Canons

The boat anchors above the ridge in open water with no fixed mooring buoy, and the descent runs down the anchor line to the top of the barra at about 15 metres. A guide-line laid along the rock from the anchor takes you across the ridge to the offshore flank, where the deeper side drops to 22 or 23 metres onto sand. The local convention is to set direction with the current and work the deeper face first, then return along the shallower inshore flank for safety-stop margin and a longer dive. The same descent that suits a Discover Scuba pair on the inshore side also sits an Advanced Open Water candidate on the offshore flank without changing the plan.

Crevice work is where the dive concentrates. The porous Mediterranean rock holds morays peering out, octopus working the gravel between outcrops, conger in the bigger overhangs, and lobster tucked in cavities. A 2026 dive recorded three octopus on a single immersion. Dusky grouper turn up occasionally on the deeper flank, more wary than abundant, in line with the Maresme pattern for this species. The site sees regular traffic on Posidonia Dive's calendar and the user-aggregated species data over years puts the moray as the most-logged species, with activity peaks in July and August. Current sets the pace more than depth does. The 2014 trip log recorded a light north-north-west current that the divers worked with on the way out; a 2026 dive recorded strong working current that turned the loop into hard work and shortened the route.

Canons earns its slot in the Port Balis rotation by being two dives at once. The inshore flank at 15 to 18 metres is comfortable for Open Water groups and shallow enough for the safety-stop margin that a busy day plan needs; the offshore flank at 22 to 23 metres gives Advanced and Deep coursework somewhere realistic to run navigation, descent, and SMB exercises without changing site. That depth-flexibility is the practical value, and it is why Posidonia Dive keeps the site on the regular calendar even though the visual experience is a working barras palette rather than a destination dive. The current-exposed character also makes it useful as a current-management training site: when the current is running, the dive becomes a real exercise in profile planning rather than a sightseeing loop.

Plan for current. Canons is one of the area's three current-exposed Port Balis sites, alongside El Pujola and Montseny, and the working assumption should be a counter-current outbound leg rather than a calm drift. An SMB belongs on the dive in case the boat has moved off the anchor before pickup. A torch belongs on every dive here because the dive's value is inside the cracks. Dress to the bottom temperature: 15 to 18 degrees in summer below the thermocline at 20-plus metres, even with surface readings near 22, so 5mm with hood is the right call from June through September. Garbi (SW) wind days raise surface chop and seasickness on the boat transit; take any motion-sickness medication before leaving port, not on the boat. Plan to arrive about 45 minutes before scheduled departure for the standard pre-dive prep window at the centre.