St Thomas Dive w/ RC excursion

[bobkins40]

we are only diving in St Thomas on our upcoming (11 days!) Oasis cruise

we decided to take advantage of the included equipment since we aren't diving entire trip

 

ANY insight on this excursion

 

curious as too if the fins are full foot fins

and if they will have equipment small enough for my 12 year old son who has just been certified and large enough for my 6'4" husband

[bobkins40]

thanks- I think we will

[mac66]

You might be able to call and check to make sure they have sizes for your son and husband. I would think they would have sizes for a 12 year old.   I wear size 13 shoes and I've yet to run across a place that doesn't have fins to fit me.

[scubagal44]

DH and I are diving only two days on a ten night cruise, and we're each taking our own mask, fins, and wetsuit.   The majority of rental fins are full foot, which I hate, and your own mask will be the most comfortable.  Wetsuit...well, I don't want to wear something someone else has peed in, rentals always fit terribly (for females at least), and I wear a 5mm full suit in the Caribbean and most rentals are 3mm shorties.

 

As for the rest, it's always a gamble.  You could call in advance but I'm not sure that necessarily helps.  I was on a land-based dive trip recently with a group of girlfriends and two of them rented the full set of gear; both of them had ill-fitting BCDs because while the shop in theory carried small enough sizes to fit them, the small sizes had already all been given out.  Both of them are newer divers as well, and they struggled on most dives.  Just FYI.

 

Maybe if you call in advance you can "reserve" a small BCD for your son?  I wouldn't want a newly certified 12-year old to have a set of ill-fitting equipment for his own safety.  I presume you and your husband are more experienced divers and will make whatever work, but I wouldn't risk that for a newly certified youngster.

[bobkins40]

GOOD ADVICE ! I can deal with bcd not fitting- going to try to take my sons. We planned on our own mask/snorkles. Fins are so cumbersome- I wonder if they could be treated as carry on ? and just put in overhead bin

[scubagal44]

You could certainly try it!  As long as you're not going over your carry-on allowance, I don't see why it should be a problem.

 

Personally, though, I find that my fins are actually the easiest thing to pack!  They lay flat in the very bottom of my suitcase, and then I use the foot pockets to stash my mask and other random small accessories.

 

I hope you have a blast!  St Thomas was the very first tropical diving that DH and I experienced after certifying and diving the cold waters of Northern California where we live.  It's a very happy memory for us for that reason!  😄