Hey
@Doc, can you explain more why you think CCV is not a great spot for the 20 -100 crowd? I’m just at about 100 dives and would like go to CCV. Just trying to understand what you mean, that’s all.
It’s pretty abstract and nowhere set in stone.
A couple of different levels here...
For the noob- the
physical infrastructure of the dive “locker” or load-out zones...the spaciousness and ease of movement, a lot of things no one sees because it’s so well designed to keep fumbling to a minimum, the
boat access is truly unique and simply not challenging. The shoreside facilities and boats are imagined by noobs as an industry norm. Surprise!
For Seasoned divers, they don’t “need” all that space and ease of traffic flow, but for the divers with serious Level 10 camera gear, the boat no-slosh tanks and separate facilities indoors for cameras, they revel in that.
As to the diving per-se:
The shore dive (Front Yard) easily is the equal to a pool for what otherwise would be the confined water portion of OW. The diving on the South side is in no way “advanced”. I define that advanced word as nothing more than multiple task loading. There is no specific new challenge that can’t be segmented and compartmentalized, handling one new type of task at your own pace. If you’re the odd diver who actually manages to drain his tank, usually at that point you might be well advised to simply stand up.
As to naturalist observations:
The DMs are really good at this. CCV DMs are
not hunting Lionfish. They are tasked with herding us cats and finding and pointing out the critters that are niche specific to this geographic environment. You don’t have to follow them, but silly you if you do not.
That there is the first stumbling block to that 20-100 (approx) kind of diver (let’s call them generically “the
MIDs”). I’ve found that too many divers in that category want to “explore on their own”, avoiding that lead dive. They have no clue what they are missing.
More than a few MID divers didn’t like CCV because of their yet to be attained level of ease in the water column. They leave knowing that there was no sea life. You can’t know what you don’t know.
Noobs are pretty busy diving. There are enough larger Crustaceans, Apex fish, schooling- even the OW student will likely see one, sometimes invisible due to their overall state of kerfuffle and constructive myopia, but hey- they're diving, satisfying the noob in this clear, no current, shallow environment, very easy.
Those MIDs however- at this point, a high percentage of them have GoPros, or at least a camera the size of a Kardashians tote bag. They have task loaded themselves well ahead of their ability, unbeknownst to them. They are all over finding that Whale Shark, but they will settle for their 15th Barracuda, 6th 17# Parrotfish, a Lobster the size of their forearm. They have heard of Octopuppies and not sure if they’ve seen a Squid.
Most divers grow out of this phase pretty quickly, but if they’re still in “punching through their life list” of critters, you’ll get through that list and maybe that phase a bit quicker on the West End/West North. It’s deeper and darker there, a wee bit of current, so that environment is more to the taste of these larger Pelagics. Ding ding ding, I saw a Bananacuda the size of a canoe!
And like I said, it’s deeper over West/North. This is another inexplicable life goal of most divers, hitting 90’ or 100’ or 140’. This is a “requirement” for 99.78% of all MID type divers. Most W/N dives can offer you 100’ bottoms.
W/N dive sites are obviously in the shadow of the Sunlight. Darker contrast areas are happy places for Apex critters. A bit hard to see, but that’s what works for a hunter. The reef structure is “stepped”, meaning not vertical walls. It gets deep fast. It hits many of the perceived needs of the MID diver.
The MID diver is often real busy with imaging or fiddling with technology, they have simply not yet perfected (
perfected!) buoyancy skills. They have not mastered “close up observational skills”. The ability to put their faceplate 6” away from some small critter.
That’s what you need to really enjoy the South side zone, a 5-7 mile stretch that CCV sits in the middle of. The geography: a vertical wall that breaks straight down, starting in 5-30’ from the surface. It bottoms on the first sand shelf at 90’. It faces directly square into the Suns track all day long. Tremendous soft and hard coral growth. This is the incubator nursery for the Ocean. This area is crawling with micro and macro, something every 12”.
Most divers simply can not see these colorful babies hiding in plain sight. Remember, the MIDs are the divers who don’t want to follow that DM. The other thing they prolly haven’t mastered is to s-l-o-w d-o-w-n.
Slower divers, shallower divers, ones that have excellent buoyancy and close up vision (
did you bring a magnifying glass?), people who have observed where DMs look, people who ask the DM how to find these rare delights. Ahh- those are the markers of a diver who has that more matured skill set to find real joy in the zone near CCV.
Look at the pro shooters that are showing Roatán macro and actual micro- they’re shooting out of CCV. They already have enough pix of Squirrel Fish.
As I said, the explanation is a bit obtuse, but I’ve found the appeal of the different types of diving to be fairly predictable.
Where's the BIG stuff, he keeps asking. I'm like, you wanna see BIG stuff, you gotta go to Galapagos, Cocos, etc. Too bad for him LOL. I get to decide where to go. 
