Scuba Diving Gran Canaria and Diving Courses in the Canaries

They are mending the road!

2012-01-26T09:22:00.001Z

Yes, you have all complained about the track to El Cabrón and asked how it damages the vehicles. Well, for the last few days the Cabildo has finally got round to not only filling the surface, but also back-grading it and actually compacting it with a roller. We could here the vibrating roller underwater yesterday!

Eduardo to the Rescue!

2011-10-10T19:21:00.001+01:00

We never know what we will find from one day to the next, and today we came across a small turtle, trapped in a discarded plastic bag, while diving in the El Cabrón Marine Reserve. The Turtle was having difficulty moving with the bag attached, but fortunately the bag slowed it down enough and Ed was able to catch it, remove the plastic bag and set it free. The Turtle was able to swim away on its own. The lucky turtle has no doubt had its life extended by the swift reaction of Eduardo to the problem, and the lucky divers saw not only the rare sight of a turtle in the Reserve but a good example of protecting and supporting our marine ecosystem.

Hammerhead Sharks near the Reserve

2011-09-09T15:27:00.001+01:00

One of our friends from the Windsurf community told me that this week while surfing 2km up the coast from Arinaga he saw a Hammerhead Shark! It was about 2m long, on the surface with its dorsal fin showing, about 500m out from the coast. This is not the first report of offshore Hammerheads we have had, as windsurfers see them a couple of times each year. Underwater we are less lucky, apparently Hammerheads are cautious of divers and will move away from them before we detect the sharks. I have only heard one report in 9 years of somebody seeing a Hammerhead well overhead when they were at Punta de La Sal in 30m. Still, you never know what you might see in the Marine Reserve!

Crew of the RFA Gold Rover go a-roving in the Marine Reserve

2011-08-28T18:00:00.001+01:00

While on a brief stop-over here in Las Palmas, some of the crew of the Royal Fleet Auxiliar vessal, Gold Rover, took time out from their busy schedule to join us for a days diving in the Marine Reserve here in Arinaga. Highlights of the day included watching a Bonito corral and then attack a shoal of sardines; and finding 3 different stingrays on the second dive - a Round Ray, a Common ray and an Eagle Ray.

Special Event this Saturday with Local Ecologists

2011-08-15T17:06:00.001+01:00

This weekend, the local environmental action and Ecological group 'Ben
Magec-Ecologistas en Acción' are holding a special event at the Playa del Cabrón, as part of a campaign to gain extra support and protection for the area. If you are interested in taking part with us let me know as soon as possible.

Newry And Mourne Sub-Aqua Club enjoy a weeks diving with Davy Jones.

2011-04-25T16:53:00.000+01:00

We all had a great time over the last week with 14 members of the Newry and Mourne Sub-aqua club. Members went to most of the best sites on the Island, with some diving in Las Palmas in the Catedral, the Arona, Frigorifica and Little Kalais. Others went to Mogan where we dived on the Cermona II. But favourite for most was the El Cabron Marine Reserve where they dived the arches, the caves, the bays and the Table Top, seeing a wide range of Canarian marine life including Angelsharks, Rays, Cuttlefish, Barracudas, Octopii and much more. We all had a great time entertaining them and having some fun and great dives.

Newry And Mourne Sub-Aqua Club enjoy a week's diving with Davy Jones

2011-04-24T22:36:00.001+01:00

We all had a great time over the last week with 14 members of the Newry and Mourne Sub-aqua club. Members went to most of the best sites on the Island, with some diving in Las Palmas in the Catedral, the Arona, Frigorifica and Little Kalais. Others went to Mogan where we dived on the Cermona II. But favourite for most was the El Cabrón Marine Reserve where they dived the arches, the caves, the bays and the Table Top, seeing a wide range of Canarian marine life including Angelsharks, Rays, Cuttlefish, Barracudas, Octopii and much more. We all had a great time entertaining them and having some fun and great dives.

Last minute spaces for Wreck Diving in Las Palmas

2011-04-10T10:08:00.000+01:00

From the 19th to 21st April we have a special set of wreck dives organised from Las Palmas. We have a couple of spaces left each day - If you want to see the best wrecks in the Canaries contact us now for more info.

Crazy weather!

2011-03-15T09:20:00.001Z

We can see SNOW today from in front of the dive centre! Yes, up on the tops of the mountains the dusting of the last two days is clearly visible from down here! It's very rare to get snow at all in GC, and this is the first time it has been visible from Arinaga. Strangely, the diving in the Marine Reserve has been uneffectd .. the storm has hit the other side of the Island and we are in the lee.. but with air temperatures below normal, it is actually warmer in the sea than in the air! The forecasters tell us it will all blow over in the next two days and warmer weather wil return.

Book now to beat our price increases!

2011-03-11T09:14:00.001Z

It's now five years since we last changed our prices in 2006, and the recent increases in fuel charges, along with increasing costs of safety items (such as more frequent testing of Oxygen bottles) mean that from the 3rd April we will be applying a small increase in most prices, of around five euros per day. However, if you confirm your booking now before the new prices are introduced, then we will honour your booking at our current prices.

Royal Philharmonic entertained by Davy Jones Diving while in Gran Canaria

2011-02-15T21:59:00.001Z

It's always nice to entertain other professional entertainers, so we all enjoyed hosting members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from London when they visited Las Palmas last week. The Orchestra was in Las Palmas for the XXVII Festival de Música de Canarias, and several members took time out from their busy schedule to spend a day diving with us in the Marine Reserve in Arinaga. So on Friday we were able to show them the 'diving fantastique' in the Marine reserve in Arinaga, while on Saturday they played 'Symphonie Fantastique' by Berlioz to an aprechiative audience in the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium.

Canary Islands Diving - An alternative to the Red Sea?

2011-01-29T13:36:00.002Z

With the current unrest in Egypt, we have had several people asking us how diving compares between the Red Sea and the Canaries. While the Canaries are only sub-tropical, the sea temperatures here in winter are only four or five degrees less than in the Red Sea, and the Canary Islands have a stable European government and a much better developed tourist infrastructure than in most parts of the Red Sea. We have put together a new page which looks at the comparison between the Red Sea and Canary Islands for diving holidays to help explain some of the differences a bit better.

Christmas Greetings to all our customers and friends.

2010-12-09T11:36:00.001Z

We would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. This year Brian and Marilyn will be in England for a couple of weeks before Christmas, while Uwe, Graham and Ed continue diving here in Arinaga. And yes we are diving all through the Holiday period, with some dates already well booked. The Christmas Tree is already back in The Marine Reserve, there are plenty of Angel Sharks and Rays about, and we almost always find something unusual.

Dutch Navy enjoys diving in El Cabrón

2010-12-09T11:26:00.001Z

The beginning of December is usually a busy time because of a Spanish long holiday weekend; however this year we had our hands full looking after the Dutch Navy. Their ship spent a long weekend in Las Palmas, and we sorted out all the arrangements so that they could visit us. We had two hectic days when more than 40 sailors from the HNLMS Johan De Witt, a Dutch man of war, came to Arinaga to enjoy diving in the Arinaga Marine Reserve with us. We had a wide mix of skills from absolute beginners up to experienced Divemasters, and were able to show many of the divers Angel Sharks, Rays and a lot more. Everyone seemed to enjoy the diving, and they told us they had tried diving in Dakar, but preferred it here as there was more to see in Gran Canaria.

Latest news from Davy Jones Diving, in Gran Canaria

2010-11-27T09:25:00.001Z

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More Tiger Shark Teeth

2010-10-30T15:50:00.001+01:00

Further investigations have produced another Tooth from a Sand Tiger Shark in a special area in the Reserve. However it looks like they may have been there for a long time and are not recent as we originally thought.

Extra insurance now on all Daycourses and PADI Open Water Courses

2010-09-06T21:00:00.001+01:00

When diving in Spain, the laws require that every diver is covered by both suitable medical insurance and a type of 3rd party insurance called 'responibilidad civil'. For most tourists this is not a problem, as their holiday insurance will cover both of these. However there may be some people, such as residents or backpackers or long term visitors who are unaware that these are not covered entirely by their policy. To prevent anybody having a nasty shock when their insurer tries to wriggle out of any payments, we obviously work extremely hard to make sure that we have no accidents in the first place, and indeed our Daycourse and Open water students have a 99.998% safety record. (Yes, just two non-fatal incidents in aproximately 10,000 dives). However, just in case of a future problem, we have taken out a group policy with a Spanish Insurer which guarantees to cover all medical and legal issues for every single day-course and Open Water Student that we teach. So rest assured, you do not need to dig out that policy and check it word for word before your dive .. we've got you covered.

New apartments available for divers in Arinaga, Gran Canaria

2010-09-06T14:43:00.001+01:00

We can now recommend two more apartments to divers who want to stay in Arinaga. In addition to the popular Nautilus Apartments, we can also recommend the Barracuda and Angelot self-catering apartments. These are very close to the dive centre, and can sleep between 2 and six people. They come fully equipped and even include Internet Access. For more information see the details on our Accommodation page.

PADI Open Water Courses now include Dive Computers

2010-09-05T19:11:00.002+01:00

We recently upgraded our PADI Open Water Course to include the free use of dive computers for all our students!

Earlier this year, PADI introduced an updated option for all students to use a dive computer instead of the old fashioned decompression tables. Decompression tables were introduced in the 1990´s and have proved highly effective for avoiding problems with decompression sickness. Modern dive computers have developed significantly in the last few years, and use internal tables to continually assess the risk of decompression sickness.

Davy Jones Diving were one of the first dive centres in the Canaries to offer the free use of dive computers to thir students on Open Water Courses, making the courses more up to date, more relevant and more fun.

Eduardo is now Blogging as well!

2009-07-04T15:23:00.003+01:00

We have gradually brought Eduardo into the 21st Century ... and now he has his own Blog in Spanish. If you want to keep up with Eduardo, you can read his blog at reservamarina.blogspot.com.

The Diving Market in Gran Canaria

2009-06-26T10:33:00.002+01:00

There are times when it is difficult to believe what you are hearing, but in the past few of weeks I have been amazed at the number of people who seem to want to throw their money away by setting up from scratch new dive centres in Gran Canaria. I have heard rumours of new dive centres being set up in Mogan, in Puerto Rico and in Meloneras. Just a little bit of research would have told them the sad facts - that over the last five years 70% of the people who have tried it before them have both failed and lost lots of money. In fact over the last six years only two new dive centres have survived longer than two years, and both because they address specific language groups where there is no other dive centre (one Dutch, one Polish).

Add to this the current economic downturn and the strength of the pound, and finally all the new diving laws and regulations, and you begin to understand the barriers which any hopeful entrepreneur will face coming to the Island.

The Diving market in Gran Canaria is in fact quite mature. There have been diving centres on the Island for over 30 years, with most of the tourist centres based in the Mogan district. However in the last year two of these (Aquanauts and Sunset) have closed their outlets because of the combination of lower visitor numbers and tighter regulation of the diving business. This maturity also means that most of the common sales routes are taken by the existing Dive Centres - Most tour operators have long term contracts in place; all the big hotels have relationships with Diving Centres; The best sites for dive centres (at low cost) have already been taken; and there are several well marketed and informative websites already occupying the top search engine locations.

If anyone is coming into the Gran Canaria Diving market, and thinks they will be able to gain a significant share of the existing market, then they have already failed in their their basic business research and planning. The only way to be sucessful is to identify a specific niche and offer specialised services to those (new) sectors. So for example if somebody set up a Russian, or an Italian, or a Romanian dive centre they would probably survive on these small sectors and be able to bring new divers to the Island.

All the diving centres believe that Gran Canaria has much more potential as a diving destination, and up to 2008 diver numbers were increasing slowly before the recession hit; We all welcome initiaties which will bring more divers here, such as the Fotosub competitions in Mogan and Galdar. However if you think it is going to be either quick or easy to set up a new dive centre and start making a profit then you need to talk to the Norwegians who tried with 'Blue Ocean' or some of the other who have run 'dive centres' from the back of a pick-up for a few months in summer.

So if you do want to run a dive centre in Gran Canaria, then do your research properly, find out about the dive centre laws, and be prepared to put in a lot of money to cover low cash flow for up to the first two years. And if you struggle to put together a finacial plan, or don't see yourself as a salesman, either talk to somebody who can help you with these, or decide wether you really want to loose a lot of money during the recession even if you do enjoy the prospect of diving here.

Taking your PADI Advanced Open Water Course in the Canary Islands

2009-02-20T22:36:00.006Z

Somebody asked me recently if it was worth coming out to the Canary Islands to complete his PADI Advanced Open Water Course or whether he could take this PADI Course in the UK. To me the answers were obvious ... The water in the Canaries is warmer and clearer, so we can offer the course all year round, and here in the Marine Reserve in Arinaga the marine life is prolific and the underwater scenery is very dramatic.

The PADI Advanced Open Water course builds on the skills of the Open Water Course and adds the extra theory required to undertake more challenging dives. After studying hard for the Open Water Course, most students find that the Advanced Open Water course is a lot easier as there is less to read, and during the dives there are in some cases fewer formal exercises to undertake.

All of our students have thoroughly enjoyed taking their PADI Advanced Open Water Course in the El Carón Marine Reserve in Arinaga because they have not only completed the course, but they have always had some good dives with lots to see as well.

You can find out more about our Advanced courses in three languages:

PADI Advanced in English

Curso PADI Advanzado en Español

PADI Advanced Open Water auf Deutsch

So if you are looking for somewhere to take your course which in addition to great logistics and excellent instructors has dramatic underwater scenery and prolific marine life... then the El Cabrón Marine Reserve in Arinaga is the place to come to.

New Pages on our Gran Canaria Diving Website

2009-02-10T14:46:00.004Z

We have been busy over the last few weeks updating quite a few of the pages on the website, and as several people have asked for these we have put together a list of the most important additions.

English pages

Diving in Maspalomas

Diving in Meloneras

PADI Junior courses

Spanish Pages

Curso PADI Open Water

Pecios Gran Canaria (wreck diving)

Two new dives in one day

2008-12-26T17:31:00.007Z

When you run a busy diving centre, such as our in Gran Canaria, it often seems that you never get to do any new dives. Now don't get me wrong, we already have a number of great dives in the Marine Reserve at Arinaga, and they are never the same twice running, so we can always find something different. However there is a small list at the back of the mind where we want to go off the normal track, follow up a suggestion somebody else made, check out a possible entry or exit for different conditions etc. The normal work of the school restricts us, or we only have staff free when conditions are poor.

Today we had perfect conditions and a small enough number of divers to allow Ed and myself time to explore two new dives .. The Muelle Nuevo and the Island. The first dive was an easy one as it was only a short walk from the car, and then an easy dive down a gentle slope. We came across plenty of smaller fish such as bream, damselfish, wrasse and mullet, as well as a large female Angel Shark, lying very still near to some rocks, several friendly cuttlefish, and most strangely, coral sand.

The coral sand was rather unexpected, as most of the sand in the Canaries is volcanic (ie quartz based sand), yet we came across areas of a very different sand colour (much more orange/yellow) with a very different texture from the normal, which included small broken corals. There were also some rocks which looked as if they had ancient worm casts on their upper surface. This is a mystery that we will need to investigate further!.

The second dive was to look into another mystery ... the rumours of our only bit of wreck diving in the El Cabron Marine Reserve. In contrast to the first dive the was the opposite end of the scale .. A hard walk in full kit, followed by a dive in strong current to an area with fewer exit options than normal, followed by a hard swim against the current. I had been told about this over six years ago, but on every past occaision I have either not had a (willing) buddy, or a suitably qualified buddy, or the weather has been wrong. I am also glad I waited as it is so well encrusted that it is very difficult to see. Yet there it was, a cannon of about 2m in length jammed in a crevice in only 8m of water, yet in a strong current.
And nothing else visible. Was this lost overboard? was it actually located on the Island at one point? Or did a wooden ship founder on the Island and smash to pieces, with all the wooden spars and parts swept away by the current to leave only the heavy cannon. Rumour has it there was a second which was removed about 8 years ago.

One of the problems in declaring that we have found this is that some of you reading this will want to see it.... Sorry but we will not be adding it to the regular dive schedule, as we need excellent conditions of low wind and ground swell, and divers who are 1. Very fit, 2. very experienced, 3. good in currents, 4. well known to us for their diving skills. This is not a dive for anyone with less than 100 dives!

Still, despite two long dives, Ed and I had plenty to smile about, with two new areas understood and documented for divers to try. Now where will we go on our next free day...

Diving conditions now updated in 3 languages

2008-11-02T14:52:00.003Z

For over one year, we have been updating the daily diving conditions in Gran Canaria page, recording any special sightings in the Marine Reserve at Arinaga, so that readers planning to come diving in Gran Canaria have a good idea of what marine life they may see. Everybody likes to know how often we see the specials such as angelsharks, stingrays and hidden gems such as seahorses.

This feature has proved so popular that we have now extended the system to give "Ultimas condicines para el buceo en Gran Canaria" (in Spanish)and "Aktuelle Bedingungen für Taucher in Gran Canaria" (in German) so that more of our customers can keep up with our sightings and specials.

We also show a picture of any really special sightings so that you have a good idea of what we have seen. Here are a few of the recent 'special sightings'.

White Spotted Octopus
Mobulus ray
Canarian Lobsterette
Butterfly Ray

Our Website is upgraded to German!

2008-10-01T21:25:00.004+01:00

Jetz auf Deutsch!

We are delighted to announce that our website has now been upgraded into a German version! Thanks to hard work by Nicole and Uwe our German Guests can now log directly into our German Homepage ("Tauchen Gran Canaria") and get information on courses, dives, marine life and much more.

We are also updating our daily info feeds so that information on weather, conditions and sightings appears every day in English, German and Spanish.

Like any major translation we may have made the odd mistake or miskeying of a word, so please tell us if you do find anything that looks a bit funny!

Brian

New Reef found for Divers in Gran Canaria

2008-09-08T23:51:00.003+01:00

When we got back from the Medas Islands, oneof the first projects we worked on was to help the world famous Shark photographer, Andy Murch, to get a reference set of photos of Angel sharks, to add to his popular website, elasmodiver.com

In the course of this we were following an angel shark into an area we had never explored before, thinking it was all sand, and then suddenly we found ourselves on a new reef we had not expected. This volcanic reef only stands a few meters out from the sand, but what surprised us were the seven marbled electric rays that we found within a very small area on the reef. We used this as the name .. Electric Reef, and have visited it a couple of times with variable success in logging these small and elusive rays.

So if you are coming diving in Gran Canaria and think you have done all the sites, then think again, we have a new reef to explore!

A Diving Holiday in the Medas Islands!

2008-06-13T21:32:00.007+01:00

When you run a busy and sucessful dive centre like ours in Gran Canaria, getting time off for a holiday is always difficult. But with a strong team to back us up we have just taken a week off to relax a bit and get away from Gran Canaria, and had a weeks holiday on the Costa Brava in Northern Spain. We jumped onto a flight up to Barcelona and then rented a cottage in Begur.

This is very close to the famous 'Medas Islands', so of course I had to do a couple of dives to see what it was really like there. Having dived at several other places in the Mediterannean in the past, I was not quite sure what I would experience, but I was pleasantly surprised with the diving. I dived with one of the top diving centres in L'Estartit called La Sirena, who were very well organised and offered an excellent service for visiting diver like myself.
So how does diving in the Medas Islands compare with Diving in Gran Canaria. First it is several degrees colder! quite a shock moving back to our winter temperatures, but still a lot warmer than UK temperatures at this time of the year. But there is ample marine life, and the presence of large numbers of big groupers makes this a fascinating place. And the groupers seem very friendly, with one posing nicely and others relatively unmoved by the presence of Divers. The second thing was the huge number of Gorgonian fans on the walls of some of the caves. Having dived many places in the Med which were disappointing in terms of the quantity and variety of marine species, I was amazed at the variety of the Medes. I have always associated Anthias with the red sea, but there were large shoals here, along with bream, wrasse, gold-striped bream, Maria Francesas, octopus, damselfish and several other species, some of which I could not name.
The Medas islands are made of Limestone, which has left huge holes and caves that pass all the way through some of the islands. These underwater caves are fascinating to dive through, some have walls of Gorgonias inside the caves, while we also found small shrimps and a solitary cape lobster - just like the ones we find when diving in Gran Canaria.

So in summary, yes, the Medas Islands have an excellent diving reputation because of the quality of the sites, the closeness to the shore, and the fact that the local government has done an excellent job of managing the marine reserve here and creating a great destination for divers.

Cuttlefish are the stars of the moment

2008-05-02T21:51:00.004+01:00

I have always enjoyed diving in Gran Canaria with cuttlefish, but in a way taken them for granted. Like so many creatures they are just there, they have admittedly some unique features, but with so many other fish to look at in the reserve you soon get distracted and look at anything else. However for anyone who has never dived with one before they are fascinating, the way they move, the way they change colour, and so it seems, the way they communicate.

Recently however it appears that more detailed research has been carried out and reported in New Scientist which sheds more light on the patterns that they use to communicate. Having come across a whole 'guarderia' or kindergarten of these curious creatures in the last few days, group communication was clearly taking place. Known as the chameleon of the sea for their ability to change colour, you can often see all sorts of patterns on their back and body. The two photos above shown common variations, which are completely different - stripes and spots.

So if you want to find out more about these strange and unique creatures, either come and have a dive with us in the marine Reserve here in Gran Canaria or have a look at the photo gallery on our website about our PADI Diving Centre in Gran Canaria, Davy Jones Diving.

Tomas has a hectic week

2008-03-30T16:27:00.005+01:00

Tomas is a really useful member of the team at Davy Jones Diving. He has the important job of taking all the divers and their tanks down to the beach every day, so that they can have a nice dive in the marine reserve at El Cabron. He loves to show how strong he is by pulling all his friends and their equipment up and down the bumpy track, to and from the playa del Cabrón every day. He is always happy when everybody has had a good dive, and listens in to the chatter as they tell each other how much they enjoyed their dives. Yes, Tomas is a happy tank engine.

At night and in the morning he takes his friends the two dogs for a ride up the mountain, and then watches as they go for a run or chase the rabbits before returning to his normal resting place opposite his drivers house.

Two sundays ago however, Tomas was dozing away when he heard several voices he was not used to. Then suddenly hands started to open his windows and reach in! "Whats happening" thought Tomas! Before he could say anything a strange new driver had got in and started the motor. "but we don't go out at this time of night thought Tomas", as this new driver followed some familiar roads, but then started to leave behind the town of Arinaga and take him to places he no longer new. There was also another car who seemed to be following him; a black car with a knowing leer. Finally they stopped somewhere strange and then opened a big garage, and drove Tomas in rather roughly. "Ouch", said Tomas as one of his shiny front indicators caught on some rubbish in a corner. Just as suddenly as he had been taken, Tomas was left alone again, the door was shut and poor Tomas was alone in the dark. "Is there anyone there? " he whined. Nothing but silence.

Poor old Tomas, none of his friends came, and he sat there for a few days feeling sorry for himself, till several nights later the door of the garage opened again, and a nasty looking man with a long screwdriver in his hand came in, and started looking at Tomas. Finally some more people came, and between them they opened every door and peered inside. 'Careful there' puffed Tomas angrily as somebody wrenched open his glovebox and took everything out, breaking the door off in the process. They took his wooden protectors out of the back and somebody said 'OK it'll do'. Several people jumped in again and they drove through many streets that were unfamiliar to Tomas, till they came to a big gate. They seemed to have a bit of difficulty opening the gate, but as soon as it was open everybody was in a hurry. Tomas was driven quickly up to a big box or package, and reversed up to it. He could not see what was happening but they had got his tailgate open and were getting this inside him - but it was a tight fit! "That'll do" shouted one ugly looking man, and they heaved down on the tailgate. But to Tomas's horror the parcel was not properly in place, and the rear window shattered. The men did not seem to care or notice, but jumped in again and rushed away back to his cold garage where the mysterious parcel was taken out. "What shall we do with him?" shouted one of the men. "Just dump him down the hill by the side of the road" said the skinny man who seemed to be the controller.

So it was at dawn that Tomas found himself on a piece of grass, rear window gone, glovebox and indicator smashed, and they had left the lights on so his strength was failing fast. By the time the policeman found him the next day, Tomas was almost ready to fade out. However after a couple more people had had a look at him a big Grua truck came out and he was towed up onto the hydraulic platform. "Where are they taking me?" asked Tomas. "To the car cemetery, where they break up all the rotten old cars and vans like you" said the tow truck ruthlessly. Tomas was beside himself with grief. "what a terrible way to go he thought". When he got to the cemetary he was parked near the gate, but just outside the scrapping area. He could hear the moans of the other cars as they slowly were taken apart. A few more people came to look at him, and towards the end of the day, just when he thought he was lost, he heard a familiar voice.

Yes his regular driver, Eduardo was here! he felt so happy. Eduardo was less happy, he looked at all the broken bits and then tried some of his switches, which also seemed to be broken. After talking to another man for a bit, somebody arrived with a spare battery. How welcome it felt as new electricity pulsed back into his circuits. He was feeling much better as he drove out of the gates, but after a few kilometers they had to stop as Eduardo listened to a telephone call. Suddenly they were turning round and after a few minutes they had come back to the cemetary. He tried to listen and heard the words 'papers not in order, he'll have to wait here till the Guardia Civil get their finger out'.

Two more days on his own, other cars coming in and going to that dark area at the back where they were slowly taken down. But then here was Eduardo again to take him home along with his normal Controller. Within an hour he had been restarted again and he was back in his familiar streets, and back in front of the dive centre, where everyone came out and tut-tutted about the damage.

James then came back from the first dive looking rather cross. "Where have you been all week" moaned James "I have had to do all your work as well as my own. Look at how my hubcaps have got so dirty this week". James was always proud of the fact that he had three of his hubcaps while Tomas had none of his.

Tomas began to feel better, some wires were connected to his battery, and after a couple of hours away Eduardo came back with a brand new window for the back door, and all the broken glass was cleaned out.

Tomas is now back to work as usual, within a week most of his broken bits were changed (he even got an upgraded switch for his wipers, which made James jealous, as he can now do intermittent wipe while James has only got normal and fast settings. He is happy again with his friends, and happily chugs backwards and forwards to the beach with his divers; and take the dogs for their walks twice a day. Life is back to normal for Tomas, and no more hectic weeks for him!

Diving Centres in Gran Canaria prepare for new Law

2008-03-23T22:47:00.003Z

For the last two years, the professional diving centres in Gran Canaria have been preparing for the implementation of a new law, which aims to regulate diving centres in the Canaries. From chatting to the owners of other diving centres here in Gran Canaria I know that everyone has struggled with at least one of the many pieces of paper that we have had to provide, such as the permission of the Capitania Maritima or the permission for us to use the nearest Hyperbaric Chamber in an Emergency.

Finally however the day is nearing when the 'introductory phase' will end and the first group of diving centres will be licenced. Rumours suggest that out of the 30 or so diving centres in Gran Canaria, only about ten to twelve have properly completed their application and will be licenced to operate for the future. Fortunately Davy Jones Diving have had all our main papers in place for over 12 months, and in February, when we were finally inspected, we gained a 'favourable' inspection rating.

Our Diving centre meets high safety and hygiene standards

So what will happen now? Those diving centres that attain their licence from the Canarian Government have proved that they meet high safety standards, are professionally organised, work within the law and provide high levels of customer service for their divers. If you take a virtual tour of our diving centre in Gran Canaria you will see that it has all the facilities you need to help you enjoy your diving holiday in Gran Canaria.

For those diving centres in the Canaries that have not complied with the law the future is less certain. With no guarantee that they meet the high safety standards of the other diving centres the authorities are rumoured to be planning to physically close these operators down. If the police come and tape up your door then you can't even enter the property to get the files out to progress your application!

For visitors planning to come to the Island however the new law will work in their favour, as by diving with one of the diving centres authorised by the Gran Canaria government they can be assured that the centre meets high safety standards and is publicly committed to operating in a way which does not put its divers in undue risk.

Dive magazine InDepth in Gran Canaria

2008-02-09T09:24:00.000Z

During October 2007 we were delighted to host Simon Rogerson, the Editor of BSAC Dive, the UK's most widely read diving magazine, for a ten day visit to Gran Canarian to sample the best of the scuba diving here. Simon's article on the best diving in Gran Canaria was published in the January edition of BSAC Dive, and you can now read it on-line.

We really enjoyed the experience of hosting a top underwater photographer and having the opportunity to show him the best diving in Gran Canaria. Fortunately we dive all the different areas of the island on a regular basis, so although our own special area is the El Cabrón we were also able to show him the diving sites of the North and Las Palmas. As we were hosting Simon in conjunction with our friend Jerry of Canary Diving Adventures, we left it to Jerry to show off the South and West of the Islands.

Taking a professional underwater photographer diving was also a revealing experience. Many of our divers complain about carrying their equipment short distances, but when Simon puts his complete camera rig together with his twin high powered flash units, dome port and impact resistant aluminium housing, he has more encuberances than normal. However we are very used to helping and working with our customers, so we achieved all the entries and exits with ease without damaging Simon or his equipment. With our dive centre just five minutes from the dive sites of Arinaga, Simon was able to easily change lenses and batteries while we all relaxed and had a cup of fresh coffee between dives.

Underwater our own photographic expertise paid off as we were able to take him directly to the best view points, and find him the most interesting shots quickly and easily. Most of our favourites such as the sea horses and canarian lobsters all displayed themselves handsomely, especially the red-legged octopus on the night dive, which Simon had never encountered before.

Overall it was a really sucessful visit which finally laid to rest the ghost of the terrible review of the island from 2004, when Simon's host had tried to push his own patch by saying it was the only place to dive on the Island. Simon seemed to enjoy our relaxed style of diving, and the laid back feel of Arinaga with it's quiet restaurants and lazy promenade. We have all been delighted with the resulting article as it truely shows what Gran Canaria can offer to divers of all levels.

Visit out website to find out more about the best place to Scuba Dive in Gran Canaria

Sort out your Scuba Diving Course in Gran Canaria more easily!

2008-01-21T14:42:00.000Z

We have put a lot of effort into making ourselves easily accessible, aver the last few years, and have taken another step forward by adding SKYPE to our dive centre. You can now call our diving centre free, over the Internet, using the Skype system, to discuss your plans for scuba diving, courses or Snorkelling here in Gran Canaria.

We have already put in place a freephone number, but of course that only works within Spain; and we use automatic diverts to our mobile (at our cost) for when we are not in the office; so if you give us a call from on the Island you can almost be guaranteed a quick connection and a friendly human response.

The Skype system adds a similar, low-cost, convenient route; You can arrange your diving in Gran Canaria quite easily, and for free, without having to leave home, using either email, Skype or both.

So if you do want to get the best information, then call us on Skype now (our id is 'davyjonesdiving'), or use one of the other contact options to get information on scuba diving on Gran canaria in the Canary Islandsand we will be happy to sort out all the arrangements for you.

Great start to Diving in 2008 in Gran Canaria

2008-01-02T16:57:00.000Z

We had a great day today, first day of diving in 2008. Conditions here are really great, and to start the year we found a Harlequin Crab! Eduardo has been diving here for years and it was his first sighting in 5000 dives. Last year we had two reported sightings (one with a picture) which we followed up by finding two empty carapaces, but they are small, mainly nocturnal, and highly camouflaged so easy to overlook. We have also seen an angelshark again today and visibility is excellent.

Dive Magazine features Gran Canaria InDepth.

2007-12-20T12:26:00.001Z

In October we played host to Simon Rogerson, editor of BSAC Dive magazine. This month his review on diving in Gran Canaria has been published, along with his stunning photos. His review of Diving in Gran Canaria covers all the four major dive areas of the island.

Here are a few of his 'bigshots', and you can find more in the photo gallery of our website at www.davyjonesdiving.com or in the online magazine at www.divemagazine.co.uk

Brian

2007-12-09T21:52:00.000Z

Had a great day diving yesterday, between the team we saw at least two Angelsharks, and for the first time in the Marine Reserveat El Cabron in Gran Canaria, two butterfly rays on one dive. The latter are the most amazing creatures, as when they fly they use their wings asymettrically.

The new Highlander Bar is now open in Puerto Rico, Gran Canaria

2007-11-21T16:11:00.000Z

My friend Alex has spent the last few weeks moving his bar to a new location in Puerto Rico Gran Canaria. Despite the hassles of Spanish workers, bank holidays and officials, he managed to open the new Highlander on time, and in time for the big international football matches. His Sports Bar is on the upper floor of the Puerto Rico Commercial Centre, and show a wide range of live sports including football, rugby, golf, tennis and many more.

The Highlander is also the only authorised Rangers Supporters Club in Gran Canaria, and Alex has collected together lots of Rangers memorabillia. You should also see the new crest on the floor!

Everyone was nearly worn out getting everything together for the launch, but now it is all set up they can all sit back and enjoy a pint!.

to find out more about the new Highlander SPorts Bar and rangers Supporters club go to http://www.highlanderbar.com

Angel sharks in Gran canaria

2007-11-21T12:16:00.000Z

We recently got the first results from the survey that our scuba divers have been carrying out while diving in Gran Canaria in the Arinaga (or El Cabrón) marine Reserve.

You can read the full survey results produced by the University of Las Palmas here http://www.davyjonesdiving.com/diving/P73-Angelshark-survey-results-2007.shtml

In summary they accepted that we see Angel sharks all year round in Arinaga. If you look at the correlation between water temperature and sightings then you can see that we see more when the temperature drops below 21C in November, until it reaches 21C again in June.

Brian