We are back from our trip to Punta Cana. Since there didn't seem to be much info out there about diving I thought I would come back on and answer my own qhestion for anyone else that was wondering about the area.
As some had suggested, the water is very rough in Punta Cana. It is not the best conditions for diving. The beaches are great and the water is fairly calm there. There was a reef a few hundred yards out. Each diving trip involved going outside this reef and as soon as you crossed it there were high swells and rough water. Add to that we were usually taken out in a small open boat with either only us or just a few other divers. It seemed that other dive operators also mostly used these small open boats. On one trip there were enough divers for the dive operator to use a cataraman which was much better.
Even with the bigger boat several people got seasick even before the first dive. There was always a rush to put on equipment as soon as we got to the dive location. There wasn't much in the way of equipment checking or organization. On several dives the dive operator told people to get in the water and get to the bottom quickly before getting sick; we would meet up at the bottom. The dive masters also did not seem to believe in safety stops on the second consecutive dive. All of the divers would wait at 15 feet and the divemaster would surface and get in the boat and leave us. They also regularly took divers through narrow caves and into a sunken ship, which definitely made my wife nervous as we are both novice divers.
The boats used almost never had a ladder. You would take all of your equipment off in the water (the rough water) and then have to hoist yourself into the boat.
All in all, it was still diving. The visibility was usually about 50 feet and there were some fish and coral to see. There is a large shipwreck in Punta Cana we dove on and actually swam into. The shipwreck is in shallow water, and some of it is above the water. Because of this they will only dive there on especially calm days.
I think the small boats can be attributed to the fact that it is not a popular scuba destination and it's simply not feesible to run a large boat for only a couple of divers. The dive operators were pleasant and although there was a bit of a language barrier they tried.
Would I recommend this as a dive destination, absolutely not. I also would not recommend it as a place to learn to dive. If you like to dive and happen to be going there and want a chance to dive it's not bad. If you get seasick easily you better skip breakfast before going out.
We also took a trip to Catalina Island. A 2 hour bus ride from Punta Cana but it is in the Caribbean. The island is an underwater nature preserve. Calm seas, 100+ foot visibility and countless fish and coral to see underwater; including lion fish. If you go to the Dominican Republic and scuba dive or even snorkel it is a place worth checking out. From out hotel is was $105 for the day for snorkeling and $185 for the day for scuba. The trip included the bus ride, 2 dives, and lunch and a hang out on the island.
