10 year old Padi Junior diver

[gursey]

Hello. My son was recently certified as a Padi Jr. diver, and we are trying to figure out where to go diving this next November. We are limited to 40 feet, so are trying to get ideas where we can go that will have enough dive sites to make it a dive vacation. We really dont want to take him on a normal diving vacation where there are other boat divers, as his dive limit will be considerably less than the others.

I have looked at "Family Dive Adventures", but would like other ideas. We live in Alaska, and are planning to take the week of Thanksgiving off, so are kind of limited to this side of the globe. Although Bonaire seems ideal (my wife and I were there many years ago), the amount of travel time getting there/back is too much.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[diversteve]

From where you live travel time isn't going to be much if any better to other Caribbean destinations.

Some with shallower diving include Curacao, Aruba, St. Thomas/St. John, the BVI's or St. Croix. We did boat diving along St. Thomas's East End that didn't exceed 40' or much more. Cow/Calf Rocks - a signature dive - doesn't. Several of the BVI dives we did were around 40' - or had interesting stuff shallow. Some like Thumb Rock basically break the surface so you can dive it to whatever depth you want. All BVI diving is boat diving though. We dove Seal Dog Rock with a jr. diver once - he/dad stayed on the less exposed side shallow with their DM while we went deeper on the Atlantic side. St. John has some dives that are closer to deep snorkels in places like Cruz/Trunk Bay. Coki Beach on St. Thomas didn't exceed much over 40' unless you moved out into the boring deeper water. A lot of that was in the 20' range - Coral World near there does Snuba.

Some of the Pier dives are interesting also - Curacao has a shallow one as does St. Croix in Frederickstad.

I could make a case for Grand Cayman also since there is shore diving there but often the 1st dive on boat trips is a deep wall dive to 100' or so and the moorings are at around 60'. 2nd dives are shallower and some operators do an afternoon shallow boat dive. Plus you've got Stingray City and the Kittiwake - both are dives your son could do. Turtle Reef is IMO the best shore dive - it bottoms out around 50' but the min-wall gets good at 20'. Ambassador Divers lists depths for sites they dive. Dive Sites

Maybe the Florida Keys? A lot of that is pretty shallow - there's some reefs, busted up wrecks that aren't very deep. Pennekamp Marine Park also.

 

[drrich2]

I don't know the cost & travel time logistics for Alaska. If those work out, Key Largo could offer you a lot of fine shallow reef diving. Here's my trip report from a Rainbow Reef Dive Center trip there. By going out twice per day, I got 20 dives in 5 days. If the time of year provides good conditions, and cost & travel time work out, you could get a lot of diving crammed in. One of the cheaper dive trips I've encountered, too, though your airfare may be higher than mine was.

 

[DeputyDan]

The only negative to Key Largo is the possibility of not being able to dive due to weather.
Other than that - it is an exceptionally good place to take a junior diver!

 

[mselenaous]

Congrats on your Jr. dive buddy!

Definitely Key Largo, most of our dive sites are 30-35 ft and 4-6 miles off shore. Boats go out every morning and afternoon for 2 tank dives.

Our warm, clear, shallow waters full of light and life are the reason so many students and new divers come here. And there are plenty of fun land stuff for the family, from Everglades tours (walking, kayaking, airboat), kayaking on the bay, History of Diving Museum, dolphin swims, etc. (important to have weather options)

Let me know if I can answer any questions or be of any assistance. Maybe even meet-up for

 

[gursey]

Thank you so much for the information. I should have mentioned that my son was certified in Maui, and we did both boat and beach dives. The weather prevented many dives we wanted to do, so would like to go somewhere else. I think the BVI or St. Thomas or St. Croix may be what we want to do.

Thank you so much. I will research the northern part of the Caribbean.

Thanks again. Greg

 

[diver 85]

Cayman Brac or Little Cayman would be great, IMO.......When our youngest----long ago got certified on a Sunday of his 12th BD( back then in '92, 12 YO was the youngest you could be)....On the Tuesday following we were on a plane to Grand Cayman & he was diving(to 90') the next day--ie the Wednesday following(3 days after certification)......We learned over the next few years of 'the greatness' of LC & Brac so that's why I recommended them over GC--but, GC would work, also.........Saying the last part, the last time I dove GC was '93---the last time for Brac was 3 months ago....

 

[Altamira]

Took our Jr. OW grandson on a Carnival Magic cruise to Coz, Roatan, and Belize out of Galveston, and had no problem getting him 6 good dives at 40'. Was ready to hire private DM if needed to keep from interfering with other diver's profiles, but it was not necessary but at one location. Plus lots of other activities when not diving.

 

[drrich2]

Here's a thread on St. Croix; a brief trip report from a cruise stop, and other people added some good info. from their own experience.

St. Thomas has some good, reputable op.s; I've dove with Admiralty Dive Center and was quite pleased. There are others, too. Shopping is a big deal on St. Thomas, if that's any kind of draw.

If you want to see which non-diving activities are available, one thing you can do is go to a cruise ship site like RoyalCaribbean.com and find their excursions section, with the page for that island. See what the cruise people do. I believe you can find pretty much the same excursions on Trip Advisor, with reviews.

So if you're just after diving, great. If not, you can find other things to do, too, but more on some islands than others.

Richard.

 

[diversteve]

Dive sites off St. Thomas with depths - I'm not familiar with this shop. http://www.diveaquamarine.com/Dive_Sites.html Four shallow dives I know of south of Charlotte Amalie are Flat Cay, Limestone, Navy Barges and T Table - links have depths here: Blue Island Divers Dive SItes - Flat Cay is supposed to be one of the best dives there.

As I mentioned previously the deepest part of Coki Beach - one of two shore dives on St. Thomas is 55' at it's max - the reef starts at 20'. St. Thomas Diving Club lists depths also - Cow/Calf Rocks - a signature St. Thomas dive - is 40'. St. Thomas Diving Club, Scuba Diving and Snorkeling in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, a PADI 5 Star IDC

DiveBVI is who we used on Virgin Gorda. Really a first class operation. They list depths. Your son could do most of them - about the only thing he'd be shut out of are the wrecks - they're all 70' or deeper. Dive Sites | Dive BVI

From St. Thomas the fast ferries are the convenient way over to the BVI's - it's also a pretty scenic/fun boat ride. Under 90mins to just about any of the 4 main islands. They leave from two ferry ports - one downtown 5mins. from the airport - the other a 1/2hr ride to Red Hook. There's shared vans at the airport to take you to Red Hook if you're just transiting thru. Virgin Islands Ferry Schedule - verify all these schedules, some are seasonal. passports required..