mistressmotorsports
Contributor
I want to post an update on this because the Director of Guest Services reimbursed my brother for his computer, which was extremely nice of her to do.
Mike
Mike
Diving at Beaches Turks and Caicos
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Illini_Fan
Contributor
Any recent updates? Heading there on 08/10 and I'm curious about the water temp. I only plan on diving one morning since this is the family vacation. How is their gear? At a minimum, I'm bringing my mask and regs and computer and camera. The BC and fins take up space, but not so much space that I can't bring them. Just trying to pack as light as possible and still make sure I'm comfortable in the water.
thanks
thanks
CanadianTravelAgent
Contributor
Typical water temperature in August is around 85. If you're only diving for 1 day you will be fine in just your bathing suit!
Illini_Fan
Contributor
Just got back and figured I'd post my experience.
I inquired at the scuba desk about the documentation I would need. The staff member told me to bring my dive computer and my c-Card to either the 3pm or the 8:30am orientation. Based upon our other activities, I didn't make it back to the desk till 3pm the next day.
Water temp was 82.
All-in-all nice diving for something that was already included in the package price, but not a service I would pay for directly.
I inquired at the scuba desk about the documentation I would need. The staff member told me to bring my dive computer and my c-Card to either the 3pm or the 8:30am orientation. Based upon our other activities, I didn't make it back to the desk till 3pm the next day.
- They start the orientation promptly, so arrive a few minutes early to fill out the medical form (I wish she had given me one the day before, but it only takes a few minutes)
- The instructor just asked for a verbal "when was your last dive", no verification. The guy next to me said "6-7 months ago" and that was glossed right over.
- If you have dived within the requisite period, the orientation takes less than 10 minutes and is really just a "rules of the dive boat" briefing
- I was done by 3:15pm and then signed up for the two-tank dive the next morning.
- I was told by one person that the morning two-tank dive goes to the NW part of the island while the afternoon and night dives and the one-tank morning dives all stay in grace bay. That was not what happened, but I found that the accuracy of the information wasn't a strength of the operation.
- My two-tank dive was 8:30am Saturday. They ask you to arrive by 8:15 and the do a good job of checking people in promptly and assigning a boat and dive master. DMs take up to 10 people in a group and the boats seem to hold 30+ people, so it is a bit of a cattle operation. This is where I found out that the Saturday morning two-tank dives only go to Grace Bay and not the NW side of the island. Who knows what is accurate, I can only attest that is was accurate the day I was there.
- The boat ride to Grace Bay is 10 minutes. Supposedly, the NW side is 40-45 minutes away
- The dives are really nice and very easy. Despite the DMs attempt to get their "group" to enter the water at the same time, on all three dives I did, we had people in our group in the water first, and near the end. No big deal, water was very pleasant.
- Once the group is together, everyone descends together. It can get a bit crowded if all three groups on the boat descend together. The dives last roughly 40-45 minutes. The skill set of the divers is all over the board and the person with the worst air consumption determines the length of the dive as you will be asked to ascend as a group.
Water temp was 82.
All-in-all nice diving for something that was already included in the package price, but not a service I would pay for directly.
pediatron
Contributor
My husband and I dove at Beaches T and C last year as part of a family trip. We were able to "buddy dive" just the two of us after one ititial dive with one of their dive masters. The prereqs were Advanced cert or higher and each person having their own dive computer. We usually got a quick dive briefing just the two of us and were in the water while the rest of the boat finished gearing up and getting their briefings. We usually returned to be one of the last ones back on the boat. We mostly did Grace Bay, but managed to convince them to take the whole group to West Caicos after they cancelled the paid trip there. The diving has really gone downhill in Grace Bay compared to 10 years ago -- saw tons of Lion Fish but not a lot else (they seemed to have destroyed most of the life) except on the West Caicos trip where we enjoyed sharks, turtles and even an octopus that seemed to want to join our dive.
CanadianTravelAgent
Contributor
We just returned from a 1 week stay at Beaches after hurricane Irene. We did 3 days of 2-tank diving. 3 dives at Northwest Point and 3 dives in Grace Bay. The visibility at Northwest Point is absolutely terrible right now - probably less than 15 feet. Usually it is in excess of 80 feet. However, despite this, we did have some cool close encounters with sharks on every dive. I didn't see many lion fish at all. There was someone on our dives who was capturing lion fish on every dive. He is actually studying them as part of his university studies - so this is not a permanent thing. Grace Bay dive sites - the visibility was better but still limited to 25 feet or so. Again, we were pleasantly surprised to have several close shark encounters. There were also a number of large schools of fish. If the visibility had been better, I'm sure we would have seen even more.
As "dive snobs" who are used to diving the "better" sites off the south of Provo, like West Caicos, French Cay and the Sandborne Channel, we were pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, the coral itself is now covered in sediment from the storm. Hopefully it won't damage the reef. The water temperature was cooler than usual - again a result of the storm. We had opted to not bring wetsuits and use theirs if needed because our luggage was already full and heavy as we were travelling with our 2 young children. I really noticed the thermoclines but then the thrill of seeing a shark would warm my body up again! We didn't need wetsuits, however if we had done another day, I think it would have been the time to do it.
As a side note, we had also done 2 days of diving in Grand Turk before going to Beaches. Visibility was much better in Grand Turk, but still not what it should be. I plan to post a full trip report soon.
I found the whole experience of diving with the in-resort dive operation at Beaches to be mixed. It really depended on who your assigned DM was. One day our DM was super strict and was giving us grief for not being close enough together as a buddy pair. We could see each other - so we were within 10 feet of each other, constantly checking, so that was a little annoying. Most of the DMs were extremely strict about being back on the boat within 45 minutes for the first dive and 30 minutes for the second dive. I thought this was a little extreme. The second dive could easily be at least 45 minutes as well. On the last day, we had a much more flexible DM. We did our tour and saw that all of us had lots of air left and lots of time, so we were able to stay down for almost 50 minutes. This was great because I often find some of the best critter activity in the shallower areas at the top of the reef.
I'm sure operations were not typical during our trip...everything was impacted by the poor visibility and the fact that the resort was closing down. There were lots of training courses going on at the time as well. I found out when I got home they were offering courses at a 50% discount. As a result, there were 4 DMs on board and each group had 4 - 6 people, separated by cert level.
All in all, I wouldn't pay for diving with this type of organization. It was included in the package price, so I will take what I can get. It is convenient to be able to drop the kids off at X-Box garage and/or Camp Sesame and then just walk down to the beach. We had considered going diving with Flamingo or Caicos Adventures, but decided to just go with what was included. Given the conditions at the moment, I think we made the right call.
As "dive snobs" who are used to diving the "better" sites off the south of Provo, like West Caicos, French Cay and the Sandborne Channel, we were pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, the coral itself is now covered in sediment from the storm. Hopefully it won't damage the reef. The water temperature was cooler than usual - again a result of the storm. We had opted to not bring wetsuits and use theirs if needed because our luggage was already full and heavy as we were travelling with our 2 young children. I really noticed the thermoclines but then the thrill of seeing a shark would warm my body up again! We didn't need wetsuits, however if we had done another day, I think it would have been the time to do it.
As a side note, we had also done 2 days of diving in Grand Turk before going to Beaches. Visibility was much better in Grand Turk, but still not what it should be. I plan to post a full trip report soon.
I found the whole experience of diving with the in-resort dive operation at Beaches to be mixed. It really depended on who your assigned DM was. One day our DM was super strict and was giving us grief for not being close enough together as a buddy pair. We could see each other - so we were within 10 feet of each other, constantly checking, so that was a little annoying. Most of the DMs were extremely strict about being back on the boat within 45 minutes for the first dive and 30 minutes for the second dive. I thought this was a little extreme. The second dive could easily be at least 45 minutes as well. On the last day, we had a much more flexible DM. We did our tour and saw that all of us had lots of air left and lots of time, so we were able to stay down for almost 50 minutes. This was great because I often find some of the best critter activity in the shallower areas at the top of the reef.
I'm sure operations were not typical during our trip...everything was impacted by the poor visibility and the fact that the resort was closing down. There were lots of training courses going on at the time as well. I found out when I got home they were offering courses at a 50% discount. As a result, there were 4 DMs on board and each group had 4 - 6 people, separated by cert level.
All in all, I wouldn't pay for diving with this type of organization. It was included in the package price, so I will take what I can get. It is convenient to be able to drop the kids off at X-Box garage and/or Camp Sesame and then just walk down to the beach. We had considered going diving with Flamingo or Caicos Adventures, but decided to just go with what was included. Given the conditions at the moment, I think we made the right call.
snorkymn
Contributor
Thanks for the info. It's information like this that makes me think my next trip to Turks won't be at Beaches. I hate dealing with bad dive shops and limited/strict bottom times of so little time. Last time I was there we stayed in a condo and went diving with Fifi at Caicos Adventures (They still in Business?) leaving on the other side of the island. Diving was great and Only did 1 dive in Grace bay, and that was a night dive that may have been the worst night dive I've ever been on. Might have just been the location, but I wasn't impressed with Grace bay diving with that as my impression.
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