My day scuba diving in Canico de Baixo, Madeira
Whilst on holiday in Madeira, I was so excited to see that you could dive on the island. After learning to dive in Bali in 2023, it was time to flex out the old muscles and see how diving in Europe compares.
Read on to find out all about my time scuba diving in Madeira!
About diving in Madeira
When we booked our trip to Madeira, I didn’t know much about diving there. However, it’s definitely something you can do; there are dive centres in Funchal and elsewhere on the island.
Most of the dive spots appear to be concentrated around the southern and eastern coasts. These include the Garajau Partial Nature Reserve as well as smaller reefs across the south-east of the island. Others head to Porto Santo, a nearby island, for their diving fix.
Choosing to dive in Madeira
I was very excited when I discovered that diving was popular in Madeira. My sister, Lou, and I had learnt to dive during our four-month long trip through Southeast Asia in 2023. We did the Open Water Diver course in Amed, Bali, then dived in Vietnam and Cambodia as we continued our travels.
I loved diving in those countries. With warm water and coral reefs, there was a lot to see in these locations. There was so much biodiversity, with turtles and manta rays, incredible swarms of fishes and developed reef systems. However, since returning to the UK, I hadn’t gone diving; I’d love to, but the cold water and comparative lack of things to see put me off.
So when we saw that you could dive in Madeira, Lou and I knew we had to give it a go. I missed the feel of being underwater and figured there might be some interesting wildlife to see along the way!
Which dive centre did we go with?
Our hotel was situated in Canico de Baixo on the southern coast of Madeira, which made it super close to several dive centres. After some Googling, I went with Atalaia Diving Centre, which operated out of a hotel around ten minutes’ walk from ours. With a range of dive sites nearby, it made complete sense to dive with them.
I sent Atalaia an email and booked it directly with them. They offer a minimum of two dives, which I booked to begin around halfway through our holiday.
Lou and I were both a bit nervous as we hadn’t dived in the last ten months. However, we did a fair bit of research beforehand to brush up on our knowledge and prepare ourselves for what lay ahead.
Arriving at the diving centre
On the day we were due to dive, Lou and I headed to Atalaia Diving Centre early to register. We had checked out the location a few days before – as you have to go through the hotel to get to the diving centre, it would’ve been tricky to find with less time available.
The diving centre is set on the side of the cliff just below its affiliated hotel in a fairly picturesque position, with wide sea views. One of the dive guides greeted us on arrival. We filled in the necessary paperwork and received our rental equipment for the dive.
Afterwards, one of the guides took us on a tour of the diving centre: short, as it is quite small! Still, it was reassuring to see their safety equipment for emergencies.
Preparing to dive
Once the tour was over, our first task was to assemble the equipment in preparation for the first dive. This went okay, although on several points we ended up getting a bit of help. I could only be thankful for the YouTube videos I’d watched the day before!
We then met our dive guide, Ainhoa, who ran us through a pre-dive briefing. It would just be three of us in the group – Lou, another guy and me. She showed us a diagram of our dive site, Canyon Reef, which is a volcanic formation with many canyons and valleys.
On a side note, she also explained to us that once we got in the water, we would need to do a couple of safety exercises to make sure we were safe to dive. Although nerve wracking, this also felt reassuring, in that the dive centre was mindful of the safety aspects of diving: always good to see when you’re about to embark 20 m beneath the ocean surface.
Starting the first dive
Once our kit was on, we headed down to a small jetty. From the surface, the ocean seemed choppy, and I wouldn’t have wanted to swim in it. However, once I jumped off and swam away from the jetty, it seemed much calmer.
As you might expect from someone who hasn’t dived in a while, at this point I encountered my first problem of the dive: my mask kept filling with water. Ainhoa adjusted it for me and it seemed much better. I still had to clear it at several points, but it never got in the way of the dive.
My second problem: my initial descent took FOREVER. In fact, Ainhoa ended up giving me a tug down, as I just wasn’t going anywhere. It was a continual problem throughout the dive, that I ended up ascending all the time. Not my finest buoyancy skills! For the next dive, I’d take an extra kilo to help weigh me down.
Into the dive
Before going anywhere else, we paused above the rocks for our safety drills. One: emptying water from our masks. (This was easy as my mask was filling up anyway, so I’d already practised it!) And two: the dreaded out of air situation. Lou and I switching alternative regulators was a little clumsy, but we survived it (literally).
And then we were off! We headed away from the coastline, towards Canyon Reef.
The dive was fairly leisurely, but we saw a fair bit. Right at the start we saw garden eels. Before this dive I’d only seen them at the aquarium, where they are very small and don’t care who’s watching them. But under the sea, they were attuned to our movements. We had to lie on our fronts in the sand to allow them to emerge without caution. They moved with the water as far as the eye could see.
Then we headed into the canyons, weaving in and out between the rock formations (which were quite stunning, by the way). Ainhoa kept checking to see what was inhabiting the cracks between the rock faces, and whenever she saw something she’d call us over to look at it. There were several species of moray, looking right at us and clearly unimpressed at being disturbed.
We saw bright red cleaner shrimps with long antenna and a small shoal of barracuda, which I was so excited to see after visiting a hotspot for barracuda last year in Siquijor, Philippines, and seeing absolutely none. There were a fair few yellow and white fish swimming around with an apparent lack of bother at seeing us – I guess they’re used to divers by now – and even a small octopus.
Between dives
After our first dive, Lou and I were quite happy (the classic post-dive buzz). We booked to join the dive that afternoon – it was already getting busy during the week, which we hadn’t expected, and I wasn’t sure what our plans were for the rest of the holiday. Doing our second dive when we knew we were free made sense.
We then headed off for a much-needed break back at our hotel, where we had time to raid the buffet and have a quick drink.
Preparing for our second dive
We headed back for the 1:30 meeting time for the second dive, excited for what was to come next.
This time, our dive guide was Pedro, and we were in a group with four others. A group of six was the biggest group I’d ever dived in, so I was apprehensive, but the others seemed to have a lot of experience. (One of the guys afterwards told us he had over 2000 dives!)
As we were waiting for the last person to show, Lou and I assembled our gear with plenty of time to spare. I was pretty impressed with how well it went – until we went to suit up…
I had grabbed the wrong BCD (that’s the lifevest you wear in diving). It turns out that the BCD was of the Scubapro brand, whose logo features an ‘S’. when trying to get a small, I’d actually grabbed an extra large!
It was not my best move and meant that I was frantically trying to sort out my equipment whilst everyone else was ready. Even with the dive guide’s help, I was so disoriented and ran out of time to do my final checks until we were right by the water: not ideal.
Beginning the second dive
You might be able to tell how this is going: not well.
For me, the dive was incredibly messy. As with the first dive, I had mask problems at first, but on top of those mask problems, my buoyancy was all over the place. It meant that I kept having to empty my mask – and whenever I did, I was less focussed on my buoyancy, so I began rising or falling uncontrollably. My air control was not working and I kept over or underinflating my BCD, without much effect.
This brings me to the scariest moment I’ve had on any dive. Right at the start, as I was emptying my mask, I sunk and lodged myself between two rocks. Anxiety got the better of me, and I began to panic as Lou and the dive guide swim away.
Fortunately, because our group was so big, one of the divers at the back of the group saw me and came to my aid, giving me a hand out of the rocks. Never have I been so grateful to have experienced divers in the group!
If I hadn’t started the dive so disoriented, who knows: maybe it would’ve been okay. Ultimately, I have to chart it up to a lack of practice. But even so it’s a moment where I cringe inside just thinking about it.
Continuing along the second dive
For the second dive, we headed along Easy Track, another of Atalaia’s house reef spots. The scenery was comparable to Canyon Reef, with similar rock formations, but we spent longer heading along the sandy gradient next to the rocks.
We saw similar animals. Lou saw another small octopus (I completely missed that one), and we saw a field of garden eels again. There were shoals of little fishes and more shrimp.
Pedro fixed my mask for me at the start of the dive and I didn’t have any more problems with it (I wish I had those mask-adjusting skills too!). But I have to say, my buoyancy continued to be so bad; I was up, down, up, down, and my air control was poor as a result. I ended the dive with less than 50 bars in my tank, when in the past I’ve been on 70+.
No wonder that, once we got to the final spot, the dive guide ushered me onto the jetty first. Normally I like being as late out as possible, so I get the maximum time in the water, but not this time: I was just relieved it was over.
Finishing off
I was so glad to be done after that second dive. When the guide asked us if we wanted to book in for another dive, I had to try not to say ‘no’ too enthusiastically.
I really enjoyed the first dive, but my confidence was just not there after the second, and ultimately with how expensive diving is, I have to be confident I’m going to enjoy it. There were so many other things we hadn’t done in Madeira.
I was happy with how much I saw during my dives and wouldn’t hesitate to dive with Atalaia Diving Centre again!
The details
I dove at Atalaia Diving Centre in Canico de Baixo, in the south-east of Madeira. It cost €115 (£95) for two dives, including equipment rental. They offer two dives per day in their house reef – we did them both on the same day but you can mix and match.
