Scuba Geek

Scuba Diving in Greece: Athens July 14, 2006

Posted by Andy Carroll in : OceanDiving, Travel , trackback

I mentioned yesterday about a trip report written regarding diving in the Aegean Sea, and exploring the Hellenic Underwater Times a little deeper I found some great information regarding diving in Athens. Diving in Greek waters was effectively banned until recently when the Greek authorities changed the legislation to lift many of the restrictions, and so diving in Athens might become popular as it is essentially an unspoilt environment;

There are at least 4 modern wrecks in depths permitted to recreational divers and other 4 in depths reached easily by technical divers and most dive sites are accessible by car. Many more may wait to be found once the area they rest is dived a few times…

The water temperature during winter remains above 11-12 degrees Celsius. The coldest time to dive in the area being in April- early May, when temperature “may” go down to 9 degrees Celsius, the rest of the year varying in a range up to 30 degrees in shallow areas during summer, although a more accurate figure would be around 20-25 degrees below the surface thermocline. The range of water temperature around the year means that with a 5.5mm wet suit one may dive the year round, especially if one “braves it” out during the spring dives, considering that there are many days during winter that surface air temperature easily reaches 25 degrees Celsius at midday when it is more probable to go diving, sometimes in the Spring reaching the 30 degrees range.

Care still needs to be taken when diving in the area, and it is important to use a conspicuous dive marker buoy, due to small boat traffic