August is looking extremely busy, so we are urging clients, if possible, to try and come diving with us before or after the crazy month. There is still some space in July and September (and June and October for that matter), so why not give us a call and get away from it for a few days, do some great diving and enjoy the wonders of the French Riviera?
The conditions and weather have taken a big upturn after an unsettled start this season. Last weekend (7th and 8th June), for example, we enjoyed some excellent diving around Port Cros Marine Reserve, with the sea temperature at a very acceptable 20 degrees.
Sea-life spotted included giant grouper by the truck load, large schooling barracuda, long fat morays, a giant cigale de mer, big cruising dentex, hermit crabs, huge scorpion fish, corbs and forkbeards. On top of this everyone enjoyed the usual great hospitality and atmosphere La Londe offers.
Some great diving has also been had in all of four other destinations, including some crystal clear visibility in Antibes in May….thanks to Dave and Jim for the images….
You may have noticed the homepage now pushes some weekend packages including specialty courses. We cannot highlight enough the added pleasure and value our clients get from conducting specialty courses and the results from our last Digital Underwater Photography student are testament to this. All of the specialties can be done in one or two days, and they noticeably improve your knowledge, confidence and expertise as a diver. Plus they fit into a long weekend nicely and can be credited to the Master Scuba Diver qualification. Ask for further details, but we offer Nitrox, Wreck, Deep, Photography (normal and digital) plus Dry Suit, Peak Performance Buoyancy and Project Aware.
If anything is unclear or you want to know what we can do best thing is to pick up the phone and call 0033615305223, we can call you straight back…
May ‘08
Last weekend we welcomed a small group from Planet Scuba of Bishop’s Storford, Herfordshire (www.planetscuba.co.uk) as the first clients of the 2008 season. Diving out of Ste Maxime, a good time was had by all. Stephen Manton and clients Sean, Ian, Michael and Tony all enjoyed their diving despite below average visibility caused by some bad weather in March and April. The less experienced divers in the group had the opportunity to gain some good experience with the odd piece of sound advice from Stephen and Alex.
The dive sites included Le Relax, an old Maltese river yacht, Les Sardineaux, La Rocher de la Garde, La Seiche a l’Huile and Le Roche de Michel. This last dive included the remains of a Roman Galley recently excavated by reputed marine archeologist Jean-Pierre Joncheray. Only the outline of the hull remains with a few of the main cross beams of the hull and some fragments of amphores.
We have a busy season coming up, but there is often a way to fit people in, so don’t hesitate to call or e-mail for quotes and availability.
This weekend just gone we made it into The Guardian in a travel supplement feature on 100 top non-flying holiday ideas - read more
In addition to this we had the cover feature in TNT Magazine for the 25-30 March issue - read more
March ‘08
Last Tuesday 11th March Alex visited Ocean Optics and Mavericks Diving on The Strand and gave a talk to around sixty of their clients about the fantastic dive travel experiences the South of France offers. Steve Warren publicised the talk as “Dive Into History : Explore the waters that inspired sport diving in just a long weekend”. This presented a perfect opportunity to talk about St Raphael being the spiritual home of modern leisure diving, and the fact that Alex worked for Club Sous L’Eau for two seasons prior to establishing Diamond Diving. Club Sous L’Eau’s history is as the first ever diving club. It was also in St Raphael that Commandant Yves Le Prieur conducted trials on the first ever autonomous breathing apparatus.
Ocean Optics (www.oceanoptics.co.uk) have a justifiable reputation as one of the leading underwater photography specialists in the country. To improve their overall offering they are soon moving to Action Underwater Studios in Basildon. Here they will be able to offer photography and other courses on site and run familiarisation sessions for clients.
The main speaker was Grant Bates, trustee of The Shark Trust, who gave an excellent and varied talk on sharks, shark conservation. Grant really brought to life what amazing creatures they are, why they have survived on the planet for so long, and why they are so gravely at risk from human exploitation. For more information and to donate to or join The Shark Trust please visit www.sharktrust.org
February ‘08
The BSAC DIVERSE ’08 Conference (annual SE Region event - www.bsac-se.org.uk/diverse) on Sunday 10th February provide a great experience talk about some of the excellent wreck diving on the Cote D’Azur. A packed lecture theatre at Kingston upon Thames University, comprised of a keen and knowledgeable audience, seemed to enjoy the Diamond Diving presentation. A whistle stop tour of the history and dive experiences now presented by The Spahis, Donator, Antheor Barges and The Rubis (mine laying submarine) was deliberately chosen to illustrate the variety of the wrecks along the coast.
Alex will be doing another talk kindly hosted by Ocean Optics and Mavericks Diving on Tuesday March 11th. “Dive into History. Explore The Waters That Inspired Sport Diving In Just A Long Weekend”. Delivering the headline talk, that promises to be a fascinating insight into shark biology and conservation, will be Grant Bates of The Shark Trust. To register interest in attending this central London event please e-mail optics@oceanoptics.co.uk - tickets are £5 and all proceeds go to the Shark Trust.
Diamond Diving recently was flagged in The Sunday Telegraph travel section and we will also be featured in the TNT Magazine Diving Special which is due out on 24th March.
Finally we will be attending (not exhibiting) one day of both The London International Dive-show at the Excel in London (Saturday March 8th) and the Ordnance Survey Outdoors Show at the Birmingham NEC (Saturday March 15th). If you are around and want to chat or ask some questions please call on 07737 176052.
January ‘08
Happy New Year to you all! Welcome to the new and improved version of the Diamond Diving website for 2008. If you are considering diving with us this year we would encourage you to book early for the following reasons:
- The diary is already filling up with group bookings, so the sooner you reserve the more chance you have of getting your ideal date and destination combination.
- The earlier you book the better a deal you will get on flights
- The earlier you book the more flexibility you will enjoy regarding destination choice and course availability
- You can make an enquiry even more easily now with the standard online enquiry form. This covers off all of the information we need to provide you with a holiday price.
- This year we are selling travel insurance that covers scuba diving to 40 or 60 metres via Travel & General. The policies represent good value for money – please see the insurance section on the website.
- For those considering the PADI Open Water Course we will soon be offering eLearning. This enables all theory of the course to be done online enabling more time for in-water training on your holiday with us.
- For the more experienced amongst you we are offering a series of wreck weeks in La Londe in October next year. Please see the prices & bookings section for further details.
- We are offering a number of all inclusive deals including a weekend diving and a speciality course. This is a great way to expand your diving horizons so please consult the website under offers for more information.
October ‘07
And so to the end of the second season of Diamond Diving……highlights of course including beating the French in a Rugby World Cup semi-final in Paris!!! Also Dolphins sited in Villefranche, St Raphael and Antibes…hunting barracuda, rays, huge snapper, free swimming morays etc etc etc. Now we have The Underwater Photography and Videography Festival at Marine-land and a final few dives in Golfe Juan and off the Cap D’Antibes to look forwards to with our friends from Mavericks and Ocean Optics…this is a date worth noting for next year as the water temperature is still twenty degrees.
A huge thank-you must go to all of our clients (both individuals and dive centres) this year who have enjoyed the unique combination of great diving, awesome food and wine, and beautiful scenery that our five destinations offer. We appreciate your support!
Congratulations in particular go to out to Duncan, Gail, Lindsey, John, Amanda, Jonny, Jim, Rob, Phoebe, Dave, Rosanna, George, John, Tom M, Tim, Will, Brenna, Peter, Dilli, Max, Tonya, Ali, Jo-Ann, Rhys, Nic, Katy and Emma on passing their various PADI qualifications.
For 2008 we will continue to offer our usual range of long weekend holidays, with the following points worth noting:
- In October ’08 we will be offering wreck diving weeks around
the La Londe/Porquerolles Marine Reserve region.
- Speciality courses are a great way to build confidence and
open your eyes further to areas of interest from the PADI
Advanced Course. Of particular relevance to South of France
diving are Nitrox, Underwater Photography, Deep and Wreck
specialities. One or more of these may be completed over a
weekend.
- We do offer tailored itineraries, learn to dive weeks for groups and longer multiple destination trips…just phone or e-mail for further details
May ‘07
The couple of weeks have been spent diving with clients and
journalists at our fabulous partner dive centre on the Cap D'Antibes,
already resulting in a great write up in the regional English
speaking paper and events guide, "Let's Go Riviera". Their writer
Peter Hawkins put together a great eye witness account of his first
scuba diving experience. The dive centre has three boats, great
rental kit, generous tank fills, free private parking and great
shower facilities. Water temperature has now reached 18 degrees and
45 mins in the water with a 5mm one piece plus 5mm shorty is totally
comfortable.
Whilst diving of late we been treated to loads of octopus, doris
geant (a large colourful blue and yellow nudibranch), schooling
peacock wrasse, weird orange coloured scorpion fish (a mutation due
to the reproductive cycle I am told), morays with cleaner shrimp,
galatees and much much more. Further evidence of the migration of
tropical species to the Med is the catch of a local fisherman
recently of a 1m 30cm Great Barracuda. We hope to see some of those
underwater later in the season!
Do not forget that we offer the PADI Advanced course and a range of
specialities (inc wreck, deep, nitrox and underwater photography)
that fit nicely into a short break and are still offering good deals
for certain parts of the season. Current special offers include the
Open Water Referral (four dives, three nights) in Antibes for £325
and the Advanced Open Water course (five dives, four nights) for
£379. Please call or e-mail for further information.
March ‘07
Thanks to all of you who came along to the stand at the London
Dive Show over the weekend of March 10th and 11th. It was good to
see you all and we will be announcing the winner of the competition,
for those who entered, via e-mail next week.
Water temperatures are already at between 16 and 17 degrees,
promising a relatively warm start to the season’s diving and we look
forwards to welcoming our first guests at the end of March. All the
usual suspects await underwater with sunshine, great food, fine wine
and much more to keep you occupied when you are not in the water.
Our latest pr has been courtesy of The Guardian travel section who
included a small piece about us, to see what they had to say please
click here.
We have started taking group bookings for 2008, so to get the pick
of the dates please call or
e-mail for a quote. Finally you will see that we are now a BSAC
Resort Centre and thus understand the BSAC training system and the
prerogatives for the various qualifications.
January ‘07
A
number of our weekends are now provisionally blocked out due to a
number of partnerships and deals with UK dive centres and clubs, so
do contact us as soon as you can to enquire about availability and
prices.
Also, we are delighted to announce that we will again be exhibiting
at the London International Dive Show (LIDS) on the 10th and 11th of
March. Visit us on stand 307 to enter a competition to win a trip
for two to a maximum value of £600, or to book a trip with us.
If you are thinking of travelling out to see us between the middle
and end of May we highly recommend booking immediately as leaving it
any longer will mean prohibitive flight prices due to the Cannes
Film Festival (16th to 27th) and Monaco Grand Prix (24th to 27th).
November ‘06
The season is slowly winding down, but the quality of diving has been excellent due to quieter dive boats and water temperature staying just over the twenty degrees mark due to some excellent autumn weather. Typically, the visibility has been consistently good to excellent. Highlights have including rich dense gorgonian forests, clouds of castagnoles, giant lobsters and curious congers. We also have just enjoyed the 33eme Festival Mondial de l’Image Sous-Marine in Antibes, with some truly amazing photography and films on show.
For an impartial view of what it is like to dive in this part of the world, and experience a holiday with us please see the following write up featured in the November issue of Sport Diver magazine.
Alex Diamond, Director, has recently successfully completed his training to gain the French Brevet D’Etat (BEES 1ere Degre), making him an instructor recognised by not only the French Diving Federation, but the government. In total this qualification comprises over fifteen weeks of intensive formation, plus independent study and revision, contributing to a high level of experience, safety, flexibility and quality in all of the courses Diamond Diving conducts.
We are currently working on’07 prices and schedule (including two new destinations), and these will be on the site in the near future. For up to the minute quotes and information don’t hesitate to contact us. To get the best flight deals please note the EasyJet Spring and Summer ’07 timetable is released between late December and late January.