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Yes- the Southern end of the island has some pretty good coral reef diving. The downside to that end is that a large portion of the divers will be cruise ship divers or extremely casual day-dive types.
I separate those with lesser experience levels (but who are aware and eager) from those who want to dive once in a day and then sit on the beach. (This is after all, SCUBAboard)
Thus, depending upon the operation you select and how their load is on any given day, you might get wrapped up in a real daisy-chain.
To some extent, the same problem also exists on the North. Much as it does in any challenging environment, divers show up with your skill sets and that all important desire to learn and expand their abilities. Great! There is an unfortunate sub-group which consists of divers who have no clue what they are getting into or simply have no appreciation for what they have been reading. Not so great.
The appearance of these divers can seriously limit the rest of the group's week of diving- unless the dive operator can successfully split the herd. Sometimes because of marriages or egos, divers will resist this. On Day One, everyone will be treated as if they were Noobs. If you want more challenging currents and you are ready for this- be sure to prompt the Director of the Dive Op. (Your DM might not want to lose a paying customer to one of his co-workers boats)
There is relatively no room for equalization issues on the North Side, as all dives are drift dives- it's just a matter of degree. The DM's run the dive dragging a SMB. I think the Boatsmen could easily find the group without it, but it provides a great target for the group to visually tag-off of underwater.
In drift diving, the idea is to get to depth as quickly as possible. If you are at a different depth than the pack (for whatever reason), you will quickly become separated. Equalizing rapidly upon descent is a basic diving skill that must be mastered, or a medical condition that must be recognized.
They can take specific boats and divers to areas where there is less current, but at some point in the dive, you will almost always be guaranteed a slight push, and at one quick point or the other at minimum- a 1/4 mph current. (all but impossible to swim against)
The "big kids" can be shown dives that run in the 1/3 to 1/2 mph range, with spurts of 3mph (African Express)
This is not a bad place to learn about downwelling currents, but try to make most of the education occur before the actual time arrives. When the DM talks about downwellings, you'll be the one that quits screwing around with your gear and pays attention. Ask questions of him. Downwellings (how to recognize/deal with) are a well discussed item on SCUBABoard, so there's no need to go into that here.
They will tell you when and where to watch out for them. They just don't appear randomly, and the DM's know where they are.
I separate those with lesser experience levels (but who are aware and eager) from those who want to dive once in a day and then sit on the beach. (This is after all, SCUBAboard)
Thus, depending upon the operation you select and how their load is on any given day, you might get wrapped up in a real daisy-chain.
To some extent, the same problem also exists on the North. Much as it does in any challenging environment, divers show up with your skill sets and that all important desire to learn and expand their abilities. Great! There is an unfortunate sub-group which consists of divers who have no clue what they are getting into or simply have no appreciation for what they have been reading. Not so great.
The appearance of these divers can seriously limit the rest of the group's week of diving- unless the dive operator can successfully split the herd. Sometimes because of marriages or egos, divers will resist this. On Day One, everyone will be treated as if they were Noobs. If you want more challenging currents and you are ready for this- be sure to prompt the Director of the Dive Op. (Your DM might not want to lose a paying customer to one of his co-workers boats)
There is relatively no room for equalization issues on the North Side, as all dives are drift dives- it's just a matter of degree. The DM's run the dive dragging a SMB. I think the Boatsmen could easily find the group without it, but it provides a great target for the group to visually tag-off of underwater.
In drift diving, the idea is to get to depth as quickly as possible. If you are at a different depth than the pack (for whatever reason), you will quickly become separated. Equalizing rapidly upon descent is a basic diving skill that must be mastered, or a medical condition that must be recognized.
They can take specific boats and divers to areas where there is less current, but at some point in the dive, you will almost always be guaranteed a slight push, and at one quick point or the other at minimum- a 1/4 mph current. (all but impossible to swim against)
The "big kids" can be shown dives that run in the 1/3 to 1/2 mph range, with spurts of 3mph (African Express)
This is not a bad place to learn about downwelling currents, but try to make most of the education occur before the actual time arrives. When the DM talks about downwellings, you'll be the one that quits screwing around with your gear and pays attention. Ask questions of him. Downwellings (how to recognize/deal with) are a well discussed item on SCUBABoard, so there's no need to go into that here.
They will tell you when and where to watch out for them. They just don't appear randomly, and the DM's know where they are.
