Dive sites/shops around Nice?

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You could try this French forum:
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Plongeur.com.

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Ninja Edit: Don't worry about speaking French. They will answer you in English.
 
Nice is a great area for diving. Many dive charters, many dive shops. Most dive sites are in the Bay of Villefranche sur Mer and at Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat accessible by boat for most of them and for all kind of certifications (the recreational limits for diving in France are 200' which means if you want to dive deep, you need to have the proper certification to handle deco stops !) There are also some nice shore dives.

In Nice I would particularly recommand the dive shop Sub-marine. They have lots of stuff for sales and you can easily rent some tanks with air or nitrox.

I spent nearly 5 years there. I miss this place.

(yeah and plongeur.com is also a good forum to discuss about french diving, I am a moderator there :D )
 
Scubacastor:
Nice is a great area for diving. Many dive charters, many dive shops. Most dive sites are in the Bay of Villefranche sur Mer and at Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat accessible by boat for most of them and for all kind of certifications (the recreational limits for diving in France are 200' which means if you want to dive deep, you need to have the proper certification to handle deco stops !) There are also some nice shore dives.

In Nice I would particularly recommand the dive shop Sub-marine. They have lots of stuff for sales and you can easily rent some tanks with air or nitrox.

I spent nearly 5 years there. I miss this place.

(yeah and plongeur.com is also a good forum to discuss about french diving, I am a moderator there :D )

Thanks both for the info.

The recreational dive limits are 200'?!? Nice.....I deco dive to 160' as my personal limit since I am not certified for trimix as of yet. I will have to check to see if this shop rents doubles and deco bottles with a hot 02 mix.

Are there any general traveler suggestion you can offer for Nice? Best economical places to stay? Any areas to avoid, etc?

Thanks

--Matt
 
Matt,
October can be hit or miss weather-wise, as it is the start of a rainer season. You can expect the water to be in the 70s, so a 5 mil is OK most of the time, 6 mil w/hood a better bet. You have a very wide range of accommodations to choose from in Nice and surrounding areas, from 5-star to budget. As for diving spots, like scuba castor said, Villefranche and St-Jean Cap Ferrat are the main spots. CIP Nice is also a good reliable dive op, been around a long time, although some have said they're not the friendliest crew. If you go further west you can hit Antibes-Juan les pins and my hometown, Cannes, with some great spots there too (Iles de Lérins off Cannes are my sentimental favorites). You will most likely be doing one dive in the am, one in the afternoon (if you so choose), as there is no 2-tank dives with 20 minute intervals in France, unless things have changed since I last dove there (2001). In Nice and touristy areas in general, beware of pickpockets, don't leave your stuff unattended in any circumstance, thieves are very quick. Bon voyage et bonnes bulles.
 
Yes, in France, the recreational limit is set by law to 200' but your max depth and your autonomy (guided or non guided dive) is determined by your certification. For example a CMAS ** is autonomous until 66' , guided until 133' while CMAS *** are totally autonomous up to 200' . You'll probably find strange that most of us, french divers are not diving trimix at these depths, most of the time it's air (which means we don't stay deep much long and we must know how to self-detect any sign of narcosis). Nitrox or O2 deco are becoming more and more popular. There's no tek charter in Nice. You can find one "Eau Bleue" in Cavalaire (great place for deep wreck diving) , about 100 km from Nice.

You can easily get any % of nitrox and O2 in HP (3500 PSI) steel in 15liter or 18liter tank. I've never seen any double for rent there as well as AL tanks (very rare in France). I don't know where you can get some trimix. Most of my local tek-friends are making their own blends in their garages. If you dive with a dive charter, you can rent directly the missing equipment from the charter. Be aware that you may need a medical certificate signed less than one year if you plan to dive with a dive charter.

Deep dives in Nice are absolutely wonderful. Lots of giant gorgonians, very deep walls with high visibility. Lots of life. You can watch two of my videos there (max 140 ft first, 180 for the second):
http://lsys.free.fr/plongee/vallee.wmv
http://lsys.free.fr/plongee/grandbaie.wmv

In Nice, don't expect to find lots of good deals. Everything is relatively expensive compared to other areas in France (it's like California :wink: ). I would avoid to stay in Villefranche and Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat as this is the rich and touristic part of the area although there are some nice and inexpensive restaurants there. I think you can get some better deals close to Saint Laurent du Var (not much to see there - business/mall town) or Cagnes sur Mer (cute and nice suburbian area) but you'll need a car to go to Nice or Villefranche or take one of the numerous commuting trains that will leave you 15-20min walk away from the port.

Enjoy!

Lionel
 
I agree with plongeursousmarin about unattended stuff in cars and also the fact there's no 2 tanks dives (but the charters are cheaper than in the US).
 
Great, thanks for the information. Do you know of some shops with a website? I want to check out prices and ask a few questions. I assume they will accept my TDI certifications. Do shops typically do the deeper dives with steel singles?

I have my airfare but I need to finalize my hotel (in both Paris and Nice).

Thanks again.

--Matt
 
Actually, dive shops in France are often different from US LDS. Most of the time they don't book any charter or trip but they will give you lots of useful information. Dive charters are generally totally autonomous and they own most of the time all the equipment you would rent in the US. Basically in most cases you don't need to arrange anything with a dive shop if you want to dive on a charter and don't have your equipement.

99.9% of dives are made with steel singles (15L 3500 PSI) either DIN ou INT. You can bring rented bigger tanks if you want and you'll get a discount on the price of the charter.

I think most of them recognize TDI. The major trouble in France is with PADI certifications (sometimes people don't wnat to recognize these certifications) but TDI is a tekkie organization. We greatly appreciate people who are used to do deco dives.

In Nice, you can check : http://www.sub-marine.com/ for equipment. (select then "boutique" for the online store). In Paris you can buy some equipement at "Le vieux campeur" (nice friendly store) http://www.au-vieux-campeur.fr/gp/asp/categories.asp?codfam=21
A nice place to buy equipment online in France is www.scubaland.fr (They are not in Nice) You can get direct rebates by registering on their website.

For the dive charters:
http://www.cip-nice.com/
http://www.nicediving.com/ (IANTD and PADI compliant)
http://www.capferratdiving.com/ (PADI Compliant)
http://www.poseidon-nice.com/fr/
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/nautile.plongee/nautile/francais/fmainmenu.html
 
matt_unique:
Great, thanks for the information. Do you know of some shops with a website? I want to check out prices and ask a few questions. I assume they will accept my TDI certifications. Do shops typically do the deeper dives with steel singles?

I have my airfare but I need to finalize my hotel (in both Paris and Nice).

Thanks again.

--Matt
Just one more thing about how the French dive: generally the buddy system is not common. Depending on people's levels, an instructor goes down with a group at a certain depth. The group can vary but rarely exceeds 6 divers, it is called a "palanquée". Depending on your TDI level, you may be allowed (I'm using the term loosely) to dive with people of your level or above without supervision, so may have several buddies instead of just one. If the dive operation is strictly PADI, the buddy system may be more prevalent but 100% PADI outfits are rare in France, generally clubs or dive charters are affiliated to the French federation 1st (and CMAS, etc.) and then PADI and others.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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