Experienced Grenada divers - some advice please

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yrbabygirl

Registered
Messages
10
Reaction score
1
Location
TriState Area
# of dives
50 - 99
Hi. We're going to be diving Grenada in a couple weeks and I've been researching feedback on our resort's diving. It seems subpar and very tourist-y (eg: sculpture gardens are the big spot with lots of people and little marine life). I want to schedule a dive off resort in hopes of a high quality dive and lots of marine life.
My questions for seasoned Grenada divers:
- can you recommend an outfit you dove with and really enjoyed?
- any recos on particular sites?
Much appreciated!
 
At which resort are you staying?

We dove the marine park at least once during our group week and I might've done it again the following week, when I stayed on. The dives there aren't outstanding but they're OK, if you don't hang around the statues. For sure, you wouldn't want to be stuck doing them everyday. We weren't and probably could have gotten out of doing them altogether, if we'd beefed about it but everyone wanted to see them at least once.

To me, they look a bit like garbage we humans have left behind, as we're known to do. Concrete, rusty rebar. And some of the "statues" are starting to fall apart. Some of the children in the circle have corals growing out of their heads and various other places. This is a bit humorous (even as it's somewhat unsettling), because the intent was for corals to grow, to replace that lost during the hurricane.

Have you read the most recent trip report written by largediver? It's very good.

As for me, I enjoyed the Grenada diving enough that I'll be back in November.

Again, which resort are you staying at or which dive op works out of your resort?
 
I love Grenada, I stay at True Blue Bay resort and dive with the house operation there, Aquanauts Grenada. They have support for all kinds of diving up to trimix rebreather diving. Not that you need trimix rebreather support, but they don't just go to the marine park, which is creepy as hell.
 
We stayed at the Radisson Grenada Beach Resort last month and I was very happy with their on-site op, Native Spirit Scuba.

It was the off season, and we were the only ones on the dive boat most days. We never dove the same site twice. They asked what we were interested in seeing (dive sites, wrecks, marine life, etc.), and did their best to accommodate. They were also good about pointing out any life of interest on each dive. I would not hesitate to dive with them again.

The sculpture park is worth a dive, but only once. I did not actually think that they looked like they are falling apart. There is one sculpture ("Grace Reef") which is composed of 16 forms lying in the sand. The intent is that as the sand shifts, different bodies are buried and others exposed. People sometimes complain about this one looking like fallen or broken statues, but it is actually the intent of the artist behind that particular one. I was glad that I had a look at the stories behind the various sculptures before diving the site (Sculptures | Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park). Otherwise, it would have been far creepier...

Most of the usual dive sites are relatively close to Grand Anse. If you have the opportunity to dive sites with more Atlantic exposure (eg Shark Reef, King Mitch, etc.) take it. They are not much further than the other Grand Anse sites, but better chance of seeing eagle rays and other larger fish. The water will not be as calm as the more protected sites though, so those sites can be a bit more wind/weather dependent.

My priority was taking my daughter (11 years old, Jr OW) diving, so we stuck with the shallower sites and were not disappointed. It was my daughter that wanted to see the sculpture park, and she did get a kick out of how the coral growth made some statues look like Medusa, etc.

At first glance, it does not look like there is much to see in terms of snorkelling right on Grand Anse, but there are actually are some items of interest. You will hear people getting excited about having seen "sea snakes." They are obviously not really sea snakes, but lots of goldspotted eels, and the occasional spotted spoon-nose eel. They are easiest to find in late afternoon as they emerge to hunt. Saw the odd pipefish as well. At the Native Spirit dive shop, the boat mooring closest to St Georges is anchored by an old engine block that is encrusting in coral and has a fair number of juvenile reef fish around it. It is like a really tiny reef! Lots of cushion sea stars, West Indian sea eggs and five-key sand dollars up and down the beach in about 6-8ft of water that my daughter liked to skin dive for.

If you are staying at the Radisson, note that there is construction right now at the pool bar. The resort was almost empty though (off season, last week of July), so it really did not affect us at all.
 

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