Caribbean with 13yr old son

[KidScuba]

What would be the best dive for my son and I, the Islands that we are interested in are St Lucia, St Thomas, Antigua and St Maarten this will be my son's first ocean dive and he is hoping to do a shallow wreck dive and see lot's of marine life.

Thank's

13yr old's Dad

 

[smokey braden]

dear kid,
welcome to this board.
as i had posted,we just came back from aruba.
we dove with dive aruba with clive paula.
my 16 yr old son took the resort course.
clive checked out my son and he was allowed to dive.
clive being a native knows the reefs and wrecks in great detail.
there are several shallow dives on wrecks that clive took us to.
i noticed you mentioned 4 islands in particular.
is there a chance you are going on a cruise to these islands?
maybe one day you will do a land based trip and aruba could be a consideration.
clive has a web site were you can contact him.
kindest regards,
smokey

 

[croyo]

Well it seems like its been a while for me, but I'm a 19 year old instructor and it hasnt been that long since I was just a 13 year old regular diver. I've been to all those listed places, and I would have to narrow it down to St. Lucia or Antigua, but definitely leaning towards St. Lucia. There are many sites on the west (lee side) of the island which means usual calm conditions and easy diving. Lots of marine life, an amazing dive at Anse Chasenet(sp?) and I remember a fun wreck, not too deep that was sunk a few years before I dove it, by now it should have decent growth on it.
Antigua was nice, but all the good sites were quite a ways off the west side of the island, almost half way to Nevis. It's been about six or seven years since I've been there, but they were enforcing their marine park pretty well and from what I've heard theres still some great diving there. Good luck and safe diving!

 

[bridgenet]

I would have to agree, St. Lucia and Anse Chastenet. With the Pitons in the background, right out of the Superman movie :new_smili

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

I have dove Antigua, St. Lucia and St. Thomas. Of the three I would agree that St. Lucia offers the better diving. St. Thomas would be a close second and cheaper to get to. I would not go back to St. Thomas based upon the people and the crowding. I would definitely go back to St. Lucia. The Piton area is very nice. There is a Hilton there that offers good specials and decent surroundings. Anse Chastanet is very nice, quite expensive and more of a romance destination in my opinion. There are also some nice rental villas in the area of the Pitons. We stayed at a house right up the hill from Anse Chastanet and used their dive op. Very convenient. The house was staffed and very private.

 

[KidScuba]

St. Lucia, sounds great were sold. We have looked into it thanks to (all) your advice. We will be on a cruise and have limited time (7:00am to 5:00pm) what dive should we do.


Kid