Short answer: scuba diving is far safer than most people assume, and the risks that do exist are almost never the ones people picture. Divers Alert Network puts diving-related deaths at 16 per 100,000 divers per year — and about a third of those are cardiac events in older divers rather than diving accidents. What actually goes wrong, and how it’s prevented, is a lot less dramatic than the films suggest.
Here’s what the numbers really say, why Tenerife is an unusually gentle place to start, and what a first dive in Radazul actually feels like.
What the statistics actually show
The British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) logs every UK diving incident it hears about. In 2024 that was 331 incidents and 12 fatalities, against an estimated 2 million UK dives.
Now look at who those numbers describe. The average age of the divers who died was 57.4 years, and half the fatalities involved solo diving or a buddy separation underwater. DAN is blunt about the most common trigger of all: “running out of breathing gas is the most common dive incident and the number one cause of diving fatalities.”
So the profile of a serious diving accident is an experienced diver in their fifties or sixties, in cold water, alone or separated from their buddy, who ran low on gas. That is close to the exact opposite of a beginner at 8 metres in 24 °C water with an instructor an arm’s length away.
Nobody dives alone here
Solo diving is not permitted in Spain, and as a PADI 5 Star Dive Center we’re strictly against it regardless of the law. It’s set out in Royal Decree 550/2020. More on the rules in Spanish diving law. Look again at that BSAC number: half the fatalities involved someone diving alone or losing their buddy. That’s why buddy skills are taught from the first minutes of every course — how to stay together, how to check on each other, how to signal, what to do if you separate. The point of good buddy behaviour is simple: when something goes wrong, someone is already there.
And about the cardiac cases
Nearly one in three diving deaths is an acute cardiac event — a heart problem that happened to occur in the water. The same event could just as easily have arrived on the drive to the dive centre, halfway up a walking trail, or on the sofa watching Netflix. It isn’t caused by diving; it’s bad timing. It is, though, why the medical questionnaire matters, and why divers over 50 are worth a conversation with their doctor.
Why Tenerife makes this easier
The water in Radazul sits at around 24 °C in summer and doesn’t drop far below 19 °C in winter — there’s no cold-water diving in Tenerife. Cold is what makes divers tired and clumsy, and it’s simply off the table here.
Then there’s visibility: 30 to 35 metres is normal in Radazul. You can see your instructor, the bottom and the surface all at once, which does more for a nervous first-timer than any amount of reassurance. Radazul bay is also naturally sheltered — it’s where the rest of the island’s divers come when the weather turns. Calm, warm, clear. That’s the whole recipe.
What a first dive in Radazul really looks like
People imagine being dropped into the open ocean. It’s nothing like that, and it’s a much nicer morning than most expect.
A PADI Discover Scuba Diving takes about three hours, and you’ll spend it with one instructor who stays with you the whole way. It starts on dry land with a short theory session — around half an hour, no exam, no jargon. How the equipment works, how to clear your mask, how to equalise your ears, the hand signals you’ll use, and the one rule that really matters: never hold your breath.
Then you get in the water, and here’s the part most descriptions get wrong: it’s all one dive. You don’t get out and start again. You begin in the shallow, calm part of the bay, kneeling in clear water while you try the skills for the first time — breathing through the regulator, clearing your mask, finding your regulator again. Not to test you, but to build your confidence, so that when you need one of them you already know it works. When you feel ready, you and your instructor simply move out along the bottom into deeper water and the dive carries on.
Maximum depth is 6 to 12 metres, and your instructor is right beside you the whole time, with a hand on your BCD whenever you want one. Every diver in Spain wears a dive computer by law, so nobody is guessing about depth or time. Equipment and insurance are included, and the minimum age is 10 (children from 8 can do a Bubblemaker).
The five things people are actually worried about
“What about sharks?”
The shark you’re most likely to meet in Tenerife is the angel shark (Squatina squatina) — a flat, sand-coloured bottom-dweller that spends winter buried in the sand and has no interest in you whatsoever. The ones we see are usually around a metre long. It’s critically endangered almost everywhere except here, and divers travel to the Canaries specifically hoping to spot one.
What you’ll far more likely meet in Radazul: parrotfish, ornate wrasse, shoals of salema, Canary damselfish, lizardfish resting on the sand, an Atlantic cornetfish hanging motionless in the blue, arrow crabs in the rocks, a sharpnose puffer that can swell like a balloon when startled — and, if you’re lucky, an octopus or a cuttlefish changing colour right in front of you. That last one is what people talk about at dinner.
“What if I run out of air?”
Your instructor checks your pressure gauge throughout the dive and turns it round long before that becomes a question. At 6–12 metres a tank lasts considerably longer than the dive does — and your instructor carries a second regulator specifically for you.
“What if I panic, or feel claustrophobic?”
This is the honest one — the most common reason a first dive doesn’t go to plan. It has nothing to do with danger; it’s just nerves. Two things help. You’re never far from the surface: at 6–12 metres it’s seconds away, and if you want to go up, you go up, together, calmly. And our instructors do this every day — a large part of their job is reading how someone is feeling, slowing things down, and getting people comfortably past that first wobble. Most people who are sure they’ll panic don’t, because by the time they reach the deeper water they’ve already been breathing underwater for twenty minutes.
“My ears hurt on planes”
Equalising while diving is easier than on a plane, because you control the speed. You descend slowly, equalise every metre, and if one ear won’t clear you come up half a metre and try again. If it still won’t clear, you don’t force it — you end the dive, and nobody minds. More in three tricks to equalise your ears.
“Won’t I get the bends?”
Decompression sickness is real, but it’s driven by depth and time — and a first dive is nowhere near the numbers that matter. At 6–12 metres you are so far inside the safe limits that your computer would let you stay down for hours before anything changed. It simply isn’t the risk you’re carrying on this dive. The one rule that does apply to you: don’t dive on the day you fly home. Leave at least 12 hours after a single dive, 18 after several. More in diving and flying.
What genuinely matters
Three things, and all three are handled before you get in the water.
Your medical history. You’ll fill in a PADI Diver Medical questionnaire. Asthma, heart conditions, recent surgery, epilepsy, pregnancy and some medications need a doctor’s sign-off first. Given that a third of diving deaths are cardiac, this is the most useful safety step of the whole day — answer it honestly, including the questions you’d rather skip.
Who you dive with. Ask any centre for their turismo activo licence number, whether their air is certified, whether their instructors are contracted staff, and whether insurance is included. Ours is TA-4-0009356.04. A centre that can’t answer those four questions in one sentence is telling you something.
Alcohol, dehydration and no sleep. Diving after a heavy night is a bad idea for reasons that have nothing to do with the sea.
So — is it dangerous?
Nothing in the sea is risk-free, and we’d rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise. But a first dive at 10 metres in 24 °C water, in a sheltered bay with 30 metres of visibility, beside a professional whose entire job that morning is you — that sits at the very gentle end of things people do on holiday. The statistics that frighten people describe a completely different activity.
If you’d like to find out what it’s actually like, that’s exactly what a PADI Discover Scuba Diving is for: 99 € for the standard experience, including all equipment, insurance, and an instructor beside you for the entire dive. We’ll take the photos too.
Frequently asked questions
Is scuba diving dangerous for beginners?
Statistically, beginners diving under direct instructor supervision are not where diving accidents happen. BSAC’s 2024 data shows the average age of divers who died was 57.4, and half the cases involved solo diving or buddy separation — neither of which applies to a supervised first dive at 6–12 metres.
Can I try scuba diving if I can’t swim well?
You don’t need to be a strong swimmer for a Discover Scuba Diving — you’re wearing a buoyancy jacket and fins, and your instructor is with you throughout. You do need to be comfortable having your face in the water. The full PADI Open Water Diver course does include a basic swim and float assessment.
How deep will I go on a first dive?
6 to 12 metres. That’s the PADI limit for a Discover Scuba Diving, and it keeps you far inside the no-decompression limits.
How cold is the water in Tenerife?
Around 24 °C in summer, and it only drops to about 19 °C in the coldest months — there’s no cold-water diving here. A 5 mm wetsuit is comfortable all year round.
Is solo diving allowed in Spain?
No. Recreational solo diving is not permitted in Spain, and as a PADI 5 Star Dive Center we’re strictly against it anyway. You always dive with a buddy or a guide, and buddy skills are part of every course we teach.
Do I need a medical certificate to dive in Tenerife?
Usually not. You complete a PADI Diver Medical questionnaire, and only if you answer “yes” to certain questions do you need a doctor’s sign-off first. Full detail in is a medical certificate required for diving?
What happens if I don’t like it underwater?
You go back to the surface with your instructor. There’s no penalty and no persuasion — and because you start in the shallow part of the bay, you’ll know how you feel long before you’re anywhere deep.
