Diving East Side of Island

[firstdive2005]

Ya, that's what I'm talking about-thanks for sharing the shots. Like diverg asked, the conditions, what are they like under. The surface looks choice. I really hope I can get a dive in over there. Which means a crappy day westside but.....

 

[Pelagicsal]

Loved the pix, Joe, but you missed two of my fave things about the windward side. I loved that blue "parfait" of light that the suspended sand caused. I just kept staring off toward the deep - all those lovely shades of blue.
The other thing I thought was particularly striking was the way so many of the huge coral heads were undercut and looked like giant mushrooms.
Then there were all the full-sized turtles, the scrubbed-out swimthroughs, finding and marking another huge anchor that was grown into the reef....

I can't wait to get back over there again! This time I WILL have my camera.
Almost made it at T'giving, but the wind shifted while we were standing watching the boat prep! Arg!

 

[scubawife]

So is East side diving just for the very experienced diver? It seems by the pictures and recent discussions that if the sea conditions are right it would be a divable dive for different experience levels.

I didn't find anything particularly challenging about the east side dives I've done. If conditions are very favorable I can't see why it would be restricted to only very experienced divers... but you'd have to talk to your dive op about that. It's their choice who they take where.

 

[Prop Joe]

All:
When all of this talk of actually putting boats on the east side actually started to happen Dave told me at the very least advanced OW diver cert would be required. Now that was 2004 or 2005. You will have to contact the shop. I'm sure everyone has their own idea of what makes a "good diver". For example: I've seen a DM tumbling across the reef in current. I've seen plain OW divers with pinpoint buoyancy. Just because you have a piece of paper doesn't mean you are a "good diver". I hope people realize that. Mark and I make a good team and most that dive with us notice that. It just so happened last March we had a great group of experienced divers that pretty much got to do what we wanted. That is what this operation does. They put like divers together according to diver skill level. Another reason I use these guy's. Just so happened that we all had Rescue divers certs. We all had visual and audible signaling devices. I even brought my little DAN medical kit in addition to the O2 and medical kit that was already on the boat. Mark and I had expressed interest in diving there for years. When the conditions worked out... We went. Every one thought it was great. I will go again. Conditions permitting. Just keep in mind at these sites you are far from town. Much farther than sites on the west side. Not the time to be practicing your skills in case something were to go wrong. If you were to lose the group there is not the parade of boats going by (like on the west side) that can pick you up and radio to the boat from which you came. Is it safe? I think so or I wouldn't go there.

The two dives we did were easy. No current. A slight surge you learn to get used too. Vis was great but not as good as the west but few places in the world will better the west. There are cool things to see, fragile but cool. Sea fans for instance. You should have your buoyancy under control. I don't think going there on your 1st day is a good idea. I wouldn't want to break something that took mother nature hundreds if not thousands of years to make.

Sally,
We got to go diving together sometime! Seems we are always missing each other. I think I will pay more attention to what I take pics of the next time we go east. I was trying to take it all in but was pinching myself that we were there as we always wanted to go east. We'll be going back. I got a few more pics I'll see if worthy of posting.

 

[cpichette]

My son (18 yo) and I dove the east side with Aldora on Saturday when the west side was closed by the Norte. The dives weren't particularly challenging and we aren't the most experienced divers, although we had already done 7 dives with Aldora that week so I think they were pretty comfortable that we could at least follow directions and keep ourselves out of trouble. We had four divers and Edgar as the DM. The dives were good, fun, interesting dives. They were relatively shallow. Visibility was more like 50 feet as opposed to the 100 or so on the west side. Parts of it sort of reminded me of Ambergris Caye where you dive the reef but there are deeper canyons to go into. We saw several lionfish. Edgar indicated that they are more plentiful over there because there aren't many DM's over there to kill them. We saw the cannons and other stuff in the pictures posted earlier.

Aldora did a great job getting us over there. One of the cool things was the feeling of isolation and being way "out there". It was relatively calm when we started in the morning but was getting a little rougher on the second dive. We were happy to be in the water and not lose a days diving on a four diving-day trip.

 

[1KWIK_69]

Some dive ops used to take divers for shore dives there too. Not sure if they still do that or if Aldora is the only option now. Either way, it's worth checking it out.

No kidding? I wonder how far from shore the reefs start and what the currents are like on a normal day?

We finally made it to the northern reefs on our trip a couple months ago but decided to save the east end for our next trip because of the added expense.

 

[firstdive2005]

Maybe I missed it. How do you travel to the eastside to dive. Are you left to your own means or is that part of the price, travel to the other side by the dive op. Also do they give you the wrist band or do you have to pay for that extra? Thanks kevin

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Transportation over and lunch included. No wristband needed as it is not in the park.


Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[Pelagicsal]

Sallye,
We got to go diving together sometime! Seems we are always missing each other. I think I will pay more attention to what I take pics of the next time we go east. I was trying to take it all in but was pinching myself that we were there as we always wanted to go east. We'll be going back. I got a few more pics I'll see if worthy of posting.

Oh yeah we do! Ah, but we had the ferry dock hug last summer at the end of your very-quick trip. hee hee hee
When are you going to be back? I am thinking mid-Feb - and summer, to be sure.
Maybe I can get on the big-boy boat!
How're you doing?


Hi Dave! Hope all is well with you and yours...

 

[kcdiver56]

What a GREAT day of diving we had!

(Hey Prop Joe! March is looking better and better for us so hopefully we'll do some more great diving together )