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The
Torbay and Paignton area have become very popular for
diving. Torbay and Paignton diving offers both beginners and advanced
divers good diving opportunities as there are shallow dives for
novices while the more experienced have the challenging wreck
dives. Marine life is abundant and porpoises,
dolphins and occasionally basking sharks are spotted.
Always dive according to your level of training.
Never enter the water without checking with the local dive center
for safety, additional information, level required for each dive
site and without being accompanied by a professional. All the
information provided is purely informative for our readers and
shouldn't be used as is to plan your immersion.
Devon's coast has rich marine life including
whales, dolphins and basking sharks. These wonderful
creatures come regularly to Torbay but the number is diminishing
due to the large numbers of people. Groups of Harbour
porpoise as well as seals are often sighted. The
best time of the year to see dolphins is June to August.
Some dive sites around Torbay are:
Babbacombe beach is a nice little cave. On entering
the water from the pier swim out to the sea all the way to the
ledge. Here the rocks drop off and there's a sandy bottom that's
quite shallow. There's a kelpy area on the right of the ledge
which is teeming with life which includes some cruetaceans
and congers. To the left, if you continue swimming across
the sandy bottom you will reach an interesting cliff.
Fairy Cove is safe, shallow dive site and is
located within Torbay. The access is from Paignton harbour. To
reach Fairy Cove swim until you hit the edge of the rock shelf.
On descending you will reach a sand sea bed with rocky inlets
and abundant marine life. If you keep the shelf to your right
and follow it for about 100 metres (328 feet) you will come across
the the wreckage of the E.Boat T.289 in about
8 meters (26 feet) of water.
There are many wrecks lying off Torbay.
The Bretagne can be found at 28 metres (91 feet).
She stands upright and is in pretty good condition.
The Galicia is in about 17 metres (56 feet) of
water and is home to big conger eels. However
she is pretty broken up. The accessibility of the wrecks
varies, some have quite easy access while others tend to be a
little tricky.
The more experienced diver may need to go to
the deeper waters offshore and this requires a boat. Two very
popular dives are Shoalstone and Shag Rock.
Here you will see lots of soft coral, anemones and sponges.
For the more adventurous diver there is Berry head, Morris Rogue,
the Orestone and Thatcher Rock which offer great marine life and
make superb drift dives.
Paignton Pier is a very shallow dive and may
be maximum 8 metres (26 feet) at high tide. It's therefore a site
to dive if you just happen to be there. The structure of the piles
that support the pier stretch out into the water before you. The
whole dive is pretty much the same with a sandy bottom and the
muscle/barnacle encrusted structure around.
Beware if you go under the pier, watch out for
discarded fishing nets or lines and there's a lot of fishing going
on so be sure to be cautious and always have a knife with you
and dive with a buddy. There isn't much weed on the structure
therefore on good days the visibility is great. The bases of the
deeper legs of metal have numerous muscle beds which are home
to hermit crabs, starfish and shore crabs while the sand
has a few anemones.
This is not an eventful dive but from Paignton
you can easily go to any of the exciting dive sites closer to
Torbay.
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