Aquarium or Aurora Reservoir?

[stcroix2]

Our 15 year old grandson is coming for a visit. Last year we joined him in receiving his OW certification down in the USVI. We'd like to take a dip during his visit. Does anyone have some experiences to share about either of these local "dive" sites? It isn't just the desire to breath some compressed air, but we would like to make it a fun dive, too.

Thank you for any insight,

K

 

[Shark Whisperer]

When is he coming to town? It it's this weekend, there is a great deal going on with A1 Scuba and the Aquarium this weekend. They are offering dives at the aquarium for $60.00 per person (usually $175.00).
If he is not around this weekend, I would still recommend the aquarium. We did the shark dive and had a great time! It's a little pricey, but it was worth it...to us, especially in the middle of winter and we were dying to get wet and see some fish.

Aurora is fun too. The water is a little on the cooler side. I haven't been out there since the beginning of June, so don't know the exact temps. If there are a lot of classes in the water it can get pretty mucked up and the vis goes WAY down. There is an airplane that you can surface swim to the buoy and then descend on the line. It's pretty eery on a low vis day. Price to dive there is park fee ($6.00?) and key to scuba park (another $10.00...I think) but pretty low.

 

[Laustimus]

I just called A1, he said the $60 is just for the intro to diving in the fisk tank, the Shark tank is still $175 and Snorkel is $75.

Plus they will have a free pool outside for intro also.

 

[RonFrank]

Aurora is a fun dive, but not for those that don't appreciate low vis! IOW's if he likes doing diving in 10' or less vis, the plane is always a fun stop, and chasing/bagging crawdads is always fun.

The Aquarium is a great option, but it is pricey.

What ever you decide, have fun, and you CAN do both!

 

[georoc01]

Do you have gear? That would be the other factor to consider. The aquarium includes gear, if you dive Aurora, you will need to rent. Aquarium is going to be closer to what you experienced in the USVI vs a freshwater reservoir.

The other factor to consider is timing. Aquarium is weekend only where if I had a choice of when to dive Aurora it would be during the week when you would pretty much have the dive beach to yourselves.

 

[roakey]

Open Blue at the aquarium. I used to be a volunteer diver up there and being a shark buff, things don't get much better than being a few inches away from a 7' sand tiger!

Roak

 

[stcroix2]

We have our gear, but would have to rent for our Grandson. So, with the $175 tag apiece for the Aquarium, and the temp/vis at the reservoir, we'll find something else to do. Rockies game probably. Let's see, are they a "baseball" team this year?