Going to France, need help

[ABC_tha_DIVER]

Hi scuba board,

I am going to be going to Nice, France this summer ad i was informed that I will have an entire free day and I am more than interested in trying to fit some scuba into my day. I don't have any idea how to go about making these plans though. Does anybody know the requirements of diving in france? How much it will cost? A place that speaks english? Please help me.

I am 17 years old and PADI open water certified if that helps.

 

[Air One]

Hi.
The requirements are :
-a diving cert
-a medical cert saying you're OK for diving.
You've got the first one.
You can easily have an appointment at a local GP, it normaly coasts 22 or 23 €.
If you plan to dive on your own, there is no restriction, just rent the gears and go.
(this is not a good idea according to your experience).

The best thing to do is to call or send a mail at a local dive op ( like this one for example : Nice Diving Scuba Dive Center of Nice => I don't know them), you chek if they are a PADI dive center and you ask them for the medical cert.

Avoid the exclusive FFESSM dive op ( french diving federation).
No problem with a FFESSM + PADI dive op.

Being an OW you will have a dive guide, no way to go diving with another OW.
Your max depth will be 25 m.

 

[Diver0001]

Avoid the exclusive FFESSM dive op ( french diving federation).
No problem with a FFESSM + PADI dive op.

This is an important point if you're visiting France.

The FFESSM (CMAS) shops probably won't take you diving at all if you have a PADI cert and from what I've heard from people I know some CMAS shops will be quite rude to you about it as well. Don't take it personally, it's just bigotry, which is never personal.

The point is, you seriously need to look for a PADI shop. In addition to your medical clearance you'll probably need to show them your log book as well.

if you look at the bottom of this web page you will find a number of references to shops in the Nice area. I don't know any of them but it gives you somewhere to start.

R..

 

[ABC_tha_DIVER]

thanks guys, definately a start!!

do you think they offer any resort type dives so that maybe I could have another member from our trip to dive with me? I dont think anyone else is certified

 

[Scared Silly]

When I lived in Antibes (20km west of Nice) I dove with what is now http://www.easydive.fr. It is an easy train ride from Nice to Juan Les Pins. They typically dive around the light house which is a nice little dive that is in the 20-30m range.

 

[Satyre]

This is an important point if you're visiting France.

The FFESSM (CMAS) shops probably won't take you diving at all if you have a PADI cert and from what I've heard from people I know some CMAS shops will be quite rude to you about it as well. Don't take it personally, it's just bigotry, which is never personal.

The point is, you seriously need to look for a PADI shop. In addition to your medical clearance you'll probably need to show them your log book as well.
R..

It is in fact more complex than that. By law only French or CMAS dive certifications are recognized in France.
So even if you dive with a PADI dive shop, besides few exceptions or how well they know you, they won't let you buddy dive. You will have to be always under the supervision of at least a French or CMAS divemaster.
The 1st time I dived in France I had my PADI Divemaster cert and they treated me like a beginner (a French OWD). Now that I am a PADI Instructor, I will still have the same kind of treatment except if I show my CMAS 3* certification card and then I am free.

 

[Air One]

It is in fact more complex than that. By law only French or CMAS dive certifications are recognized in France.

Wrong.
It's in fact more complex than that.

I dont think anyone else is certified

Never mind, the dive shop will find a buddy for you and it will be an instructor.

 

[Diver0001]

Well that certainly explains a few things. I knew people were encountering some bigotry about it but I wasn't aware that CMAS was defined in the law as the only legitimate training organisation.

R..

 

[Marek K]

Not sure how all this has changed in the last 20 years, but I suspect it was at least as strict back then.

My wife and I dived for a week in Hyères (between Marseilles and Nice) in 1991, with a German dive operation -- run by and catering to Germans (we were living in Germany at the time, and I speak German but not French). We were PADI AOW certified, with about as many dives as you have now.

We were able to dive on guided boat (Zodiac, actually) dives with no problem.

These were by no means shallow tropical dives. I'd have to check my log book, but as I recall they were all to at least 60 or 80 ft, with several dives right down to 130 ft -- using 12-liter cylinders (like 80 cu ft), obviously air. Water temperature was rather cool (7mm full farmer john, hood, gloves), with a very cold thermocline at about 100 ft. Not exactly murky, but viz wasn't that great.

I think the reason we didn't run into the CMAS issue in our faces was that this was a German operation, and the whole CMAS thing is just as puzzling to the Germans as it is to us. The operation was used to dealing with non-CMAS certified foreigners.

May be worth in your case exploring an operation there like that in Nice?

 

[explorer08]

Not sure how all this has changed in the last 20 years, but I suspect it was at least as strict back then.

My wife and I dived for a week in Hyères (between Marseilles and Nice) in 1991,

Things have changed a lot in France since 1991.
They got a very restrictive law in 1998 which has been changed somewhat in 2008.
Generally it is what Satyre wrote today at 12:43 PM.

The good news is, meanwhile there exists an agreement between PADI and the french federation concerning crossovers.
http://www.taucher.net/download/TABLEAU_RECAPUTILATIF_DES_PASSERELLES_E.pdf