Moving to St Thomas, any locals?

[PJack]

I'm moving to St Thomas and looking forward to getting back into diving. This is happening fast, have a million questions, but trying to keep them to dive topics.

I have been out of diving for many years. I will probably look at taking an open water course again as a refresher. Any preferred dive schools? As I prep, and plan I am wondering if I should track down good dive gear and ship it in or is there a good selection on the island? Overpriced and limited selection? Good used gear for sale locally?

I used to do a lot of diving from a small (14ft flat bottom) boat when I lived in Panama. It was small, light, and easy to manage. Worked great for lots of areas on the Atlantic side where it was not to rough most of the time, and lots of sites close to shore.. Are there good dive sites around St Thomas that are accessible by small craft or are they generally farther out?


Like I said lots of questions. I guess i'm just excited to be getting back to the region and diving. Want to show up ready to go.

Thanks

 

[waves_221]

I would recommend Coki beach dive club or Redhook dive center for a refresher. Lots of easy beach dives. Most boat dives are still relatively close to shore. I have a small 14' inflatable on a trailer that I use for diving almost weekly. As for gear, you can get it on island new or used and ordering online is also an option.

 

[PJack]

Thanks for the reply. Good to hear on all accounts. It has been so long since I have been diving it would be nice to get a few dives in with different rental gear before buying my own. Just didn’t want to get there and get stuck paying tourist trap prices.

Coki beach, and Red Hook are perfect. Looking at places to live around there, so it would be easy. Like that the ferry to St John is right there.

The inflatable is a great idea. I might have to look at those. I imagine a 25hp would work well enough, and could be carried at around 125 pounds.

 

[Jersey]

Sorry - just seeing this. Yep, Redhook, great op, was working on St T 2014 - 2015 and diving with them as often as possible. Living over at Sapphire Beach which has great snorkeling too! I prefer this part of island,restaurants, shopping, ferry to St. John all right there. Also liked Cowpet, over by the Ritz, the road deadends out on the point which made for a nice run. STayed for a bit out on Piccara Point, but that was too far out for my liking. Good luck!