Where is the coldest commercial diving site?

Question

When I did my diving course, I was told that it was much easier diving in warm waters so if you finish your course in colder seas, you don't have to have a diving skill check before your recreational dive with a new diving operator. On the other hand, if you finished your courses in warm waters, they test your basic skills before they let you underwater.

If I understood correctly, cold waters are considered those that are not in tropical seas so not that chilly to start with but I would like to know where the coldest place that offers PADI diving courses is? That diving school should not be specializing in cold-water diving but should have all the courses, starting with Open Water Diver course.

Answer 1

The PADI Dive Centre at Scapa Flow in Orkney is the coldest in the UK, and at a latitude of 59 degrees north it has to be a contender.

It would certainly qualify as a cold water dive centre, and as a bonus you can see the German High Seas Fleet that was scuttled there on 21st June 1919.

From their website, they have the following courses:

• Try a dive
• Open Water Diver 4 day course
• Advanced Open Water diver
• Rescue Diver
• Emergency First Response
• Divemaster

From the Dive Site Directory, the water temperature and guidance is:

Water temperature: 4°C (39°F) in April to 14°C (57°F) in September

Suit: A drysuit is highly recommended

Answer 2

According to this page (and this)there is a dive centre at Nusfjord on the Lofoten Islands of northern Norway - well above the Arctic Circle. I'm pretty sure a dry suit is compulsory there.

EDIT: So I finally found a good-looking map of sea surface temperature and it turned up some surprising things.

• Kongsfjord (Norway) seems to be in around 8°C and Nusfjord about 10°C - both surprisingly warm.
• Alaska as a whole is colder than Norway, but Kodiak is well in the south of Alaska. The sea temperature there is around the 6°C level. Kodiak Alaska is probably the coldest place you can get basic SCUBA instruction (kudos Andra)
• Scapa Flow is 12°C - almost tropical by comparison (EDIT AGAIN: Just read the addition to the Scapa answer - I'm thinking my map is average or maybe current temperature)
• Silfa in Iceland is indeed colder than all the above at 2°C - but the only instruction it offers is the extremely specialized 'PADI Tectonic Plates Awareness Course', which seems to be unique to the site. I'm note sure if it counts.

I did find a new contender for coldest dive site: Arctic Canada Dive Adventures will take you on a dive trip to Iqaluit Nunavut, where the water temperature is -1°C and the sea ice is 3 feet thick. But they don't offer instruction there.

Answer 3

You could try Silfa in Iceland. I haven't tried it myself but it is supposed to be pretty awesome.

Answer 4

Google maps might be your friend here. Zoom in to a cold region and search for "scuba". Two suggestions that pops up are:

Norway:

• Kongsfjord International Scuba School

Alaska:

• Scuba Do Kodiak

Answer 5

I don't know about PADI courses, but at least with regard to the question in the title (Where is the coldest commercial diving site?), it is possible to dive (and snorkel) in the Antarctica. Commercial packages, e.g. here and here (the last one being the first package offered in the world, according to their website).