Ocho Rios - Scuba Review

[ambruner]

Hello,

 

My husband and I will be in Ocho Rios in Feb. aboard the Mariner of the Seas. He has not dived in several years and is interested in a doing a scuba review. Does anyone know of somewhere he can do this close to the port?

 

Thanks,

 

Annette

[Capt_BJ]

There is no good diving in or around Ocho. You can get wet, but you won't see much. The area was ver fished for too long. The few operators I have experince with had poor equipment and crap boats.

 

The water is clear and the temp is good but that's the best you can say about it.

 

My job took me there many times, and I dove when I had days to kill, but if you research you will find no stories of great dives, no offers of dive vacations....no dedicated dive resorts....

[KJHorton]

I agree that the diving in Jamaica isn't the best, but I don't totally agree with the previous poster, especially since your husband hasn't been diving in several years.

 

We took the ship excursion (Freedom of the Seas) this summer. We decided to do this as a "warm up" dive since we knew it would be shallow (around 40 ft) and it was our son's first ocean dive. Since everyone tends to wait to dive in Cozumel or Caymen, we had only four people from the ship on the dive!

 

We dove a wreck, which was decent, and then we went through some pretty cool caverns--just winding through the paths in the coral. Although you won't see the colors or the fish as in some other ports, we really enjoyed this dive. It was the perfect place for my son to test the waters and gain some confidence before some deeper/more crowded diving at other ports.

 

I don't know where you are from, but we can only dive in quarries near where I live and this beat a quarry by far!

 

As I am sure you have read, I'd stay away from the ship's excursion and mobs of people. If Jamaica is the only port when he might have an opportunity to dive, I wouldn't necessarily turn it down.

[Middleager]

I'd agree Ocho Rios does not have good diving. But for a refresher dive, the main thing is to get in water and review the basic diving skills. Ocho Rios still has warm clear waters good for that purpose.

 

In Ontario, it is freezing out there now. Even in the summer, Lake Ontario is cold a few feet down and people need to wear thick thick wetsuit or drysuit, with lots of weight and see mud or maybe sponges in not very clear water. So Ocho Rios will be great for your husband.