Local Shore Dives
Once You’ve Learnt to Scuba Dive, the Adventure Is Only Beginning
Getting your scuba certification is a wonderful achievement — but we know that taking those first dives after your course can sometimes feel a little daunting.
Where should I dive? Who will I dive with? Am I experienced enough? What if I’m not as confident as everyone else?
At Central Coast Divers, we understand.
You don't have to be the most experienced diver in the group, and you certainly don't have anything to prove. We simply want to help you keep diving, gain experience and become more comfortable and confident underwater.
That’s why we encourage you to join the Central Coast Divers Dive Crew.
Come along, meet other divers, explore our local dive sites and enjoy diving with people who genuinely want to see you succeed.
Your Confidence Matters to Us
A certification teaches you how to scuba dive. Confidence develops through experience.
Every dive gives you another opportunity to practise your buoyancy, become familiar with your equipment, improve your air consumption and navigation, and learn how to comfortably manage different diving conditions.
And you don't have to rush.
If you're newly certified, returning after a break or simply feeling uncertain about your diving, talk to us.
We can help you choose dives that suit your certification, experience and confidence. Sometimes the best next step isn't a deeper or more challenging dive — it's simply an enjoyable, relaxed dive that leaves you feeling more confident than when you started.
That's what social diving should be about.
Local Divers Looking After Local Divers
We’ve been social and club divers on the Central Coast since the early 1970s, and since opening our dive centre in 1984, we’ve helped generations of divers learn, gain experience and discover the underwater world.
After more than 50 years exploring these waters, it’s fair to say we know the Central Coast above, below and underwater!
Our dive centre at Killarney Vale is centrally located, with some fantastic diving only a short distance away.
Depending on conditions, you can explore sheltered bays, seagrass beds, rocky reefs, kelp-covered terrain and deeper reef systems — all home to an amazing variety of local marine life.
Ready to Try Something New?
As your experience and confidence grow, your diving opportunities grow with you.
You might explore different shore dives, join one of our boat dives, continue your training or eventually experience one of the Central Coast's most recognised dive sites — the ex-HMAS Adelaide off Avoca Beach.
There is always another step available, but you decide when you're ready to take it. We're here to help you make that decision and find diving experiences that are appropriate for you.
Haven't Dived for a While? We'd Love to Welcome You Back
If your dive gear has been sitting untouched for a while, you're certainly not alone.
Life gets busy. Months can pass between dives, and returning to the water can sometimes feel more intimidating than expected.
Please don't let that keep you away from diving.
Tell us how you're feeling. If you'd prefer an easier dive, some additional assistance or a refresher before heading back underwater, we'll help you find the right way back.
There is no embarrassment in asking for help.
In fact, recognising when you need a little extra support is part of becoming a responsible diver.
Newly Certified? Keep Diving
If you've recently completed your Open Water Diver course, one of the best things you can do is keep diving while your skills are fresh.
Join social dives. Meet other divers. Try different local sites. Practise your buoyancy and navigation. Become comfortable assembling and using your equipment.
Little by little, dive by dive, things become easier.
Eventually you stop thinking so much about how you're diving and start spending more time simply enjoying the underwater world around you.
That's the confidence we want to help you develop.
Come and Join the Crew
Whether you've completed five dives or five hundred, there is always another adventure waiting.
Come diving with people who care about your experience, your enjoyment and your confidence.
Meet new buddies. Explore the Central Coast. Improve your skills. Discover new dive sites and, most importantly, keep enjoying the reason you learnt to scuba dive in the first place.
Explore the Coast. Build Your Confidence. Meet the Crew.
We look forward to welcoming you — and diving with you.
Terrigal Haven
Check out all the animals that call the haven "home"- Big bull rays, Bat wing rays and sand Skate, along with schools of yellowtail waiting for you to swim around with them.
A rock wall extends from the haven and you will even find a large anchor propped up against the wall. This area is also holiday home to several Grey Nurse sharks and a breeding area for small Port Jackson sharks.
So much to see in such a small area, always something different every time you dive here.
Your first night dive should be at a place you have dived previously, where you feel comfortable and has easy access, with good parking close to the water. Terrigal haven has all this and more.
Large bull rays swim around here at night. Look out the ever present Blue Gropers asleep in their rocky holes. The shiny Bullseyes are out swarming about and watch small sting rays glide over the sandy floor looking for tasty shells and molluscs coming out of their sandy burrows.
Swansea Channel
When you first enter the water and drop down to around six to eight metres, you will find the return marker made up of scuttled shopping trolleys and pushbikes.
Swansea Bridge has several spans each holding its own colony of marine life including Decorator crabs, Pineapple fish, large blue eels, fan bellied leatherjackets, nudibranchs of so many different colours, to name a few.
Night diving here is a great experience when the current is slack. Watch out for the small things, blennies poking out from the rocks, small eels, octopus and small cuttlefish sleeping in the algae fronds.
For the more adventurous, a drift dive during an incoming tide is a great bonus. Enter near the RSL club and drift under the spans, all the way in, to the western boat ramp.
Cabbage Tree Bay
Great little site, with a sandy and rubble strewn bottom, schools of yellowtail swim about you here at night. The Blue gropers are asleep in their holes and the schools of small fish are now out and about foraging.
Perfect site for beginners that just want to get in some more practice.
Maximum depth here is 8 to 10 metres.
Catherine Hill Bay Wharf
Catherine Hill Bay was aptly named after the “Catherine Hill” was wrecked in the bay in June 1867.
The southern headland of Catherine Hill Bay provides several dive sites with depths ranging between 3-30 meters making the area also suitable for snorkelers.
The headland has dozens of swim-throughs and over-hangs, which are fun to investigate.
Divers can inspect the remains of the "Wallarah" around the coal loader jetty.
Skillion Cave
This would have to be one of the best shore dives on the Central Coast. You jump off the rock platform to the left of the Skillion, swim out a little and you will soon be over deep water. The cave can be found by following the wall to the left and is home for schooling fish and hosts an enormous colony of Jewel Anemones.
Contact us for more information about shore dives coming up
Contact Us For Local Dive Dates
Use our contact page to send us a direct enuiry.
Regularly posted updates on local dives around the area.
Phone
Feel free to give us a call on 02 4389 3483.