Diving for Residents
The underwater environment is the largest open space (and least crowded) of the Maltese Islands. It’s also the only place that retains most of its natural beauty with little human interference and a diverse range of species and other life forms, some of which you’d think they are coming from a different world.
Residents of the islands are blessed with the opportunity to train and dive in local waters all year round. It’s no coincidence that tens of thousands of scuba divers come from all over Europe and beyond to dive here every year.
Whilst the surrounding sea will cool down in winter the the chilly temperature of 14/15 degrees, in reality only about the first 4 months of the year are really considered to be cold (January-April), which can be dealt with using the appropriate cold-weather wetsuits and drysuits. If you’ve never tried your hand at scuba diving, let us give you some tips.
Training – choosing with who you take your first steps (or better, blow your first bubbles)
Essentially there are two main pathways to get trained in scuba diving in Malta:
- Training with a local Dive Centre (Commercial): Local dive centres are not just for tourists, and some will be happy to give discounts to train local divers in the quieter months. Divers also tend to build relationships with their dive centre and continue renting equipment or getting air fills and obtaining more training qualifications from the dive centre they started off with.
- Training with a local Diving Club (NGOs): Some of the local Diving Clubs provide the opportunity to be trained and get certified through its club instructors. The difference will be in availability of training sessions and range of training, however the pace of training is much more focused on practice and the local environment, Clubs however also provide the opportunity to forge long-lasting buddy relationships and provide regular opportunities for boat dives at the club members’ price which is normally significantly lower than that of commercially organised dives. The educational and social events calendars are also something to look out for with diving clubs, and they sometimes also give a hand in environmental action such as underwater cleanups which are much more fun than you may think initially, and rewarding.
Visit our Diving Directory to see information about Diving Centres and Diving Clubs.
Visit our Introduction to Scuba Diving to learn more about what Scuba Diving training entails.
You’re trained?
If you are sufficiently trained (which for our islands this means the equivalent of PADI Open Water + Advanced Open Water, or CMAS 2*, or BSAC Sports Diver or equivalent), then either book your dives with a local diving centre, join a club, or go with an at least similarly trained buddy.
You can choose from plenty of diving sites, but make sure you are fit for the dive and check the weather!