about
Nautica VIS DIVING CENTER
The company started operating in Croatia in 1998. Firstly there was a small diving centre in Stara Novalja on the island of Pag. After a few years Nautica decided to move to Hvar island and opened a shop first in Hvar town and later in Stari Grad. Nevertheless, for years the owners of the company were thinking about new locations. Vis, as the best Croatian island for divers, came quite naturally as an idea for opening another dive shop.
Finally in 2015 Nautica Vis Diving Center was set up in the town of Vis on the Vis island. From the very beginning it is located on the ground floor of the Issa Hotel. The hotel is situated on the western coast of the Vis Bay in a distance of about 10-minutes walk to the town centre. The hotel and located nearby numerous private apartments offer accommodation to the guests of the dive shop.
The diving center
Nautica Vis Diving Center occupies an area of about 200 m2 and consists of a few specialised rooms. In front of the main entrance there is an office, in which the guests can book diving, get lots of information about the island, charge their equipment and drink a coffee. Next to the office there is a toilet and a changing room. These are so-called dry spaces of the diving centre. The rest of the centre consists of two storerooms for the equipment, a compressor room and a so-called rebreather room.
The last one is a space particularly dedicated for CCR divers and underwater photographers. There are ten spots available, each is equipped with electric sockets and additional locked place for the equipment. Nevertheless, rebreather room users store their wetsuits and drysuits in regular storage rooms, used by all guest of the dive shop. There are two spaces for the wet equipment with racks and hangers (every day brought outside for the equipment drying) and shelves with boxes for the smaller pieces of the diving equipment. In front of each storage room there is a space equipped with countertop, tables and benches used by divers to prepare for diving and sit and talk after diving.
Working hours
During the summer season, the diving center is open every day from 8 am to 8 pm. The summer season lasts form the end of April until the middle of October.
Usually, the center is open even earlier – we are waiting for our Guests one hour before the first dive scheduled for the day. And it is open longer as well – almost every day at 8:30 pm there is something going on – like a slideshow of underwater pictures, a night diving or a movie night.
Rarely it can happen that during the day we all go diving – in such case you can always call us or leave a message and we will appear in the shop as soon as possible.
Compressor room
The compressor room is located between storage rooms. There are two compressors Auer and ColtriSub filling up the tanks to the pressure of 200 bars. Supported gases and mixes are air, oxygen, nitrox and trimix.
The diving centre owes about 100 tanks of different volumes – from 5 to 15 litres. The majority of bottles are steel, 12 and 15-litres with DIN valves. Twinsets are also available. Close to the compressor room there is a space for preparing the equipment for diving and put it on one of the truck cars. Every day the equipment is driven by car to a place where the right boat is moored.
Our boats
The boats are usually moored in Stonca – a cove located in a walking distance (5-minutes walk) from the diving centre, but sometimes they may wait for the divers in another ports of the island (in such cases divers get to the right place by one of the Nautica’s cars). There are two boats – Bajkonur and Neno – that can comfortably take 12 and 14 divers on board and a fast rib for 6 people maximum.
Bajkonur is a steel vessel, while Neno is a plastic one. They both provide uncovered bows used by people for sunbathing (Bajkonur has an additional sundeck), a central part, where the divers prepare for diving and the, equipped with two ladders, dive deck on the stern, from where the divers jump to the water.
Specialised equipment
Nautica Vis Diving Center offers also equipment rental, having complete sets in different sizes (also for children). The equipment dedicated for technical diving is available too. Moreover, there is also a possibility to rent diver propulsion vehicles (Suex and DiverTug) and underwater cameras with housing.
The company of Nautica cooperates with Olympus and it is a test centre of its cameras. That is why the cameras can be rented totally for free. Besides, on the terrace there are several hammocks and sunbeds waiting for the guests before and after diving. Sunbeds can be also taken by the non-divers to the beaches.