During the 1920s, '30s and '40s one small stretch of coastline first inspired the sport of goggling and then aqualunging. Here Guy Gilpatrick penned The Complete Goggler and popularised snorkelling. As a young man Hans Hass patrolled these same waters with harpoon in hand. Yves LePrieur invented the first recreational scuba unit and then formed the first diving club to let others tour beneath the sea using it. Crucially, Jacques Cousteau first ducked his head underwater here and was set on the glidepath that created the aqualung to which all modern sport divers owe so much. Just one location binds the pioneers who made sport diving actually happen. It's still clear, it's still warm and it's still festooned with wrecks and teeming with life. And if you are looking for quality diving close to home for just a long weekend, it doesn't get much easier. It's the South of France and Alex Diamond of Diamond Diving is going to prove to you that if you've overlooked the Côte d'Azur, you are sorely missing out on some superb diving opportunities.

This region of France has long been a favourite haunt of the Ocean Optics-Mavericks Diving team. Each year we attend the incomparable Antibes Underwater Image Festival and regularly dive from the beaches in our classic dive gear. Mark, Steve and AJ don twin hose regulators, leave the BCDs behind and throw on their 1960's cylinders to explore the same waters that diving's founding fathers did. In 2007 AJ and Steve hooked up with Alex, put on nearly modern kit (insurance and all that) and had their eyes opened to the fantastic diving to be found just offshore. There's certainly something for everyone. Photographers will find clear waters and dramatic seascapes to focus on, while fish lovers will discover shoals of damsel fish and bream, dentex, grouper and barracuda. For wreck devotees, there are not only great shipwrecks, many dived by the pioneers LePrieur and Cousteau, but also the famous Rubis---a full on mine-laying submarine. If you believed the only good diving lay at the end of a long haul flight, Alex Diamond will show how you can enjoy fantastic diving inexpensively over a long weekend just two hours from the UK.

For more details about the trip, or to attend one, please get in touch by phone or email.....