Any dive sites you shouldn’t miss?
it’s more a matter of just not missing any dives...at all.
CCV offers maximum bottom time. If your vacation was to be for diving, the answer to your question is purely mathematical.
“Everybody” does morning boat Dive #1 and afternoon boat Dive #3. The dive sites are posted and you know the names of the sites. As the boat returns to CCV, you are offered the drop-off dive. (morning dive #2, afternoon dive #4)
This is where tropical laze can kick in. The lure of the hammock, a lounger in the Sun, a ridiculously good bar drink.
“Screw you guys, I’m going diving” (-Jacques Cartman, South Park)
You can sleep back in Texas, let’s flop into the water. As much as some “divers” decry the ten weekly offered drop-off dives on either of two different walls...
don’t skip these!
This May I will go to CCV for once-a-year since 1984 trip, maybe been there for 75 weeks?
I just get on the boat, haven’t looked or cared “where” it was headed.
[“disclaimer”: I freely admit to being a CCV Fanboy, no less-so than for specific dive ops in the South Pacific, skiing in Utah, or for most any red head that walks by, just sayin’. After a while, you can just spot a tasty cheeseburger)
The beauty of CCV is the biggest problem for it. The underwater terrain in Roatan is fairly redundant from the range of
any given dive op. Many divers are stimulated by reef
shapes, no less than when they enjoy a “wreck”.
Roatan presents a universally redundant reef shape. Yes, it is sloping, shadowed and deep on the West/North, but from any given dive-op, including CCV (where it is vertical, Sunlit and shallow), the local shape available is predictably similar. Not a lot of differences in reef shape that present an easy woo-hoo view.
What is “different” that is near CCV? Calvin’s Crack, Mary’s Place, those are the dramatic ones...big fissures, cracks, slots, swim throughs. There’s a few hidden chimneys right in front of CCV, most are not mentioned by DMs because they aren’t for noobs. One that is super easy is 2T2S (two tall two small), right in front of Beach House 13, go explore.
The rest of the
reef structure locally is
Horribly, predictably...the same!!!.
CCV is stuck in the middle of a rare thing. 4 miles of
repetitive reef structure. Straight up-and-down vertical non-sloping walls. They start shallow, 3-20’ below the surface. They drop to 3000’ so it’s good to consider your depth. There’s a predictable sand shelf at 90’, but beyond that, a dark blue. Not much to look at in that direction, so very few divers ever notice the Hammerheads.
This straight up-and-down reef structure? It faces directly South. The Sun is on it all day long. This is a rare thing in the Mar Caribe, the only other place I’ve found roughly similar is Cuba, but they’re not as protected as on the South shore of Roatan...not often struck by any storm.
For millennia, all this local reef structure has done is to grow. It sits in the Lee of any storm and provides a nursery for the rest of the Sea. You see this nowhere else.
if you can see it.
And that’s the gift of CCV, the unusual local structure of the reef rewards those who go very slowly, get in close, having a real studied gaze. Many divers say,
I don’t follow DiveMasters” Well, good for you, skippy.
>>The CCV DMs are all UW Naturalist guides. Follow them, see stuff. Or don’t.<<
Those walls can be boring. At CCV, there have some placed UW landmarks that are fun to look at. Four minutes into the shore dive, there’s the Prince Albert (PA) 140’ ship in 50fsw and a DC3 aircraft, a lost 40’ dive boat from FIBR an anchor chain, all sorts of stuff.
That can get really boring. For some. Until you slow down and really gawk, all you see is that shipwreck. Structure attracts critters. Some large, most very small.
With this? That “boredom” suddenly abates.
the shore dive into the
Front Yard....
View attachment 643033
a sketch of what lies beneath in the aerial....
View attachment 643062
Which are the “must do” dives?
For me? The
Front Yard and every “drop off” dive. Absolutely. Every time I’m there for any given week, I’m doing these same dives 15+ times. Never bored, always something different.
Day Trips? They’re a bit of fun and adventure. The really cool thing to me is that between dives they’ll take you to one of those jungle shacks on piers that seem to be a bar....by some definition. These are not places that 98% of Roatan visitors ever see. You’re enjoying them at a high-noon surface interval...are you pirate enough to party here at night? The mind reels. You can sense the debauchery.
Is the diving worth the minor extra expense charged to pay for the diesel fuel? I guess. It’s different. You’re out with your friends all sea-doggy and all. It’s a good social thing. (I’m only guessing, maybe $30?)
Dives to skip: the “organized weekly boat night dive”. Why pay when it’s free as a shore dive? It is done at a 35’ mooring but... the best night diving is really much shallower, like you get from the shore dive. The boat night dive can quickly devolve into that flashlight scene in ET. The boat entry into 35fsw does seem to relieve psychologically some of the “creepy factor” of having to wade out into the darkness in 3’ of water.
Other topic: nitrox EAN. I’ve never bothered with it at CCV even though I’m doing 27-30 dives in a week. My BTs run regularly up to 1:45. On air. YMMV
Must Do Dive? The ones you’ll take on the UW Naturalist Specialty. The things you will learn about how to find the cool stuff! Patty at the dive shop is a brilliant resource, as is the photo pro, a published author. Dive with these people.
So where am I going to the OP question?
NEVER miss a night dive! This is the serendipitous nature of CCV’s physical location, leave your room, fall in the water.
We set a specific 8pm “in the water” target. A
night dive every night, keep the group very small, 3 or 4, no more. Keep it stupid shallow. Photographers should rely on one ore more “spotters”. Have a path selected, stick to it. Ask DMs how to deal with any concerns with weather.
CCV’s “
must do dives” are simply NOT in one of those hammocks.