Good destinations for OW checkout dives for 15yo?

[halocline]

I would take the opportunity to go back to Bonaire, if I were in the OP's position. You can't beat it for great, easy dives. And the unlimited diving is perfect for a new diver wanting to practice those skills. The only thing you might consider would be a nitrox class at the same time, as nitrox is typically included in the drive/dive packages if I remember correctly.

 

[formernuke]

CoCo View Resort Roatan Honduras. ️️️️️

When I was there they had unlimited shore diving I think was between 30 to over 100 feet but that was a long time ago.

The shore was one reef, a ship and a plane right off the dock so not really a large amount. But if the OP wanted to do the class checkout dives from shore and hop on the boats it would work.

 

[htatton]

I recommend Casa del Bruceo on Isla Mujeres, off cancun. They are excellent with younger divers

 

[Rob9876]

@nategasser It's great that your son is getting certified - diving is such a good bonding experience!

My son and I got certified in Cozumel when he was 13, so we were back-rolling off of boats from our first dive. So, my first thought on reading your post is that it could actually be easier to roll or stride off of a boat rather than walking with full gear on into the surf, sand, rocks, etc. Could depend on the specific shore that you are on. If you re-consider boat dives, Cozumel has some beautiful shallow dives to get your son hooked on diving. Key Largo also has some nice boat dives that are fairly shallow.

That said, for shore diving -- I have recently been planning a trip to St. Croix and it seems that there is a good bit of quality shore diving there. Frederiksted Pier, Davis Bay, Cane Bay, to name a few. There's a dive op that specializes in shore dives (Sweet Bottom Dive Center), which is only about 5 minutes from a resort (Carambola Beach Resort). I will say that the lodging is roughly twice the cost of Cozumel (but still cheaper than Key Largo), and the diving looks to be about 50% more (though on the plus side for a new diver, most dive ops in St. Croix include gear rental in their prices for guided dives). @drrich2 has some great research/reports on St. Croix in the Lesser Antilles section of Scubaboard if you want to read further, and I've found the St. Croix scuba videos here to be helpful: https://www.youtube.com/c/TritonsRealm

 

[arew+4]

One more thing on diving with teens, they really don't like the boat schedules most places. You either get them up too early, or you burn their whole day. With shore diving you can get one in before they get out of bed, and at the end of the trip you can shame then with how many more dives the decrepit one put in.

 

[peek49230]

I'm not sure when they will officially open, but Grand Cayman is fantastic for easy shore diving, with an easy step up to boat diving if wanted.

That is where my daughter did her Open Water a couple of years ago. Love that place.

 

[Oldbear]

In Kwajalein, we do about 95-98% shore dives with out Open Water/Jr. Open Water students. They are readily available in about 5-10 bike ride from our houses and nicely set up for diving.

But I can tell you, I much rather dive from a boat than do a shore dive.

 

[DiveProKoko]

Another vote for Key Largo if you're willing to forego shore diving. The dives are very easy and typically at shallow depths....and there's quite a bit to see! It's not an "exotic" location by any means, but it's nice and beats ANY quarry!

 

[Mark Newland]

Don't underestimate the kid. My 16 yr old daughter did her entire training and got certified in the cold and murky Puget Sound (Washington) waters with a wetsuit. One week later we we're diving in Australia and we had absolutely no problem with the dives. You can learn to dive anywhere.