Palau

[Lorenzoid]

When I was a newly certified diver, my then-girlfriend who was an experienced diver wouldn't even take me to Cozumel because she thought the currents could be a little much for a brand new diver. How does Palau compare in this respect with Cozumel?

By the way, not long after we broke up I went to Cozumel on my own, and I realized she was right. The currents were ripping when I was there. It's not always that way, as I learned on subsequent trips, but it can be at times, and one needs to be prepared.

"Noob" destinations? Key Largo? Grand Bahama? Turks & Caicos? Cayman?

 

[Damselfish]

Suitability of T&C & Cayman depends on how comfortable the new diver is with deeper dives, their air consumption, also good buoyancy control since there's plenty of essentially bottomless walls. Turks & Caicos a lot of the dives tend to start deep, especially off West Caicos. Cayman also has a lot of deeper wall dives. There's plenty of shallower dives both places but a lot of the famous stuff people expect to see tends to be on dives that are a bit deeper, and that's where a lot of boats will be going.

Besides the Keys and maybe the Bahamas, I think Bonaire and Curacao are great first trip spots.

 

[Lorenzoid]

. . .

Besides the Keys and maybe the Bahamas, I think Bonaire and Curacao are great first trip spots.

Another thought on the Keys is that a visiting diver pretty much needs to rent a car. Fly into Miami or Ft. Lauderdale, rent a car, drive to the Keys, drive to and from the dive shop each day, etc. That may or may not be a big deal for the OP. Just thought I'd mention it.

I omitted Bonaire because unless a new diver's training dives were from the shore and not a boat, I think the idea of just walking out into the water and going diving can be intimidating. I was trained to dive from boats, and the first time I dived from shore--just me and my buddy with no one else around--I felt a little uncomfortable. Sure, there are a few dive boats on Bonaire, so a new diver would not necessarily have to do any shore diving. But Bonaire bills itself as the shore diving capital of the world (or something like that). Shore diving is Bonaire's major draw. It has been mentioned in other threads that a new diver can hire a guide on Bonaire to show him the ropes of shore diving, but I don't know how easy that is. You and the guide have to drive to the dive site, etc. It is much simpler for a new diver to begin his day by boarding a boat, where he can have a dive guide waiting, he gets a briefing, help with his gear if needed, etc. If a new diver is unfamiliar with shore diving, I would not recommend Bonaire.

 

[timz]

I am a relatively new divers from Malaysia certified OW in April this year and AOW in August and has logged 28 dives so far. I too, like you have a bucket list of dive destination I'd love to go.

However, I wouldn't want to spend my time adjusting my buoyancy, ending a dive due to OOA situation, kicking out the silt and other problems and not being able to enjoy my dive on a trip to my dreamed dive destination.

What I'd do is to dive as much as possible when opportunity is given. And meanwhile, learn more about the dive destination in the bucket list through forums like SB, reading articles and watching videos. Then you'll have a better knowledge of the place and knownwhat to expect.

Regarding to seasickness. 2 of my friends have puked infront of me.

One of them whom have no problem travelled on a moving boat for hours with waves... but he ended up puking while diving under surge and while on a stationary boat during surface interval where the boat moves ip and down due to wave.

Another was during a boat boat ride hitting waves...

If you need to puke underwater, Make sure u hold your regulator and puke through the regulator while you are diving to prevent spitting the regulator. Because the next thing you need after ur puke is inhale.

 

[diving4ever]

New diver flying out from NYC, I'm going to suggest Roatan (insert plug for CoCo View herer) as the first choice, or Little Caymen or Belize if you want more big animals. I know total newbies who did the Belize Sun Dancer LoB and had a GREAT trip. They skipped the Blue hole.

Cozumel diving is great, but it averages deeper dives and more current -- totally doable but not the easiest for brand new divers.

Haven't been to Palau, so can't comment.

 

[Damselfish]

I omitted Bonaire because unless a new diver's training dives were from the shore and not a boat, I think the idea of just walking out into the water and going diving can be intimidating. I was trained to dive from boats, and the first time I dived from shore--just me and my buddy with no one else around--I felt a little uncomfortable. Sure, there are a few dive boats on Bonaire, so a new diver would not necessarily have to do any shore diving. But Bonaire bills itself as the shore diving capital of the world (or something like that). Shore diving is Bonaire's major draw. It has been mentioned in other threads that a new diver can hire a guide on Bonaire to show him the ropes of shore diving, but I don't know how easy that is. You and the guide have to drive to the dive site, etc. It is much simpler for a new diver to begin his day by boarding a boat, where he can have a dive guide waiting, he gets a briefing, help with his gear if needed, etc. If a new diver is unfamiliar with shore diving, I would not recommend Bonaire.

Even though people talk constantly about shore diving in Bonaire, there's absolutely no reason someone can't stick to boat dives if that's what they feel more comfortable with. And boat dives are pretty cheap there.

If staying at one of the resorts on the water where you can gear up right there and walk into the water that's about as easy an introduction to shore diving as you can get. Conditions are usually benign. Navigation is simple, and even simpler at the resorts that have a line from the dock to the dropoff. You can choose your depth. How much easier can it get? (When we used to go to Bonaire we only did boat dives and dives off the resort dock, because we have no interest in hauling our stuff all over - had enough of that at home.)

 

[Lorenzoid]

Even though people talk constantly about shore diving in Bonaire, there's absolutely no reason someone can't stick to boat dives if that's what they feel more comfortable with. And boat dives are pretty cheap there.

True. It's just that diving from boats is not Bonaire's claim to fame.

If staying at one of the resorts on the water where you can gear up right there and walk into the water that's about as easy an introduction to shore diving as you can get. Conditions are usually benign. Navigation is simple, and even simpler at the resorts that have a line from the dock to the dropoff. You can choose your depth. How much easier can it get? (When we used to go to Bonaire we only did boat dives and dives off the resort dock, because we have no interest in hauling our stuff all over - had enough of that at home.)

I agree--in hindsight. I had almost 200 boat dives under my belt before I made that first trip to Bonaire and was faced with this new-to-me thing called "shore diving." There is actually a thread on here someplace where I asked for tips. (And there were plenty, such as read Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy, take a compass, watch for underwater landmarks, note the depth where you turned to parallel the shore, bring hard-soled boots, etc.) In hindsight, it was not THAT difficult. But I remember it being a new thing for me to have to figure out how to return to the same place I began the dive. If it had been not after 200 dives but my very first few dives after OW certification, I would not have wanted to add that stuff on top of everything else I had to remember. Even gearing up, if you've only done it as part of a class, can be intimidating if you have no one to check what you've done. Granted, at house reef of a dive resort on Bonaire someone would gladly offer to help if you told them this was your very first dive, and you could walk down the steps of the dock into the water rather than drive the truck out to a site. All that said, I still don't see why someone would pick Bonaire, where at least a little self-sufficiency is expected, over somewhere boat-centric, where new divers are readily catered to.

 

[gkrane]

Boat diving in Bonaire is a piece of cake as well. Plus if you do boat dives you can dive Klein bonaire which is a lot less dived than the main island. Also, boat dives in Bonaire are 1 boat to one dive site/mooring.

 

[scubafanatic]

Boat diving in Bonaire is a piece of cake as well. Plus if you do boat dives you can dive Klein bonaire which is a lot less dived than the main island. Also, boat dives in Bonaire are 1 boat to one dive site/mooring.

umm, if memory serves, Klein Bonaire was devastated by a hurricane some years back, demolishing it's reefs. While my last trip to Bonaire was about 10 yrs ago, we hired a catamaran sail boat to sail around one day, and we landed on Klein Bonaire to stroll the beach (and snorkel if one wanted too) but I seem to remember being told nobody scubas on Klein due to past hurricane damage, it wasn't worth the bother.

 

[robint]

When I was a newly certified diver, my then-girlfriend who was an experienced diver wouldn't even take me to Cozumel because she thought the currents could be a little much for a brand new diver. How does Palau compare in this respect with Cozumel?

By the way, not long after we broke up I went to Cozumel on my own, and I realized she was right. The currents were ripping when I was there. It's not always that way, as I learned on subsequent trips, but it can be at times, and one needs to be prepared.

"Noob" destinations? Key Largo? Grand Bahama? Turks & Caicos? Cayman?

Palau drifts compared to Cozumel drifts..... can be very similar, but Palau has some drifts waaaaay beyond if conditions are there. We had a couple of dives where I felt like I was going to die, flying like a bat out of heck, totally out of control. One dive a DM grabbed me and pulled me down to him (we were at Blue Corner, which is always listed as the top dive in the world on many of those "Best of" polls.) and another dive we were at Ulong Channel flying down the narrow channel at mach 3 for the entire dive. Both dives I was literally scared as we were going so fast. Now, would I go back??? Yes, most likely. Some other dives were literally the BEST DIVES OF MY LIFE.
The biggest issue with the drifts in Palau is some dives are very deep, and if you get a down-well, which are there but we were briefed where it would happen and to kick like heck across it... or places where the current comes around a corner and can blow you out away from the wall suddenly and then you can get lost at sea. One of our DMs actually had this happen to him... blown out away while shooting video, and he surfaced with no boats in sight. He was out there alone with sharks coming to check him out for over an hour before another boat found him. They had called him lost at sea and boats came from all over to search. Luckily he was okay.... that is the current.

robin