Newbie - need advice on Belize trip???

[tootalljones]

Hi all,

I am brand new to this sport and will be taking a PADI OW class at the end of June. Then, in September I'll be vacationing in Belize for a week and want to make the most of the diving opportunity. Could you please offfer advice/suggestions as which dives to make and which dives aren't worth making. Also, do you know of any package deals where an outfit will rent the equipment and take me out to multiple dive sites over a few days? I'd appreciate any feedback, thanks.

 

[charmygirl]

First of all, welcome to diving. I hope you love it as much as I do. Secondly, which dives to make will depend on the day and time you are there. Book yourself onto a boat and follow the captain and divemaster's recommedations. Since you don't have anything to compare it to, you will not be disappointed.

As for advice, try not to worry about getting everything right, that will come with experience. Also, don't go down there expecting to see a certain species (ie: whale sharks, sharks or someother fabulous large species.) Those things happen every now and then, no guarantees. If you set your heart on seeing something and then don't you will be disappointed. Just enjoy what you do see (and you will see a lot.) Lastly, make the decision to dive before each dive. IE: If you are not comfortable doing any particular dive for whatever reason, don't.

Have fun and tell us about it when you get back.

K

 

[Damselfish]

Package deals like you describe are pretty common everywhere. A very few places automatically include all gear in packages, but most places gear (except for tanks and weights) is a separate rental as most people have their own gear already. But they will often give discounts if renting for enough days. If you plan to continue diving it's a good idea to buy your own gear that you will be familiar with, rather than trusting that whatever places you go will have well maintained rental gear that fits you. (There's lots of discussion on this board about that.)

Have you decided where in Belize you will stay, or are you still working on that part? For some of the places you might stay, you would typically dive with them as well. There are many places on Ambergris Caye, there are a few self-contained resorts out on the atolls (like Turneffe, Lighthouse) and there are some places more to the south in the Placencia area. There are also several liveaboards.

 

[DandyDon]

Howdy Tootall!

Welcome to SB!! :happywave Put us in your computer's favorites and check in often. This is a great place to learn, compare, argue Look around our various forums - everything from New-To-Scuba to Instructors-Only to Dive Medicine.

I'm leaving for San Pedro on Ambergris Caye in a week, and I'm sure I'll post a report by the end of the month. I enjoy doing those, and I like to think that some people ready them, so watch for it here...!

• You have to own your own mask, snorkel, and fins to do the course, right?
• If you cannot buy a BC and Octo-Reg with console now, then rent it from the shop you train with - rather than at the resort. I've seen too many problems and near accidents from rented BCs and Regs. You can more likely trust gear you rent from your local, US, dive shop, and get to know it well before you go.
• But do buy, carry, and learn to use (a) a Safety Sausage, (b) a Storm Whistle (not just a whistle), and (c) at least 4 weight belt keepers. I've also see a lot of problems with newbies and weights. Even if you rent an Integrated BC, carry some keepers, in case you have to use a belt afterall.

And buy trip insurance that will cover you and your equipment outside of the US. When you get there, make sure that all the staff and other divers on your boat know that you are a newbie, as it'll take a few dozen dives to actually get the feel. You may think you know what you'rte doing earlier, but you'll learn how wrong you were; we've all been there, me for sure!

don

BTW - it would really help in future discussion if you'd complete your Profile. Click "User CP" upper left of this page, then go down to "Edit Profile."

 

[tootalljones]

Thanks to all who replied. I will be staying at Ambergris Caye close to San Pedro. So, Dandy, I will be very interested to read about your trip when you get back. I plan on buying a mask, snorkel, fins, booties, and maybe a weight belt. So, I'll need to rent the rest. I'll look into renting here, but I was hoping on renting there to minimize on luggage. Any more suggestions as to which dives I should focus on? I'm not interested in anything too advanced, but would like to get the best diving in I can get. Also, any more advise on equipment would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[DandyDon]

Thanks to all who replied. I will be staying at Ambergris Caye close to San Pedro. So, Dandy, I will be very interested to read about your trip when you get back.

I'll post it, based on Aquamarina Suites, but with general travel, diving, and town experiences. Can hardly wait. Taking first anti-malria med this weekend in preparation, packing gear and some clothes, water treatment, sun block, insect repellent, etc.

I plan on buying a mask, snorkel, fins, booties, and maybe a weight belt. So, I'll need to rent the rest. I'll look into renting here, but I was hoping on renting there to minimize on luggage.

You want easy or safe...? :11:

This little extras will cost you about $25: "...(a) a Safety Sausage, (b) a Storm Whistle (not just a whistle), and (c) at least 4 weight belt keepers. I've also see a lot of problems with newbies and weights. Even if you rent an Integrated BC, carry some keepers, in case you have to use a belt afterall." Do buy them...

Any more suggestions as to which dives I should focus on? I'm not interested in anything too advanced, but would like to get the best diving in I can get. Also, any more advise on equipment would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

When you've logged 100 dives, you can start looking at the best. Let's try to survive those, though, by starting out carefully.

 

[Damselfish]

Keepers are a good idea if you're using a regular weight belt, everyplace has weight belts available but no one ever seems to have keepers. Or, they make weight belts with pockets of nylon or neoprene that zipper or velcro along the top. You can put regular lead blocks in them. These are more comfortable than a regular weight belt and much easier to add or remove weight, which is very handy while you're still sorting things out.

Dandy's suggestion is good. It's life support gear and safety is more important than packing light. This is not meant to scare you, chances are you wouldn't have a serious problem, but things do happen. I know it sounds appealing not to pack the gear but it's really not a problem and after a few times you get it down to a system. Most of the places you go diving, Belize included, you really don't need to pack a ton of clothes anyway.

My best advice on gear right now is, read lots on the board, start your class, and then you'll find you have more specific questions that people can help you with. I can't help much with sites on Ambergris but I'm sure someone will. From Ambergris you will mostly dive the barrier reef since it's close and since it's your first trip you'll probably be happy with any of the diving there. You would also be able to do a day trip to the atolls which would be worth going on if you're ok with the long boat ride. I'd suggest not doing the Blue Hole this trip, it's very famous and popular and I'm sure someone would take you there, but it's too deep when you've just started diving.

 

[roni]

You are going to find out that scuba diving is a magical activities, I had been diving for 24 years and I still find it magical.

A few advises:
- Austin is great place, but diving in lake Travis is not very exiting, instead of taking your complete OW course in Austin, take the referral course. This mean that you are doing the class room and confine water work in Austin, and you do your 4 open water dives in Belize. First ocean dive is a fun dive and practically does not have any skills, dives 2 to 4 have about 5 to 10 minutes of skills.
- Diving insurance with vacation cancellation, is extremely good idea, and it is much more important in September. The market is full of companies that offer dive insurance, chose Diver Alert Network (DAN). This is non profit organization that is responsible for most research about diving, provide free medical advice, and provide great deal of positive benefit to dive industry. Your money is been use for good purpose, and you get a good magazine.
- There is no point of buying weight belt, as it is a item that always provide by dive center. In our dive center, we use Scubapro Glide Plus BCD with AIR2 for rental, this BCDs are weight integrated so you are not using a weight belt.

Roni Liberman
Protech Belize www.protechbelize.com
IANTD Trimix Instructor Trainer Trainer (ITT)
PADI Gold Palm 5 Stars IDC center

 

[Damselfish]

- Austin is great place, but diving in lake Travis is not very exiting, instead of taking your complete OW course in Austin, take the referral course. This mean that you are doing the class room and confine water work in Austin, and you do your 4 open water dives in Belize. First ocean dive is a fun dive and practically does not have any skills, dives 2 to 4 have about 5 to 10 minutes of skills.

There are pros and cons to doing checkout dives through a referral. If you do your dives at home, you've gotten in that many more practice dives, and you can just fun dive on vacation. (My OW checkout dives spent much of the time practicing skills, spending as little time on skills as possible is not something to shoot for as that is part of the point of these dives.) Also, if you do your checkout dives locally it gives you an different type of experience which is good. I would only do a referral if for some reason you really really did not want to do the local dives.

- Diving insurance with vacation cancellation, is extremely good idea, and it is much more important in September. The market is full of companies that offer dive insurance, chose Diver Alert Network (DAN). This is non profit organization that is responsible for most research about diving, provide free medical advice, and provide great deal of positive benefit to dive industry. Your money is been use for good purpose, and you get a good magazine.

Dive insurance is a must have in my opinion, whether from DAN or one of the other organizations. I've stuck with DAN myself so far. Vacation cancellation not so much, depends on the trip and your situation. Something like DAN dive insurance is important because the possible $ loss of a dive accident could be very high, and in some cases having it will make getting treatment easier (most places aren't going to treat or evacuate you if you don't have dive insurance unless you pay up front.) As far as trip insurance you are limited to losing what you paid for the trip, and may even be able to get some of it back otherwise or be able to reschedule with a penalty.

Note that the vacation cancellation included in Dive insurance is nice to have but not the same as regular vacation cancellation insurance. Dive insurance might cover the trip if you have a medical problem such that you can't dive (even though maybe you could sit on the beach), something a normal trip policy wouldn't cover. But it doesn't cover something like a death in the family or a hurricane. DAN is now selling trip insurance too.

- There is no point of buying weight belt, as it is a item that always provide by dive center. In our dive center, we use Scubapro Glide Plus BCD with AIR2 for rental, this BCDs are weight integrated so you are not using a weight belt.

I generally agree, though I've been too many places that have a lousy selection of lengths or run out of some sizes so it's not completely wasteful to have your own. I see people wind up with belts that are way too long or that barely close. And most places don't have weight-integrated BCs for rentals.

 

[roni]

There are pros and cons to doing checkout dives through a referral. If you do your dives at home, you've gotten in that many more practice dives, and you can just fun dive on vacation. (My OW checkout dives spent much of the time practicing skills, spending as little time on skills as possible is not something to shoot for as that is part of the point of these dives.) Also, if you do your checkout dives locally it gives you an different type of experience which is good. I would only do a referral if for some reason you really really did not want to do the local dives.

PADI have a very well defined training system, that specify what should be done on each dive, and what is acceptable performance level. Therefore, base on the PADI system, the skill preformed on the OW dives will be the same any were a diver take a course. Naturally there can be a different in the quality and teaching ability of the instructor.

The difference on time required for the skills comes from the size of class. In Belize most course are one to two students per course, as the class is basically a private class, and there are not another 10 students that need to demonstrate skills, this leave time to dive and see some fish.

I am all for local diving, any dive is better than no diving.

September and October are our main months for hurricane session, therefore, it is a very good idea to have vacation cancellation/ interruption insurance. DAN Preferred Policy cost $70 and provide diving insurance and cancellation/ interruption.
http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/insurance/compare.asp