In this post I want to give you a small taste of what kind of diving background I come from and what the diving in Sweden can be like.

A while back when I sat planning my weekend of studies preparing for the end of my semester the phone rang. On the other end Robert, one of my dive students from last summer told me about how he had planned going on a dive trip that weekend, but now he would be stuck at work. Being such a great guy Robert called to ask if I wanted to take his spot on the trip. Being faced with the choice of diving some of the best spots in Sweden or studying the whole weekend I didn’t have to think long.

Just a short trip north of Gothenburg eleven divers arrived at Hamburgsund which has the islands Väderöarna just outside, famous for their rich fauna and good visibility (for Sweden). Here we stayed at Dykleif that takes care of everything, sleeping quarters, food and diving. They have three boats and capacity to take a lot of divers every day but this weekend it was just us there, giving us a lot of space.
Saturday morning greeted us with sunny weather but quite strong winds but the captain Anders assured that the boat could take on the waves. The catamaran Triton was up to the task and we arrived safely to the islands in good spirits.
We made two dives with a long lunch break on an island between and I can say I was impressed by the richness of life.
In springtime the waters are still a bit cold for the fishes but I was warm and cozy in a brand new Halo 3D undersuit from Fourth Element in the 7 degrees water.

I spent the dives working with the Light & Motion housing and trying to find the right angles with the lights. There was no lack of motives at these beautiful exposed dive sites. It was high season for nudibranchs and I counted between twenty and fifty each dive, me being something of a nerd was happy to tick of two new species.
When heading back towards land the wind had  abated and the sea was calm. It was a happy group of divers cruising in the afternoon sun in the Swedish archipelago.
The evening was spent eating good food, talking about the dives and having a sauna.
Next day the sun kept shining and everyone was eager to get back out to these beautiful sites. Another great day with visibility over 15m had the whole boat smiling.
As we headed back home we all agreed that these islands were worth many more visits.

Since I spent most of the dives trying to learn how to use the film camera I didn’t take too many underwater pictures, but at least you can get an idea of what it was like.

As soon as I can there will be another post out about an interesting trip I took last week.