Diving Los Gigantes, Tenerife, 2005

I survived Tenerife - despite a power failure at 30,000 feet on the 757 on the way home !!!

Spent 2 weeks in gloriously hot sunshine and did 11 great dives with Andy, Bob and Nev at Los Gigantes diving centre - these guys are great fun and safety conscious as well.

Water temps were 23 degrees and vis was 20 - 30m. Say no more.





The Ray dives

Did 3 of these and despite what the tree huggers might say, are great fun and a superb way to interact and see the wildlife. 2 binloads of fish bits are dropped to 20m where they are then opened. This attracts all manner of wildlife - trumpetfish, octopus, flatties, wrasse, triggerfish and of course about 20-30 rays of various type but I will simplify as small cute looking things and big motherf*****s.

I got used to lying back on the sand, spreading the offal on me and watching them eat it off me - kinky, i know, but you dont get much closer. Unless of course one of the big uns pays a visit and completely envelopes you - it's bloody dark down in that gob. If the foods all gone, they still like the taste of neoprene !! I mentioned this to Mrs K insofar as if I were to spread ten pound notes on my body would she pay it the same attention - she just laughed and waved my credit card at me !!!

















Baranco senco

Another 20m dive amongst all the lava and rock formations, culminating in a large "cathedral" swim thru. Again - loads of life

Atlantis

Deep (35m) dive amongst big rock formations and lava steps - loads of life amongst the rocks including crabs, octopus, cuttlefish, morays etc etc - great dive


Octopus cove

Bimble to 15m but not an octopus in sight !! Nice little "aquarium" dive. Oh - did I mention seahorses ?? - you bet !!! I was chuffed to see the 5 or so resident seahorses that were discovered recently. Tenerife for muck diving or what (ok - not that good but how often do you get to see these little cuties) I had to do this dive 3 times just to see em again.

Baranca senco

(deep) - Corker of a dive to 35m with Octopus, cuttlefish, morays etc and ending with a great swim through a cave/tunnel at 30 - 25m. the tunnel is about 10m long, a bit tight (so get in first so you get to see ahead) but nice with lots of small life on the walls

Masca deep

Well this put the topper on a great dive series with Los Gigantes dive centre. They do this dive about once a year and I was honoured to be invited on it. There were 5 of us on the boat, me, Amanda and 3 instructers (2 diving and 1 boat cover) - now that is personal service !!!

Now before anyone starts up with the usual crap, I am not interested, this dive was discussed and agreed, as were safety precautions with the instructors. 2 buddy pairs (one instructer per customer) and 15L tanks of air (oops - forgot, my buddy had a 10L tank but still surfaced with 100bar !!!!!- bastard)

In we drop and slowly down to the top of a rock formation at 26m. settle down and off we go over the edge........and hit the seabed at 47.1m. There was a large cave with black corals and a simply ginormous atlantic ray feeding there, white bearded antheas, big morays and light levels as if it were a 20m dive. Fantastic stuff, even with a bit of narcosis. We racked up 12 mins of deco but no problem as we had rigged up a deco station with drop tank. The dive was incredible - what a rush. Total dive time 43 mins and still had 50bar left back on the boat!! I'm not a depth junkie (ask DaveJ) but this was awesome - a bit like Cozumel without the coral, the topography was big

What can I say - a great time diving here and I would recommend Los Gigantes Dive Centre - great folks, very professional and will take the mick at every opportunity. jeez - they even mentioned YD as a great scuba resource - nuff said !!

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