Family Dest Wedding Dec 2014 in St Lucia - any Diving Perks?

[Flutter]

My husband & I are invited to a family destination wedding Dec 2014 in at the Sandals Regency & Grande resorts, St. Lucia and are trying to decide whether/not to attend. We have not heard of anything about diving in St. Lucia (except for the one posted here on Scubaboard re: OW group & strong currents) and would like to find out more about the diving aspect before dropping $5k or so - why go to an island if the diving isn't memorable (IMO).

Does St Lucia have noteable diving, and/or are there islands nearby (St. Kitts, Nevis) that we could easily get to/from before/after the wedding (with less than 4 hrs commute)?

Our diving experience has been shore diving Bonaire, Curacao, and boat diving in the FL Keys, Bahamas, & Coz. (Known strong currents with up/down drafts might be beyond our experience & training). Your suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

Flutter

 

[Ray and Pam]

We dove St. Lucia one day off a cruise ship, did Supermans Flight and another one, don't remember the name and I've already got my dive book packed for Bonaire next week,down by the Grand Pitons, beautiful island and and diving. We also dove the day before at nearby Dominica which is also a beautiful island, down south by Scotts Head. Both were great, probably liked Dominica just a little better

 

[diversteve]

This is obviously promotional but it might give you an idea of what to expect:
best diving, st. lucia | Scuba Diving

And if you've got a lot more time here's a 52min mostly dive video - apparently shot while staying at Sandals:

Diving in Saint Lucia Caribbean 2008 - YouTube

I'd go...

 

[ColoDale]

The diving in St. Lucia is not bad it's just not exceptional. I've dove worse places. I found the current to be much less than other places like Cozumel and Fiji in places. Superman's Flight had less current than I expected - maybe just the days we went(?). St. Lucia also has a couple of decent wrecks.

There are quite a few posts in the past here regarding St. Lucia diving, Sandals diving and sites. A search on St. Lucia and opening those with Lesser Antilles under Forum yield quite a few.

I would go. Diving is included. Just depends on your expectations. Is it for spectacular diving or wedding with some diving?

 

[Flutter]

I forgot to update after our trip. We decided to attend the destination wedding, but opted to lodge in a guesthouse a couple miles from the Sandals wedding site (which was the Sandals located on the north end of the island). Our selected lodgings saved us $$ so we were able to dive daily through an independent dive shop for the 9 dys we were on island, for much less. The guesthouse was an upstairs apt that was clean, quiet, fairly basic, and on the water with a lovely view. We enjoyed colorful sunsets every evening from our deck/lawn. The diving (a 1/2 day boat trip down to the south end of the island each day) was fun & varied - drift, reef, a wreck, & underwater pitons. We even saw 2 orange, fist size, sea horses on our last day of diving. I am glad we attended the wedding & made arrangements to fit in the diving as well.

If my husband & I were to go again, we would consider lodging in the middle - southern end of the island, closer to where the dive sites are located (even though we loved our non-intrusive guesthouse hosts, & their location on the water - "the bayguesthouse" on St. Lucia. They have a web site). Every morning the dive boat picked up other divers all along the route. None of them had the long boat trip we had, coming from the north end, where the dive shop was located. (My husband gets sea sick, although the view was gorgeous along the way). There appeared to be many lodging choices toward the southern end. I would recommend St. Lucia for diving if anyone gets the opportunity, as we did. The island has a lovely profile with the pitons in the background when the sun sets - great photos! (which, to be fair, was one benefit of staying on the north end, near Castries - the better view of the pitons at sunset).

Thankyou @Ray and Pam, @diversteve, , & @ColoDale for your input. It was much appreciated, & the big factor that tipped us into deciding to attend.