Diving in Lanzarote at Playa Blanca

Diving in Lanzarote. Mini and I are both divers at heart. Even if our logbooks are not covered with hundreds of dives – we are on our way. While in Playa Blanca we went diving with Dive College and it was great. One of the hardest thing when you come to a new country is finding a safe and good place for your diving.

Diving at Playa Blanca with Dive College

Since Mini and I had not been diving for about two and a half years, we wanted to find a nice and safe place to get back into diving. We checked around and ended up driving to Dive College. The first thing that we always look for when picking a diving company is safety. It has to feel safe – and what makes us feel safe? There are several things we look for. Like for example, are they asking us about our diving experience? Do they want to see our certificates? What does their equipment look like? Is it well maintained? Where do they fill up their air bottles?

All those criteria were fulfilled while visiting the Dive College. And best of all – they are one of the tour operators that can take you diving at the Museo Atlantico. So after hanging out here for a while, we decided that this was the right company for us. And since we haven’t been diving in two and a half years – they wanted us to do a refresher dive before we booked the Museo Atlantico. Said and done – we booked the refresher dive for the next day.

Dive College – Takes you diving in Lanzarote

This is a company that has been running since 2001. They are located right by the beach in an awesome environment. And that they have a shower with hot water is a huge plus! Since our dive was in December, the water is about 20 degrees Celsius. That is the coldest water we have ever been diving in. But that is not a problem. Their wetsuits are long and 6 millimeters thick so you don’t get cold.

They offer different courses and you can take your PADI here or several specialty courses. We only did two dives with the Dive College since we didn’t have time to do more but they were both really good. The refresher dive takes place just outside of the Dive College and the dive site is even called “Dive College House Reef”. Marian, one of the owners was the one taking us to do the dive.

Diving the Dive College House Reef

So we went to the Dive College for our dive and after a reschedule and a delay – we were off to the dive site. The maximum depth was nine meters and we had 40 minutes of bottom time (all you divers out there know what I’m talking about). There are no reefs in Lanzarote but there is a lot of nice fish to watch and we had a really nice dive. We got lucky enough to see an Angelshark that was resting on the bottom of the sea. We also got to see an octopus and loads of other colorful fishes.

When you have dived in locations as the Maldives, Mexico and Similan Islands, you are pretty spoiled when it comes to great dive sites. But this was a really nice dive. We quickly got into the routine of diving and we both enjoyed the dive. We felt really safe at all times so two thumbs up for Marian.

Dive College – a great place if you want to go diving in Lanzarote

We recommend Dive College, wholehearted. They are super friendly and they really care about safety and are all about giving you a great experience. They also have a pool where they offer you a free dive so that you can feel how it is to breathe underwater. Check them out and decide for yourself!

Choosing the right diving company

Here is a small checklist of things that we look for when looking for a diving company that can take us out diving. There are lot more things to think about but here are our main things that we look for. Needless to say that Dive College passed the test!

• How many questions do they ask? This, according to us, shows how serious the company is. They are not just after your money, they want to know how experienced you are. So a lot of questions is a good thing when it comes to diving.
• How does their equipment look? Look around and see what the equipment looks like. Is it well maintained? Is everything in order? Our experience says that if it is chaos at the dive shop, it will be chaos with the equipment to.
• Where do they fill their bottles? This is an important question to ask. We went to a diving place and saw that they were filling their bottles outside at a parking. That is not good since there might come in air that is polluted with exhaust from cars. You want the air in your bottles to be clean!
• What is your gut feeling telling you? This is the most important tip. How does this place feel – do you feel safe? It is really important that you feel comfortable and safe with the people you want to take you diving!