I've just noticed that the Cayman Brac Beach Resort is now offering all-inclusive rebreather dive/vacation packages. Rebreather diving is available year round but a slightly cheaper package is offered during the late summer and fall, see the links below.
Year-Round Rebreather Dive Package at CBBR:
https://www.caymanbracbeachresort.com/dive-packages/cayman-escape-for-rebreather-diver/
Late Summer and Fall Rebreather Dive Package at CBBR:
https://www.caymanbracbeachresort.com/dive-packages/carefree-cayman-for-rebreather-diver/
We are not tech divers but I do know that finding rebreather dive opportunities in the Caymans isn't always easy. A few dive ops like DiveTech and In-Depth Watersports on Grand Cayman offer rebreather dive trips but I don't think that many other ops provide rebreather support services, and rebreather diving has not been readily available in the Cayman Sister Islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman.
See below for a trip report posted by kensuf in 2017 about a group of divers that made special arrangements with the Brac Scuba Shack and In-Depth to do rebreather dives off of Brac. They had some great dives but they had to ship the special gas mixtures from GC to Brac to make it happen.
I find all this interesting because when we were at the Cayman Brac Beach Resort in November 2018, one of the divemasters joined our morning dives one day and he was diving rebreather equipment. He seemed to be practicing and learning how to use the equipment. He fiddled with it and put it on and took it off a few times on the boat, and another dive master was assisting him.
During the briefings the other divers were told to "just ignore him!" but I saw him "come and go" a few times during our dives. Sometimes he would be with the group following the divemaster but then he would disappear for awhile and reappear later. Anyway, it appears that the Cayman Brac Beach Resort is now investing in the rebreather vacation dive package market.
Cayman Brac is very close to Little Cayman and the dive boats from both resorts often make the trip over to the neighboring island when the weather is good; so rebreather divers may have the opportunity to dive both of the Sister Islands during a dive trip to Brac.
DiveTech is hosting their Innerspace tech diving event at the Little Cayman Beach Resort in May 2019, so it seems that the Sister Islands and the Clearly Cayman resorts are now showing some interest in Tech Diving:
Innerspace 2019 To Be Hosted By Divetech Little Cayman – DeeperBlue.com
The CBBR/Reef Diver packages page cites the conditions below so it seems like they are just "dipping a toe" into this market to gauge if it will be popular, and that you won't be able to "do your own thing" much unless you are traveling with a group of rebreather divers. If there is a lot of interest then maybe they will invest more heavily in this market in the future and expand the opportunities for rebreather divers.
Per Brac Reef Divers:
"The rebreather diver must bring their own equipment and have a buddy who is also using rebreather equipment. Some staff members are certified as rebreather divers and will be able to provide support in servicing their closed circuit equipment. Unless on boats 100% dedicated to rebreather divers, guests will be diving the same profiles set for others on the boat. Please provide minimum of 45 days’ notice if you will be diving with your rebreather."
Discussion in 'Tek Trip Reports' started by @kensuf, Mar 6, 2017.
“Cayman Brac Invasion...
I recently joined a bunch of like minded fools for a week of deep CCR diving in Cayman Brac. The trip was organized by In-Depth Watersports in Grand, and included 12 CCR divers in a total group of 27 people.
Given that there are only two dive operators in the Brac, and one of them wasn't interested in supporting a bunch of deep diving, there were some serious logistical hurdles. Nat Robb (owner, In-Depth) had to premix the gases and ship all of the bailout, deco gases, and sorb over by barge. He set up a temporary mixing station in a shed near the airport for our nightly fills.
The guys at Brac Scuba Shack took great care of us during the trip, and it was a learning experience for them because they had never worked with CCR divers before. They kept talking about how to the best of their knowledge there had never been an organized group that was doing 300-340' dives in the area before.
On my flight over there I started to feel a head cold come on, and this progressed into a chest cold, so I missed a day of diving, but I still managed to get in a couple of great dives. One of my favorites was the Captain Keith Tibbetts, which is a 330' Russian destroyer that sits about 75' from the wall in water ranging from 100' to 20' -- we started off with a 100m wall dive, then did our deco on a kick ass wreck.
I can not describe how great the diving was. Corals were very healthy, lots of mature grouper, snapper, and sharks on the reefs, and the visibility was easily 100'+ every dive.”
Year-Round Rebreather Dive Package at CBBR:
https://www.caymanbracbeachresort.com/dive-packages/cayman-escape-for-rebreather-diver/
Late Summer and Fall Rebreather Dive Package at CBBR:
https://www.caymanbracbeachresort.com/dive-packages/carefree-cayman-for-rebreather-diver/
We are not tech divers but I do know that finding rebreather dive opportunities in the Caymans isn't always easy. A few dive ops like DiveTech and In-Depth Watersports on Grand Cayman offer rebreather dive trips but I don't think that many other ops provide rebreather support services, and rebreather diving has not been readily available in the Cayman Sister Islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman.
See below for a trip report posted by kensuf in 2017 about a group of divers that made special arrangements with the Brac Scuba Shack and In-Depth to do rebreather dives off of Brac. They had some great dives but they had to ship the special gas mixtures from GC to Brac to make it happen.
I find all this interesting because when we were at the Cayman Brac Beach Resort in November 2018, one of the divemasters joined our morning dives one day and he was diving rebreather equipment. He seemed to be practicing and learning how to use the equipment. He fiddled with it and put it on and took it off a few times on the boat, and another dive master was assisting him.
During the briefings the other divers were told to "just ignore him!" but I saw him "come and go" a few times during our dives. Sometimes he would be with the group following the divemaster but then he would disappear for awhile and reappear later. Anyway, it appears that the Cayman Brac Beach Resort is now investing in the rebreather vacation dive package market.
Cayman Brac is very close to Little Cayman and the dive boats from both resorts often make the trip over to the neighboring island when the weather is good; so rebreather divers may have the opportunity to dive both of the Sister Islands during a dive trip to Brac.
DiveTech is hosting their Innerspace tech diving event at the Little Cayman Beach Resort in May 2019, so it seems that the Sister Islands and the Clearly Cayman resorts are now showing some interest in Tech Diving:
Innerspace 2019 To Be Hosted By Divetech Little Cayman – DeeperBlue.com
The CBBR/Reef Diver packages page cites the conditions below so it seems like they are just "dipping a toe" into this market to gauge if it will be popular, and that you won't be able to "do your own thing" much unless you are traveling with a group of rebreather divers. If there is a lot of interest then maybe they will invest more heavily in this market in the future and expand the opportunities for rebreather divers.
Per Brac Reef Divers:
"The rebreather diver must bring their own equipment and have a buddy who is also using rebreather equipment. Some staff members are certified as rebreather divers and will be able to provide support in servicing their closed circuit equipment. Unless on boats 100% dedicated to rebreather divers, guests will be diving the same profiles set for others on the boat. Please provide minimum of 45 days’ notice if you will be diving with your rebreather."
Discussion in 'Tek Trip Reports' started by @kensuf, Mar 6, 2017.
“Cayman Brac Invasion...
I recently joined a bunch of like minded fools for a week of deep CCR diving in Cayman Brac. The trip was organized by In-Depth Watersports in Grand, and included 12 CCR divers in a total group of 27 people.
Given that there are only two dive operators in the Brac, and one of them wasn't interested in supporting a bunch of deep diving, there were some serious logistical hurdles. Nat Robb (owner, In-Depth) had to premix the gases and ship all of the bailout, deco gases, and sorb over by barge. He set up a temporary mixing station in a shed near the airport for our nightly fills.
The guys at Brac Scuba Shack took great care of us during the trip, and it was a learning experience for them because they had never worked with CCR divers before. They kept talking about how to the best of their knowledge there had never been an organized group that was doing 300-340' dives in the area before.
On my flight over there I started to feel a head cold come on, and this progressed into a chest cold, so I missed a day of diving, but I still managed to get in a couple of great dives. One of my favorites was the Captain Keith Tibbetts, which is a 330' Russian destroyer that sits about 75' from the wall in water ranging from 100' to 20' -- we started off with a 100m wall dive, then did our deco on a kick ass wreck.
I can not describe how great the diving was. Corals were very healthy, lots of mature grouper, snapper, and sharks on the reefs, and the visibility was easily 100'+ every dive.”
