San Salvador

[Green Frog]

I was at Gerace Research Center last June for a conference, the first held since well before COVID. I had spent several days prior in Nassau diving with Stuart Cove’s and I’m ashamed to admit, I never even got in the water at San Sal. I was too worn out from Nassau.

Jean Paul had apparently decided to work for the Riding Rock back about 2013 or 2015 and was there when I had one of my stays. Oddly, some of the guests from Club Med came down and dove with him at RR while I was there. Captain Bruce was running the boat and JP was doing DM. The next time I went, 2 years later, JP was back at Club Med, and they sent me up from RR to dive with HIM! There is a lot of cooperation on that little island.

The last time I was @ RR, I was the only diver in residence, so Bruce took me out on his little personal dive boat and I accompanied him while he tried to work on the Lionfish population. Boy do the Groupers love “Lionfish on a Stick”!

 

[mbs]

Years back CM was pretty restrictive on your dives. 45 minutes max, etc... Especially so if you were not buddy diving. I recall when they started offering nitrox I said to Jean Paul, why bother if you are going to limit me to 45 mins. He said 60 is fine and we never had an issue again. Again that is for buddy divers, follow the dm may be more limited.

 

[Strima77]

Years back CM was pretty restrictive on your dives. 45 minutes max, etc... Especially so if you were not buddy diving. I recall when they started offering nitrox I said to Jean Paul, why bother if you are going to limit me to 45 mins. He said 60 is fine and we never had an issue again. Again that is for buddy divers, follow the dm may be more limited.

Just got back from San Salvador, and as said, Club Med Columbus Isle is lots of fun and has great food - a good thing since my wife doesn't dive. Only Blue Diving was great to dive with. Since last there in 2019, however, the reef seems more bleached out and the resident dolphins are gone. Still several sharks luckily. Can anybody comment how the reef health here compares to other spots in the Bahamas/Caribbean?

 

[mbs]

Just got back from San Salvador, and as said, Club Med Columbus Isle is lots of fun and has great food - a good thing since my wife doesn't dive. Only Blue Diving was great to dive with. Since last there in 2019, however, the reef seems more bleached out and the resident dolphins are gone. Still several sharks luckily. View attachment 871653Can anybody comment how the reef health here compares to other spots in the Bahamas/Caribbean?

Not sure SCTLD had hit the island in 2019 yet... If not, then yea, there would have been a lot more large brain corals and others...

 

[Green Frog]

Is Only Blue Diving the dive operation associated with Club Med? Is Jean Paul still in charge of diving there? I last went out with them nearly ten years ago under strange circumstances… I was actually staying at the Riding Rock Inn, but they weren’t diving that week, so they subbed me out to CM. I knew JP from his brief tenure at the RR and always enjoyed diving with him.

Another San Sal dive personna is a local, Captain Bruce. If you ever have a chance to dive with him, it will be a treat. I saw him the last time I was there in 2023, but I wasn’t diving that trip.

BTW, at least 15 years ago while diving there with JP I got to see my first (and only) pair of I hammerheads off the Wall. What a thrill!

Sorry to be repetitive in my old age but my finest memories of diving pretty much all took place on San Sal. Every time somebody posts here I get off on another lovely trip down Memory Lane.

 

[San Diego Climber]

Another San Sal dive personna is a local, Captain Bruce. If you ever have a chance to dive with him, it will be a treat. I saw him the last time I was there in 2023, but I wasn’t diving that trip.

BTW, at least 15 years ago while diving there with JP I got to see my first (and only) pair of I hammerheads off the

We were there two weeks ago at RRI and had the pleasure of having Bruce as the captain on our boat as well as our tour guide around the island on the last afternoon.

One of my favorite quotes from him, I commented that while there’s tons of fish there surprisingly wasn’t a lot of mollusks and he said “it ain’t easy being tasty, baby”

 

[San Diego Climber]

Also saw a hammerhead on one dive, that was amazing (first/only ever)

 

[mbs]

Is Only Blue Diving the dive operation associated with Club Med? Is Jean Paul still in charge of diving there? I last went out with them nearly ten years ago under strange circumstances… I was actually staying at the Riding Rock Inn, but they weren’t diving that week, so they subbed me out to CM. I knew JP from his brief tenure at the RR and always enjoyed diving with him.

Another San Sal dive personna is a local, Captain Bruce. If you ever have a chance to dive with him, it will be a treat. I saw him the last time I was there in 2023, but I wasn’t diving that trip.

BTW, at least 15 years ago while diving there with JP I got to see my first (and only) pair of I hammerheads off the Wall. What a thrill!

Sorry to be repetitive in my old age but my finest memories of diving pretty much all took place on San Sal. Every time somebody posts here I get off on another lovely trip down Memory Lane.

Was back at ClubMed last week. Jean Paul is still there running Only Blue Diving. They have a great young crew this year. Was a lot of fun. I mentioned to one (Julian) that I was not diving with a camera this trip so we should see some great stuff. On one dive I was heading back to the boat and turned to see a hammerhead coming right at me. Passed by at an arms length!!! As he passed I saw Julian 25-30 feet away watching me. He gave me the hammerhead sign and then did the click click camera sign. I could see he was laughing.
The walls are still spectacular and if you like swim throughs they are great. But the reef is in really bad shape in some spots. Often the dive plan would be to try to go one way vs the other as "not much to see" on that side. It was heartbreaking at times. Still some cool stuff to see, the people are all real nice and the island is beautiful. Large spotted eagle ray met us as we approached the top of the wall, did a flip in front of us and sailed away. Saw a few turtles including a big hawksbill and of course plenty of reef sharks. We'll be back.