?? about Compass Point Dive Resort on GC

[ECPaul]

We have all been on great dives, with beautiful corals, hundreds of fish etc. But what made this trip so good is the crew and staff at Compass Point and Ocean Frontiers. All of them are professional without being stuffy. They are all serious hard core, tech divers, but without the "looking down their nose attitude" that I have witnessed with others of that ilk. The shop is well stocked with Scuabapro and Halcyon gear. Simon works the shop and can hook you up with any number of PADI specialty courses. Sally was the AOW classroom instructer for my daughter on this trip and did a great job with her. One of the co-owners, Fraser, is a GUE instructor (I think he hails from England). The other owner, Mo, is a transplanted Texan who built the 14-16 passenger dive boats by hand. We were offered the option of being guided or semi-guided at every site. Except for my daughter. We were all pretty experienced divers and Gary,Kaz, Fraser, and Mo never acted like baby-sitters during a dive. They were very attentive to everyone that wanted to be guided...but allowed us to signal that we were breaking off from the rest of the group when we wanted to.

Thanks JP - that was an excellent trip report, and gives me all the feedback and more that I could ask for on Compass Point and the associated dive op. Sounds like you had a fantastic time. With reports like that I think this place will not be a well kept secret for long.

Another question for you - my family consists of the 4 of us, two adults and two kids, and so we are are limited to shallower dives because of our younger teenagers (ages 12 and 14). (Not that I'm complaining, as I've seen a lot of great things without venturing very deep, and my air lasts soooo much longer, which is a good thing for this air hog.) Do you think that having the teenagers along on a dive would have been a problem/challenge with this dive op? Would we have been inconveniencing everyone else on board who wanted to dive to 100 feet or more? Or would there have been a DM to work with us on shallower dives while the rest do the deeper stuff?

 

[ianr33]

I have been on several dives with OF where there were less experienced divers on the boat. They had a guided tour along the top of the wall at about 50 feet and the other group went deeper with another divemaster. Worked very smoothly. Would be a good idea to talk top them about this before your trip though as the "standard" deep dive is to 100 feet.
The diving on the East End is awesome

 

[Drew Sailbum]

Another question for you - my family consists of the 4 of us, two adults and two kids, and so we are are limited to shallower dives because of our younger teenagers (ages 12 and 14). ...Do you think that having the teenagers along on a dive would have been a problem/challenge with this dive op?

Most, though not all, of the wall sites on Cayman's East End top out shallower than 60ft (the depth limit for those age 14 or younger). I would imagine that it wouldn't be a problem for OF to simply pull up at some of the wall sites that are a bit shallower on top. After all, for a few more months OF is the only operator running boats on East End... they have their complete choice of sites.

Enjoy your visit to East End!

 

[Mouth Breather old]

Thanks JP - that was an excellent trip report, and gives me all the feedback and more that I could ask for on Compass Point and the associated dive op. Sounds like you had a fantastic time. With reports like that I think this place will not be a well kept secret for long.

Another question for you - my family consists of the 4 of us, two adults and two kids, and so we are are limited to shallower dives because of our younger teenagers (ages 12 and 14). (Not that I'm complaining, as I've seen a lot of great things without venturing very deep, and my air lasts soooo much longer, which is a good thing for this air hog.) Do you think that having the teenagers along on a dive would have been a problem/challenge with this dive op? Would we have been inconveniencing everyone else on board who wanted to dive to 100 feet or more? Or would there have been a DM to work with us on shallower dives while the rest do the deeper stuff?

We had two relatively new divers with us and the top of the wall/reef usually was around 60 feet or so. It was easy for them to follow the people that went deeper even when we disappeared into the swimthroughs because the bubbles percolated through the top and made it very easy to follow. So we had much of the group down deep on the first dive and when we started to ascend our new divers were right there waiting for us at the shallower depth!

 

[Gail A]

Mouth Breather is right on about Ocean Frontiers/ Compass Point. Everything he said is very accurate They had damage from the storm, but were one of (if not the first) dive shops to open back up. The top two floors were opened back up first. Bottom floors took longer because everyone needed supplies and workers and everyone had to wait. Check out the Live Web Cam at Ocean Frontiers, you can get an idea of the grounds and there are pictures of the rooms on their website. Book it, you won't regret it!! They are great.

 

[Gail A]

On the deep first dives, not everyone goes deep. It's sometimes just as cool to stay on top and follow the bubbles and to watch as the divers come out of a swim thru or up a bank of sand. The condos are great for families. Either the one bedroom or the two bedroom could accommodate you family. The one bedrooms have 2 pull down Murphy Beds in the living room.