El Plaer del Vell

Ten to fifteen minutes out from Port de Mataro, past the Llavaneres breakwater into open water, the boat anchors over a long, narrow ridge whose line tracks the shore. The structure rises off a sandy floor at about 25m, with the top of the ridge sitting in the 10-15m range. There is no permanent buoy here; centres lay a guideline across the barra from the anchor so the way back is straightforward. Down the line, the ridge opens out in two directions and the standard Mataro convention applies: pick the deeper or counter-current side first, work along the structure with a torch into the crevices, and return on the opposite flank at shallower depth toward the anchor.

The ridge is what you look at, and it is what you swim past. Crevices and overhangs run the length of the structure and concentrate the resident fauna in tight pockets. Mediterranean moray heads sit at the lip of cracks. Conger eels rest deeper in (often with cleaner shrimps). Spiny lobster antennae poke from holes, and the occasional sizeable dusky grouper holds station off a deeper section. Macro is the working mode for most of the dive; nudibranchs, scorpionfish camouflaged into reddish algae, and crevice-shrimp portraits are the photo subjects regulars come back for. In late summer, Rhizostoma barrel jellyfish drift over the structure and a basket star (Astropartus mediterraneus) has been recorded once on a daytime dive in the rock detail.

What changes the dive on a calm summer day is the ascent. At 10-15m above the ridge top in 25m visibility, the whole barra is visible end to end, and the safety stop becomes the structural reward. That is the version of El Vell divers remember. The other version (winter post-rain, 12C bottom, visibility down to a metre) is usable but reduces the dive to a torch-and-crevice exercise close to the structure. Both are El Vell, and which one the diver gets is the day's decision more than the operator's.

El Vell sits at the deep end of the Mataro rotation, closer in feel to El Santuari (20-26m) or the deeper El Pujola (26-29m) than to the shallow Row 3-4 barras. That depth band is the operating fact: it is far enough that a 5mm wetsuit feels the bottom band's 15-18C in summer, and that Nitrox 32 reliably extends a useful working time. The fauna inventory is conventional Mataro crevice life rather than anything dramatically distinctive. What lifts the dive is the structural reward on calm days, with the long ridge readable end-to-end from 10m above, together with the variability that makes each dive a different site. Older accounts also describe an unusually dense lobster patch on this same ridge and a Pinna nobilis fan mussel photographed here, both historical baseline observations rather than current features.

This is a macro site that earns its reputation across multiple decades of community photography. Older photo threads document Flabellina egg-laying, conger-and-cleaner-shrimp portraits, scorpionfish camouflage tight enough to vanish in the rock, and lobster-portrait studies along the crevice line. The light at 25m is dim by Mediterranean standards, and the ridge channels suspension when too many fins work the same patch — historical accounts specifically describe particulate stirred by inattentive finning. A snoot for nudibranch portraits and wide flash arms for the crevice mid-shots both pay back. The most productive sections concentrate where overhangs face away from the prevailing surge, which on this site tends to be on the lee side of the ridge.

Calibrate the suit to the bottom, not the surface. The 3-4C summer thermocline at this site is the area's anchoring data point and a 5mm with hood is the safer choice through the warm months; from November through April a drysuit or 7mm semi-dry is the right call. Air supply is the recurring practical complaint at this depth, which is why most regulars run EAN32 here. Carry a torch — much of what makes the site rewarding sits inside cracks. Hover, don't settle; the ridge silts up quickly when too many divers work the same crevice line. Standard Spanish kit applies (SMB, dive computer, cutting device, valid insurance) and the regulator-and-buoyancy work matters more than at the shallow barras because there is less margin if something is off.