dive questions and any other tips - placencia

[pa diver]

Thank you all for the posts, there will be 4 couples (so 8 people) and it sounds as though Splash may have a boat to accommodate just us allowing sites, times etc... to be scheduled.

 

[Downing]

Mike, you should probably contact Patty in the near future to at least discuss making arrangements if you're looking for your own boat. April and May are really busy times for Splash, especially when it's "Whale Shark Season," which for next April is roughly the 11th through the 23rd.

I think Ralph and Patty may be on a live aboard to the Galapagos right now. I recently emailed them about my upcoming trip in June and haven't heard back yet, which is unusual. I'm sure they'll be back soon.

 

[Hank49]

There is an inner reef wall that extends from Crawl Caye to Laughingbird Caye, a stretch of about 12 miles or more. Victoria Channel and the water is 100 deep or so. It's where the water is dumping out to Gladden. I used to dive and spearfish from Moho going north. Lot of nice spots and it's close. Vis isn't as good. Moho had a bit school of cuberas. I haven't been diving there for over 10 years but due to the ride out, and me paying for all the gas, I dived that inner reef a lot.
Placencia Cayes and Reef

 

[pa diver]

Mike, you should probably contact Patty in the near future to at least discuss making arrangements if you're looking for your own boat. April and May are really busy times for Splash, especially when it's "Whale Shark Season," which for next April is roughly the 11th through the 23rd.

I think Ralph and Patty may be on a live aboard to the Galapagos right now. I recently emailed them about my upcoming trip in June and haven't heard back yet, which is unusual. I'm sure they'll be back soon.

Sorry, got sidetracked with a different trip (leaving soon for Bonaire!) Thanks for the replies, will contact Patti soon.

 

[pa diver]

Finally back into planning mode, sent Patti 's info to other folks in our party and will report back what I find,

 

[Ralph Capeling]

Our prices at Splash are higher than some others in this area. We compete on the basis of quality. We have a lower ratio of divers per dive master or snorkelers per snorkel guide, provide towels, snacks and juice at our dive center, provide complimentary pickup and drop off along the main road in the village, have well maintained boats with all the required safety equipment), we have prescription masks for divers or snorkelers who are either near sighted or far sighted, probably the only dive center in Belize with satellite phone on our main boat for long distance trips like to the Blue Hole so that we can communicate with shore at all times - so our costs are higher. We are one of the two dive operations in this area that offer nitrox.

In addition we have community support programs such as our kids program (where we teach local kids to dive for free - and have done more than 150 certifications to date which again results in us having higher costs. Two of the “kids” are now at instructor level.

We trained the BSOLT cave rescue team from open water diver to dive master level at our sole cost as part of our support program for Belize. The Belize School of Outdoor Leadership Training BSOLT is a Non-Profit Org that is trained to do rescue work in difficult areas of Belize such as in caves and in remote mountain areas.

We are also one of the few PADI shops (some advertise PADI but are not actual PADI affiliates which you should check on line to see which are which) and we are a PADI Green Star which requires us to do additional environmental things. We are the only dive center in this area that trains and develops our staff from basic open water through to instructor level and you can see the effect of that on Trip Advisor. Patty Ramirez (co-owner of Splash) is one of two course directors in Belize (which is the highest PADI level and the level required to instruct instructors).

All this adds costs but we think it brings value and many of our guests prefer to dive, snorkel and tour with Splash because of our responsibility programs. That may be why we are consistently ranked highly on Trip Advisor and why the Belize Tourism Board selected us as tour operator of the year for 2016 and 2014 and awarded us the Hospitality Award for 2016.