Scuba diving in Cuba
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- Category: Info
- Published on Thursday, 30 May 2013 13:20
- Written by Super User
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The reefs and walls surrounding the Cuban maritime platform offer, to the beginner as well as to the advanced diver, as much if not more than any scuba diving area in the world. We currently offer 31 scuba diving centres at 18 different zones with 100´s of scuba diving sites, and new areas are being developed everyday. Cuban diving waters are pristine, with very little pollution or coral destruction, perfectly preserved, and providing an underwater paradise of more than 50 species of corals and 200 species of sponges. With average normal visibility of 30 to 40 meters, divers will find an abundance of hard corals such as brain, pillar, stag horn and Elkhorn, and among the soft corals, spectacular gorgonians, sea fans and plume worms. |
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Barrel and tube sponges, sea urchins, spiny lobsters, coral shrimp and crabs are also widely present.
Dozens of species of fish, including brilliant tropical species, swim among the reefs in undulating schools or wait in solitary patience for their next morsel. Moray eels peer from their caves, an occasional squid or octopus drifts by, and not-to-be-feared sharks, barracudas and rays often appear. Many sites include diving to wrecks and in caves of the marine platform. Normally the centers provide two dives per day and night diving is available at most. The centers have fast, modern dive boats for swift access to the sites, and all have on-board oxygen and VHF communications.
Instructors are certified by PADI, SSI, ACUC or CMAS, and centres can usually provide multi-lingual instructors. All areas have 24-hour medical care. Beginners at all centers can qualify to dive with a few hours of study and training in a pool. Cuba has five hyperbaric chambers dispersed regionally, and the centers can provide an unlikely emergency evacuation by helicopter if ever needed. And to preserve our sites, we practice a "Look, but don´t touch, and don´t take" policy. Diving is a year-round sport in Cuba with water temperature varying little from the yearly average of 24 C (76 F). Wherever you dive in Cuba you will find modern, comfortable accommodations to suit your budget with plenty of interesting activities for you and members of your party who do not wish to dive.
If you have never scuba dived, consider entering this incredibly beautiful world just beneath the surface of the sea, an experience that will surely change your recreational priorities for a long time. And if you are an experienced diver, come to Cuba and try its challenges for the first time. We are here to help you plan your trip, and we can easily arrange diving at different areas and centers for you during the same trip. Experienced divers should remember to bring their C-Card with certification level along with their logs. NAUI safety standards are applied at all centers, and all dive areas have sites for novices as well as for intermediate and advanced levels.
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