October 1, 2011

It's fresh

I think there are a lot of people in the world who hasn't ever dived in fresh water. There are a lot of people who live as close to the sea as I to the local quarries. Many divers think freshwater diving is the ugly, disappointed stepbrother of ocean diving. They say it's a cheap but much worse substitute of the real diving for those who live far away from the warm tropical seashores. (It's a typical situation, by the way.) And there is a handful divers who deeply adore lakes, freshwater caves and never travel to exotic destinations.

The truth is somewhere in the middle. Yes, there are awful, murky lakes where you can be certified but it takes some time until you forgot the bad experience. I had my first open water dives in a nearby quarry, the visibility was 1-2 meters, and because we were absolute beginners it became worse in 2 minutes. My instructor couldn't see my face so he checked my mask removing by touching my face- if there wasn't a mask, I did it. Later I had dives in other lakes, some of them was better, some of them was boring and tiring. In a few dozen dives you learn the basics of the navigation and you'll be able to find the crabs and fish so normally every freshwater dive seems enjoyable.

But there are some differences. As I started exploring in the neighboring country I found the Austrian lakes much more exciting. The many fish of the Erlaufsee, the pikes of the Neufeldersee, the 40 meters visibility of the ice cold Grüner See was as stunning experience as a dive in the Hurghada area of Red Sea. I go to Austria because I love to dive there not because I don't have the chance to travel to Egypt. I'm proud to be the first amongst my friends who dived these waters on my own and shared my adventures. Since then many Hungarians visited those lakes which I reviewed in our website. There must be many more great freshwater dive spots in Europe (and even more in the World!) which worth visiting. I recommend to start exploring those lakes and rivers and find the hidden gems. I promise I'll write about my favorite ones in this blog too.

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