April, 2018 Grand Cayman Island shore diving photos/reports

[MarkH]

I've already posted a bunch of videos from the places I snorkeled at, and here are the reports and photos from the places I dove:
grandcaymanisland

 

[Saboteur]

I've already posted a bunch of videos from the places I snorkeled at, and here are the reports and photos from the places I dove:
grandcaymanisland

Haha. I've never see non close up dive selfies. And you're a scofflaw! Is it not a problem getting tanks as a solo diver? Great write up and pics.

 

[KathyV]

I've already posted a bunch of videos from the places I snorkeled at, and here are the reports and photos from the places I dove:
grandcaymanisland

Great pictures and narrative, thank you for sharing! Since you were solo shore diving without using a dive op - did you bring your own tanks and weights? Where did you get air fills?

I've never heard of anyone diving Dart Park, what made you think of it?

Years ago, during one of our first dive trips to Grand Cayman, we were boat diving with Bob Soto's dive op - which is no longer in business - and the diving included unlimited tanks for shore dives. There were no onsite dive ops at the popular shore dives back then, the divemasters would just show you the best places on a map and tell you about the entry and exit.

That was the trip when we learned that there is good shore diving around Grand Cayman. We were doing boat dives during the day so a lot of our shore dives were "pirate dives" at night when we would sneak onto a property to use their pier or shore entry. We had a lot of fun and Eden Rock/Devil's Grotto were spectacular sites back then!

 

[KathyV]

If you ever get back to Grand Cayman there are some other nice places that you could try shore diving if you could find entries like Hepp's Reef and Hepp's Pipeline near Coconut Bay, Lighthouse Point, and Cobalt Coast.

Some folks like shore diving Babylon on the East End, and there is no dive-op onsite there, but I understand that it is a long swim and a difficult entry and exit. I have boat-dived Babylon and it was beautiful.

You might try some boat dives on Grand Cayman as well, especially the East End.

And you might also consider venturing over to Cayman Brac for a few days; it is gaining a reputation as a shore diving destination. And the thread below by @scubadada indicates that the Brac Scuba Shack dive op will provide fills for solo divers, if they are solo certified and have a pony bottle plus a tank.

I have only boat dived Cayman Brac, but it was great diving and a lot of the sites are close to shore. I understand that some folks shore dive the Tibbetts (Russian Frigate) wreck - but I think it would be a long swim - but @vincent54 could tell you more about shore diving Brac.

It's only a short flight to Brac (and Little Cayman) from Grand Cayman - about a half hour trip - but the "wait to fly after diving" rules do apply. See the links below for more info about shore diving Brac:

Shore diving on Cayman Brac?

https://www.scubaboard.com/community/posts/8137929/

https://www.xray-mag.com/pdfs/articles/Travel_CaymanBrac_LawsonWood_60_locked.pdf

Also @Ricardo V. has also done some shore diving on Little Cayman and LC has some of the best diving in the Caribbean IMO:
https://www.scubaboard.com/community/posts/8139619/

 

[MarkH]

Haha. I've never see non close up dive selfies. And you're a scofflaw! Is it not a problem getting tanks as a solo diver? Great write up and pics.

The trickiest part of getting those camera-timer selfies was finding a sandy area to set down the camera so marine life wouldn't get damaged. I rented tanks and weights from Diver's Supply in 7-Mile Beach. Many of the beach-front dive ops wouldn't let you take their tanks offsite.

 

[Alucard]

Thanks for the great site reports - some wonderful photos there too. It's good to know that Divers Supply is still renting tanks - I had heard that they had stopped doing it.

One thing that I sort of feel the need to comment on - you imply in your write-ups that the dive ops at the shore dive sites are making an arbitrary choice about solo diving - my understanding is that it is a condition of them being a member of the Tourism Association that they adhere to their best practices, so I'm not sure that they have any choice in the matter.

Also, I think you identified quite nicely why the dive ops require you to rent tanks from them - your noted the difficult entry over the ironshore, which you were fine with being more adventurous, but which is pretty arduous for most. There dive ops provide and maintain at their cost safe entry points, dive ladders, plus rinse tanks, showers, etc., to make the diving more pleasurable an experience. They don't charge that much more than the other tank rental companies so it's not really like they are ripping people off. I know you didn't say any of that explicitly, and I am happy that you didn't abuse things and found a different water entry/exit, but I am happy to support businesses that provide those services.

 

[MarkH]

I've never heard of anyone diving Dart Park, what made you think of it?

It had lots of public parking and it was very close to where I was staying. Looking at a marine chart, it seemed the deep wall might be reachable from shore here. It turns out that I didn't swim all the way to the deep wall since there was so much good stuff in the 60-70' range. It ended up being my favorite dive of the trip.

 

[tkaelin]

Thanks for the report. Glad you enjoyed your trip. I would suggest that no diving is "wasted" diving especially if on GCM. I know what you mean though. 40 years ago I would have chimed in that the deep wall is why you dive there and the shallower dives are, well, where you spend your second dive because you kind of have to after the deep dive.I would now say that both deep and shallow can be great and I tend to enjoy the shallower dives now where I can spend as much time as I want, (diving solo or with family) maybe 25 mins on a single coral outcropping. Its amazing what you will find when you switch gears and slow down and focus in on one or two spots. Also on the deeper wall dives, you tend to be with a group, following a dm and while you cover a lot of ground the opportunity to stop, slow down and look is less.

 

[MarkH]

Thanks for the great site reports - some wonderful photos there too.

One thing that I sort of feel the need to comment on - you imply in your write-ups that the dive ops at the shore dive sites are making an arbitrary choice about solo diving - my understanding is that it is a condition of them being a member of the Tourism Association that they adhere to their best practices, so I'm not sure that they have any choice in the matter.

Also, I think you identified quite nicely why the dive ops require you to rent tanks for them - your noted the difficult entry over the ironshore, which you were fine with being more adventurous, but which is pretty arduous for most. There dive ops provide and maintain at their cost safe entry points, dive ladders, plus rinse tanks, showers, etc., to make the diving more pleasurable an experience. They don't charge that much more than the other tank rental companies so it's not really like they are ripping people off. I know you didn't say any of that explicitly, and I am happy that you didn't abuse things and found a different water entry/exit, but I am happy to support businesses that provide those services.

I agree with you. I didn't mean to imply that the dive ops were denying me the right to solo dive out of some sort of greedy spite. I have dove a fair amount all over the world because of the travel I do for work. I've found that most tropical destinations enforce solo diving while most cold water ones don't. I assume this is because a good percentage of people diving in the tropics are newer or occasional divers who just dive on vacation and may not be very comfortable in the water. By enforcing buddy diving, the liability after an accident falls on the buddy who was "supposed to keep them safe". Having a bunch of panicking, new divers awkwardly flopping around unsupervised by themselves would be a nightmare for any tourism board. I find the insistence on buddy diving in the tropics to be frustrating at times since it adds risk to my dive. Instead of looking after myself, I now have the extra task-loading of keeping an eye on a random diver that I've been buddied up with on a charter boat. Instead of enjoying my surroundings, I now spend a majority of my dive trying to keep a new diver from panicking, dealing with their buoyancy issues, sucking back their tank in 15 minutes, etc. When I'm by myself I can dive at my own comfort level, swim at my own pace, ascend and descend when I'm ready, etc. Anyways, maybe some of this built-up frustration came out in my dive reports. I think that the waterfront dive operations on Grand Cayman are an excellent option for most divers. They have easy water access, gear rentals, accommodation, restaurants, even bars sometimes. I also agree that they have every right to profit from these services that they provide. I don't resent them the right to deny non-paying divers from accessing the water from their property. I just prefer the "going off and exploring on my own" kind of diving.

 

[mi000ke]

Great photos and write-up. Thanks for posting.