What's the currently best dive shop in Barbados as of Nov2022?

[jmark18]

Try to dive with Kara or Adjhani at BB.Kara is a seahorse magnet.
They used to provide a taxi. Check with the shop manger Oschelle. She runs the day to day stuff.

 

[d^2b]

It's been a decade or more since I dove with west side (they used to have an operation in Holetown, rather then their current location), but they were OK then. The carlyle bay dive (not sure if that is the same as the marina) is worth doing if you like "muck dives" with interesting critters. I have seen seahorses there more than once, and iirc a flying gurnard once.

 

[noserider]

Barbados Blue are great been giving with them for years. The marine park is shallow and I have done it loads but I still love every dive there. I am normally sit back off from the main group slightly in the marine park with a buddy to take photo's and the team as they know me are happy with this.

Kiera and Saba are both great fish spotters and love diving with the either of them

 

[TNEngineer]

We've committed to Peter at West Side Scuba (WSSC). Two tanks for sure and a possible third dive in the early afternoon. Very nice guy, really looking forward to diving with him and his crew.

I'll report back here about our experiences with WSSC and this latest trip to Barbados. Thanks!

 

[terramar]

I did a couple of dives with Barbados Blue, and then cancelled the remaining dives. I'd very specifically enquired if they split divers up by skill level, and they promised that they would, and that they'd have more experienced divers separate from the least experienced. But my morning diving with them was all hand-holding some people who were incredibly inexperienced (and who, frankly, were unsafe if left to themselves). Each dive ended at maybe 35 minutes, and I just didn't feel diving with them was worth the time. I'm not looking for hardcore diving, but this was just not worth the time and expense.

I didn't get a chance to try them, but I hear Barbados Scuba, who is located by the Fish Pot in St Lucy, is supposed to take small groups and really tailor the dives to the divers. I'd give them a try.

 

[TNEngineer]

Trip complete! Here's a quick review.

West Side Scuba was awesome. Peter picked us up right on time in the roundabout just outside the cruise terminal. (Interestingly, Customs required me to get a form allowing us to take our wheeled scuba gear bag out of the terminal... that's never happened before, and nobody asked for a form to bring the bag back into the terminal!) Peter's crew got the boat ready, and set up gear for our kids while we took care of our own gear setup.

First dive was on a large wreck whose name I missed and have not been able to find online. It was VERY good. This was the first penetration dive that either of our kids had done and our DM, "RJ", handled it perfectly. Full penetration, explored the length of the ship, plenty of dwell time inside. We spent the entire first tank on that one wreck.

Besides our four, we had two others in our dive group and they didn't follow RJ's instructions very well. He very properly scolded them once we surfaced, and on the next dive they were magically absent from RJ's group! {grin} My wife and our son's GF felt a bit queasy from the somewhat rough surface conditions so they bowed out of the second dive. That left just the three of us. I think RJ watched everyone on the first dive and realized our group was obedient and respectful. RJ then took us aside and said "It's just the three of us, so we're going to go see some STUFF."

And MAN did RJ deliver! We went to Carlisle Marine Park and weren't down more than 90 seconds before RJ had found our first seahorse (ever). Large rays, barracuda, huge lobsters, huge sea slugs, not to mention five (5) separate wrecks (!!!) kept us busy for a full 60 minutes underwater. We penetrated another wreck. We saw everything, did everything. RJ was absolutely amazing, adjusting his speed and manners to how we handled ourselves as we spent varying amounts of time on different things.

We saw not one, but TWO more seahorses (total of three!) along the way. When we surfaced, one of the other divemasters said "I've been diving here for years and never seen a single seahorse, then you come here and see THREE in one day?!?"

My Olympus TG-6 got a serious workout, burning through its entire battery in one dive (all stills, no video).

This trip to Barbados was quite different from last time. This is the first time we've dived off the southern coast, which is where the famous wrecks are located. Things are sandy and more shallow. Our previous diving has been up the west coast of the island which has well developed coral reefs with lots of depth variations. I'm glad we chose to go south this time, as I was completely unaware of how diverse the different areas are.

Back on topic: I strongly recommend WSSC, Peter, and especially RJ as your divemaster. They'll be my first call next time we're here!

 

[xan]

Trip complete! Here's a quick review.

Thanks for following up and sharing the trip report! Nice to hear there's quite some variety between south and west, and a range of experiences.

A few questions if you don't mind (as I might end up in Barbados this year to dive as well):

1. Sorry if I missed this, but were the people in your group certified for overhead environments? Or is the wreck you've explored one of those with lots of cuts in the hull so they're accessible for OW divers? (Given you're saying it was a first for some people in your group, my guess is the latter…)
2. Re: Customs, do you have a sense the form was there to make sure you weren't importing/selling the gear?
3. Did you see any of the rental gear the store offers, any thoughts on quality? Steel tanks? DIN fittings?

Thanks again for the report!

 

[TNEngineer]

1) No, none of us are certified for wreck or overhead, though we've done a LOT of informal diving like that. The first wreck was very much "open" with lots of overhead access. The second was more enclosed but the DM had supervised us on the earlier dive and knew we would follow instructions so I suspect that's why he was comfortable taking us there. We need to get certified for this because some of my very favorite diving is swimthroughs!

2) Customs didn't really explain much. I didn't have to do any paperwork on previous visits, but we had always carried our gear in backpacks. I've gotten tired of having sore shoulders {grin} so now we use a roller bag. For some reason this triggers a different response even though the total volume is probably less with the single roller bag.

3) Our two kids (21 and 19) rented full kit for these dives and they were satisfied with the quality and maintenance. However, if you recall the girls backed out of the second dive so my son used my wife's personal gear - and he did say "It was very reassuring to feel the quality of your gear and KNOW it was in perfect condition". I wouldn't skip a dive just because I had to rent, but I derive a great deal of comfort from knowing my own gear's condition and details (example: knowing by feel where the BCD's manual air dump controls are at my neck and waist). All fittings were standard US-style yokes. I've never seen a DIN fitting in the Caribbean. In fact, the separate German group that joined us caused some brief panic because THEY brought DIN first stages and no adapters. I believe the LDS found adapters... or maybe they just rented them some octopuses! {grin}

 

[xan]

1) No, none of us are certified for wreck or overhead, though we've done a LOT of informal diving like that. The first wreck was very much "open" with lots of overhead access. The second was more enclosed but the DM had supervised us on the earlier dive and knew we would follow instructions so I suspect that's why he was comfortable taking us there. We need to get certified for this because some of my very favorite diving is swimthroughs!

Gotcha, yeah I had a similar experience in Cozumel so I expected there might be some leeway, and the wrecks are (made) suitable for tourists.

2) Customs didn't really explain much. I didn't have to do any paperwork on previous visits, but we had always carried our gear in backpacks. I've gotten tired of having sore shoulders {grin} so now we use a roller bag. For some reason this triggers a different response even though the total volume is probably less with the single roller bag.

3) Our two kids (21 and 19) rented full kit for these dives and they were satisfied with the quality and maintenance. However, if you recall the girls backed out of the second dive so my son used my wife's personal gear - and he did say "It was very reassuring to feel the quality of your gear and KNOW it was in perfect condition". I wouldn't skip a dive just because I had to rent, but I derive a great deal of comfort from knowing my own gear's condition and details (example: knowing by feel where the BCD's manual air dump controls are at my neck and waist). All fittings were standard US-style yokes. I've never seen a DIN fitting in the Caribbean. In fact, the separate German group that joined us caused some brief panic because THEY brought DIN first stages and no adapters. I believe the LDS found adapters... or maybe they just rented them some octopuses! {grin}

Thanks. Yeah I'm thrilled to have all my own equipment (complete with DIN-to-yoke adapter for my first ) for similar reasons, but IMO rental gear also reflects the quality of the LDS, so it's helpful to hear the options were pretty good. Also, the rest of the group will need gear, and I have to watch out for them too.

 

[TNEngineer]

The weight of carrying your own gear around adds up fast. I thought about those titanium air systems but the cost is astronomic and based on their own stats, the weight savings isn't all that significant.

Fins don't add much to weight, but take up space.

I need prescription lenses so I carry two masks (primary and spare), the glass adds up in the weight department.

Add in dive computers, cameras and cases, O2 analyzer, dive light, etc. and we're carrying around 50 pounds of equipment (dry) when we leave. We specifically bought Cressi TravelLight BCD's which cuts weight and volume but ultimately we end up filling a roller bag. Still, two fully equipped divers in a single roller bag isn't terrible.

Bad rental equipment is a real thing. Our two grown kids got certified a couple of summers ago and after a wonderful week on Bonaire we hopped over to Aruba for two days of wreck diving. The first day was ships, and their rental gear had all sorts of issues. My son's pressure gauge didn't work at all, his girlfriend's second stage got stuck on so badly the only way to stop it was to close her main valve, etc. Took all of their newfound confidence away, they spent the dive huddled close together for access to each other's gear for safety, and they completely bailed on the second day of diving on airplanes. As I noted above, my son said his comfort factor rose a LOT when using Mom's equipment because he knew everything worked without question. They don't dive enough to justify their own stuff, but that leaves them at the mercy of the LDS when we travel.