Scuba Murcia - Where it all began

Its March 2026 and we are going to be featured on the TV again! Channel 4s "A new life in the sun" are featuring us (Jo and Ed) in another follow up show to highlight our continued development of our Mediterranean Scuba Diving business. This will be the fifth time for us to be featured on the show, each time with more news and more growth, showing that it really was a good idea for us to move to Spain and set up Scuba Murcia all those years ago.

Ed Smith & Jo Golder (The orriginal TV Promo photo)

It began ten years ago, while running a Dive Centre in the UK along with real corporate jobs too, in central England about

as far away from the coast as you can get, when we decided that maybe a warmer, sunnier location for a dive centre and Scuba diving lifestyle was needed. Swapping the cold, green water of the British coast and inland diving lakes for much warmer, clearer water with a touch of a Spanish lifestyle for good measure was an idea that was difficult to ignore. After a very short discussion and a quick booking of some flights we were on our way to the region of Murcia for a fact finding exploration in the sun.

I (Ed) had been diving in this region a few times before, originally some 15 or so years before when I was working in a different part of Spain as a dive professional. I would visit Murcia and dive in La Manga and Cabo de Palos on vacation from my diving day job, and I remember how amazed I was by the abundance of marine life and the clarity of the water even then. So years later when Jo and I decided to look for a great place to set up shop, this area was an obvious first choice,

We only had 5 days to search the area, explore some dive sites with other operators and see what opportunities existed for us to be able to set up as a completely new dive centre. We needed to find a unit to make a shop, areas we could use for diving courses, sites we could use for dive excursions and then think about a place to live! All this in 5 days, without speaking Spanish, without knowing the area and without knowing anything about Spanish working, licencing and the huge amount of bureaucracy. Little did we know how challenging just "moving to Spain" would actually be.

Scuba Murcias second premesis after the first 5 years

We eventually found a business unit, that worked perfectly, the location was right and the size of the unit made a great dive centre, right in the heart of La Manga. This unit became the home of our new adventure, and Scuba Murcia was born. After agreeing a lease for 5 years, arranging the legal side of everything, becoming (temporary) residents, setting up bank accounts, Spanish IDs, getting accountants, a lawyer and many many more complicated paper work exercises that are necessary in Spain we eventually got permission to open and start the diving business. We needed to renovate the unit, turn it into a Dive centre and then make plans to open the doors for the first time, all while finding a place to live that was conveniently close to the centre.

An unusual shot from behind the camera, of Ed being filmed by "Phil the Cameraman"

During this first year, Channel 4 approached us for the first time, we had not long opened and were still in the process of fine tuning, with a few improvements to the shop to be made and on the job exploring regarding new dive sites. The job of the TV crew was to capture our real life experiences as we set up our new life and turned our hard work into a successful business. After a few meetings with the production company and some more paperwork we committed to the process and our TV cameraman Phil followed our every move for the next five months. His role was to be with us for a few days a week filming anything new and different, which for us, was happening every day. He came with us in the dive truck, at the dive centre and out on the boat, whatever the weather (usually sunny) or whatever the dive conditions, "Phil the cameraman" was always on hand to ask us questions and capture the real story of Jo and Eds adventure as it unfolded.

Now 10 years later we are back on the telly again with the latest follow up show "A new life in the sun: Where are they now?. This time you will be able to find out what has happened to us in the past few years, moving to a new premises, employing more staff, setting up new diving challenges and growing our business even more. We have always been happy to share our experiences with everyone, good and bad in the hope that it can help others who maybe want to make a decision to move away to a different country, set up something new and to do something challenging. We didn’t know if it would work out or not, but we committed to trying it and we are pleased we did. We put in 100% effort, and it seems to have worked out so far.

Click here for some more information about Scuba Murcia or contact us via email - scuba.murcia@outlook.com

Ed Smith is a TDI, PADI, SSI & PSAI Technical and recreational diving instructor with over 25 years of experience in the water. The views expressed in these blog posts are personal opinions based on many years of diving experience and teaching, however they may differ from other instructors or professionals. These blog posts are for information only and nothing should replace proper, professional training.

Dive safe.

www.scubamurcia.com