South Side Diving - Interesting Experience

[undefined]

Having only read about diving on the south side, and many of those posts by regulars here such as RoatanMan, I was pretty shocked last week to watch a couple who were staying at Fantasy Island for a week and had decided to come to West End to dive. They complained of 8 ft swells (???), everyone on the boat being sick, and terrible visibility on the south side.

I haven't been to the south side, other than a couple of dives in January when the North/West side of the island were experiencing modest swells thanks to a bit of storm action. With that being said, what are the conditions on the south side normally like, as the day that this couple walked in it was calm as a bathtub around West End?

 

[C Chris]

I suppose conditions might possibly vary with seasons, not to mention an occasional tropical depression etc; my experiences (three different years) on the south side in August were zero swells - perfectly flat surface. - chris

 

[undefined]

Chris,

That is what I figured. Needless to say, I was pretty surprised to see someone come all the way from FIBR to West End after having spent the money to dive w/ FIBR. With all the good things I've heard about south side diving, I was pretty much flabbergasted to see a couple spend the time and money to go somewhere else when they already have a dive op setup a paid for.

Maybe they just had weak stomachs

 

[Bay Island Diver]

This is the time of year that the trades blow at their strongest, April, May, June is not a good time of year to be diving the south side, November December Jan are bad times for the north. The rest of the time it is generally calm on both sides.

 

[Doc]

Having only read about diving on the south side, and many of those posts by regulars here such as RoatanMan, I was pretty shocked last week to watch a couple who were staying at Fantasy Island for a week and had decided to come to West End to dive. They complained of 8 ft swells (???), everyone on the boat being sick, and terrible visibility on the south side.

Here's a compendium of sea condition reports from the South side: http://www.docksidedivecenter.com/WeeklyLog.html

May 5 > 11
Air Temp 87º 90º 88º 86º 81º 85º 84º
Water Temperature 81º 81º 81º 82º 82º 82º 82º
Humidity 70% 72% 76% 80% 72% 70% 79%
Wind E14 E16 E13 ENE4 E2 E9 E8
seas 2-3 3-4 2-3 0-1 0-1 1-2 1-2

Looks like your newest friends were... a bit off?

You can "see previous weeks" by hitting that button, as well. Also see the photos of the critters that are posted each week.

The South side can get rough, surely can, but it has not since April 1st and 2nd 45 days ago when it was 4-5 and 5-6 for two days.

 

[DeputyDan]

Wimp's

 

[ronrosa]

You can call me a wimp too.

I'm not a fan of rough seas and rocking boats, especially since I'll have an expensive video camera in hand.

I'll take Doc's suggestion and shore dive the house reef if the seas are rough.

 

[rleslie]

Last week I saw CCV's boat on the North side twice. Once they were tied up at the same dock that Coconut Tree Divers uses. I also heard the rumors of 7'-8' seas on the south side, but when we rented a scooter for two days, the seas on the south side were almost flat.

 

[Chaseh]

CCVs boats on the North Side, especially this time of year? Can anyone else compare this? June is usually dead quiet.

2-3 is rough. 8' is a exageration, unless there was a major storm nearby. If it does kick up, I don't know if the shore dives are going to be that much of a better option than the boats. I hate rought boat rides too, but a rough shore dive can be downright dangerous, hence the warning system.

 

[HowieDean]

A scwall blew through Monday 5/14 had the North side pretty wavey from about 8am to around 11 am - we took the boats around to the South side where it was almost flat. Scwall kind of steared things up and viz was pretty bad today Tuesday on the North side..............

Please believe me that both the NORTH and SOUTH both have some increadable dive sites - I have been to some breath-taking sites on both sides that most dive ops never dive............

Weather and waves are very unpredicatble things but if you stay with the rule that April - May - June - July - August - September - North Side / October - November - December - January - Feburary - March - South Side you will have the best chance of finding the seas favorable - there will always be isolated exceptions but it's a pretty good rule of thumb............

Again BOTH sides have places that can nock your socks off..........

Believe me if you haven't been to some of these place you will not believe it.............

That's just my opiion I could be wrong...