Turks & Caicos July 5 - 13 2008

[bmaber]

Hi All;
please don't flame me for asking the same old question. :classic: I did read the posts, but has any one got any more to say on dive operators in the Turks & Caicos. A lot of stuff on the board dates back to 2006.

As far as I can see the top picks are:

Caicos Adventures Caicos Adventures: Caribbean Scuba Diving in the Turks & Caicos Islands, just south of the Bahamas.
Provo Turtle Divers

I would love to hear comments on these or any other good dive operators. As well as any recent trip reports. We are staying at the Comfort Suites.

Blaine

 

[jldodd]

Check into Oaisis Divers in Grand Turk. I've had a good experience with them.

 

[Papa_Bear]

Turtle Divers at Turtle cove run a great operation! They very nice boats and a great crew! I would highly recommend them! Completive price for the area.....
Learn more about the T & C's here: Two Tanked Productions HD & SD Underwater Productions and video services

 

[scubby-doo]

stayed there June 16-21. stayed at the resort that Turtle divers is at, and we did not choose them. choose dive operator carefully to match your style of diving and expectations. You cannot beat the experience on Caicos adventures , and the trip with the captain "Fi Fi". he is an original captain that is unmatched. he worked club med for years, and now has his own op. Top notch boat, top notch divers, always goes to west caicos to the wall. sharks, rays, fish , lobsta the size of your children. and captain is always entertaining. Bring him some new music or you will hear it over and over again. 55 min boat ride worth every minute. dream while floating over the aqua waters and chatting the whole time with 12 strangers that just became your dive buddies. Go see FiFi at Caicos Adventures for the true adventure worth every penny.

 

[scubby-doo]

removed

 

[scubby-doo]

Turtle Divers at Turtle cove run a great operation! They very nice boats and a great crew! I would highly recommend them! Completive price for the area.....


I would not agree with THAT statement for advanced or begineer level divers that want to see the best the area has to offer, and miss out on the west caicos wall.

 

[chucksaul]

Anyone do any shore diving???

 

[emmagee]

I would advise checking around a bit before jumping in head first for Caicos Adventures. We just returned from Provo and did all of our dives with CA, and while I really don't have anything BAD to say about them, I wish I had done a bit more research.

I always check the board for recommended dive operators and did the same for this trip, as you have found, CA is highly regarded on this board. Let me begin by saying we didn't have a bad dive, but I felt there was a lot to be desired. The first day, no problem, there were probably 20+ divers divided up between their two boats, the Caicos Cat and the Cat-54. The next day there were 24 divers, but all on one boat, the boat was a bit crowded. After that it was under 20 divers each day, but I still prefer less of a cattle car operation.

We dived West Caicos everyday. No big problem there, I would have liked to have hit French Cay, but apparently the wind was not right, no problem there, they can't control the weather. However, we seemed to hit the same spots over and over, in fact, in my five days of diving with them I dove one spot FOUR times. There were folks on the boat that wanted to continually dive this spot, but it sure seems like CA, primarily the captain, was taking the easy way out and going to the spots that were easy to get to etc.

Everyone talks about how great Fifi is, I don't know, he was there when the boat left, but was never the captain.

I will say all of our DM's were great, nice folks and no complaints about any of them; thanks Roger and Paul.

All in all it wasn't necessarily a bad experience, CA just didn't live up the all the board hype, in my opinion. This isn't even to say that I would not dive with CA if I return to Provo, although I doubt I would, I would just do a bit more research. One of the guys that owned a condo where we stayed really like Flamingo Divers, had nothing but good things to say about them. Obviously that is just his opinion, but I think I would give them a pretty hard look if I went back.

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

I think you will find that the biggest difference with CA is the dive platform. The cats are large, level and make for a smooth ride out to the best diving. Everyone else in the area uses regular dives boats although I think Big Blue runs six-packs. You put enough divers on any boat and it will feel crowded. As to dive site selection you need to speak up! Fifi goes out with the boat some days and not on others. Owners privilege.

 

[emmagee]

Tim, you're right about the platform being nice, I only wish they had take two boats out on the days when there were 20+ passengers. I did speak up about dive location, but they were bound and determined to get to The Gulley as often as possible. Fifi not being on the boat wasn't really a complaint, just an observation.