Babbacombe 

OK, so everyone has heard of Babbacombe as a shore-dive site and seen the stunning photographs taken by many an underwater photographer while under the surface there. I must admit that even as a local the draw of Babbacombe was some-what lost on me for a good few years and it was always a 'backup' site for rough weather. Not anymore! Thanks to a number of excellent dives during one autumn the beach here is now thoroughly in my division-one diving list.

For me Babbacombe is actually 3 opportunities to dive: You have the 'straight off the beach' (N) one that seems to be a great favourite with novice training dives, then there's the shallow jaunt around the rocks to the left (W) of the beach, and the third takes you away towards Long Quarry Point (ESE). In this guide I will try to talk you through each one and give you some idea as to what you can expect.

Firstly to some 'housekeeping'. Babbacombe is very well equipped for divers and rightfully attracts many clubs and schools all year round. This popularity highlights the one major failing of this site... car parking! The very small car park is down the bottom of a VERY steep and narrow hill and if you are hoping to dive in the summer months an early start is a must. The early risers, however, are rewarded with stunning sunrises over the pier, tranquil blue waters, bacon butties from the beach cafe, public toilets and the pick of the parking places.

Air is available form the cafe, but if they're not pumping then the Divers Down shop is a 2min drive up the hill - just get someone to sit in your parking space!

Dive 1: Off the Beach

You will see many training dives heading straight out from the beach in a northerly direction towards Teignmouth in the far distance. This is an interesting and varied dive that will take you over the shallow pebble beach and on to a sandy/muddy bottom with plenty of rubble to harbour all sorts of marine life.

Visibility in Babbacombe bay can get up to an exceptional 10m after a clear run of weather (No East or North East winds), and on a sunny day this is a beautiful spot. After about 200yards, there is a small 'wall' that dips down by a metre or two. It is worth wile spending some time here to spot the Tube Worms or Squat Lobsters who call this place home. At high tide, you will now head into 12 to 14m of water.

Carrying on past this point will bring you a mixed bag depending on your luck. Out beyond the small drop off there are reefs, sandy deserts and weed beds... and I'm sorry to say I cannot direct you to any of them in particular! Being a photographer I am happy in any of these environments as there is always something for me to look at. Probably the best route to take is to brush up on your navigational skills and dive in a square to cover as much ground until you find something of interest.

Always, always get into the habit of looking around you at Babbacombe. It is a favourite mating ground for cuttle fish and it is not unusual to see paired couples, mating fights or large groups of males lurking around out here. It's well worth the legwork!

Heading back into the beach is as easy as heading South, though beware that if you went a long way East and didn't come back, you may well end up near the pier and get hooked by one of the anglers there, not fun!

One word of warning on this dive is to look out for boat traffic, and their associated mooring lines. I would really recommend a SMB on this dive but do take care not to get tangled in the many chains or ropes that lead up from the sea-bed. Given good visibility this shouldn't really be a problem.

Dive 2: Round the Rocks 

Starting from the small slip-way just to the left of the cafe, this dive is very different from the beach dive. For starters it is a very shallow dive, and hence best done at high water, and secondly the terrain you will cover is quite different too. From the surface this dive is quite easy to explain: standing at the bottom of the slipway looking out to sea you will have a protrusion of rocks to your left where the footpath becomes a wooden walkway. Basically you will be heading 'round the corner'!

Head off in a Northerly direction for a few minutes to get a bit of depth, probably only 7 or 8m, then head West or North West. Initially you will encounter flat rocks sticking out of the sand/mud sea bed that will be covered in mats of Snakelocks Anemones. Take your time here and try to find one with a resident spider crab living amongst its arms. To me diving is all about observing natural behaviour, and seeing the partnership between two species is quite an experience.

Past the flat rocks are some quite large boulders, some 4m tall that offer vertical environments for sponges and anemones to thrive on. There is one that has a small swim though if you are lucky enough to find it. Around these rocks will lurk Dog Fish, Wrasse and Topknots. 

These large boulders will give way to a bolder field of smaller rocks which is where I saw my first Trigger Fish in UK waters. It wasn't just me either as a number of divers have reported seeing it over the past seasons so hopefully it will be back year-on-year.

If you find yourself getting into really shallow water, it is probably time to turn round and head back the way you came. Keeping on a depth contour while heading East or South East will eventually bring you back to the slipway from where you started the dive. Be careful at the bottom of the slip though, because it will live up to it's name with the weed growing on the concrete!

Dive 3: Towards Long Quarry Point

I will level with you here, I do this dive more often than not as a freedive because I can cover more ground, there is less boat and diver traffic than the other two dives, and I can spend all day long out there :-) I will talk you through it as a scuba dive, but in my heart I'll be breath-hold diving it.

Many a time when I am sitting on the beech wall just 'chilling out' before my freediving, I see a SMB heading out and around the end of the Pier much to the annoyance of the local fishermen. These chaps, by rule, are not angry people, but I must admit to feeling some sympathy for them when their tackle gets caught up in surface marker buoy, or worse, a diver. If you plan your dive to the right point in the tide there is no need to swim around the pier at all.

So that's where we will start this guide. Walk from the car park towards the Pier and you will see a very small cove to your right before the Pier wall starts. At the mouth of this cove is a high concrete wall for sea defence - this is where we are going to start our dive... AT HIGH TIDE :-)

Get kitted up on the rocks is easy here because the sea wall gives you a very calm little pool to sort yourself out in. Once ready surface swim over the rocks immediately to the right of the sea wall, and then you can either descent straight away (onto Kelp and Sea-Whip) or continue swimming round the headland to your right (SW) for a minute or so before heading down.

Navigation on this dive is easy, it isn't often in the UK that you can quite the Red Sea Dive Guide's favourite saying - 'Keep the reef on your right shoulder', but on this dive we can! It really is that simple. The lie of the land is like this - to your right (on the outward journey) you have the rocks at the base of the cliffs, then a thin area of shale/rock/sand/mud then further out still is a barren sand/mud landscape. So it pays to dive the simple right shoulder/left shoulder route here.

There is plenty of life in amongst the boulders as you would expect (Wrasse, Crabs, Sponges, Sea Cucumbers, Anemones, Fan Worms) and swimming out over the shale area will let you see the bottom dwelling life on offer (Dogfish, Flatfish, more Crabs, Wrasse). Depth here at high water will not exceed 14m and will probably be shallower depending on where you set your depth over the boulders.

Depending on how energetic you feel, and how good with your air you are, there is a nice little cave to visit about 350 yards along the cliffs, just before a slight 'bay' appears in the land. Here also there are a number of large rocks acting as reefs in the otherwise desert like sandy areas.

As with all dives around this area, the pleasure is in stopping to really take in what you can see. If you settle lightly on the bottom for more than a few dozen seconds you will be amazed how many fish re-appear who hid when they heard/saw/felt you coming! If there is one thing I have learned as a freediver it is that scuba kit is NOISY! Fish will happily ignore you if you allow then some time to accept you as friend and not foe... so give it a go and see what else you can spot!

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