Roatan advice: north-east vs. south and west?

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ilikefood

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Location
San Francisco
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How are the dive spots in the north-east side of Roatan, compared to those on the south side and west?

I’m in Roatan right now, on a sort of last-minute not very well planned vacation. We’re staying in the north-east of Roatan (near Punta Blanca) and the dive I did today was a bit underwhelming. Lots of huge sponges and decent coral, but not many fish. I like the dive shop at my resort, but I’m wondering if it’s worth driving to other parts of the island to dive there with another shop.

Are dive spots much better in the south and west of Roatan than in the north-east, or is there not much difference? When I looked up best dive sites, it seemed like most of them were in the west and south, but I don’t know if that’s just the many dive shops there promoting themselves :)

Any advice appreciated!
 
@drrich2 knows my history: many years ago I circumnavigated the entirety of Roatan on a diveplane, essentially being hauled behind a boat on SCUBA. We were looking for viable dive sites. At the same time, the underwater architecture and landscape revealed huge differences that are perfectly understandable and easy to see. Yes, absolutely, there are differences.

The above water terrain begins to explain it. The island has a backbone ridge line. It rises steeply from the North, then slopes gently down to the South side. The North is heavy vegetation, some standing water, it is darker in the shadows of the Sun. The South has more loose soil, drier, more arid, Sunnier. Simple geography.

But- geography escapes many because Roatan lies at a 45 degree position (SW>NE) on the globe, instead represented for convenience on maps as a seemingly E>W orientation. Everything depends on you getting that correct.

This surface geography was caused by prevailing weather patterns. Over eons. The windward side of the island gets the constant gentle ESE/SE winds. The heavy wind and wave, when it arrives during the Caribbean Storm Season (Aug>Feb) comes from the North. Staying West/North at that time of year is a crap shoot. Deep pocket resorts (not all, not many) move their ops to the South dive. Some lesser ops boat you around or through, not ideal. The majority just close and go to the bar.

Here’s Doc Radawski in a 2 minute video i shot with crappy sound. Doc was one of the last survivors in the Dinosaur Exhibit who they interviewed for the Indiana Jones Crystal Skulls Infomercial on Discovery Channel. Doc taught me most of what I know about the geo of RTB.


It’s not a big leap to imagine that these effects continue underwater. You can see it on satellite imagery, you can see it after diving the placed wrecks (or merely reading their dive site descriptions)

The North/West: The reef structure lies far enough offshore to eliminate viable shore access. (Some dive-ops try to infer/claim otherwise). When the reef begins 1/3+ mile offshore, it slopes gently in two steps, roughly 60 and 90’, easy to get deep. Nitrox is well advised. The placed wrecks are in the 90fsw range and due to storm surge, they are in tatters, just deep metallic chunks, yet still providing reef like structure for Pelagics. It has very little soft coral, it has a lot of shadows, understand that only the Sun creates the florid phototropic zones, a concentrator of life, so not very much here.

With the combination of the heavy presence of the Roatan Marine Park, this area offers what I believe to be the “best of what’s left” in the Caribbean, and I mean this as what the Caribbean was commonly understood and best known to offer. (Roatan has a more unique claim to fame, read on)

In this North zone, there is similarly the increasing hyping of more Easterly dive ops. @ilikefood I am aware of one viable Nothside real-deal diveop focused resort presentation that is truly East, Dive Pangea. The broader point is other diveops, along East on the South side, that claim their diving is more virginal because of the lack of diver pressure, less visitors. It’s a purely ignorant or BS statement that does still result in that very valid answer. It is less degraded up toward the East but for one reason. Not many changes out that way (yet) in terms of earth moving and construction. The mild current pushes from the East. Anything downstream is going to get soil run off (siltation) which is what really degrades the reef. More pristine? To the East. Due to the momentarily, so far, sparse population, if you want the retro dive resort 70’s thing, here’s your oyster. The ‘dive site quality’? Highly subjective differences,

Conditions can get challenging off the true Eastern (Santa Helena, site of the Mitchel Hedges Crystal Skull & Josh Gates episode) end of Roatan’s exposure- that’s why no one is really offering it. Hammerheads oft seen just off East, Next stop- Isla Barbaretta. I did this years ago, private charter. Beyond twitchy challenges, most esp at night. Fortune favors the brave (Or stupid)

The South? The unique part of Roatan lies between French Harbour and Oak Ridge. It is like no other structure in the Caribbean, again due to geography and weather. Reef structure begins within 100-200’ from shore. Coral heads present in 5-25fsw and a straight vertical wall drops to a 90fsw sand shelf. The best dive profiles are completely doable 5x/day on plain air- it’s that shallow. Wrecks lie in 45 and 65’, largely intact and upright- a result of ultra calm waters, certainly compared to the West/North wrecks. This South shore is subject to Sunlight track all day long, causing an extremely florid brightly lit phototropic environment, but unlike the population of very common Caribbean Pelagics of the North, the South is instead a shallow nursery for the micro and babies. Roatan is noted for the largest varieties of soft coral, this South Zone is where they are- no storm damage, just fresh seawater exchange. The Reef Fish ID Photo Books, the South side is where these shooters dive- Plain and simple, since the days of Paul Humann, Stan Waterman and now all the new kids.

Here’s the Dunning-Krueger textbook page in action.

Roatan is a great destination for beginners to ‘advanced divers‘. But what is an advanced diver? In this discussion, let’s focus on the “naturalist” skills that become the hallmark of a comfortable diver with great buoyancy skills.

The West/North provide what I mentioned before. Likely the single best remaining Caribbean variety and concentration of larger apex and pelagic reef fish. If your bucket list needs Baracuda, Parrot, Lobster, all that cool stuff, the West/North is your target.

The South is a whole different deal. To make for a happy diver, they should possess the skill set to be inches from delicate corals, motionless, and to have the composure to discern macro creatures. Night dives? Place is crawling with Octos and Squid.

Many divers can quickly master the required dive skills to do this. It’s still very hard to find these critters. That is why you simply must attach yourself to your well qualified and motivated DM. You always carry a flashlight and a magnifying glass.

@ilikefood I’m thinking you had a low grade DM. There is incredible life everywhere. I myself prefer the South side, and if my DM isn’t finding at least one Pipefish or Seahorse or Decorator Crab, Neck Crab, that kind of delight…if he isn’t finding at least one on every dive, I’m switching DMs.

Caveat: a day trip “to the other side” is nothing more than a whiff. @ilikefood, you were in an interesting area that has any number of visually imposing reef structures and a few swim-thru type environment. I’m guessing you were not offered those, they are more impressive than the very over-hyped Mary’s Place. What you call Punta Blanca is kind of a marketing name for the geographical area of Marble Hill, essentially North from Oak Ridge (that’s the big town on the East End/South Side)

You were there during marginal, rainy weather from a “Norther”. Yeah, I’ll bet fish were scarce. If I was your DM, I would have shown you the swim-thru structures or motored you to the sheltered South side via the mangrove cut nearby. Only slightly less suck on the South, but.

Come April > August. Mo betta

If one really wanted to dive all of Roatan, try three weeks, one at Anthony Key AKR, one at CoCoView CCV and the other split between Dive Pangea and Reef House RHR.

Final thought: I write for divers who came to dive. I want 4+ in a day. I want a night dive every night. There is alternate advice by the bucketful on Trip Advisor. Whenever anyone has a vacay, it was inarguably the best choice ever. This is what causes posts such as, “Jamaica has the best diving”. Qualify the advice you are given, go see it all, be an adventurous dive traveler.
 
Oh wow this is an amazing post! I feel unworthy, since I’m basically just an opportunistic vacation diver, not someone who does 4 dives per day.

I’ll give the north-east side more of a chance. I think maybe I’m a bit spoiled after diving in Fiji last year, where there were just huge clouds of large-ish fish. There was a pretty cool swim-through on the dive here and there were a few lobster, so it was better than maybe what I made it sound.

Thank you again for the amazing write-up!
 
We are most likely heading to Roatan in April. It has been 8 years since our last trip of 6 straight visits. We've rented houses, stayed at Coco Lobo, done the Mayan Princess, stayed at Bananarama while they were building their bar, but have never done one of the dive centric resorts. This year looks like our first opportunity and I really wanna go back to the south side. My last dive there was in February 2016 or so and it was an overcast rainy day. But it was one of the most magical dives I had ever had with several grouper following our every move. Curious If you had to compare Barefoot Cay versus Coco View versus FIBR, versus any others. And your wife is a diver but really likes her beach time, where would you stay?
 
I’ll give the north-east side more of a chance. I think maybe I’m a bit spoiled after diving in Fiji last year, where there were just huge clouds of large-ish fish. There was a pretty cool swim-through on the dive here and there were a few lobster, so it was better than maybe what I made it sound.
In general you can compare Caribbean destinations, or Indo-Pacific destinations. But it’s difficult/unfair to compare Indo-Pacific to Caribbean diving, they are sort of on different scales and the Pacific spots will tend to blow away the Caribbean spots. For one thing, the “coral triangle” (Indonesia, Philippines, Fiji and more) is the center of marine biodiversity. You just need to enjoy each region for what it is.
 
If you had to compare Barefoot Cay versus Coco View versus FIBR, versus any others. And your wife is a diver but really likes her beach time, where would you stay?
I have compared them, and- on the South side, as far as any option, your three and Reef House completes the ‘scuba resort’ list. (Research RHR posts on your own for current business model, no beach btw)

South side property (the land) is pricey and ownership is appealing to the monied class for long time family neighborhood residences, upscale estates and the island’s only safe harborage. It just doesn’t have many resort options. In the ‘resort with diving’ category, there is also Parrot Tree (an amazing created engineered beach) and Media Luna. (Resorts that offer diving, again- do your own research), Further East, there are a few guest houses where you can get out a few times in a week.

You really have to define ‘beach time”.

Laying prone above sand, or…more?
Bars, service, vendors, hair braiding, massage?

The best and really only Roatan option for the ‘more’ version is West End. Other places offer patches or tiny teeny white rocks to lie about upon and cook.

From your list:

FIBR or FI has a nice man-made beach. Easily the most photogenic on island. It’s F&B services are and have been quite unpredictable and unreliable for 10+ years, if available at all. The resort facilities have been dubious for 15+ years. Historically good dive staff, hobbled by crap infrastructure. It’s cheap(er). A few recent Twit Advisor posts have appeared, I put the few positive ones in the sham category. Go if you must. SMH

Barefoot Key BFK is an islet that predominately caters to upper end yachties as a no-excuses tie-up wharf. It is so successful because it does that precise service offering perfectly, and it is isolated from the security fear from main-island riff-raff by a 100’ span of a commercial channel. You get the last 100’ by shuttle boat. Tiger Woods used it when he made publicity appearances at the golf course (don’t get me started). The resort services are really pretty good- grading on a Roatan curve. They have claimed a shore dive, but somebody is exaggerating. Just offshore is “Mary’s Place”, but all resorts go there. They do a really nice dive trip offering, but if you really did 2x a day for 5 days you would be a real exception. You could likely get 15x week, but it’s simply not that kind of place, you’ll be around baby-steps diver guests, kind-of like to standard Cancun resort-course crowd. Everybody gushes about the big dive, everybody survives. There are a number of sandy flat areas for sunbathing. Most of the yachtie GF’s do their naked sunbathing on the upper decks, so that’s the downside.

I stood on the then undeveloped and blank slate of BFK property with the original former owner, a good friend, back in 1990, and I asked him what his plans for this was to be. He pointed out that it was fast becoming the physical center of the largest commercial harborage on Roatan. Today, BFK is closely surrounded by dry docks, ship works, cargo transfer, noise and mercury-vapor lights all night long. It is simply not an idyllic setting by any stretch. He sold it.

Coco View CCV (again, I am a fan-boy) is a dive resort. Period. You can easily read up on the place. To keep your Sun worshipping wife happy? They did just recently create a flat sand beach of about 3/4 acre In 2022. It is cleverly designed to inhibit seaward erosion. People kept asking for ‘a beach’, so here’s your beach. There are no vendors or services, but they do meticulously rake and turn the sand 2x daily to ameliorate the omnipresent national bird of Roatan, the Sand Fly. (A number of other resorts incl FI have been known to spray DDT to achieve this). Since CCV built this beach, I have been to CCV twice but never looked to the left to see it. Don’t care, I went diving, the pictures look very nice.

As in so many vacation queries that involve SCUBA, there are very few destination properties (or islands) that can be all things to all people.

Roatan, as of 2023, should still be sought after as a dive destination. In my first visit in 1984, no one would ever show up who wasn’t there to dive. Now, we have casinos, chair lifts, jungle canopy slides, Harley T-shirt shops, fudge, two cruise ship docks… and there’s is still not much on the island really than the great diving. The terrestrial land diversions seem superfluous to me, and more than a bit hick (think Beverly Hillbillies and a Carnival Company had a baby).

Come to Roatan, dive the max you can, study the unique South side, before it’s all gone- just like the rest of the Caribbean already is.
 
My wife and I dove the West End for many, many winters. The structures are are great (very tall), valleys are long, coral is healthy with many different fishes. Winters bring a lot of wind and rain to this area We loved it in Winter so in other seasons this a really great dive area. Highly recommend Coconut Divers located on the water's edge with a dock and their dive boats . If you happen to meet Gaye, the owner, please say HI to her from Bob an Irene.:callme:
 
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