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Cool Drysuit Dives
In the mood for a snowy holiday when you can get back into the water? Why not get back to your favourite underwater sport instead of hitting the slopes like everyone else? Check these incredible dive sites and explore a new underwater world in your drysuit!
The quirkiest and spookiest ice diving site in Europe is only 45 minutes driving from the capital of Estonia, Tallinn. Rummu Quarry used to be a limestone mining site and a prison. When the excavation labour ceased in the 1990s, pumps that kept the quarry dry were shut down. Soon water started flooding the entire site. After the prison closed in 2012, Rummu became an adventure centre where you can practice different outdoor sports including diving in the crystal-clear waters of the quarry and explore the sunken ruins of the prison. Diving in Rummu Quarry is also available in the winter, making it a one-of-a-kind ice diving spot. Will you dare to do it?
Who to Dive With:
PADI 5 Star Center
Sireli Tanav 11, Harju Maakond, Rummu Quarry, Estonia 76102
+372 588 733 78
If diving in frozen lakes, which have almost no aquatic life, is not exciting enough for you, Russia is the place to go to practice marine ice diving. At the level of the Arctic Circle, the White Sea is the only sea that freezes in winter as all other places are warmed up by the Gulf Stream. Leaving from the shores of the region of Karelia, between St Petersburg and the border of Finland, you can go ice diving from December to April. In addition to impressive ice formations, you can also enjoy on the rocky sea-bed a surprise abundant marine fauna with soft coral, starfish, crabs, shrimps, sea urchins and sea anemones. An important point to remember, salt-water freezes at -1.8°C!
Who to Dive With:
PADI Dive Center
Nilmaguba, Loukhski Region, Republic of Karelia, Russia
(7) 495 105 7799
You won’t find salty seas in Switzerland, but alpine lakes and rivers make for unique and mystical scuba diving.
Lake Geneva has a variety of dives to discover. Wall dives and freshwater scenery can be perused beneath the surface. There is even a wreck dive – a stellar spot for more advanced divers to take the plunge.
Another is Lake Zurich, where you can head to excellent scuba spots right from the shore. The lake is serene, with lofty mountains cascading upward from the lakeshore. Glacially fed, the lake has sublime visibility.
River divers will be blown away by the Verzasca, an impossibly clear river found just south of the Alps near the border of Italy.
Who to Dive with at Lake Geneva:
PADI 5 Star Center and Instructor Development Center
Route D’Arvel 106, Villeneuve, Switzerland 1844
+41 21 9601535
Landlocked Austria wouldn’t seem a good place for diving, but you can’t judge a book by its cover.
The Salzkammergut region of Austria has almost 170 lakes. A favourite is lake Attersee, where there are dive sites galore to check out, in this, the largest of the area’s lakes. Nazi treasures were once held in Wolfgangsee, and though you can’t take them with you, you can still see them on a dive.
During a trip here you can swim in the cold, gin clear water, checking out park benches, trees, and trails, all on a carpet of green grass. It’s unreal!
Who to Dive with at Salzburg Lakes:
PADI 5 Star Center
Innsbrucker Bundesstrasse 53, Salzburg, Austria 5020
+43 662 890259
Inspired to start your own ice diving adventure? Find out more about the PADI Ice Diver specialty and head to PADI Travel to look for amazing destinations.
International Dive Show DIVING talks 2022 takes place from 6-9 October in Troia, Portugal. Here’s four great reasons why you should attend…
1. The ‘Talks’ and the Speakers
What do you get when you have in the same room Dr Alessandro Marroni, Dr Óscar Camacho and Dr Simon Mitchell? Undoubtedly an incredible amount of knowledge in diving physiology and hyperbaric medicine. If you are a diver, you know the value of such a debate.
What do you expect to see in a Bill Stone presentation?
Wouldn’t you like to discuss with Thomas Stachura, Leigh Bishop or Armando Ribeiro their findings underwater in the expeditions that led to the discovery and identification of new shipwrecks?
2. The Exhibition: brands and trials
It’s about talking with ‘who knows’ and testing that piece of equipment even underwater if you want!
Friday, October 7, is BRANDS DAY. Try dive the Mares SCR Horizon, test your preferred scooter, and more. Bring shorts or a swimming suit. This is happening in the swimming pool. Join us on October 7. Diving Talks is also Brands Day!
3. DIVING talks is a family/ partner friend event
You don’t need to leave your family or partner behind.
If you want to attend, transform this trip into a partner or family trip to Portugal. There are many things they can do while you enjoy the Talks.
It is not that you need to have something planned. The peninsula is such a fantastic site to enjoy; there’s the beach if you want to relax by the sea, there are trails you can check out, or you can relax by the pool.
4. YOU CAN ACTUALLY DIVE!
If you have free time and want to explore Portugal underwater, DIVING talks can be the pretext for a ‘stay and dive’ side-program.
Diving talks partnered with Portugal Dive, a boutique dive concierge that organizes dive trips to Portugal; the mainland and in the Azores and Madeira archipelagos.
Diving recreational or technical, you can expect the European Atlantic’s most transparent waters full of life, schools of fish, the big pelagic, and even monk seals: all that and wrecks, inland caves, you name it.
Opt to arrive one-week earlier or leave one-week later, and chose the stay and dive program for your type of diving and preferences.
For more information, contact Arlindo Serrão via e-mail: arlindo.serrao@portugaldive.com or check out the following links:
- Website www.divingtalks.com
- Facebook www.facebook.com/divingtalks
- Instagram www.instagram.com/diving.talks
- Twitter www.twitter.com/divingtalks
Blogs
Jeff chats to… Ana Filipa Sobral, Founder of The Manta Catalog Project in the Azores (Watch Video)
In this exclusive Zoom interview, Jeff Goodman, Scubaverse Editor-at-Large, chats to Ana Filipa Sobral, Founder and Project Leader of The Manta Catalog Project in the Azores.
Ana Filipa Sobral is a marine biologist and conservationist based in the Azores Islands. She moved to the Azores in 2011 and once there, realised that this was one of the few places in the world where Sicklefin Devil Rays (Mobula tarapacana) gather in large groups, making it a strategic place to study them. She started the The Manta Catalog Project and through this project, collects photo ID and occurrence data on Mobulid Rays, with the precious help of divers and dive operators as citizen scientists.
Ana is also finishing her PhD which focuses on population genetics and connectivity of migratory elasmobranchs in oceanic islands in the Atlantic Ocean. The main goal fueling my research has been to help fill the knowledge gaps on elasmobranch biology and ecology to ultimately assist in the design of effective conservation and management plans aimed at protecting their populations in this remote region of the North Atlantic Ocean.
You can find out more about Ana’s important work at: https://mantacatalogazores.wixsite.com/mobulaid/project.
Rather listen to a podcast? Listen to the audio HERE on the Scubaverse podcast channel at Anchor FM.
DIVING talks 2022: 4 great reasons why you should attend!
Jeff chats to… Ana Filipa Sobral, Founder of The Manta Catalog Project in the Azores (Watch Video)
DIVING talks 2022: the discussion we all want to hear
DIVING talks 2022: all you need to know about this year’s event in Portugal
Wining and Diving – The Azores
Cool Drysuit Dives
The underwater wonders of the UK’s seas, a story in photographs
Scuba Diving and Marine Life: Monkfish or Anglerfish (Watch Video)
Jeff chats to… Arlindo Serrao, Founder of PortugalDive.com about diving in Portugal, The Azores and Madeira (Watch Video)
Diving in Switzerland #6 – The Tadpoles are growing!
Diving in Switzerland #5 – Rediscovering a forgotten dive site
