Dive shops in west Puerto Rico

[DarrylStans]

The "caverns" at Shacks beach are very doable (condtions dependent) for a beginner diver with a guide. Without a guide I would recommend Playa Crashboat. Easy to get lost in the "caverns" even though they are swim throughs. The other dives are somewhat deep for a beginner but there is a large variance in "beginners". Don't do what you are uncomfortable with. There is a lot of good diving in the west of PR both shore and boat.

 

[Fishy Ariel]

Actually West Divers does not charge for the photography that the Divemaster takes, they do not make money out of that and they send it to you at no cost.

 

[grivera]

I went diving with West Divers, just a month ago and let me tell you that it was by far very different from diving experience around the Caribbean. From the beginning they had a "safety briefing" (at least it was what they said), and they explain everything from the dive side. what we were going to probably see, the current, conditions and the Divemaster is with you in the water. He took some nice pictures of me and my girlfriend and even thought I wanted to pay for them Victor, the Divemaster would not let me, he insisted that it was part of the trip. They also had two air lines hanging from the boat, as a precaution , which even though I did not use them it made me feel better. They also had a descending and ascending line to use with a bucket with extra weights at the end, just in case you missed some extra pounds.
At the end of the trip they had two buckets for rinsing gear and two showers right there on the dock. Also we were diving for two days and we did not had to take our gear back with us to the hotel, they had locker for the overnight equipment. At the store the clerk made sure that we all had our sites and log books and she was very attentive towards our hotel reservations (she made them for us)
Really a very good experience that I will never forget thanks to Victor, Gab, Jose and Roxanne

 

[JPatrick]

This is Puerto Rico you are talking about. People will do anything to make more money on the side. Some dive masters here do that too, but not very many which is a good thing. The 6 times I have been to La Parguera I probably saw about 3 -4 eels each dive. It was great. Never been diving with West Divers. Your lucky because in December the seas are most of the time pretty big. Winter in PR is surfing season. But who knows you might just get lucky.
I live here. So any questions just PM me.

Wow, I was just there in West Divers in August and I did see that Victor the Divemaster was taking pictures and not only was he very attentive of the group but he did not charge for any of them, on the contrary if it was not for him I would not be able to have memories of my trip underwater, and besides where else but in Puerto Rico would you have a Divemaster in the water with you, I went to the Keys and me and my buddy had to dive by ourselves. I had a great experience with West Divers, from the very first email to the end, I would highly recommend this dive shop to anybody that wants to dive in Puerto Rico.
Happy and Safe Diving!!!

 

[DivingPanda]

I pretty much agree with everything. Whenever I go out to Desecheo there is always some beginners.

Do you really think that Cuevas (Spanish for caves), with an overhead environment is good for beginners?

They aren't real caves, but I guess as long as you only go through the big swim throughs. I guess your fine.

Fair point, hadn't considered that. Although the 'beginner' in our group did just fine, it would not be appropriate for many. OTOH, it's not necessary to go thru the swimthrus - one can just go around as they're relatively short - wasn't much to see inside anyways.

(Sorry, I've been away for a while!)

 

[Scubadude]

Grivera,
You are on the money! We dove with them last July. Vic and the entire crew were awesome. I will continue to dive with them whenever I go to Puerto Rico.

Cheverisimo!
George

 

[Scubadude]

Go to West Divers or Paradise Divers. There is no more Paraguera Divers, they have gone out of business. Forget Taino Divers in Rincon, agrhh!

 

[Scubadude]

I guess you enjoy carrying tanks to and fro huh geklee? Oh well.