certified dives

[joln83]

DH and I are now certified open water and wish to dive on our cruise. What can we expect on the two tank dives? Do dives operators require you to do the dive skills? We want to dive, not go through the skills again. Also, do you have to follow the DM through the dive site? I like to go at my own pace and not have to keep up with a group of divers. We are sailing to Grand Cayman, Roatan, Belize and Cozumel.

[Califcat]

NO you do not have to show any special skills, unless you haven't dove in quite a while. I just dove those same four ports. Only Roatan had some divers do a buoyancy test off the back of the boat.

 

You will be required to follow the dive guide, as he knows the area and will keep everyone in a group. He will always be in eyesite, not that you have to be 5 feet next to him, you can explore nooks and crannies on your own, but he will let you know if you have strayed to far from the goup by banging his tank. As a newly certified diver I would follow him closely, they always have an eye for the neat stuff you would surely miss.

 

You will love those stops....!

[Capt_BJ]

a couple of hints

 

if you want to go off on your own then you probably want to look into a shore dive rather than a boat. A boat in the ports you're going to is usually going to be a led dive for the first dive at least - which is tyically a deeper dive.

 

Of the ports you mention Cayman is your best bet for shore dives and you might want to google eden rock or sunset house.

 

In Coz you can expect all dives to be led and this is necessary as most dives are drift dives. You need to stay together as a group so the boat can follow you.

[Pilot70D]

DH and I are now certified open water and wish to dive on our cruise. What can we expect on the two tank dives? Do dives operators require you to do the dive skills? We want to dive, not go through the skills again. Also, do you have to follow the DM through the dive site? I like to go at my own pace and not have to keep up with a group of divers. We are sailing to Grand Cayman, Roatan, Belize and Cozumel.

 

Let me take your questions more or less in order.

First, despite what a previous poster wrote, there a few dive operators that require all divers to demonstrate a basic skill set at the beginning of their first dive. The overwhelming majority do not require this however. The skill demonstration is brief and usually consists of demonstrating the diver's ability to control the descent and then to maintain neutral bouyancy. I don't believe you'll encounter of the operators requiring this on your itenerary.

OK, now following the dive leader - most but not all dives you'll encounter will be boat dives. With a boat dive there will be a dive master and a dive leader. Usually the dive leader will want the group to stay in visual contact with him. The really good dive leaders will continuously monitor the group and will be checking air supply remaining. The good dive leaders proceed along the planned dive route at a very leisurely pace (except for some drift dives) allowing everyone ample opportunity to see and explore the marine life. The dive leaders will often point out things they see so that all the divers can see the item of interest. Our experience has shown that most dive leaders see the interesting stuff much more often and much earlier than we do.

OK, dive locations - Roatan, Belize and Cozumel offer better diving under most conditions than is found around Grand Cayman. I'm not saying that the diving is bad around GC. It's just not as good on nine days out of ten as the diving around your other three stops.

We have over a hundred dives apiece and most of them in the Caribbean. From the context of your post I would guess that both of you are newly certified divers without a lot of dive experience except for your certification dives. If this is the case then I would suggest that you'll be better off diving with a small group and a dive leader.

If you are newly certified and go diving with just two of you give some thought to what might happen if you experience a genuine underwater emergency medical or otherwise. At this point you have basic skills but are those skills up to handling a very stressful emergency situation underwater?

 

Let's also talk about underwater navigational skills. Are you a seasoned and ceritified underwater navigator or a neophyte? If the answer is the latter then that alone is a good reason to going with a dive operator.

No matter where you dive do it safely and I hope it will be a really pinnacle experience for the both of you.

:):):)

[The Flying Pirate]

This is a common concern from a lot of newly certified divers. Lets face it all that skill demonstration during your certification dives are important but not necessarily fun. I have noticed that actually discourages students from continuing on with dive training. I have to tell you that the Advanced Open Water is a lot more fun.

 

There are some operators that require a basic skills test, (Bonne Terre Mine being one that comes to mind) but I have never seen it in the Caribbean other than with people that hadn't dove in over two years. Most of the Carribean operators want you to enjoy the experience of diving in their waters so you will be excited to come back and dive with them again. Being a new diver I would strongly suggest that you stick with diving with a group. I have dove all over the Caribbean and it has never been a problem of experienced divers leaving the new open water divers behind or the newly certified divers having a hard time keeping up. The last time I was in Tortola my dive buddy was on her first open water dive after her certification. She did great (better than some of the "experienced" divers that were with us. However, I agree with the poster above that mentioned it is a big ocean, you don't want to have two novice divers together diving alone just in case something does happen. The previous posters statement about really good dive masters and dive leaders will keep an eye on you and keep you safe and allow you to be more relaxed and enjoy the dive.

[joln83]

Thanks to all of you for your time in replying. Safety is of course the first concern. My question about skills was in regards to sharing air, clearing mask, reg recovery, etc. This can take up a good bit of air if you're waiting for all the group to perform the skills.

[Pilot70D]

Thanks to all of you for your time in replying. Safety is of course the first concern. My question about skills was in regards to sharing air, clearing mask, reg recovery, etc. This can take up a good bit of air if you're waiting for all the group to perform the skills.

 

Don't worry, I have never seen any dive operator require divers to do more than demonstrate the very basic skills that I mentioned before. Their goal is to protect their best dive sites and their coral from those divers that plummet to the bottom and only stop with a two point impact with whatever lies below them. The same for demonstrating their mastery (or lack there of) of bouyance control.:eek::):eek:

[Pilot70D]

BTW, the following is link to the thread about six or seven threads below this one where I wrote a fairly lengthy reply covering booking dive excursions privately as opposed to booking through whatever ship your on.

This is an issue that many new divers face and this info may be helpful to you. I believe that you are unconditionally better off booking your dive excursions privately. However, in this thread you can read opinions both ways.

The URL is:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1276190

Hope this helps you. In the meantime have a great day.:):):)

[Sailfish]

I am a dive group leader here at Cruise Critic - went to the same ports as you will with my group last summer. I would encourage you to visit the group forum for the 2010 Scuba Cruise; there's a lot of good information there I think you will find helpful.

 

I'm busy with my next group in January - but don't hesitate to email if you have any questions. If you go to youTube and do a search for "2010 Scuba Cruise", you'll find our 8min dive video.

 

Suzi

[scubadiver888]

There is one place in the Caribbean where you are required to do mask and regulator recovery. Scuba St. Lucia starts the first dive as a shore dive. They have a small harbour were they have you do the skills. Once completed, without surfacing, you swim out to the marine park (literally 20 feet from the shore). You then swim around the park and back to the shore.

 

They do this because the main fishing fleet leaves port right over top of the marine park. Small, FAST boats fly overhead all the time. You will be instructed that if you need to surface, a guide will take you to a protected area where it is safe to surface. Someone in the past (before they required the skills check) panicked and surfaced immediately. They got hit by a boat and were severely injured.

 

But seriously, if you cannot take your mask off, drop your regulator, recover your regulator, put your mask back on, clear your mask in a matter of seconds, you should practice that at home in a pool. There is a reason they teach you to do this. I've had my mask pulled off by a strong current. I've had new divers kick my regulator out of my mouth and/or my mask off my face.

[Capt_BJ]

I have been to dive resorts which require a 'check' dive b4 they will take you on their boat the first time. Typically this was done on your own, at their on site shore dive location and was intended to get you to gear up and get your bouancy set b4 heading out on their first boat dive; useful since many folks are renting the weights at a minimum and many others are using more rental gear. Since these places included unlimited shore diving there was no cost and who could argue that it wasn't a good idea? The only verification that you'd done it was the fact that you checked out a tank and returned a used one.