DIVING IN GRAN CANARIA

Gran Canaria is one of the most developed Canary Islands with excellent tourist infrastructure. The costal parts are mostly dry and arid, but by going inland you find places that are surprisingly green and lush. You will also find temperatures dropping by as much as 10C as you head into the mountains.
In 2005 Gran Canaria was declared a World Biosphere Reserve by the UN, with the “El Cabrón” area being declared a Marine Reserve.
Scuba diving is increasingly popular in Gran Canaria and diving conditions often surpass those in nearby islands. Summer is the best time when you can submerge yourself in cool clear waters to get away from the heat of the day, but because of its benign climate you can dive in Gran Canaria throughout the year.
Water temperatures vary from 18C in winter to 25C in summer and typically clear visibility and stunning underwater scenery make diving here not just exciting but a comfortable experience.
You can dive on all sides of the island and your experiences will be very different. The waters teem with colourful marine life, some species only found in the Canaries. For more experienced divers there are great wreck dives, located mainly around Port Las Palmas, cave dives and night dives.
The best diving area on the island is probably the Arinaga Marine Reserve on the east coast, better known as “El Cabrón”, with dives in the area being organised by every major diving school. The volcanic underwater scenery is breathtaking with many small caves, arches and outcrops.
Other popular diving sites are the El Pajar Shipwreck (where a Russian Hydrofoil Ferry sank in 2003), Kalais (where a 100m Cargo Vessel sank in the early 80s) and Pasito Blanco (home to a number of Reef Fish, Barracuda and Moray Eels). More experienced divers can enjoy the wonders of La Catedral – a series of large underwater caves and caverns, which (with the right conditions) look incredible and add a real feeling of adventure to your dive.
Because you are diving in the Atlantic Ocean you will sometimes encounter strong winds and tides so choosing a good diving instructor to show you around is utterly crucial.
Here is where we hit a bit of a problem. Finding any information about diving centres from out hotel in Maspalomas (no wi-fi) proved very challenging. The only diving school that seemed to be operating in our area we did not like because they pretty much refused to talk to us on the phone and were very inflexible about dates and times. Curious as to how somebody who has not pre-booked diving on the internet would go about arranging it on the spot, we wondered around for days (first Maspalomas, then Playa del Ingles) asking in various hotels and drawing a number of blank stares.
From looking on the internet we knew that the Diving Centres were there, but for an average tourist on the package deal they were well hidden. Because we had a reluctant diver in our group, with a previous bad diving experience, I felt that we absolutely had to find the right person to take us out. By day 3 we had found information about 3 diving centres with dives sold mainly through a second person and based on the information we had, we still did not feel like making a booking.
The breakthrough came on day four when we found a guy called Tony on Maspalomas pier and he introduced us to Christian. As soon as we spoke to him we knew that we had found the right person. Instead of telling us the time and the price in rigid terms, he was interested in when and how WE WANTED to have it done. Having picked us up from the hotel and on the way to his Diving Centre he spoke so knowledgably and passionately about diving in Gran Canaria that even our reluctant diver got excited and could not wait to get in the water.
Scuba Chris was everything we were looking for and more. It was my first dive after an ear operation and it started by me having a massive panic attack just a few seconds after going under the water. If it was not for Christian I would have gotten out of the water and would probably be reluctant to go again. But he kept me in the water, talked to me and listened to me and, thanks to him, after a few minutes I was fine and ready to dive again. That day he dealt with a number of things that did not go according to plan and he dealt with them without a shade of annoyance or impatience.
Our experience was so good that we just had to repeat it the following day, this time with Christian taking us to the more exciting location of a Nature Reserve. Most of the island is surrounded by a rim so shortly after entering the water you get sometimes gently sloping and sometimes almost vertical drops to about 20-25 meters in depth. If you go deep enough you will spot an incredible variety of fish, including Barracuda, Hammerhead Sharks and Stingrays. The amazing thing was that our first dive with Christian gave us so much joy and confidence that our second dive was a breeze. We suddenly looked and felt like experienced divers (which we are!) and our trip into the deep was about interesting rock formations and underwater creatures we could see, rather than a “who has lost a flipper now and who is stuck on the rock” comedy dive.
Out only regret was that having to fly home within 24 hours we did not get to go on more dives. With Christian talking about dives in the caves, an old sunken Galician boat and a small airplane rolling gently on the white sand we knew that we would have to come back.
To sum it up: unless you are diving in Gran Canaria every year and know where to go, make contact with the diving centre well in advance. If your diving schedule is still unclear then at the very least print out a map and write down the number of the diving school, so you know how to get there.
Here is a list of diving schools in Gran Canaria to choose from, but if you want the best customer care, individual attention and a dive based around what YOU WANT we recommend Scuba Chris.
On this website we do not normally give recommendations, but simply tell you about what we like and occasionally did not like, as well as reasons for our opinions. But in this case we felt the need to make an exception. Members of our group had dived in 12 different countries and met a number of good diving instructors, yet we all felt that Christian (who is also a rescue diver) is in a class of his own. During our dives with him, he was not just our guide, but our teacher and our friend. Nothing was too much hassle, every idea we had he was happy to work with and everything was done at our pace. His passion for diving is truly outstanding and contagious. We felt privileged to be able to dive with him.