Dive shop in GCM w small boats?

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tinco123

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Messages
11
Reaction score
1
Location
Colorado
# of dives
100 - 199
We will be in Grand Cayman the end of April and are looking for dive operator recommendations. Experienced divers, no cattle boats, prefer small shops, small boats, Nitrox, west side preferable since we will be staying in a condo over there.
Thanks in advance!
 
Many good choices.

Indigo Divers fits your needs perfectly - 6 max divers. Have their own dock on West Bay and typically dive there when weather permits. Like everyone else, they'll go north when weather requires it.

Also highly recommend Indepth Watersports. Nat & crew are top notch. Also smaller dive groups. Probably more likely to dive on the north wall if the option is available (which I prefer).

I've done many, many dives with both, as well as others and those would be my recommendations.
 
DNS divers has a couple of smaller boats. Cayman university divers is the smallest one I've seen (and dived with). CU only takes 6 divers. I don't know of anyone who only takes experienced divers though. Given your requirements I'd recommend CU as with the small group you may have an easier time requesting to stay on the west side.
 
Lots of op choices where you are staying. No bad ops on the island. For small, I have used Off the Wall and Stingray Watersports and would recommend. Read many good things about Living the Dream. There really are no cattle boats and some great ops have bigger boats. I have had many good dives with Divetech who usually runs a bigger boat.
 
Why would you want to go out on a small boat? They tend to run wet, bounce, lack shelter from sun, rain and wind, and don't have a lot of room to move around. I like to go big. DNS and Wall to Wall run 36 footers with lots of room, a cabin and limit to 10 divers or less. Living the Dream has a similar operation as does Divetech. DNS, Wall to Wall and LTD run valet operations.

DNS goes out at 7.30 to get the pick of sites. I last dived with them in December and had a great time. Their current group of DMs is excellent.

I don't think there are any bad ops on the island but some are better than others. DMs tend to be relatively transient and will alter the experience. Similarly, some ops tend to have regular customers and that generally equals a better dive experience. I tend to steer clear of ops that are hotel based and or cater to cruise shippers. Some others may disagree.

By the way, the diving is arguably better on the north, but all the west side operators will head that way preferentially if the weather permits, which is usually the case in April.
They will all do hotel/condo pickups from the 7MB area and if going north, leave from the yacht club which is not too far.
 
We also enjoy Cayman University Divers but there are a lot of great dive ops in Cayman.
 
As mentioned, Living the Dream, Dive Tech and Indigo are great (I've gone with all of them) and have small to medium boats. That said, I prefer a larger boat where I have more room to spread out (for me it's Red Sail - plus I regularly get a 55 minute deep dive and 70 minute shallow reef dive with them). It's not so much the size of the boat, rather the ratio of size to number of divers. You won't find a bad operator on the island, and they all offer nitrox. Also, most of the west bay shops do not cater to cruise passengers. I rarely encounter them on my dives. And regarding best dive location, I prefer west side, as do a lot of folks I know. I think the north side tends to have more interesting coral structures, but the marine life west side is great. On the west side it's only 5-10 minutes to the dive sites vs 20-30 minutes on the north side. And as mentioned they will often change up dive location depending on the conditions. Enjoy your dives!
 
Divetech and LTD dive Newton 36s and 42s with large decks, diesel power, cabins and flying bridges +/- a head. Not sure I'd call those small boats. Interesting how people put a spin on things. The OP should check out the operators web pages, most have their boat specs, photos and diver limits posted.

In terms of NSEW preferences, there are lots of previous posts and opinions.
I think the OP may have presumed incorrectly that because he was staying on the west side, his diving choice might be limited to that side.

Most of the west side operators dive both west and north, west side from the west bay dock and north from the yacht club. Both are convenient to 7MB. The operators I like to dive with always go north preferentially when conditions allow. That is one of the reasons I choose them.
 
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