Intensive Caribbean diving - where?

[theriel]

Hello,
I have been wondering - what is the best place to go to easily average min. 3-4 dives per day? Holidays being short, I would like to make good use out of them!

I am currently thinking about Curacao, Belize, Bonaire, maybe Little Cayman, Roatan. I am travelling without a buddy so being able to easily find some person to dive with at any time of the day would be appreciated...

Do you know any particular places/diving operations which would enable it? Oh, and presence of nice critters (I'm not interested in reefs as much) would also be a nice bonus...

Thank you for your opinion!

Best,
Theriel

 

[diver 85]

Roatan-Fantasy Island(or even Cocoview--same shore dive) can easily get 4 per day in there---3 boat dives plus the nitely shore dive....Remember doing that in '93 for 6 days & flew out the next day @ ~9:30 AM...

 

[DeputyDan]

CoCo View Resort Roatan Scuba Roatan Diving located in Roatan, Honduras diving, scuba and snorkeling.

You can do six a day here if you are up to it.

I recommend this over Bonaire for you since you are travelling alone.
Others may disagree but finding a buddy on Bonaire is a little bit hit or miss.
You may find one right off or it may take a day or two.

If you were traveling with a buddy, I would say Bonaire

 

[Damselfish]

Are you looking for some boat dives (where it's not usually a problem to get an instabuddy or hang with the DM), or mostly shore dives?

Have you considered a liveaboard?

 

[robint]

Ditto.... Cocoview Resort, Roatan. You can do the 4 boat dives and also a night shore dive easily every day. CoCo View Resort Roatan It is an all-inclusive with meals planned around the boat dives, so you get out of the water, walk into the Clubhouse and eat, then go right back and dive again. It is the closest thing to a liveaboard. Worth every penny, too. It is not fancy, but I really like that. The resort is small, only 26 rooms, so it fills up waaaay ahead of time so if you are interested, check with them and get a deposit on a room. If you are traveling alone, you will have zero problem getting a buddy. The boats are assigned for the week, and everyone on each boat become close and will shore dive together, too. Very very very nice dive resort, made by divers, for divers!

Bonaire..... Buddy Dive Resort is where we are returning in April, you can easily get in 4 dives per day since it is the Shore Diving Capital of the World. Watch my videos.

Any Liveaboard in the Caribbean is going to give you 4-5 dives per day. They are a bit more $$ than the other two I mentioned, but you can get to more remote sites than day boats can't access, so diving is more pristine.

BTW --- we don't go anywhere to dive that we can't do 3+ dives per day. The only exception is NC, where the boat rides are very long and since the wrecks are so deep, you need a 2 hour surface interval between dives, so 2 a day is the norm.

robin

 

[dkktsunami]

Little Cayman Beach Resort, Bonaire, CoCo View in Roatan, Honduras.

 

[theriel]

OK, let me now add a little complication:
Is there any place among the aforementioned where I could rent a twinset with isolation manifold? (I mean, just the tanks with hardware)

Best,
Theriel

 

[Doc]

OK, let me now add a little complication:
Is there any place among the aforementioned where I could rent a twinset with isolation manifold? (I mean, just the tanks with hardware)

Best,
Theriel

Doubtful. Why?

Most dive-ops gear their boat-based dives to a maximum of 1 hour BT. This is so everyone gets back onboard and gets appropriate SI for the next dive. Most Caribbean dive-ops aren't set up to carry such rigs securely on their boats.

I (have wanted and) can see how a doubles rig might be just the thing for a shore-dive opportunity.

Intensive Caribbean diving...what is the best place to go to easily average min. 3-4 dives per day?..

That would be quite a BT on twins. There are select operations that do have that capability, but you simply aren't going to get "intensive diving" that you mentioned.

I know they're not providing such gear at Roatan's CoCoView- which is the place to go other than a liveaboard. 5 a day is easy, 6 if you must

Bring a sling and rent (or bring) another simple reg (only) set. Most ops have 65's and such, or carry a slung 80.

 

[theriel]

RotanMan - thank you for your reply.

Just to clarify: I am not looking to use twinset to prolong the dives. I just want to practice diving on a twinset while being there. When I was diving in Red Sea, I was given a twinset + single cylinder for boat dives. I would finish together with my single-tank buddy, then top up twinset with the single cylinder (if necessary) and go for another dive. This is the same thing which I would like to do here... if possible.

 

[robint]

RotanMan - thank you for your reply.

Just to clarify: I am not looking to use twinset to prolong the dives. I just want to practice diving on a twinset while being there. When I was diving in Red Sea, I was given a twinset + single cylinder for boat dives. I would finish together with my single-tank buddy, then top up twinset with the single cylinder (if necessary) and go for another dive. This is the same thing which I would like to do here... if possible.

Probably not, primarily for liability issues but also because there is no need to dive doubles. Recreational diving at these places, both CCV and Bonaire, you get unlimited tanks for diving in your package so you come up between dives and just grab another tank there at resort. On the boat dives at CCV, they put 2 tanks on the boat per person and switch out your tank during the surface interval. And as I said before, for shore diving there at CCV or Roatan, you just walk to dock, grab a tank, and get in water.

If you really want to do training with doubles, I would suggest going to a destination just for the training.

robin