Cayman Islands ok to dive for OW Cert.?

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Diving on the Brac you will find that all levels are welcome. You can be comfortable in the fact that you won't hold anyone back. For those that want to do their own thing they can go first and dive the way they want.


I hope the OP has made up her mind to go since this thread was started a month ago :-) My comment would be that a lot of the Brac's first morning dives are wall dives which tend to be deeper, but the staff is often very good about picking sites that are a bit shallower at the beginning of the week...places like "East Chute" where it is 50fsw to the sand under the boat.


If you want to have a little more supervision then you can wait for the divemaster on the boat and they will give you a tour around the dive site. The divemasters will do everything they can to make it an enjoyable experience for all levels and desires.

Plus those Brac DMs can be some eye candy for the lady divers ...


BJ+Bret_Brac101.jpg


-hh
 
In answer to the original question, my experience in the Caymans has been that the dive operators do not limit divers depths at all based on level of certification. If the first AM wall dive is planned for 70, 80 or 100 feet, that's the depth you will be permitted to go. The conditions on the Brac are generally so good that there is little appreciable sense of depth and an 80 or 90 foot dive is no more difficult than 60 feet. By all means,Let the DM know that you haven't been on a deep dive on a wall previously. The DM will undoubtedly keep you close to him/her on your first few dives to check that your basic skills are OK and that you don't do anything stupid. You will be asked to let the DM know when you are at 1000 PSI so that they can direct you to the mooring line. On your first few deep dives, you will probably suck more air than more experienced divers, no big deal.

My own experience with AOW was a positive one in that the course emphasized skills and details that had only been glanced over at my original OW course e.g. navigation, and advanced buoyancy. The AOW if worth doing even if just to refresh skills and didactics.
 
My wife's first blue water dive (sixth dive of her life) was at Knife Wall on Grand Cayman. We went to 84 feet on her OW cert. She's been a very comfortable diver from the get go and neither the dive op or I had no issues with her going well beyond OW limits.

I felt I learned alot in my OW class taken through a Jr College with a phenomenal instructor. My AOW was taken through a dive shop with which I didn't feel like I learned much other than to find a new LDS.
 

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