Ok me and my wife are going to a Sandals Resort in Jamica. Diving is included and i can dive up to twice a day for free. Its one of them all inclusive things. Anyways has any of you dived in Jamica... How is it. What should i expect.... Thanks any help would be great.
jamica
- Thread starter DudleyNMU
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Misplaced Priority
Contributor
I just returned from Jamaica Ocho Rios and did a couple of dives there. We did a wreck dive and a reef dive. The wreck dive was interesting because there were easy swim throughs. Not many fish. Just a boat in the sand. Then we did a shallow reef. This was one of the weirdest dives I've ever done. We were not far off the beach maybe 200 yards. I did my giant stride and waited on my son and daughter. Man my eyes were burning almost immediately. My son and daughter both said I can’t see! Well because we were drifting so quickly, the DM said to descend. I figured my eyes would just clear up. It was really weird the vis. Not just the regular murky water. The water seemed clear enough, but everything was very blurry! I’ve never seen anything like it. Well once we were down to about 40’ things got a good bit better but never great. We dove the reef. I’m not a picky diver. Anytime I’m underwater I’m happy. But this was not great. Then, it was time to ascend. Here we go again. More of the weird blurriness and eye burning. I was glad to get back in the boat. Everyone on the dive remarked about the blurry vis and eyes burning. The dive master said it was freshwater runoff mixing with the salt water that caused that. Maybe so, but it was weird. So, sorry to say it was not the best of dives. Hope you have a better experience.
ScubaMike05
Murphy's Apprentice
Misplaced Priority:
I've had that happen to me before when I was diving in PDC (playa del carmen) in cenotes. It looked like I was swimming through oil or something.
Diving off Jamaica is not the best. To much dynamite fishing in the past. There are a few wrecks, the odd drug runners plane. The reef's have been heavily fished. Vis was quite good and I experienced no significant currents.
However I saw the largest turtle I have ever seen there. He let me get quite close (about 6 ft) before he decided that enough was enough and swept majestically away, I have the photo somewhere will try and remember to post it.
However I saw the largest turtle I have ever seen there. He let me get quite close (about 6 ft) before he decided that enough was enough and swept majestically away, I have the photo somewhere will try and remember to post it.
Jamdiver
Guest
DudleyNMU:
Hi Dudey,
Coming to Jamaica and staying with Sandals (an all inclusive hotel) or any all inclusive hotel for that matter for the diving is doing yourself a dis-service.
There are a plethora of threads on this and many boards of people staying at inclusive resorts in a variety of Caribbean islands and coming back with poor experiences.
- Dive sites close to shore with poor fish diversity and density, poor coral cover.
- Inattentive DM, unsafe diving practices.
- Going to the same sites over and over again etc...
I'm going to pm a friend of mine on this board who worked at some of the dive ops in the north coast in the past.
Just to get an idea of what's around the island, take a look at this thread here and some of the photos in my underwater gallery..
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=94128
As i've said on this and many other threads it's a shame that visitors come here dive with all inclusive resorts that go to the same crappy sites and people from those limited experiences get the idea that diving all over the island is the same.
Oh and it's Jamaica
.
JodiBB
Guest
Which Sandals are you staying at? I've heard the diving in Negril is MUCh better than Ocho Rios, because the tourism isn't as high...I haven't gone diving in both, but I've snorkelled in both cities and like Negril much better.
the question which sandals popped into my mind first also. diving along the northcoast of jamaica is very different. in my personal opinion the ocho rios area is the worst while montego bay and negril have some nice divesites. as said before here while doing the free dives with your resort you get what you (dont) pay for. jamdivers short description was pretty accurate. i would be not so negative on the service, it is mostly good, but the diveguides have also pressure from top to choose divesites close by (fuel cost is also here exploding and the resort doesnt make money on your free dives). often you have also the dsd (try divers) on your boat what makes the interesting divesites impossible. in my honest opinion, bite the bullet and spend some cash with one of the independent operators to get some memorable dives in. consider a mix of both if you like. on www.jamaicascubadivingclub.com you will find a list of reputable dive operators islandwide in the link section. while some of the said about overfishing is true, i have to say jamaica has better diving than one would believe by its reputation. i dove more or less evrywhere in the caribbean and have seen better, equal and worse. much damage was caribbeanwide done by coral bleaching (jamaica was relatively lucky there). in my opinion and experience the better divesites on jamaicas northcoast are usually the dives 60ft and deeper, but exeptions exist. if you let me know, where exactly you go i might be able to recommend a dc and some of the better divesites.
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