Cayman Island Shore Diving

[idratherbedivin]

I put this in the Cayman specific forum also but I thought more people might see it here. I am trying to plan a diving trip for my high school dive trip that I just started. I am looking for information on the shore diving in the Caymans. I have seen that the best diving seems to be in Little Cayman but most seems to be boat diving. Are there good shore dives in either location? Also what resorts are their in the Caymans that offer unlimited shore diving packages?

 

[blawler1]

I haven't been to Little Cayman, but I've dove Grand Cayman a few times. There are several shore dives which are worth doing; however, outside of the Sunset House, the resorts are not really set up for shore diving and on site dive shops won't allow outside tanks. The upside is that when we were last there a couple of years ago, tanks were running 6$ to 8$ US and weights for about $2.

In the George Town area, the Sunset House has a decent shore dive with the statue of Aphrodite and has some reef formation.

A little north in downtown is Eden Rock Dive Shop with the Eden Rock/Devil's Grotto out in front. These adjacent sites have lots of cool swim throughs and usually a few tarpon. They run pretty shallow (under 40') and make for cool night dives.

A few hundred yards north is the wreck of the Cali. This used to be the home of Don Foster's Dive Shop, but I don't know who is in the building now. This site is basically a debris field as the wreck has long ago broken apart. Its pretty shallow (around 30') and due to boat traffic, you have to drag a dive flag with you. There are also some large coral heads on the south side of the wreck where you can often find tarpon.

There is also a good mini wall dive in front of Dive Tech just north of the Turtle Farm north of 7 Mile Beach on West Bay Rd.

Grand Cayman also has cheap and fairly reliable public transportation (white mini van bus service) that could get you to and from most any hotels in the 7 mile beach or George Town areas and any of the dive sites I mentioned for around $2 each way. You can just carry your dive bag on the bus and pick up tanks on site.

With that said, have you considered the Netherland Antilles islands of Bonaire or even Curacao? If you are looking for unlimited shore diving, you can't beat Bonaire and Curacao has similar divng with more top side activities. The shore diving is outstanding and fairly cheap (an example, Bonaire Dive and Adventure offers unlimited tanks and weights for six days for only $105 and Nitrox for the same) Now that Continental is flying Houston to Bonaire and Newark to Curacao, the Netherland Antilles is alot easier to get to and generally cheaper for hotels, diving, and food than the Caymans.

 

[Damselfish]

There is some shore diving on Grand Cayman as mentioned but Cayman is really more about boat diving. I agree if you really want to concentrate on shore diving Bonaire (or possibly Curacao) would be a better place to consider. Pretty much anyplace on Bonaire will have an unlimited shore diving package cheap, with good diving right there if you're in a hotel on the water. And you can take your unlimited tanks to lots of sites. Not quite as many dive hotel choices on Curacao but still pretty a good place for shore diving, and it's easier to get to from some places.

 

[idratherbedivin]

Thanks for the responses, Sunset House looks like a great option. I have looked into Bonaire and it looks amazing but the prices for the flights there are a lot more expensive (in the 650-800 range), while to Cayman is around half of that for roundtrip flights. But if I can save that extra money because the hotels are cheaper then that might be something i could look in to.

 

[sdwho]

between Little Cayman and Grand Cayman, the latter is definitely your better choice for shore diving. We like staying at Cobalt Coast and diving with Divetech. You have two shore dive options: diving off of the dock at Cobalt Coast can be very nice (although its a bit of a swim out to the actual reef). And the nearby site at Turtle Reef is our favorite..we dive it several times each visit and have seen it all: turtles, squid, rays, midnight parrot fish, juvenile everything, tarpon, eels, you name it.

The nice thing is that Divetech has locations at both Cobalt Coast and by Turtle Reef and will arrange transportation for you, minimizing the amount of tank/weight etc. lugging you need to do...They also will leave tanks out for you at either location for night dives. And at Cobalt Coast, they have scooters if you want to take the easy ride to the reef, and they also do a scooter dive from CC down to Turtle Reef.


sdwho

 

[zf2nt]

I put this in the Cayman specific forum also but I thought more people might see it here. I am trying to plan a diving trip for my high school dive trip that I just started. I am looking for information on the shore diving in the Caymans. I have seen that the best diving seems to be in Little Cayman but most seems to be boat diving. Are there good shore dives in either location? Also what resorts are their in the Caymans that offer unlimited shore diving packages?

Respectfully, I strongly disagree with all those recommending against shore diving on Little Cayman (as compared to Grand Cayman). I just came back to the states after a 90 day stay on Little Cayman, during which time I got in 94 dives with over 100 hours of bottom time covering almost all of the north wall...and all of it from shore. Shore diving on Little Cayman is better than any place I've ever seen, and that includes Bonaire and Grand Cayman. If you're interested, I've put together some notes on the sites and how to reach them at http://www.qsl.net/zf2nt/Shore Diving/shore_diver.htm.

However, and I don't mean to sound condescending when I say this, your dive profile doesn't indicate you have had the dive experience to tackle most of these sites from shore. A certain amount of experience is required to be able to read the water in order to know when it's safe to swim out through the fringing reef and when it's not, and you can get badly mangled if you try to do it under the wrong conditions. My personal advice would be to go someplace a little more tame than Little Cayman in order to gain some of that experience, but keep Little Cayman on your list for later. The diving there is simply the best I've seen anywhere in the Caribbean.

Bruce

 

[Damselfish]

That's why I didn't mention shore diving on Little Cayman - for so many reasons including experience it doesn't seem like a practical option in this case.

 

[Scubasteve1950]

Bruce

Its good to hear that someone like the shore diving in LC.. I will be there in June and plan on getting a couple shore dives in every afternoon.. We would even like to do a couple of shore night dives.. We are staying at Sam McCoys and Bloody Bay Wall.

I like your Shore Diver's Guide to Little Cayman website, It will be very helpful.

Thanks
Steve

 

[Lightning Fish]

Have a look at http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/Caribbean_/Cayman_Islands_/index.htm

I don't know how this website is for Cayman Islands, but I use it a lot for Vancouver.

Bill.

 

[AquaBadger]

Also try this site for shore dives on Grand Cayman: http://caymanislandsdiscounts.com/offshore_diving.htm The instructions and pictures to access these sites are right on the money (as of Jan 2006 when I was there). Also click on "offshore snorkeling" on the left side of the webpage. Some of the snorkeling sites are good dive sites, too.