Diving in Greece bad experience

Hi all,

just wanted to let know to the SB members my experience of diving in Greece: It was bad, not because the enviroment but because we get harassed all the times with authorities asking for papers and documents. Is not enjoyable at all, one of us even had to go to the coast guard office to show documents, we felt as criminals when we did absolutely nothing wrong. Beside that it was also a little too expensive. I will never go diving again in Greece, maybe you will be more luky...

 

Thanks for sharing! You are not the first reporting overregulation from the country Maybe you were diving close to some secret military installation or ancient, unpublished wreck.
Were you diving with a local dive center?

 

Hi there, no we where not diving in any forbidden area, I know the regulations about forbidden ancient sites as I stayed in greece over two months and not for the first time. Beside that we dove with a local diving centre and, apparently, the dive centre itself was harassed by coast guard plenty of times before.
It is just that the country is declining in any aspect and it is starting to look a sort of a messy "police state" in my opinion.

 

That's strange where were you diving in Greece I've been diving off the island of ios for that last 2 months and had no problems...

 

These kind of problems can easily be local in nature... If the local coast guard commandant has no clue about turism & diving plus he "has to show some numbers" to
keep his job, I can easily imagine the situation.

Anyway, harassment of tourists is quite suicidal for the country, they are the only ones bringing money IN the country apart from IMF... Anyway, I'll probably spend my euros
in Croatia and Egypt, former being closer, latter being more interesting for diving.

As for harassment by the authorities: if all documents were right at the sea, and they repeatedly checked during the day, it may be a reason for complaint in the Human Rights
Court in Strassbourg.

 

I was on Zakynthos this month and we had a series of wonderful dives without ever seeing any coast guard patrol or even harbour police.
Maybe that was because the dive OP has worked there for nearly 30 years and knows how to get along with authorities.

 

I can only speculate and suggest that perhaps that dive center has had a history that makes the authorities suspicious. I certainly wouldn't say that all diving in Greece is bad because of this incident with one specific dive center and one specific location.

 

Did a couple days of shore diving a couple years ago in Greece with a local shop. Never saw coast guard. Zero paperwork. Pleasant experience.

 

Greece was used to be like that until recent times, I know the place very well as I own a sail boat there and, until now, I passed at list two months a year in the country with my whole family. A lot of things changed in the country and I am sorry for this as I was used to like it very much. Now I am starting to have another view of Greece, it is changing for the worse also in the society itself. Beside more burocratic and police harassment you also start to see young muscolar aggressive individual dressed in black even in the small villages near the sea. So putting all this toghether I am seriously thinking of moving my boat and try another country to dive and sail and I repeat: I am so sorry because I used to love greece.

 

Firstly, thanks for coming here and, without even introducing yourself first, trying to smear an entire country in your VERY FIRST post.
I can see that you haven't even bothered to provide any details about your diving in your personal profile either.

Now you have witnessed "young muscolar aggressive individual dressed in black even in the small villages near the sea"....
So, not in just ONE village... But in VILLAGES.

Just curious...
You haven't seen any flying saucers???
Or any flying Greek Coastal Guard patrol boats (painted black!!!) flying around in a aggressive manner, kidnapping foreign divers, who were never seen again?

Tstststs....