Diving The Bligh Waters & Vatu-I-Ra

with Ra Divers

Come and meet your new family underwater and dive with us at our world-class diving facility, Ra Divers a fully certified PADI and SSI dive resort and the heart and soul of Volivoli, and where it all began for us over 25 years ago (read our history here).

As our head divemaster Pola Paglau, who’s logged over 5000 dives in Fiji says, “What we see underwater is far better than what we see up here, you just have to explore.”

Bligh Water

Also known as The Vatu-I-Ra Passage

Many of our dive staff, and guests come to Volivoli because of our proximity to Bligh Water, also known as The Vatu-I-Ra Passage—now a marine protected area famous for its abundance and diversity of marine life—which is arguably the best diving in Fiji. Our modern dive facility is the most advance in the South Pacific, in terms of the building, structure, equipment, and our compressor room is world class, with four compressors in line and Nitrox. All of our dive boats are brand new and purpose built.

Our staff are fully insured, trained in first-aid and water-rescue with training sessions happening on the regular. Many of our dive crew have grown up in and around these waters, spearfishing with bamboo rods and swimming in them multiple times a day throughout their lives, so the know the sites like the backs of their hands.

So whether it’s your first time diving, you’re ready to get certified, or want to master a specialty—we have all levels of PADI and SSI certifications here. We love to share the experience with beginners, and to help experienced divers become even more advanced. We’re an instructor training facility, so we can teach everything from a person’s first dive through to them becoming an instructor.

For the more experienced diver, our staff have hand-picked more than 50 incredible dive sites. Most of the best sites are no more than 20 minutes by boat from Volivoli Beach.

Learn To Scuba Dive in Fiji

Fiji's Premier Dive Resort

Volivoli Beach Resort is one of the best places in Fiji to learn to dive, offering you the choice of two globally recognized training agencies, get started today with either SSI or PADI. Head of Diver operations Simon Doughty, the most qualified dive instructor in Fiji. 

Volivoli and Ra Divers Dive Sites

Some of Ra Divers’ most popular sites are in the fascinating Vatu i ra Passage. These sites are a mixture of walls, bommies and drift dives, all of which are teaming with life and colour. Sites like Black magic mountain, Mellow yellow and Instant replay will soon be etched in your memory forever!

For those seeking a real thrill ‘Breathtaker’ is a deep reef dive to see an incredible display of large fish, white tip, black tip, whalers and grey reef sharks.

Wreck Diving In Fiji

The Papuan Explorer a popular wreck dive, situated in 20 meters of water, is Fiji ‘s largest and most accessible wreck and is teaming with marine life.

The Ovalau offers an exhilarating 55 meter dive into a roll-on roll-off car ferry which sunk on 23rd August 2003.

About Ra Divers

Fiji's premier dive centre

Ra Divers is one of Fiji’s longest established diving operations, and our staff our renowned for their local knowledge and expertise.

A fully-professional SSI Dive Resort that was established in the 1980s, Ra Divers offer a variety of dive packages for beginners to advanced.

With over 18 years local experience diving the Bligh Waters has allowed our crew to handpick superb dive sites for a truly unique experience. Check out our interactive dive site map below to help familiarize yourself with our sites before you come.

On site SSI and PADI Dive Centre

Our Dive Boats

At Ra Divers we have built dive boats for certified divers and an extra boat for student divers. The boats are brand new purpose built dive boats capable of carrying 35 divers total.

Freshwater, towels and light refreshments are provided on board our vessels.

Click the boat names below to learn more >

Read Our Dive Boat Specs Below

Bligh Explorer

Our primary custom built Dive Boat

  • 10.3m aluminum mono hull, Tim Barnett design
  • Powered: twin Suzuki DF 300’s
  • Marine Safety Authority of Fiji Surveyed
  • Surveyed for 22pax max 16 divers + crew
  • Safety:
    • GPS
    • Marine radio/ cell back up
    • Life jackets
    • Flare kit
    • Anchor & rope
    • Life rings
    • First aid kits
    • Emergency Oxygen
  • Facilities
    • Head/toilet
    • Padded/cushioned seats
    • Tanks racks
    • Rinse buckets
    • Fins bucket
    • Full shade/side clears Entry / Exit Giant stride/fireman ladder

Vatu Explorer

Our second custom built Dive Boat

  • 11.2m aluminum mono hull, Scott Robson design
  • Powered: twin Suzuki DF 300’s
  • Marine Safety Authority of Fiji certified license
  • Licensed for 22pax max 16 divers + crew
  • Safety:
    • GPS
    • Marine radio/ cell back up
    • Life jackets
    • Flare kit
    • Anchor & rope
    • Life rings
    • First aid kits
    • Emergency Oxygen
  • Facilities
    • Head/toilet
    • Padded/cushioned seats
    • Tanks racks
    • Rinse buckets
    • Fins bucket
    • Full shade/side clears
    • Entry / Exit Giant stride/fireman ladder

Half Cast

The third dive boat in our fleet

  • 10m aluminum mono hull, Noah Thompson Design
  • Powered: twin Suzuki DF 140’s
  • Marine Safety Authority of Fiji certified license
  • Licensed for 10pax max 6 divers + crew
  • Safety:
    • GPS
    • Marine radio/ cell back up
    • Life jackets
    • Flare kit
    • Anchor & rope
    • Life rings
    • First aid kits
    • Emergency Oxygen
  • Facilities
    • Padded/cushioned seats
    • Tanks racks
    • Rinse buckets
    • Fins bucket
    • Full shade/side clears
    • Entry / Exit Giant stride/fireman style ladder

FAQ’s

Our Frequently Asked Dive Questions...

What can you expect to see while diving in the area?

We promise you’re going to see the healthiest soft coral in the world, more colours than you can imagine, and some extremely rare macro creatures—like the ornate ghost pipefish, orangutan crabs, frogfish, nudibranch, seahorses, schools of barracuda, trevally, giant groupers, —and in all likelihood, turtles, moray eels, grey, blacak and white tip reef sharks, and the occasional tiger shark. In July we can see also see humpback whales and manta ray.

How hard is the diving?

Diving in Fiji is fairly easy, it’s not extreme diving. We’re in the open ocean and we have strong currents, but that’s what makes the reef so healthy. With water movement comes amazing sea life. With proper certification and expert guides, we’ve got you covered.

When is the best time to come?

All year is great. From November to February it’s our rainy season and the water is warmer with less visibility, and from April to October it’s our dry season and the water cools down a bit and there’s better visibility—100ft visibility is not uncommon this time of year.

What is Nitrox and why do we offer it here?

If you’ve never dived with Nitrox, it’s a special type of gas that has more oxygen than air, so there’s a lot of advantages like increased safety, because we’re not taking in as much oxygen.