Discover Scuba on St. Thomas- Who's the best operator!?

[expericd]

Hi all-

 

I'll be in St. Thomas this coming january for a RCI Southern Caribbean cruise and I'm trying to find the "best" operator to do a Discover Scuba Dive with.

 

My girlfriend is very interested in checking out scuba diving and so far I've found Coki Beach Dive Club, Blue Island Divers, and Chris Sawyer Diving Center.

 

I see that Coki offers a shore dive to see a shallow reef but I'm not sure what the others offer.

 

Could someone offer any insight into how long a dive with them would be (ie: 2-3 hours to and from the cruise ship), where they actually take you to dive, is it a wreck or a reef, boat dive or shore dive, and how deep you go?

 

I was certified years ago, however it's been a while since my last dive so I could use a little refresher myself ;-) That being said, I'm still looking for the operator that offers the most exciting discover scuba dive...

 

Thanks in advance!

[bruce-r]

Coki takes you to the near shore reef, just swim in. It isn't hours from the port either, just the other side of the island. I'd guess it is about 20 minutes drive. For a Discover scuba dive, a person who was totally new to diving might prefer starting out from a beach where they could just stand up in the sand when they first try breathing thru a regulator. It isn't second nature for everyone to breath exclusively thru their mouth. Also, for a discover scuba dive, I think the max depth is (or should be) around 25 ft. and I think a calm relaxed eperience with some nice fish to see would be preferrable to one that was too "exciting" in the wrong way.

[EMGSMOM]

We did this last year and it was great, the Coki Dive folks were great. A short lecture, 5 minutes in chest deep water, and then off for the guided dive around the reef, probably 40 minutes. Inspired us to get certified.

[Middleager]

We went to Coki Beach Dive Club. I went for the 2-tank certified boat dive with the owner Peter. It turned out I was the only diver. Glad he didn't cancel the dive when there's only 1 diver.

 

My BIL did a discovery scuba dive with them. He found them quite good and he's interested in doing more, maybe getting certified. My wife and friend who were with us in Puerto Rico before the cruise, also tried a discovery scuba in La Parquera. They didn't do well (was from boat, into water where they could not stand on sand, and put on the BC/tank while in water) and didn't want to try again. They said looking at the way my BIL did it at Coki Beach, that's the way the first dive should have been done. They said there was surprisingly lots to see at the reef at Coki Beach.

[jimw]

a couple of weeks ago, all liked the dive. It's on the amazing side really. There's so much human pressure on the environment there (it's a small beach)and yet here are vibrant coral, critters, and fish. Some of the biggest (WELL FED) Yellowtail we've seen. It really looked untrod upon and the credit goes to Coki Beach Dive Club and other dive instructors there.

 

We all said if we go back to St Thomas we would just spend the day diving for $10. bucks a tank.