Cayman Diving - Is it that good??

[Rhone Man]

We often hear that. Inevitably, the person saying so has confined his/her Grand Cayman diving to the West Side, where most of the dive ops and hotels are located and where the vast majority of the diving is done. If you only dive on the West Side you will not be impressed. The coral there, particularly on the shallow sites, has suffered a lot.

The best Grand Cayman dive sites are on the Eastern side of the Island and on the North Wall. The East is serviced only by Ocean Frontiers and by Tortuga Divers. Experienced divers will prefer OF.

Good to know. Hoping to finally make it across this year.

 

[Damselfish]

We often hear that. Inevitably, the person saying so has confined his/her Grand Cayman diving to the West Side, where most of the dive ops and hotels are located and where the vast majority of the diving is done. If you only dive on the West Side you will not be impressed. The coral there, particularly on the shallow sites, has suffered a lot.

The best Grand Cayman dive sites are on the Eastern side of the Island and on the North Wall. The East is serviced only by Ocean Frontiers and by Tortuga Divers. Experienced divers will prefer OF.

The North Wall diving is very weather dependent, one reason divers can come here for an entire week and never see it. Many divers seem unaware of its charms and make little effort to get there. When the weather is right, you can get to the N Wall with operators such as DiveTech, Neptune, Wall to Wall, Indigo, & Over the Wall.

IMHO, a week on Grand Cayman diving the N Wall and the East End with 2 experienced dive ops is at least equal to, and arguably better than, a week at one of the all-inclusives on the Brac or Little Cayman. I have done all 3 more than once.

I will refrain from comparing GC to the rest of the Caribbean - it's a large area and I have encountered all types of diving - good and not so good - in other countries. However, if the weather cooperates, you will not be disappointed with GC.

+1. My opinion exactly.

 

[nipi]

Agree with Alex, I have dived all the places listed by fda482 (though not Saba/St. Kitts yet) & Little Cayman, the Brac & the N, E & parts of the S sides of Grand Cayman beat them all.

 

[fda483]

Ahhh the collective wisdom of the folks on ScubaBoard is priceless!!! Need to do the Caymans in 2010. Going to the "Beneath the Sea" scuba show in NJ tomorrow and will be stopping by the Aggressor booth for sure to see if they are running any "show specials"!!!

Again thanks everyone for the comments.

Joe

 

[parrotman]

One thing about diving is that opinions vary so much on what one thinks is really great diving. I have been to Bonaire 9 times, Utila 6, roatan 2, bahamas, all three of the cayman islands, Curacoa, Saba, St Kitts, Nevis, Cay Sal Banks,Cozumel and Belize. Of all of those places the two that I would not return to would be the Saba,St Kitts run and the Cayman islands. Although Little Cayman was better than the Brac and GC It was not any better than many other places in the Carib. The diving on the Brac was a fine example of an overfished over dove reef system. I am the kind of diver that is just as happy sitting on the bottom looking for little stuff as I am swimming with the big fish so I can usually find something interesting where ever I go. The one trip that I have been on that I felt was a waste of money was the Saba St Kitts run. The reef system there is shot, no fish to speak of and it was quite expensive. One of my dive buddies, while we were diving PNG last fall was telling me about his trip to the caymans on the Aggressor. He said that the hi light of his trip was after he got off the boat and was staying at 7 mile beach, he did the stingray city gig. If that was the highlight, does'nt say a lot for the diving.

Bonaire and Utila are my favorite dives in the Carib. Bonaire for the abundant fish life and easy diving. Utila for the variety of diving. Unfortunately I think that alot of divers miss the good stuff on Utila because they dive with the ops that focus on students and they miss the really great dive sites.

J

 

[jbiker]

I'll let you know if St Martin is any better when we get back in June.

Grand Cayman, yes, it's the best.

My wife and I dove with Ocean Frontiers and stayed at Compass Point in the winter of 2008 and LOVED IT! Like a fine country club, loading and off loading our gear daily, setting up before each dive, fantastic staff, can't say enough good things.... oh, and the diving - awesome swim thrus, lots of sea life, beautiful colors, warm water, no current, incredible walls.

We loved the East End area because we're not into cookie cutter resorts with the same boring all inclusive food. Compass Point can arrange for you to rent a car and pick it up right at the airport. Fly in on Cayman airways if you can, great staff.

As a comparative we dove with Small Hope Bay in Andros the same year (May). Wonderful people, wonderful food and drink, wonderful dive staff. Not as good diving by a long shot. Coral was in tough shape, fish were not very plentiful, and everything was kind of black and green. Not nearly the experience we had in Cayman.

Would love to go back to Andros anytime just to be with the crew at Small Hope Bay... they are that good. But, the diving was no comparison to Grand Cayman.

Jason

 

[jpomerantz]

So where would you suggest for a couple where one dives an dthe other doesn't. I have dove Cozumel, So Fla, T&C, Fiji, St. Thomas, BVI. We go to Cozumel 4-5x a yr and are looking to do something different for our anniv in August. All opinions welcome! Thanks in advance.