We offer half-day trips with two dives in different dive sites. The meeting at the dive center is usually at 08:30 in the morning. The departure from the marina is at 09:00 and the arrival around 14:00. Between dives, we offer our guests hot tea, drinking water, fruit and snacks. For the most chilled, it is possible to do only one dive per trip. The diving trips may also be scheduled for the afternoon. Special day trips to some remote dive sites can be organised on site.
Dive Groups & Safety
Safety in diving is our top priority. Properly trained and experienced instructors and dive guides will lead you in the water on every dive, helping you identify fish and showing you the most beautiful underwater scenarios.
Every diver should know his/her own limits and dive safely. At Dive Azores we always plan multilevel profiles and dive conservatively within the non-decompression limits.
Groups are limited to a maximum of 5 divers per dive guide and we do our best to match divers with the same level of experience. A detailed briefing is made prior to each dive and our crew will help you into your gear when the boat gets on site. Then you just roll over the side and enter the water. Once at the surface, at the end of the dive, hand up any gear that you are carrying (cameras, torches, etc.) - on board there is a big plastic box with fresh water to rinse the cameras and torches immediately after each dive. Next, hand up your weights and then your BCD/tank unit. At last, remove your fins and walk up the ladder. While removing your fins be sure to maintain contact with the ladder. Divers should exit one at a time.
Each diver will be required to have the following minimum safety equipment on each dive: whistle or air horn and safety sausage. A dive light and a chemical light stick or mini Strobe is required for all night dives. Limited quantities of these items are available for rent at our dive centre.
All our divers have to fill in the medical form of RSTC. In case of any doubts or if the answer to any question is YES clients have to consult a physician and bring the doctors certificate with them (not older than 1 year). Therefore and in order to avoid delays we recommend that you fill out the form before arrival.
Dive Insurance
We strongly recommend our guests to purchase comprehensive dive insurance. Dive Insurance covers divers in the event of a dive accident, usually providing medical coverage, chamber treatment and air evacuations.
DAN (Divers Alert Network) and Aqua-med offer several types of insurance plans and also a free Travel Assist Service for its members.
Check DAN Europe website at https://www.daneurope.org . If you are not European or you are living outside Europe check for DAN America, DAN Southern Africa, DAN Asia-Pacific or DAN Japan. Check Aqua-med dive insurances at www.aqua-med.eu/en/index.html
Decompression Chamber in Faial
There is a functional decompression chamber in Horta Hospital.
Hospital da Horta: +351 292 208 200 or +351 96 339 76 99
DAN Europe emergency hotline (24 hour): +39 06 4211 8685
Aqua-med emergency hotline (24 hour): +49 700 34835463
OUR CODE FOR RESPONSIBLE DIVING
Divers can help conserve a healthy natural environment by minimizing their own impact through individual actions and choices. Maintaining neutral buoyancy throughout the dive and collecting litter (plastics, fishing nets, metals, etc.) from the sea/bottom are good examples of what we can easily do locally to help preserving the world’s oceans.
Bearing in mind the words of Jacques Cousteau – ″The best way to observe fish is to become a fish″- our goal is to provide our clients enjoyable, but environmentally-friendly diving experiences that increase respect and knowledge of marine species and ecosystems.
All our divers have to subscribe to our Code for Responsible Diving:
- Understand and respect underwater life.
- Dive carefully to protect fragile aquatic ecosystems; secure gauges and octopus regulators so they don’t drag.
- Practice and maintain a proper buoyancy control and avoid over-weighting.
- Be conscious of your fins. Avoid full-leg kicks when diving close to the bottom; when you inadvertently kick something, stop kicking!
- Take great care in underwater caves or crevices. Spend as little time within them as possible, as your air bubbles can damage fragile organisms.
- Photographers should take extra precautions, as cameras and equipment affect buoyancy.
- Avoid touching, handling, feeding or hiding on aquatic life. These actions may stress the animal and provoke aggressive behaviour in normally nonaggressive species.
- Avoid collecting shells or any other marine souvenirs.
- Be a role model for other divers and nondivers when interacting with the environment.
- Keep the oceans clean: collect any litter you may find and take home all you trash. Plastics, hooks and fishing nets are a serious threat to marine life!
- Don’t buy products made from any endangered species, including tortoise-shell and coral or other natural items, such as shells, sea stars, shark teeth, etc.