Need info on dive operators in St. Kitts

[Dyvingluvly]

Hi All,

I need information on dive operators in St. Kitts and Nevis. I will be diving there the week of May 8th - 14th. I've read some of the postings. What part of the island is the best to dive from? I will be the only diver in the group I am going on the trip with.

I am actually only planning on diving 3 days, as the activities are already set up for our group. I am an advance diver, so I am interested in Wreck and cave diving.
Thank you in advance to all that reply to this message.

 

[Crawl79]

I like Pro Dive St. Kitts, actually I will be leaving St. Kitts on the 8th, maybe I'll pass you in the airport. The owner Auston is a cool guy and has been diving the island for a long time, I don't know of any caves but there are a few wrecks. I don't wreck dive so I'm not sure how advanced the wrecks are, just remember there were allot of fish near them. I heard something about some lava vents with swim thrus nearby. And Auston would probably take you to some more advanced sites if he is slow. Actually my first open water dive was on a wreck in St. Kitts. There was also an old bus sitting not to far away. We found a slipper lobster in the trunk. Let me know if you need more I have friends on the island I may be able to call. Also, I can send a report after my dives and before you depart.
www.prodivestkitts.com is the website they go out every morning except Sundays.

2 days until I get to the beach in Rio, 10 days until I get to the beach on St. Kitts.

 

[Dyvingluvly]

Thanks for the information. By all means, send a report after your dives, as I will definitely check my email. What are the best dive sites. I will be staying at the Marriott form 8th - 12th then moving over to the Frigate Bay Hotel. I think I have heard of Auton (is he the guy that catches lobster while the group are diving?) I was planning on going to Nevis, but the group I am going with cancelled it because of some type of construction that is being done on the island. Have fun and be SAFE.

 

[Crawl79]

I have been diving since Saturday here on St. Kitts. So far I already have made nine different dives. My girlfriend did her first two open water dives with Auston and they were great. Yesterday morning one of the other divers spotted a large seahorse then showed it to Auston. Auston got all the divers a total of about 8 (more than usual) and we all took turns watching him. Back topside we all thanked the guy and wondered how he noticed the seahorse and Auston admitted that this was only his 4th sighting in 25 years on St. Kitts. On the same dive another diver saw a large batfish which is also pretty rare.
On my first dive last week we went to a hot water vent and that was really cool as there are only two spots on the island where this can be found.
Auston is the guy who likes to catch lobster, but lately he was been leading the divers while another divemaster who often helps Auston follows behind. The divemaster and I fall behind and are usually scanning for lobsters. I have been seeing allot lately but I wasnt hungry until yesterday, so yesterday when it was only Auston, my girlfriend, and myself I caught 2 lobsters for dinner. We brought them to Mr. X's on the beach and they grilled them for us. Anyway, I plan to one day try another dive operator here. But as for now Im still very happy with prodivers.

Eric

 

[Crawl79]

Oh I forgot to mention what sites I like. I think the RIver Taw is a cool wreck dive in shallow water. I saw one large grouper, slipper lobster, very large green moray, very large barracuda. The sucker fish is gone from the wreck since the last time I visit it. The wreck is easy to navigate and there is the usual assortment of fish. I like that the wreck is very easy to navigate as there is also a crane and an old dodge van nearby that can be navigated to by following an anchor chain.
Again I recommend the vents as you can really feel the hot water. You may want to know that the vent that I went to is not the one near Nevis. I dont know if this is Auston super secret spot but I know he had to line up the boat with A house on the shore of St Kitts and we ended up right on it.
The MV Talata is a wrec nearby the dive shop but I have not heard many good things about it and havent yet dove it.
I recommend the Finger Reef but on anchor away from the mooring, water is usually very clear since it is I think the farthest reef from shore.

Anyway all the dives have been good and I have many more yet to dive.

Eric

 

[Dyvingluvly]

Thanks Eric for the great info. I have another week before I head out. I can't wait. Haven't been in the water in about 2 1/2 months. The only large seahorse I've seen was in Barbados. I will make sure that I dive the River Taw. I will also check out the vents. That sounds so cool.

 

[Crawl79]

Ok I dove the Talata and tought it was a good dive. But the same night we got enough people to make a night dive and we went back to the Talata. I was the first person to get down the line to the wreck and out of no where a turtle pretty much ran in to me. Withen minutes we saw 2 turtles and a very large puffer fish. We got the puffer fish to blow up and it was as big as a basketball. We saw about 5-6 turtles (I couldnt keep track of which one was which) one of which was very big with two barnacles on her shell. Quite a few lobsters, spanish and spiny lots of shrimp. Most fish seemed to be sleeping. I would shine my light in the holds and could see allot of fish. On the way up we turned off the lights and saw allot of phosflorescence when we moved our fins. Last two days I have been taking a break but I cant wait to get back in the water Monday morning. Hope you have a nice trip down here, the weather was been good although very hot.

 

[Dyvingluvly]

Eric,

Thank you soooooo much for all of the great information. I am looking forward to diving in St. Kitts. Did you make it over the Nevis? If so, how was it? I wanted to take a tour there, but was told that there were a lot of construction going on. Have a safe trip back to the States.

Thanks again. Tina

 

[Crawl79]

Never made it to Nevis, while the diving was good there was still some trouble in paradise, long distance relationships dont always work out. Anyway, I hope to hear a report from you soon. I have come to love St. Kitts but my main interest for traveling there is now gone so any reports from the island are appreciated.

 

[Dyvingluvly]

Hi Eric,

I really appreciate all of the information you sent me. Auston says hello. I loved the diving, although I did not make it to the vents. The first day of diving was awesome. I requested that we dive the River Taw. There were only two other divers. Since my usual dive buddy did not make the trip with me, I dove with a beginner diver the first day, but did very well. One was being certified. That was fine with me since this was my first dive in St. Kitts. The water temp. was 79 degrees the first day, but 82 degrees the next couple of days. The ease of navigating the wreck was exactly how you described it. There were an abundance of these really pretty red and orange fish. I am not sure the name. There were quite a lot of fish around the River Taw. Too bad I didn't bring my camera housing this time. I saw one really big turtle, a couple of eels, and some type of fish that was not on my fish identification card. Auston was also baffled.The second dive that day was nicer than the first (becasue I saw Black Coral). The Black Coral Reef was started at about 42 ft. and went to about 70 ft. I've never seen black coral before, so that was a treat. Didn't see any seahorses though. I loved it. I had sooo much funny. The VIZ was really great. The next day of diving was a much deeper dive. They was a couple that lived in St. Kitts. They gave me the history of the Island. That was just awesome. I was the thrid wheel on that dive because the other diver wanted to stay shallow. We dove the Coconut Tree Reef. I made it to 96 ft. I was surprised that there were still quite a bit of fish that far down. A school of Barracudas passed soooo close to me that I could feel the vibration of how swiftly they passed by. The other reef we dove Auston said there really wasn't a name for it yet. I gave it the name of the circular donut reef becasue it was actually in a circle with an hole in the middle. The second dive that day was called the Blood Bay Reef. There were a lot of Sea Fans, these things that looked like worms (I think they are called Bristle Worms) and Snappers. The snappers were pretty big. We also saw two sharks. Not that big though, but beautilful. Again, thanks for emailing me all of the information while you were on your trip. Take care.