RELAXED TRY DIVES FOR BEGINNERS IN SOUTH TENERIFE
Scuba Diving Tenerife Beginners | Try Dive Los Cristianos
Scuba diving Tenerife beginners guide: try dives in Los Cristianos, Adeje & Las Americas. Calm, safe & PADI-guided. Perfect for nervous first-time divers.
By Brian Harrison, PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer · Sea Wolf Scuba · Costa Adeje, Tenerife
5/27/20266 min read
Let me guess. You're on holiday in Los Cristianos or Costa Adeje, you've walked past a few dive centres, maybe clocked some footage on TikTok of people underwater looking unreasonably relaxed, and now you're Googling "scuba diving Tenerife beginners" at some point between the pool and the buffet.
Good. You're in exactly the right place.
I'm Brian. British PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer, based in South Tenerife. Sea Wolf Scuba is my operation — small, mobile, deliberately unbig. I take beginners diving. Mostly British tourists. Mostly people who've never breathed underwater before in their lives. Some of whom were convinced it wasn't for them right up until the moment they surfaced grinning.
This post is for you if you're on the fence. Let me get you off it.
What Actually Is a Try Dive?
A try dive — officially called a PADI Discover Scuba Diving experience — is a single session that takes you from never having worn scuba gear to actually diving in the ocean. No certification required. No previous experience. No swimming ability required either, but more on that in a moment.
It's not a taster where you bob around in a pool and tick a box. It's a real dive, in actual open water, with a qualified instructor right beside you the whole time. The kind of experience people talk about for years.
In South Tenerife, that means warm Atlantic water, visibility that regularly hits 20 to 30 metres, and a decent chance of bumping into something extraordinary — turtles, rays, octopus, cuttlefish, angel sharks resting in the sand. On a beginner dive. Without going particularly deep.
Do You Need Any Experience?
None whatsoever.
The entire point of a try dive is that it's designed for people who've never done it before. Every single thing gets explained before we go anywhere near the water. How to breathe through the regulator. How to equalise your ears on the way down — same as a plane, and honestly more satisfying once you get the hang of it. The hand signals. What to do if something doesn't feel right. All of it.
By the time we get in the water, you're not guessing. You know what you're doing. Or more accurately — you know enough to let me handle everything else while you focus on looking at things.
Do You Need to Be a Good Swimmer?
No. You don't need to be able to swim at all for a try dive.
I know that sounds like I'm fibbing, but I'm not. Scuba diving is not swimming. When you're kitted up — wetsuit, fins, buoyancy control device, tank — the equipment does the work. You're not propelling yourself through the water. You're floating in it, hovering, breathing slowly. The fins move you gently. The BCD keeps you at the right depth. Your hands do approximately nothing useful and shouldn't, honestly.
I've taught people of all ages, all fitness levels, all swimming abilities — including people with physical disabilities and missing limbs, because the underwater world belongs to everyone and the kit adapts. And for what it's worth, I did multiple try dives myself before I ever learned to swim properly. Couldn't swim. Still went. Still loved every single one. That's actually how I ended up doing this for a living.
Why Two Dives in a Day Is Worth Considering
A single try dive at €89 is a complete experience and worth every penny. But there's a reason I recommend the two-dive option at €129 to most beginners.
The first dive, if I'm being honest, is mostly about your brain catching up with your body. You're processing a lot — the breathing, the pressure, the weightlessness, the fact that you're underwater and the world looks nothing like it does from above. It's brilliant, but you're also aware the whole time that you're doing something new.
The second dive is where people usually stop thinking and start just... being underwater. Air consumption drops, buoyancy settles, the nerves disappear entirely. Most people describe the second dive as the point it properly clicks — when they stop feeling like a beginner and start feeling like a diver.
It's the same experience, but more than twice the time in the water. For most people that's the obvious choice once they understand what the difference actually feels like.
Is It Safe?
Yes — when done properly. You have seen my Tiktok pointing out more people die worldwide annually ironing clothes than learning to scuba dive, and you wouldn't get overly anxious over ironing some chinos.
PADI is the world's leading scuba certification organisation. Every try dive I run follows PADI's Discover Scuba Diving programme, which is specifically designed to be safe for complete beginners. The depths are controlled — 6 metres on the first dive, up to 12 on the second. Shore dives in sheltered bays rather than jumping off boats into open water. Skills practiced in shallow water before we go anywhere.
And at Sea Wolf Scuba, you're never in a group of ten people being processed through a production line. Maximum two students per instructor — and I'm usually the only instructor, so it's often just you and me. That matters. It means I can read how you're doing, slow things down if needed, and make sure the experience is actually good rather than just technically completed.
What Will You Actually See?
This is the bit people really want to know.
South Tenerife's underwater world is genuinely special. Warm, clear Atlantic water, volcanic rock formations that look like the set of a sci-fi film, and marine life that surprises people every time. On beginner dives in and around Los Cristianos, Costa Adeje and Playa de las Américas, it's common to see:
Shoals of colourful Atlantic fish — parrotfish, wrasse, damselfish, bream
Octopus in their little rock dens with their giveaway garden walls of shells and rubble outside
Cuttlefish doing their hypnotic colour-changing thing
Maybe a Ray cruising across the sandy bottom
Green turtles — not always, but when we hit lucky, theres some videos on our media
In winter Angel sharks lying flat in the sand, invisible until they aren't
You don't need to go deep to see any of this. You don't need to be certified. You just need to show up and look.
You can see it on the Sea Wolf Scuba socials too — real students, real advice, real rants,real dives, real reactions. Check out TikTok and Instagram, links at the bottom.
Why South Tenerife Specifically?
Because the conditions here are exceptional for beginners.
Water temperature is 19 to 24°C year-round — warm enough that you're comfortable in a wetsuit without it being a battle. The south of the island is sheltered from the trade winds, which means calmer sea conditions than the north or east. Visibility is consistently excellent. And there are shore dive sites accessible year-round within a short drive of every major tourist area — Los Cristianos, Playa de las Américas, Costa Adeje, Las Galletas, Palm Mar, all the way round to Abades on the southeast coast.
It's genuinely one of the best places in Europe to try diving for the first time. Not because anyone says so, but because the conditions physically make it easier and more enjoyable.
Why Sea Wolf Scuba?
Because we're not a dive centre, we're a dive experience.
Sea Wolf is small, Lobo and I come to you, we take you to the right site for the day, and you have my full attention throughout. One or two people maximum per instructor. British instructor who knows exactly what it's like to be a nervous British tourist standing on a Tenerife beach wondering what they've signed themselves up for.
We're not the cheapest option in South Tenerife,. I'll be straight about that. But when it's life-maintaining equipment and a qualification that matters, you get what you pay for. I'd rather you knew that upfront.
Ready to Book?
Try dive: €89 for one dive, €129 for two dives in a day (recommended). Operating across Los Cristianos, Costa Adeje, Playa de las Américas and South Tenerife. All equipment included. No experience, no swimming ability required.
Drop us a WhatsApp or get in touch through the site. Tell me when you're here, how many of you there are, and whether it's your first time. We'll sort the rest.
(Lobo comes to every dive. He waits in the minibus. He's judging everyone.)
Sea Wolf Scuba — beginner scuba diving and PADI try dives across Los Cristianos, Costa Adeje, Playa de las Américas, Las Galletas, Abades and South Tenerife. British instructor. Small groups. No pressure.
Ready to Join the Pack?
Tell us your dates and whether it’s your first time diving.
Quick replies, clear pricing, zero pressure.
Meet Your Instructor (and the Sea Wolf)
I’m Brian, an English PADI instructor based in south Tenerife. I specialise in calm, confidence-building first dives for beginners.
Sea Wolf Scuba is a small, personal operation — slower pacing, tiny groups, and a strong focus on safety and comfort. I’m usually joined by Lobo, the little “sea wolf” who inspired our logo and supervises the surface intervals.
