Vela Luka, Korkula Island, Croatia, October 2005

by Paul Oliver
Photographs by Derek Greenan

A group of 18 from Canterbury Divers in Kent decided to sample the diving delights of Croatia and a couple of volunteers put a trip together. This group of experienced Dover Wreck divers was made up of 8 Advanced Divers, 2 Dive Leaders, 7 Sport Divers and 1 Advanced Open Water diver, and amongst this we had 2 Advanced Instructors and 5 Open Water Instructors. There was fairly extensive communication with the dive centre about the group's standards and the type of diving we wanted to do. The Dive Centre stated that they could provide the diving and facilities to suit us, and their Web site certainly gave this impression at Croatia Divers in particular the Deep and Wreck diving, however we were later to discover that the Centre had new owners who had only made some marginal changes to the former owner's website.

So getting there, an early flight from Gatwick at 0700 with Excel Airways had us landing in Split only 2 hours later, there are cheaper flights but these have some large time gaps between arriving and getting the Hydrofoil. Croatia Divers had sorted us out a coach from the Airport down to the Marina to catch the Hydrofoil for the 2 Hour crossing to the Island. We had a couple of hours at the Marina before sailing and this was very welcome. Split Marina/Quayside is basically a Roman ruin that has been developed over the centuries and now houses a large collection of boutiques and other business premises and is a very interesting site. A coffee at a Quayside café was about 70p and the Hydrofoil crossing only £2.70

Vela Luka is a small town that is built around the bay and Harbour, the bulk of the town is on the South side with the Dive centre and our accommodation on the North side. This is only about 200m of water to cross, but it is about a mile to walk around. A boat taxi runs during the summer, but this had stopped the week before we arrived. There are hire boats available, local wooden ones with small outboards, and in hindsight we could have negotiated a deal for the week. There is 1 taxi, which is a large minibus, and it's well worth getting the number for this from the start. The local currency is Kunas and you get about 10-11 to the pound, I'd recommend using these not Stirling or euros. The Accommodation we were in was self-catering apartments which were basic, but at about £5 a day were good enough for me. There are lots of mosquitoes though and we had some nasty bites off of them.

The dive centre was quite busy with another large group having arrived the day before us. They had hired two local hard boats for the diving, neither of which was a proper dive boat (ours did not even have a ladder when it arrived). But both were adequate initially, however after the first day the green deck paint on ours started to flake and by the end of the trip we had flecks of paint everywhere including in regulators, masks and suits. We also had the worst weather they had had for many years at that time of year, and although the back of the boat was sheltered there was no facility to heat food or water on board. They also did not cope well with any kind of sea above a Force 2.

The centre provided a selection of kit with the cylinders being mainly steel 15L with 12L if you preferred them. They also had Y valves so I was able to put my twinset regs on them with only minor hose changes, I do like this valve system. However during the week after a complaint about short fills, the owner Bobby explained that the industry standard for fills was 180 bar. We were a bit annoyed at this and had to point out the Working Pressure of 232 Bar on the cylinder shoulder, and when he started to bluster about safety I pointed out the test pressure. As a special for us they then started to fill to 200 bar, despite the fact that apparently no-one else had ever complained about the fills before.

He also got very rude about a supposed complaint about bad air which he had tested and proved was not bad air at all. Well this was me and I commented after one dive that my air had not tasted very nice, but it was probably just my regs, this was not a formal complaint, but he tested it by exhaling his fag and tasting a squirt of air from the tank"Nothing wrong with that" as he takes another drag of his fag.

At the restaurant the first night a guy introduced himself to us, he was an OW diver who was coming out with us tomorrow, so day one was limited to OW diver stuff for us all despite what we had said to them in advance. So 18 divers booked as a group limited by one extra they had to squeeze on.

So the first days diving was 20m ish stuff the second one being onto their wreck site, this was apparently some fishing boats that had been sunk (insurance scam). However once we were in the water all we got to see were some old cookers that had been thrown off the cliffs. When we asked afterwards about the wrecks we were told they were at 30m and too deep for us as it was a reverse profile after doing 23m or so in the morning. This was our first encounter of their reverse profile fixation and the first time 30m as a deep dive was mentioned. By the end of this dive we were starting to get just a little bit cheesed off with the dive centre. However the guest diver was very happy as he had been sorted out by some of us, including getting him neutrally buoyant several times and putting his fin back on after he lost it during the dive (he was swimming along behind the DM holding one fin).


During this period we found an excellent evening venue in the Restaurant More just 100m from our accommodation where we had several great meals paying about £11 each for a good 2-3 course meal plus wine and beer. This venue was ideal for both large groups to fit into and have an enjoyable night. You could also get a pizza on the other side of the harbour for about £3 in the pizza restaurant.

The 2nd day the OW guest was with us again, and some of us sorted out his kit and weighting so he enjoyed the dives. The water here is very clear and there are lots of very good walls with plenty to see and a nice selection of easy caves. We had 20m plus of viz throughout and the water temperature varied from 22 Deg at the start of the week to 20 Deg on the last.

By day 3 some of the DM's were having ear problems and we were taking turns to distract them while we got on with looking at the bottom of the wall dives not just peeking over the top.

They have several nice caves to look at here including a row of 3 with a passage connecting 2 of them. Cathedral cave which is quite large and the impressive Blue Hole which is the best dive here. We did 2 night dives where there were lots of Octopus out and about and also lots of Sea Hares.

During this period we had one minor emergency when a diver who thought his chest infection was clear had breathing problems at the end of the dive at 6m. On surfacing we gave"Diver in distress" to the hardboat which was acknowledged and the Rhib was manned to come and get us. Then they got back into the hardboat to sort out a blown hose on one of the divers just going in. When we eventually got onto the boat some 10 min later and questioned why they had not come across we were told that they did not recognise the BSAC signal as it was totally different to the PADI one. On asking for a demo of the PADI signal later from one of their OWSI it looked rather similar to us. Certainly close enough for the DM who was with us to not bother with any other signals.

Mid week we also had a minor skin bend which was not identified for about 24 hours (our fault), once it had been recognized and my BDSG card used to call an expert in the UK for a consultation, O2 was administered at the dive centre. This took a while as no-one appeared to know how to use it, fortunately it was not a dire emergency. The diver then went off to the nearest pot in Split on the morning Hydrofoil and was not potted but was given the OK to fly home. On return to the UK she was treated at Whips Cross and a PFO diagnosed.

So in summary we were totally unhappy with the dive centre Croatia Divers and their very poor service, attitude, professional standards and levels of knowledge. I put a lot of this down to the often quoted"10 years of experience teaching on Rhodes" which I understand only has one shallow bay to dive in. How much"experience" can be gained from this?

We actually managed several dives in the 30-45m range by team work and distracting the DM's. However I know of two other experienced divers who went there this year and each only got to 30m once.

We are all keen to go back to Croatia next year. It has some great diving, fantastic viz, is excellent value for money and a great European country (no hassling for tips or to come into my shop/bar/restaurant).

Vela Luka is very nice and I'd say good for one trip, there is very little for non-divers to do though and I would discourage any from going. For any additional information please e-mail me at do@canterburydivers.org.uk and put Croatia diving in the title.

Note: You have to buy a diving licence which costs about £10 and is valid for a year, this was provided by the dive centre.

Croatian Diving Federation Website


Canterbury Divers

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