My Diving Demo Resort

Grand Baie is the natural starting point for the best dives in the north of Mauritius: the lagoon to learn, walls and wrecks twenty minutes away by boat, and the islets of Coin de Mire when the sea allows. The centre sits in the hotel garden, a few steps from the beach. People come for a dive between two lazy days, to take their first certification as a family, or to dive one wreck after another for a week.

The team is eight strong: four instructors, two captains and two deckhands, one crew for each of the two boats, almost all of them born in Mauritius. They speak English and French and have known every site for years. Groups never exceed four divers per guide, which leaves time to look for the moray deep in its hole or the frogfish sitting still on a sponge. The briefing takes place on the centre's terrace, with the site drawn on the whiteboard, then again on board before each dive. The centre is a PADI centre: the certification cards it issues are recognised worldwide, and divers trained elsewhere (SSI, CMAS, FFESSM) are welcome with their card.

It all starts in the hotel pool: the try dive and the first skills take place in clear water with no waves, then the first sea dive is in the lagoon, over white sand a few metres deep. The centre teaches from Discover Scuba Diving to PADI Divemaster: Open Water, Advanced, Rescue, and the most popular specialties, deep diving, nitrox, wreck and navigation. Theory is done on the veranda, in peace, or online before the trip to keep the days free. Children start from 8 years old with the Bubblemaker, always in the pool.

Dives are run from two boats. The main one is an open 11 metre dive boat with a canvas roof against the sun, padded benches, tank racks and a wide boarding ladder. The second, a smaller twin-engine speedboat, takes small groups and goes to the most distant sites. Both leave from the hotel jetty. On board: water, fruit, towels and a freshwater tub for masks and cameras.

The centre rents complete, well-maintained equipment: wetsuits, BCDs, regulators, dive computers, masks and fins. Tanks are filled on site, in a separate room, with the centre's own compressor. Nitrox is available for certified divers: each tank is analysed in front of the diver before leaving. Divers who bring their own gear can leave it at the centre for their whole stay.

The northern reefs are rich and easy to watch: green and hawksbill turtles, eagle rays gliding over the sand, giant morays cleaned by their wrasses, frogfish, leaf fish and nudibranchs for those who like to look closely. Schools of batfish circle the Caravelle, trevallies and tuna hunt along the walls. On the way out, it is not unusual to meet dolphins.

The water ranges from 23 °C in the southern winter (June to September) to 28 °C in summer (December to April). Visibility often exceeds 20 metres. In winter, the trade winds raise a swell offshore: the centre then chooses the sheltered sites of the lagoon and the north-west. From January to March, a cyclone can cancel a few trips.