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Does anyone know where I get get information about diving in Austria? Type of diving, what there is to see, best time of year to go?
I've looked on the internet but can't seem to find much (Maybe I should be looking in German?) Camaro is from Austria, so there must be some decent diving there.
Hi,
I hope it's not too late to answer! I dived several lakes in Austria, and I can say they have some really nice ones. Maybe the most special place is the Gruner See, which can be dived between May and August, and famous about the wonderful, clear water. Visibility is up to 40 meters!
Erlaufsee is good place to meet pikes and other fish. I had good experiences in Traunfall, Klopeinersee, Attersee as well. Most of the lakes are free to dive, with several diving spots, you can find parking place, toilets etc. There are many dive centers where you can rent anything you want.
When to go? The lakes in the mountains are cold under 10 meters in any time of the year, but I would say from spring to autumn most of the lakes are OK for diving. I suggest drysuit or thick wetsuit all year. In the winter diving is more complicated, many of the lakes are frozen and ice diving has special rules.
This is a really good website about Austrian lakes (in German):
http://www.taucher.net/tauchfuehrer_...ebersicht.html
And here is a video about Gruner See diving, shot by me.
Hope I was able to help.
Rudolf
Nice Post and video Rudolph.
You can make your YouTube video show in a post by clicking on that multi-colored film reel icon.
And welcome to the SMN Community!
Just read a blurb in Sport Diver (Jan-Feb '08 Page 60) about diving Lake Wiestal in Austria. 32 degree water and 130 feet of viz at 2600 feet above sea level. And me without a dry suit (yet).
There was no info about dive ops, but the article did say that most people who dive the lake stay at the Weyregg alpine resort, so that might be a place to start. Hmmm, diving and alpine skiing all on the same day...
The article actually lists 5 diving destinations in Austria...Lakes Wiestal, Traunsee, Attersee, Grundisee and Wolfgansee.
Mountain Dog
I confess the name of Lake Wiestal was new for me. Anyway, as I looked it in the map, I saw with the other 4 lakes you mentioned all of them are in Salzkammergut, close to each other. Basically every austrian regions have some interesting lakes. Gruner See and Erlaufsee are in Steiermark, Klopeinersee in Karnten, Samaranger See in Tirol... I think Tirol is the place where the easiest to find world class diving and skiing as well. But ski is not my piece of cake.:)
Altough Austria is not a huge country, so we regularly goes there to dive from Hungary, but Tirol is too far away for a weekend trip. So the Samaranger see and Fernsteinsee are still on my "must dive" list in Austria. I think Austria is one of the most interesting destinations in Europe: the Alps, nice lakes, Vienna, Salzburg... There are a lot of nice but cheap B&B accomodations, tidy villages, good diving centers, nice people. I visited many countries, but Austria is still one of my favourites.
Thanks for the info. I was in Tirol this past summer but could not find any info, mainly b/c my friends were not divers and didn't know of any divers. I am planning on diving the next time I go :)
The place is gorgeous; you feel like you're in a postcard. & now that I've been on the mountains I really want to see what's in those waters.
As I wrote before, Tirol has some exciting dive place. I found this website about Samaranger See.
Elche,
Thank you for the info and the links so I can look in the right direction. Unfortunately I can't read German so it's taking me some time to translate and navigate the pages :p
Those underwater photos look gorgeous. I am definitely going back for the diving :)
& the food is soooo good :)
I have never seen water so clear that you can see things out of the water so clearly. That alone is worth a dip!
It's a stunning experience. And freezing: in the clearest lakes the water temperature is not more than 45 F (7 Celsius) even in the summer. Even in a drysuit I rarely dive more than 40 minutes. But at least these lakes are shallow, so it's possible to dive twice with the same tank...
40 minutes is not too bad at that temp. Maybe some warmer undergarments would help. If you don't have a ice cap for under your hood, one of those will also help. Dry gloves also make things better but they are a pain to deal with.