The English south coast has something to offer most divers, with a huge variety of environments to dive in, including reefs, piers, wrecks and bays. The coastline is littered with wrecks, which offer habitats for marine creatures as well as interesting dive locations. Steady currents make drift dives an option in most areas along the coast, whilst bays and piers offer more sedate dives.

Matthew's Sharks perform most training dives at inland dive sites, due to their stable conditions, however we make regular dive trips to the south coast during the dive season (April to September). We often explore new areas, however due to their good facilities, accessibility and marine life, we generally dive in the following places:

  • Kimmeridge bay
  • Selsey
  • Swanage
  • Weymouth

Dive location information

For more information on these locations, please expand the sections below.

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  • 1. Kimmeridge bay +

    Temporary Kimmeridge photo Temporary Kimmeridge dive photo

    Kimmeridge bay is located around 10 miles to the west of Swanage, on the South West coast of England and is part of the Jurrasic Coast World Heritage Site.

    The bay is used as a boat launch with a large amount of nearby sites that offer great dive locations. Kimmeridge bay is also a good dive site in its own right, the entire bay is shallow and parts can be snorkelled on the right tide. Kimmeridge is a very sheltered site, so we often use it when it is too rough to leave the bay.

    There is plenty of marine life around, with lots of kelp, anenomes and fish. Dogfish are regularly spotted in the surrounding bays. There is a Marine conservation shop in the bay, which is very interesting and has friendly and helpful staff.

    The surrounding landscape is very picturesque, and Kimmeridge makes a perfect location to have a barbeque as you watch the sun set after a good days diving.

  • 2. Selsey +

    Selsey pier temporary photo

    Selsey Lifeboat pier is located around the corner from Selsey Bill and offers a shallow dive with a good amount of marine life if you have can find it. There are spider crabs, velvet crabs, pipefish and nudibranch as well as anenomes, tube worms and seaweeds.

    Although the dive site is shallow it is not used for novice divers as it has lots fragile marine life and can be affected by currents. There are also some great wreck and drift dives in the surrounding area, that are accessible by boat.

    Although this site is one of the closest, we generally use it less than others as there are less options when the conditions are not good.

  • 3. Swanage +

    Swanage pier - courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

    Swanage is one of our more regularly visited dive locations as it offers a variety of dive sites requiring varying levels of experience. Swanage pier is a relatively shallow dive site that has abundant marine life, including shoals of pollack, spider crab, hermit crab and possible a conger eel or cuttlefish if you are lucky.

    The pier also offers good facilities, such as changing rooms, toilets, dive shop and air station. There is also a dive boat located on the pier that offers trips to the fantastic wrecks in the surrounding area.

    Seaweed under Swanage pier - temporary photo










  • 4. Weymouth +

    Weymouth temporary photo

    Weymouth is renowned for its wealth of marine life and its numerous wrecks (some 120 within a 20 mile radius). As with all areas we use, the diving suits all levels of divers, from people on their first sea dives, through to the more experienced divers.

    Diving is possible all year round, although we tend to dive from April through to September.