized conger eels, one or two octopus and a sting ray along with a few crabs and lobsters.

The dive instructors were pretty relaxed, no mention of a safety stop, no real dive plan laid out before one of our group asked just before we got into the water. The main instructor disappeared with 2 of the group during the first dive then appeared back on his own shortly after. It turns out he had dropped them up to the boat and come straight back down which seemed a little odd.

The were also grab and poking at every bit of wildlife that we passed to try and get some sort of reaction, something I've never seen before and generally is frowned upon as far as I'm concerned.

All in all I enjoyed the dives, but if you're nervous or very concerned about the interaction with the wildlife, then Open Waters probably isn't for you.

AgileMyth

thejaguar wrote: »

Just in case anyone ever does want a bit of info on this - I eventually did a couple of boat dives with a company called Open Waters based in Quarteira.

The visibility wasn't great on the day we dived but we did see some pretty decent sized conger eels, one or two octopus and a sting ray along with a few crabs and lobsters.

The dive instructors were pretty relaxed, no mention of a safety stop, no real dive plan laid out before one of our group asked just before we got into the water. The main instructor disappeared with 2 of the group during the first dive then appeared back on his own shortly after. It turns out he had dropped them up to the boat and come straight back down which seemed a little odd.

The were also grab and poking at every bit of wildlife that we passed to try and get some sort of reaction, something I've never seen before and generally is frowned upon as far as I'm concerned.

All in all I enjoyed the dives, but if you're nervous or very concerned about the interaction with the wildlife, then Open Waters probably isn't for you.

I wouldn't really be recommending them to anyone based on that. A thorough briefing is very much part of the dive guides job, regardless of the cert/experience level of the divers. Leaving divers while you go to do a safety stop with people who are running low on air is something we have to do sometimes, but not without explaining this to the divers you are leaving behind! Otherwise who's to know where they will be when you come back down?

When you say there was no mention of a safety stop do you mean beforehand? Or that the stop wasn't done?

Handling wildlife is irresponsible and unnecessary.

AgileMyth

In fact you say main instructor, so I guess there was someone closing the group also? This person should have taken the first two back to the boat. That's what they're there for!

thejaguar

AgileMyth wrote: »

When you say there was no mention of a safety stop do you mean beforehand? Or that the stop wasn't done?

Beforehand - no mention of a dive plan or a safety stop until we asked. When a safety stop was mentioned the instructor was just short of rolling his eyes. We did do the safety stop on both dives though.

Like I said - very "relaxed" - not like anywhere I've ever dived before. That's why I thought I'd put the info up here for anyone else that might be looking.

AgileMyth

I would consider myself a fairly relaxed dive guide but that's taking the piss.

thejaguar

It was a strange one, when we got back to the dive shop he was giving out about local fishermen leaving their nets around and the damage it does to the local wildlife - this after spending the dive manhandling every creature that passed him by.

Ol' Donie

I always ask for the dive plan, usually go through it a couple of times. Wouldn't be happy otherwise.

And it bothers me immensly that they were poking at the wildlife. Leave them the hell alone.

Thanks for posting your experience, though. Love Portugal, was thinking about doing some diving there.

Catmologen

What kind of profile did you do as a matter of interest?

thejaguar

Haven't a clue Catmologen - I don't have a computer of my own and wasn't provided one.

Both dives were in or around the 35 minute mark between 15 to 18 metres - iirc - I dont have my logbook to hand.,

locum-motion

thejaguar wrote: »

... I don't have a computer of my own and wasn't provided one...

Buy one. Quick!