Bermuda Dive sites and Dive Ops

[MissDoo]

Hi guys,
Popping over to Bermuda for a few days and want to do a couple of dives there. Im quite an experienced diver (over 200 dives) and I want to avoid being on a boat with a lot of novice/ discover scuba groups. I've read that Hangover Hole is one of the best dive sites for someone a bit more advanced and looking through the wrecks, the Hermes appeals mostly to me as it's intact and I've had enough of broken up, old, unrecognizable wrecks here in the UK. I wanted to dive with Triangle based on the great reviews on here but they don't dive these sites as they're on the other side of the island. Should I go with Dive Bermuda to do the sites I mentioned or should I go with Triangle and do whatever sites they do??? Anyone with any advice, please reply!

 

[dfx]

There's also Blue Water Divers who also go to the two mentioned sites and they don't force you to stick with the group/DM if you don't want to. I didn't think Hangover Hole was much of an advanced dive, but we had pretty bad viz when we were there. The Hermes is a nice wreck dive, so is the Sea Venture. At least BWD seems to go to those sites on a regular basis. For a more seriously advanced dive, you'd be looking at the Xing Da, but I hear it's pretty broken apart now. As for the more historical wrecks (Constellation for example), there's not a lot left to see of them, but they can make for interesting dives anyway.

 

[tkaelin]

Bermuda is not a dive destination but a beautiful island that has some decent diving. I dove the Hermes three years ago and it is intact, interesting but in my opinion just another wreck and not all that special. It does sit in a nice location in the reef. I dove with Blue Water, posted a trip report and had a mixed experience with them, one good day good crew, not so great crew the next. When I return I will dive with Triangle. If you want to dive the Hermes and willing to make the effort, you might enjoy a day diving the Hermes and Dive Bermuda. You will also be near Horsebeach and the Swizzle Inn, both worth visiting. For my next trip I would choose Triangle based upon the reviews, less likely to have inexperienced and cruise ship crowd on the boat and more likely to have more experienced divers.

 

[MissDoo]

Hmm, the review on Blue Water Divers aren't great. OK, so I won't bother particularly with Hangover Hole. It's not that I'm looking for an difficult site, I just don't want to miss out on a good site just because the dive op needs to go somewhere basic for the novices in the group. I do want to do Hermes though and it's a shame Triangle dont do it. Which reef would you say is the most interesting?

 

[miked]

The Xing Da is pretty much toast (According to some local residents that I know.).
Blue Water Divers does have good and not so good reviews. (Years ago,I had 2 experiences with then, one in each category.)

I'd suggest Dive Bermuda. While there are the occasional students (a.m. and p.m) and the DSDs (p.m.), they are working with their instructors in a separate group, and I have never felt that their presence significantly impacted the choice of dive sites.
The Hermes is a nice wreck, and some of the better reefs, IMO, are the Southwest Breaker, and the Virginia Merchant.

Enjoy your trip.

 

[MissDoo]

Fabulous. I'll go with them then and do the Hermes and one of the reefs you suggest. Thanks

 

[t4e]

for a dive site Blue Hole is a good one too

as for Blue Water dive shop, I wouldn't bother unless you want the divemaster smoking in your face and the shop owner's infant to avoid on the boat

 

[tkaelin]

Southwest breakers is nice, has a big swim through.

 

[HJ]

Triangle is a great op - we were members there for a year and while I slightly prefer Dive Bermuda, Triangle is a little more easy going with the experienced divers than Dive Bermuda. (e.g. they are not as regimental with the bottom time). Bear in mind they also do reverse profile, doing the reef first then wreck.

They will likely take you to the Pellenion which is relatively intact and you can swim under it, and Cathedral which is one of my (and the op's) favorite dive sites on the island with lots of large cave like swim through's. Similar to Hangover Hole but bigger swim throughs so less likely to have sand kicked up all over the place which inevitably happens with Hangover Hole. They sometimes go out to North Rock, which is a nice relatively pristine reef - one of the farthest sites and I think only Triangle dives it with any type of regularity. There are other sites at this end of the island so you wouldn't necessarily dive the same sites - as weekend divers though we ended up going to the same popular places quite often.

Dive Bermuda is closer to the dive sites than Triangle so you will spend slightly less time getting to the sites, but the downside with them is that you have to wade through the water to the boat instead of being able to walk onto the boat at the triangle. Diver Bermuda boat is a little bigger, but the facilities are pretty much the same - Dive Bermuda has fresh water shower and nozzle to rinse the mask.

There's also another dive shop at Tucker's Point. It's a smaller boat and dives similar sites to Triangle. Again we dove with them for a year and you are probably even less likely to come across students / discover people because of its size.

Given your desire to avoid the students and presumably the occasional divers from the cruise ships, I'd recommend Triangle or Tucker's Point. Hermes is very nice and so is Hangover Hole, but Cathedral is also a very nice dive and Pellenion is reasonably intact (though not as fun as Hermes - no swim through other than under the hull).

Hope this helps!

 

[MissDoo]

Thank you HJ, your post has been really really helpful )