If some of the locals are smart, they will setup packages like they do on Bonaire that include a rental truck, a preferred pricing for tank fills with one of the dive outfits, and housing at a condo or rental home. There is not really any reason it can't be as good or better than Bonaire, especially since you could likely leave anything you want in a rental vehicle on Brac and not expect to have it stolen while diving.
Regarding shore diving from the resorts, the main problems with diving the south side of both Brac and Little from inside the lagoon is that a large percentage of the water coming into the lagoon over the top of the fringing reef in the form of waves ends up flowing back out through the channel cut in the form of a very strong current. So if you get into the current along the channel, you are very likely to end up on the outside of the reef with no way back in except to crawl over a jagged reef with waves breaking onto it. There is not much to see on the inside of the reef that couldn't be seen by snorkeling, so generally they discourage folks from trying to dive the lagoon.
I doubt the Brac Reef Resort would be interested in setting up the sort of package you are talking about as they already offer afternoon boat diving and the resort tends to be busy most of the time.
Maybe not
@Doctorfish, the Reef Divers facility at Cobalt Coast on Grand Cayman is currently (partially) closed while the resort upgrades the AC systems, but when they re-open in April they will begin offering dive packages that include 2 or 3 boat dives per day with the option for free shore dives on the house reef, including night shore dives (I think) weather permitting.
Of course, that is limited to the house reef so that is different from the situation on Bonaire, but at least it shows that they are willing to integrate shore diving and afternoon boat diving in a resort setting. They've always offered morning boat dives with shore dives on the house reef, weather permitting, at CCGCR.
As I'm sure you know, there is some very nice shore diving available on Grand Cayman but it is not like Bonaire, there is generally a dive op on site at the popular shore dives and you rent your tanks and weights from them, generally for about $15 per tank, so it is an economical option for Cayman (except for the Eden Rock dive op that is popular with cruise ship passengers that also charges per pound for weights!) But the north end of the west side of the island, where some of the best shore dives are located (including CCGCR) can get winded out easily - especially during the high travel season of winter.
In general, Grand Cayman shore dives are very convenient because there is usually an easy entry/exit, often with a ladder or ramp, and they usually have showers, rinse tanks, and other facilities on site - but that is not same "diving freedom" as loading up the truck with tanks and heading down the road looking for painted rocks like on Bonaire, but it is easy, economical, good diving - and at least nobody steals the stuff from the car while you are shore diving on GC!
A complaint that you sometimes hear about diving the Caymans is that it is really not a great place for a diver that wants to economically do 4 to 5 dives per day. Ocean Frontiers at Compass Point on the East End offers 4 good boat dives per day but that can be pricey, and of course the Cayman Aggressor will provide 4 to 5 dives per day but not everybody is looking for a liveaboard, especially if they are traveling with a non-diver, and it is also pricey.
Most of the GC dive ops will offer extra afternoon dives like excursions to Sting Ray City or the Kittiwake, and they also offer night boat dives a couple of times per week (if there is enough interest) but again those are extras that add to the expense, and availability is dependent on the number of interested individuals.
But Cobalt Coast, a dive op/resort combo that will be offering an economical, all-inclusive package with 3 boat dives per day and unlimited tanks for house reef shore diving - including night shore dives - may fill a new niche in the Grand Cayman dive market.
And if the Cayman Brac Beach Resort and Reef Divers made it easy for divers to rent a car and combine boat and shore diving options on Brac that could also be attractive to visitors that want to "dive, dive, dive" but at a price that won't blow the budget.
But I am not sure how Reef Divers could reconcile the "valet diving" features with driving down the road to shore dive on Brac? Currently at CBBR you leave your BC, regulator, and weights on the boat and just rinse and hang your suit, mask, and fins after boat diving - and they always lock up the equipment room at night - so you would have to retain access to your equipment to take advantage of both boat and off-road shore diving on Brac. I imagine that it would be a little easier at Cobalt Coast where you are only shore diving the house reef, but there is no house reef at CBBR. When we dived with RD at CCGCR we were not staying at the resort, so we were carrying our equipment, but they did bring our gear to the back of the boat and helped us to put it on as part of their valet service.
At CBBR I think that you would probably have to choose between "boat dives only with full valet dive services" or "fewer boat dives with limited valet services and unlimited shore dives." I know the option that I would pick, I really like the ease of the full valet diving services!
The other dive op on the island, Brac Scuba Shack, may be in a better position to expand their operation and help divers to take advantage of both boat and shore diving options, and as others have mentioned, they are starting to offer boat and shore dive packages at economical prices.
Right now BSS are offering (during May, Sept, and Oct 2018) a package with private accommodations (a house with a pool), 6 days of 2-tank boat dives, a rental car, and unlimited shore diving for only $1,015 per person. That sounds like a bargain for Cayman, see the link below; but you will be on your own for food and beverages, so I still think the all-inclusive packages at CBBR are a good deal.
2018 Brac Scuba Shack Packages at 2017 Prices!
There needs to be a third option for diving in CB. One along the lines that AggieDiver mentions. Reef Divers does not offer a package unless you stay with them and the Brac Shack is too small to give out more than one tank at a time when they are open. Neither model would survive in a more competitive location like Bonaire. Furthermore, CB would be a great location for technical diving, yet there is none.
You're right
@divezonescuba, below is a thread about a group of rebreather divers that found the deep diving off Brac to be really great, but they had to have their equipment and tanks shipped over from Grand Cayman, so currently this would only be a rare and expensive option.
Cayman Brac Invasion
I like Cayman Brac and the CBBR just the way they are right now, and I'm in no hurry to see any changes, but I am aware that the economy of the island isn't great, so opportunities to increase the attraction for divers may be a good thing - we will just have to wait and see what happens. If the new services at Cobalt Coast on GC are popular, we may see some changes at the other Clearly Cayman resorts in the future.
. I would check with Scuba Shack before counting on shore diving. I communicated that I had the SDI Solo Diver cert. I would imagine that they accept alternative solo certs but did not ask them.
