Turks and Caicos Dive Operator

[Christina0701]

Glad I found this thread! Going to Turks the end of October and had the same question!

 

[koozemani]

+1 on Flamingo divers.

We also used Dive Provo. Nothing bad to say about them, but I would book with Flamingo when I get back out there.

 

[Ms. Ann Thrope]

Just got back from there, and after a day of diving with the resort, I switched to Caicos Adventures. It was a bigger--and nicer--boat than I'm used to. There weren't many of us aboard--7 or us one day, maybe 11 the other. As far as being "advanced divers," CA had its share on the couple of days I was with them, including a couple of seriously well-trained tech/cave guys. The boat is organized, and our DMs seemed pretty good. Sandwiches and chips between dives. Wouldn't have minded a little more bottom time, however, especially on the nitrox tanks--we dove as a group, more or less turning around as the first people hit 1500, though we were welcome to hang out below the boat longer if we had the air and no-deco time. Surface intervals were adequately long. I think we mostly managed to get in dives that were in the neighborhood of an hour.

 

[Christina0701]

Ms. Ann Thrope, what resort did you dive with day one? Just curious....My local dive shop recommended Caicos Adventures as well. We are staying at The Sands at Grace Bay the end of October. I'm thinking of booking our dives with multiple dive operators.

 

[Ms. Ann Thrope]

Hi Christina, I got a deal at Club Med (just a little down the road from the Sands), so I tried diving with them on the first day, as long as I was there. They were cheaper than the offsite operators, and they had a very nice boat that wasn't at all crowded when we were there last week, but they were staying pretty close to Grace Bay. Also, their surface intervals were so short, I was surprised to notice I was going into deco on the second dive. And they didn't have Nitrox available. It wasn't bad for a shakeout dive, and we saw sharks on the second tank, but the coral wasn't all that nice, and the sites they took us to looked kind of beat up. The vis wasn't all that great either, but that might have been the fault of a storm a few days earlier. On the plus side, both dives ended up being about an hour, even though they said the second dive would only be 40 or 45 minutes.

Caicos Adventures does West Caicos sites, which I thought were much better. Healthy, good-looking walls with lots of life on them (including multiple shark passes on every dive), and really good visibility. One of the CA divemasters was a former resort-op guy, and he said that the Grace Bay sites have been over-dove, and the coral is in bad shape largely because of careless divers.

We got to know a group that was diving with Dive Provo, and they were happy with them, too. Plus they saw a manta ray.

 

[Christina0701]

I think we will book with one of the recommended dive operators above. I think The Sands works in conjunction with a company called Ocean Vibes...anyone have any experiences with this company?

Thanks for the info Ms. Ann!! What a dream to see a manta ray...

 

[mikeycanuk]

We are booked with Dive Provo. Ran into the usual state of affairs with diving with an 11yr old jr diver. Flamingo said they were full newyrs week, probably weren't but they we nice about it- I sometimes don't get a reply at all. Ocean vibes said we had to hire a guide ($100+day), Big Blue said no problem but after being on hold for 30 seconds I was informed that they only do private diving that week. $1500/day and the boat and DM were all ours!!!! We are doing the xmass week in Salt Cay.

 

[baitballer]

That is one of the busiest weeks of the year in the TCI I would have been amazed if Flamingo was not fully booked and I am not surprised Blue is only doing charters.

 

[fish10]

I will be going to Provo late March in 2013. Flamingo divers are full already. Anyone tried both Caicos Adventure and Ocean Vibes? I am not sure who to go with. thanks.

 

[Christina0701]

Just got back from Turk & Caicos on Monday. fish10, We used Ocean Vibes and they were awesome! Their boats are clean, spacious and comfortable. Staff is helpful and very friendly!!! We only dive 4 dives because of Hurricane Sandy and visibility wasn't 100% but any diving is better then no diving! I would absolutely recommend Ocean Vibes they were wonderful!