Often when booking a diving trip, you need to be paired with a buddy or bring one yourself. However, we don't have minimum numbers on our trips, meaning people can enjoy guided diving in Orkney, or take part in our courses, even if no-one else books on. Be it at the shore, around the Churchill Barriers or exploring deeper wrecks off the boat in Scapa Flow, we take solo divers wherever they like. Instructor Rob showing a section of the wreck SMS Karlsruhe to solo diver Due to how we run things, our group numbers are always small. A group can consist of 1 diver with 2 of our staff members, f ..read more

When taking bookings from divers we quite often get asked for discounts that we can't offer because, like our friends at some of the other dive schools in the UK, we are trying to resist the "Race to the Bottom"that can be seen throughout the dive industry. We know we aren't the cheapest of dive centres, in fact we're probably towards the top end of the price bracket for UK dive centres and wanted to take a minute to explain the reasons why. We pay our instructors. (Yay!) A lot of the dive centres around the world don't pay their instructors to teach, meaning they can only do the job part tim ..read more

We know the idea of changes can be a bit nerve-wracking for people, especially when it involves equipment which your life depends on when diving underwater. We just wanted to give a quick run through of the long hose set up for a regulator and why we've changed to it for all of our diving. Image showing 2.1m long hose and bungeed set up. Anyone that has dived with us on the boat before (or our friends over at Scapa Scuba whilst they did the dive school), will have seen the long hose set up already. Initially used in technical diving with twin cylinders, this set up is slowly moving over to th ..read more

As we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, we at Kraken Diving have been busy coming up with new "Hygiene Protocols" which has some changes to how we operate in order to try and make both you guys and our dive team as safe as possible. Most of these changes just effect the behind the scenes workings of the dive centre and don't effect you guys but we wanted to let you know the key ones that would do. One of the main changes, is that we will only be taking one group of divers at a time now to try and reduce the risk of transmission between individuals as much as possible, rather tha ..read more

Although things didn't go well for Scar and his lovely Hyenas in the Lion King, we totally agree with the idea of being prepared and so we thought it'd be handy to give you a bit more information on what to expect from your Scapa Flow experience with us whether diving or snorkelling! Image Copyright of Disney© We'll start off with the bad news, unlike James Bond in Goldeneye, us mere mortals don't get to look this good by rocking a tuxedo underneath our drysuits (plus we're pretty sure it wouldn't keep you very warm!) Instead we'd recommend tracksuit/thermal bottoms or leggings and a thermal ..read more

Alright guys, we are so excited that we are going to be back in the water from Saturday and able to show you guys the wreck sites that we know and love. As we have said before there are a number of one procedures we are putting in place to help make things as safe as possible for both you guys, us and the Orkney Locals. We were recently updated by the Orkney Hyperbaric Trust and Sula Diving who run the chamber here about some rules they will be applying to divers during the Covid-19 outbreak. The Orkney Hyperbaric Trust (OHT) will not recompress any person who displays any symptoms o ..read more

The time around New Year often comes with wanting to try new things and begin some resolutions. Some people want to challenge themselves with new goals or overcoming a fear, others are doing Veganuary or Dry January or on this that or the other diet. A young Instructor Rob possibly not getting over his fear of heights based on his facial expression (He swears he enjoyed it!) We know loads of people try and get over a fear of heights by jumping off a building or out of a plane, and we often get people asking us whether this would work with Scuba Diving and whether it is good way of getting ove ..read more

There can't be many more famous sounds in the worlds of TV or Cinema than the heavy robotic breathing of Darth Vader. You knew if you were a rebel soldier and heard this sound coming towards you things were unlikely to go well for you! But did you know that this sound effect was made using an old fashioned diving regulator? Even though we have brand new Apeks Diving regulators you can still recognise the tell tale sound of breathing and embrace your inner Vader. Contact us to book a scuba diving experience for the biggest Star Wars fan in your life with us and take a step towards the dark side ..read more

As divers and snorkelers, we are privileged to see parts of the planet often cut off to others. This gives us a window to see problems possibly hidden to others and the potential power to help solve them. To quote Uncle Ben from Spiderman, "with this great power, comes great responsibility", and it is with this in mind that we've made some changes to our course combinations. Image Copyright of BBC and Surfers Against Sewage© As Dive School operators, both myself and Margot feel a great responsibility and opportunity to help the planet both underwater and on the surface as much as we can. It i ..read more

Our Divemaster Intern Becky has been thinking about the British marine life and sites to see around our waters in Orkney so we thought we would share what she has to say. "When you hear Scapa Flow, your first thought may be a wreck heads paradise but how would you feel if I told you Orkney has its fair share of marine life! From flowing seagrass beds to star fish covering every square inch of the German fleet like a stary night sky, Orkney is not to be slept on when it comes to its ocean inhabitants. Brittle starfish covering the wreck SMS Karlsruhe As the German Fleet has been laying on the ..read more