About DiveHaus

Why we built it

A home base for divers

Most diving information online is written to sell something: a course, a trip or a piece of equipment. That is fine, but it leaves new and returning divers piecing together the basics from dozens of sources. DiveHaus brings the basics together in one place, written plainly and kept short enough to read before you book.

The name says what it is. A "Haus" is a house, a home base you come back to. Start here when you are thinking about learning, choosing equipment or planning a trip, then head out to the destination guide that fits.

What you will find on DiveHaus

• How to learn to scuba dive: how certification works, how to choose a training agency and dive center, and what comes next.
• Scuba gear for beginners: what each piece of equipment does, what to buy first and how to look after it.
• Scuba diving safety: the habits that keep every dive safe, and how to choose a good dive operator.
• Scuba diving destinations: four regional guides comparing more than 20 destinations.

How the network fits together

DiveHaus is the central site of a network of destination guides, each focused on one place. Every destination guide covers its own dive sites, dive shops, seasons and trip planning in depth. DiveHaus does not try to repeat all of that. Instead, our region pages compare the destinations side by side, so you can choose where to go, and then send you to the right guide.

The regions are:

• Caribbean and Latin America: Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cozumel, the Galápagos and Roatán.
• United States: California, Florida, Hawaii and Texas.
• Indo-Pacific: the Cook Islands, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Marshall Islands, New Zealand and Tahiti.
• Africa, the Red Sea and the Atlantic islands: Africa, the Canary Islands, Macaronesia and the Red Sea.

If you are new to diving, the simplest route through the network is: read the three DiveHaus guides first, choose a region that matches your experience and the season you can travel, then use that destination's guide to pick dive sites and a dive center. Experienced divers usually skip straight to the region pages, which highlight the conditions, currents and certification level each place calls for.

How we write our guides

Our guides are written for recreational divers who dive for fun, within the limits of their training. We stick to well-established practice taught by the major training agencies and widely used safety guidance, and we point you to an instructor, a doctor or the operator you dive with whenever a question needs a professional answer.

Destinations change: marine parks introduce new rules, wrecks are sunk, operators open and close, and travel requirements shift. We aim to keep our pages up to date, but always check current conditions, rules and travel advice with local operators and official sources before you book.

Diving responsibly

Every destination in our network depends on healthy oceans. Throughout our guides we encourage the habits that protect them: good buoyancy so you never touch the reef, looking without touching or feeding marine life, choosing operators who use moorings instead of anchoring on coral, following marine park rules and paying park fees, and taking your rubbish home. Many of the places we cover are protected as marine parks or reserves because divers and local communities pushed for it.

We also encourage divers to keep learning. Every dive is a chance to practice buoyancy, air management and buddy skills, and short courses after certification make diving safer and more enjoyable. Our scuba diving safety guide lists the habits we think every diver should keep.

Who DiveHaus is for

We write for three kinds of reader: people who have never dived and want to know what is involved, certified divers coming back after a break who want a refresher on the basics, and active divers choosing where to go next. If you are an instructor or dive professional, our guides are meant to be easy to share with students and customers who ask where to start.

Who runs DiveHaus

DiveHaus and its network of destination guides are published by Portside Marketing, LLC. Details on how we handle your information are in our Privacy Policy, and the rules for using this site are in our Terms of Use.