Watercolours Dive Centre

Watercolours Dive Centre is a year-round scuba school and guided diving operation on the Sliema seafront, based at the Sliema Aquatic Sports Club on Tower Road. It teaches beginners and certified divers alike, runs shore and boat dives from its own trimaran, and trains divers in both SSI and PADI courses. For a UK visitor who wants a first taste of diving, a certification to take home or a week of guided dives, it is a convenient place to begin, and it appears in our directory of dive centres in Malta.

The centre is a licensed Malta Tourism Authority dive centre (DIVE0069) and a registered SSI XR dive centre, and its team also includes PADI instructors. It is open seven days a week all year, so you can plan around the weather rather than around a closing season.

Who runs it and how it began

The centre is run by Jason Fabri, who is both an SSI and a PADI staff instructor and has been diving around the Maltese islands for more than four decades. He began teaching in 1997, on a PADI Open Water course in Australia, and in 1999 he set up Watercolours Diving Expeditions, which ran live-aboard trips around the archipelago.

In 2007 he opened the dive centre with marine biologist Patrick Vella, and it has stayed at the water's edge in Sliema ever since. The team named on the site today includes Jason, Jorge De La Morena as an SSI Open Water instructor, Jose Garrido as an SSI Assistant Instructor Trainer and Michaela Melillo, who completed a dive master internship at the centre in 2025. Safety is a constant theme in how the team works, and guests are asked to be honest on the medical and registration forms.

Learn to dive: first courses and prices

If you have never dived, the entry route is the Scuba Diver course or the Open Water Diver course, offered through SSI and PADI. The Scuba Diver course is the shorter option: three academic modules, three pool sessions and two open water dives, taking about two days and certifying you to 12 metres when you dive with a professional. The minimum age is 16, with a Junior Scuba Diver version from 10. The SSI version costs €375 with eLearning and the PADI version costs €425.

The Open Water Diver course is the world's best known beginner qualification. It involves five academic modules, five pool or confined sessions and four open water dives over about three days, with a minimum age of 15 (juniors can start from 10, with depth limits of 12 or 18 metres by age). Prices with eLearning are €520 for SSI and €620 for PADI. A PLUS version adds a full extra day on buoyancy, surface marker buoy skills and finning techniques, at €600 for SSI and €700 for PADI. Adding a Tecline wing, backplate and harness is a €15 supplement.

Two package offers are printed as well: an SSI Open Water Diver course combined with a ten-dive pack at €900, and an SSI Open Water plus Advanced Open Water combination at €795, with a PADI equivalent at €900. Recreational courses include equipment rental, logbooks, certification, land transport and taxes, although student materials are bought separately and the technical course certification fee is extra. Theory can be done at home before you fly, using eLearning or the book.

Going further: advanced, rescue and specialty courses

Divers who already hold a certificate can keep building. The PADI Adventure Diver course, at €340 with eLearning, asks for three adventure dives such as deep or wreck and opens up depths to 30 metres, with a minimum age of 15 and a junior version from 12. Those dives count towards the five needed for PADI Advanced Open Water, and the SSI Advanced Open Water course follows a similar path.

Other continuing courses include Rescue Diver and the React Right first aid course, which covers CPR, AED and oxygen provider skills. The specialty list is long: wreck and advanced wreck, deep, enriched air nitrox, night, dry suit, perfect buoyancy, underwater navigation, sidemount, search and recovery, photo and video, fish identification, marine ecology, gas blending and more. Instructors suggest talking through your progression with them so the right agency and course fit your plans.

For those who want to work in the sport, the centre trains SSI Dive Masters and SSI Instructors and mentions internships and possible work placements in the business.

Guided dives, the boat and technical diving

Certified divers can join accompanied shore dives and boat dives every day of the year. The centre's custom-built trimaran dive boat, Lily, carries up to 12 divers and reaches sites that are hard to get to from the shore. Malta's wrecks, caves, reefs and seagrass meadows are the usual draw, and the centre's galleries show wrecks such as the P29 and the tugboat Rozi alongside cave and reef dives.

Under Maltese law, divers rated below Advanced Open Water, or the equivalent, must be accompanied underwater by an insured instructor at all times. Guests are grouped by qualification and experience, and the maximum depth depends on your certification, the instructor's assessment and the conditions that day. Dive sites can change at short notice for weather or safety reasons. You can choose how many dives to do in a day, although some sites need at least two.

The centre also teaches technical and extended range diving, including rebreather and sidemount configurations, under its Go Tec and SSI XR programmes. It is the local distributor and service centre for Tecline equipment, which is useful if your kit needs attention during a stay.

Booking, meeting times and holiday packages

Divers are normally asked to be at the centre at 09:00 for a day of diving. Night dives leave between 17:00 and 20:00, depending on the season, and a late arrival may mean the dive starts without you. Transport to the dive sites is included in the price unless stated otherwise, and most boat dives are included too, although extra boat charges can apply for distant sites or those needing special permits. Equipment is rented only to divers accompanied by an instructor.

All divers complete a self-assessment medical statement, a risk and liability statement and a registration form, and anyone who answers yes to a medical question needs a doctor's certificate before diving. Qualified divers bring their certification card and logbook, and a check or refresher dive may be required after a long break. The centre and its instructors are insured through DAN, and divers can arrange their own cover with DAN as well.

A booking is confirmed once a deposit is paid. Cancelling a day or more ahead costs 25 per cent of the total, and cancelling within 24 hours costs 50 per cent. The centre arranges holiday packages for groups, clubs and individuals, working with partners on airport transfers and accommodation, and offers 24 hour assistance for guests. Non-divers may travel on the boat or truck when space allows, but no sightseeing is offered beyond diving and snorkelling trips.

Marine biology, clean-ups and the surrounding islands

The centre has a conservation side. It posts details of its clean-up events on its blog, and it hosts the practical part of a three day marine biology course organised by AquaBioTech Group, which has run for 12 years. Lectures take place in Mosta in English and are led by Prof. Alan Deidun, while snorkelling, a discover scuba session or an open water dive happens at the Sliema centre. The course runs once in July and once in August, with up to 24 participants.

Beyond Sliema, the team offers trips to other islands and diving around Gozo. If you are building a wider holiday, our guides to Gozo for visitors, the Blue Lagoon on Comino and things to do in Malta will help, and our weather by month guide is useful for choosing when to go. Staying close to the centre? See hotels in Sliema. Divers looking for alternatives can also compare Diveshack dive centre nearby or Aquatica Scuba Diving.

Finding the centre and getting in touch

The dive centre sits at the Sliema Aquatic Sports Club on Tower Road in Sliema, right on the seafront. It is open daily, and you can reach it easily from the nearby hotels along the promenade. For prices on guided dives, technical courses or a group package, use the VisitMalta.co.uk enquiry form on this page and we will pass your message to the dive centre.