Roatan in November

[reefugee]

My family and I are heading to Roatan for the week of Thanksgiving, and I’ll be scuba diving with my 10-year-old daughter. This is her first scuba dive trip. I’m looking for recommendations on what type of wetsuit would be appropriate for that time of year. I’ve heard mixed advice—some say they dive in just a t-shirt and shorts, while others recommend a full 2mm wetsuit for kids. We’ll be diving for 5 days, with 3 tanks each day. I’d appreciate any guidance based on your experience with the conditions around that season.

Also - can you tell me what type of diving Roatan is?

 

[elvenhome21]

At most 3mm shorty for thermal, however a full uv skin id recommended due to possibility of jellys in the evening dive. My 5yr old was in the water for the entire day in swim shorts for the whole week and never said he was cold.

 

[mcohen1021]

My guess is you're going to stay at Anthony's or cocoview, both excellent choices both have really good dive operations

All of the diving I have done in roatan has been very easy no current great visibility decent wildlife, the only thing you won't see is sharks

As I've said in other threads before I would discourage doing "cara a cara" the shark dive... long after us tourists are gone somebody is been fishing for those sharks and some of them are swimming around with leaders in their mouths. It's sad.

My favorite dive in that roatan area, was definitely spooky canyon I think was the name.

 

[therookie]

We've visited Roatan in late November / early December many, many times over the years (but I have only been a certified diver for the last four). The weather conditions at that time of year are a total dice roll. It is right in the middle of the rainy season - not that it necessarily rains hard every day (although it certainly can!), but just depending on how much rain Roatan gets before and during your visit it can have quite an impact on visibility due to runoff from the island since the dive sites are all so close to shore. Some years we have had great weather around US Thanksgiving, and some years it has been absolutely horrible.

Also at that time of year Roatan can be impacted by "northers" that make conditions in West Bay/West End/Sandy Bay difficult or nearly impossible to dive. Many operations in those areas have arrangements to dive on the south side when that happens, but in many cases they don't do three dives in the day during a norther because the logistics just don't work.

I too read a huge variety of recommendations about wetsuits for Roatan. It's hard to know what to recommend partly because everyone's tolerance for cold differs so much. Your daughter probably won't need much if really any but the thing is that if she does start to get chilled on say the third dive of the third day you won't have a lot of options for getting her something there. I don't recall seeing a lot of selection for child-sized wetsuits in the very few places on the island that sell scuba gear. Since it is her first scuba trip I think you would not want her to get chilled partway through, not be able to get her a wetsuit to help overcome the cold, and have her totally turned off of diving because of that bad experience. I would recommend getting her something inexpensive before your trip (especially since she will outgrow it quickly) that you could possibly unload later in an online marketplace.

Last year during the first week of December the water temps were 82-84F every day. Actually a few days last December the water was warmer than the air temperature and I was ever so glad to get back into the water after a (to me, at least) chilly surface interval. I use a 3mm shorty over a long-sleeve rashguard for thermal and exposure protection, and much prefer it over just rashguard and swim shorts. But I'm not 10 years old and I am acclimatized to the tropics, so it's probably not too helpful of a comparison... I also have a cheap rain shell that I picked up at a Target in the States to wear to and from the dive sites and during the surface interval.

Roatan is easy warm water tropical reef boat diving, and even when the weather is uncooperative we have immensely enjoyed all of our dive trips there.

 

[laurenceh]

Just be aware that November is the rainiest month of the year and it's not unusual to have torrential rainfall, often for days in a row. It can be positively monsoon like some years. This leads to greatly diminished viability underwater - you will likely not have that blue, gin clear water that we get in the islands from February - September.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I've spent numerous Nov/Dec trips on Roatan. My recommendation is to get your daughter a full 3 mm suit that fits her well.

I agree with the other posts above.

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

You gone get wet.

 

[mcohen1021]

It's hard to know what to recommend partly because everyone's tolerance for cold differs so much.

No doubt. I did a scuba trip in mid December a few yrs ago. I used a 5 mil and some of the guys with a spare tire used a tshirt.

 

[CathyE]

The first time I visited was Christmas, it rained a bit almost every day, and on two days it rained almost all day. Visibility wasn’t too bad water temp was around 81f.
On another trip in Feb it started raining as we de boarded and stoped at night a week later. Sometimes it was a light rain but usually it was torrential. I think the water temp was still around 81f, but it was cold on the surface intervals. Really cold!
Visibility was not great, with most dives being like twilight dives, a flashlight was almost needed. I did use mine for every dive.
The worst part was the solid 20 feet at the surface. Solid, because you couldn’t see a foot in front of you. We did our safety stops holding on to each other, otherwise you were alone. Maybe this November it won’t be so bad.
In April the water temp averaged around 83f, I was in a 2mm and got a little chilly at the end of the second dive.