Cayman’s dive industry fights to stay afloat

[Divetech Cayman]

Stayover guests include all those families with kids that stay at 7MB. Not really useful here. Guess about 80% of stayover guests?

I doubt that the availability of shore diving will move the needle on divers. When I sell Cayman to my customers, it’s the walls that sell. I did the CC shore dive (off the pier), when the wind allowed, it was ho hum.

My response was more of a trivia answer when the question was asked about the average age of the customer. I happened to have the DOT report on my desk. Also worth noting that according to DOT exit surveys, only 3.4% of stay over tourists come to Cayman to dive.

To address your other statement - will availability of shore diving move the needle on divers coming here? Probably not. Solo diving will likely make no difference either. People tend to like what they like. As I said before, some divers like shore diving, some don't. Thats why they make chocolate and vanilla ice cream. I would say however each site is different, and if you've only done the shore diving at Cobalt, I'd encourage you to try other locations. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. People rave about Turtle Reef at Macabuca. Eden Rock is amazing as well. Here at Lighthouse Point, our main wall is the same distance from shore as the mini wall is a Cobalt. The main wall is spectacular, with canyons, huge relief on the wall itself, and some cool things to explore. At one point our shore location was voted the 4th best shore dive worldwide.

Thank you for the update! Very good to know. I understand that many people don't want to engage in solo shore diving, and some may not want to support it via their business, which is fine. I remain perplexed that some people seem to be, to use your term, dead set against other people doing it. Live and let live...

The gist of the proposal was this:

• Solo divers had to be solo certified from a recognized agency
• Solo divers had to be equipped with separate, redundant air sources
• No dive shop, dive boat, dive guide HAD to accept shore divers. Only if the facility approved of solo diving, and the diver's plan

It was felt by some, that solo diving would increase Cayman's accident rate. At some point we will revisit the issue when things return to normal, and I'll likely be soliciting support from solo diving enthusiasts.

Tony

 

[scubadada]

The shore diving on Grand Cayman is quite good and very easy, I have done many dives at Turtle Reef, Lighthouse Point, and Cobalt Coast. All my dives were with a buddy or buddies.

I discovered the shore diving on Cayman Brac during my stay in 2017. If I am lucky enough to return, I will split diving between boat and shore, rather than doing all boat diving. I dived several sites available from shore by boat, and they were quite good (Buccaneer, Charlie's, Grunt's, and Radar). I believe you can shore dive the Tibbetts from the Bucanneer site if the conditions are favorable and you don't mind the long swim. I don't remember about Cayman Brac Beach Resort, but Brac Scuba Shack allows solo diving with certification and appropriate equipment. I think you must provide your own pony. I would contact them for current information if I was considering it

.

 

[mi000ke]

Solo shore diving would be great. I’m pretty flexible as a retired geezer, but it has turned out to be more difficult to coordinate my schedule with the local divers I know who are on a work schedule, family obligations, etc. Would be great just to be able to jump in on my own time. But with the buddy rule, I find that knowing there is a boat going out on a regular schedule works a lot better logistically, plus it does a bit more to help the dive ops financially.

What I find surprising is that very few of the dive operators that are still running have done much marketing, advertising or reaching out to the local community to let us know (or if they are, I am their prime target and they haven’t reached me). Very few of them have updated their websites to indicate whether they are still operating and if so on what schedule. I am on the call list of a couple of other ops (thanks Tony!) but their schedules tend to be more sporadic (because I assume they are waiting for customers to come to them). I did find out yesterday from someone local I happen to run into that another dive op is still open, and I'll probably contact them, but would not have known otherwise. I had visited their website a while ago and there was no indication whether they were still running trips.

So, I’ve ended up diving mostly with Red Sail these days because they advertise the fact that they are going out, they run on a defined weekly schedule, and they send weekly emails with their schedule to their customers. I suppose if the other ops had made it known on their sites that they were open and posted a schedule and local rates I would certainly consider them. We want to spread the love.

As to demand on the island, it is of course only a small fraction of the tourist business, but there seems to be a lot of locals who want to dive or to get certified. I dove with Red Sail last Sunday, and we had 18 divers on the boat, and it’s been like that the past few months (when it’s not hurricaning). The lead DM said they put up announcements on their facebook page and are getting a good response. They are running at least two scheduled trips per week plus a charter or two, and every trip I've been on the past few months has had at least one group doing some kind of certification dives, and a pretty full boat overall.

So I hope more dive ops try to get the word out to see if that increases business until the powers that be can figure out how to safely open up the country again.

 

[hilljo88]

I made 3 trips to Caymans in 2019, 0 in 2020, hope to catch up in 2021. My usual routine on GC is to do 2 tank boat dive each morning. I then want to do some combination of afternoon 1 tank boat dive, shore dives and night/pre-dawn dives. I get much more opportunities for macro photos on the shore dives than I do on the typical boat dive. I can also start the dive on my schedule and get 70-90 minutes bottom time. Maccabuca, Eden Rock/Devil's Grotto and Sunset House are all easy shore dives with lots of life (although Devil's Grotto is a decent swim out.)

Occasionally, I'm solo, in which case I just hire a dive guide who usually has fewer dives under their belt than me and might not even know the particular dive site as well as I do. But I consider them a valuable redundancy rather than an inconvenience, and don't mind the fee.

 

[divezonescuba]

The problem with shore diving on Cayman Brac, solo or not is the reluctance of the two diveshops to allow divers to take more than one tank. The one tank thing is a CITA recommendation, not a law, but the diveshops will generally follow the recommendation. It is quite inconvenient to drive all the way back to the diveshops which are on the other side of the island to change out a single tank. I did it four times one day.

We have been allowed two tanks at a time when divers are sidemounting. It generally required the owner / dive managers approval.

 

[Saboteur]

Scuba tourism really is the main economic driver on Brac and Little - especially on Little Cayman. I heard that the Clearly Cayman Resorts (CBBR and LCBR) and other hotels went to the Cayman government with a plan to offer "bubble vacations" to protect tourists and residents.

They claimed that they would require their visitors to be tested and screened and to stay on the resort property during the entire vacation, and they would implement precautions like masks and social distancing (even during dining) and would also regularly test staff - but the Cayman government rejected the plan.

‘Resort bubble’ concept not an easy answer - Cayman Islands Headline News

I'd stay in a tent if they'd let me in.

 

[Jcp2]

I'd stay in a tent if they'd let me in.

Still the Ritz for me. I’m blaming the wife on this one.

 

[KathyV]

By Caymanman:

 

[Alucard]

There is no doubt that the tourism business has taken a massive hit - no cruises, no hotels, no dive ops...

Opening up to any tourists before COVID-19 is brought under some degree of control worldwide (which it most definitely isn't yet) is going to open up a risk to the residents on the island, who are completely COVID-free and have been for weeks or months, now. All the positive cases were already in quarantine on arrival on the island.

Cayman has thus far been pretty risk-averse. That will be a big change if that changes.

 

[divezonescuba]

Best of luck to the dive operators and hotels.

I think I will try to get a refund for our March 2021 Cayman Airways tickets. It would have been better to have taken the refund in the first place, but who knew it would come to this.