Ambergris / San Pedro / Caulker Dive Ops for More Experienced Divers.

[John Trecker]

Looking for recommendations / suggestions for dive operations that might good for more experienced divers in Ambergris / San Pedro / Caulker.
After much research, it appears many of the larger / more well known are really catering to classes / beginners / cruise ships.
For example, Ramon's is doing 8 persons per guide. 9 persons in a groups seems pretty large. Trying to avoid cattle car situations as much as possible.
In Cancun there is Aldora Divers which seems to cater to more experienced divers with really experienced divers / guides / DMs. Is there an equivalent in Ambergris, Caulker, or elsewhere?
Maybe smaller ops offer an alternative? Or something else?
Any input appreciated.
Thank you!

 

[ReefHound]

We stayed on Caye Caulker some years ago and had a great time with Black Durgon Dives, a small husband and wife team.

 

[ReefHound]

Here's my trip report from 2016.

Trip Report - Caye Caulker, Belize

Me and my gf did a Cozumel/Belize trip early December 2015 and this details the Belize portion. On Wednesday, we departed Playa del Carmen on an ADO bus to Chetumal ($20usd), caught a taxi to pier ($5usd), water taxi to Caye Caulker ($65usd plus $10/extra bag fee, with immigration stop in San...

scubaboard.com

 

[John Trecker]

Thanks. Noticed you experienced,y concern. Set arbitrary time limits

The DM was hard working, technically proficient, and friendly but we didn't like how the dives were structured, being strictly limited in dive time. We came up each dive with over 1500psi. On both dives 2 and 3, the first 30 minutes were nice but then the DM took us on long ten minute journey over sand and seagrass for some reason. The lunch and visit to Half Moon Caye was awesome and we would be interested in an overnight trip there next time.

 

[ReefHound]

That was on the Blue Hole trip, not the trips with Black Durgon. Blue Hole is a logbook dive and we wouldn't repeat it but the outer atoll dives are much nicer (and pricier).

 

[ron_dodge]

Looking for recommendations / suggestions for dive operations that might good for more experienced divers in Ambergris / San Pedro / Caulker.
After much research, it appears many of the larger / more well known are really catering to classes / beginners / cruise ships.
For example, Ramon's is doing 8 persons per guide. 9 persons in a groups seems pretty large. Trying to avoid cattle car situations as much as possible.
In Cancun there is Aldora Divers which seems to cater to more experienced divers with really experienced divers / guides / DMs. Is there an equivalent in Ambergris, Caulker, or elsewhere?
Maybe smaller ops offer an alternative? Or something else?
Any input appreciated.
Thank you!

They team at Scuba Daze (Padi Certification Belize | San Pedro | Scuba Daze Belize) is pretty good and worth checking out.

 

[mcohen1021]

The diving around Ambergris is like diving in an aquarium. like the animals are trained. I'm headed to the BA3 saturday, i'll report back on my experience.

 

[Doc Harry]

We stayed at Ramon's. They cater to newbies. You MUST stay with the DM, and the dives are 60 feet max and 40 minutes max. I was regularly surfacing with about 1,200 p.s.i.

The Blue Hole dive is NOT worth the long ride out there. The place is swamped with newbies who kick up the sand in the shallows. By the time you get down to 140-150 feet the visibility is extremely poor from all the sand filtering down. Total nightmare.

 

[John Trecker]

We stayed at Ramon's. They cater to newbies. You MUST stay with the DM, and the dives are 60 feet max and 40 minutes max. I was regularly surfacing with about 1,200 p.s.i.

The Blue Hole dive is NOT worth the long ride out there. The place is swamped with newbies who kick up the sand in the shallows. By the time you get down to 140-150 feet the visibility is extremely poor from all the sand filtering down. Total nightmare.

Thank you for input and confirmation. This is exactly what I was both reading and getting the sense from communications with Ramons. Safety is important, but also not so fun or interesting to redo training dives.

 

[rudylgza]

I dove with Elite Adventures Belize just last month. They did seem to cater to more experienced divers and locals. You do have to go with a DM and the max dive time is 45 minutes but they took us to lots of cool swim throughs and my max depth was 105' on one dive although most were at a max of around 80'. Picture is from my last dive where it was just me and the DM (gotta love low season).