Qnape
Contributor
With a desire to try some new locations in the Caribbean without spending too much, we decided to look into diving in the Dominican Republic. I swiftly discovered that Bayahibe was the place to try, and thanks to a great recommendation here by a member we decided to dive with John at ScubaFun. We stayed at the Iberostar nearby, and John arranged for a pickup everyday - a short 5 minute drive.
We had a great time diving with John's op - my 21 year old daughter and her boyfriend who got certified for this trip both were thrilled and said that the choice of shop made the trip. Her bf made his first ocean dives, proved to be both calm and competent and enjoyed all his dives, including his first night dive.
Most of the dives were shallower and simpler (little current and no swim-throughs) than what I'm used to in Cozumel, for example, but that was ideal for the new diver - and the reefs we visited were in pretty good to excellent shape save for the lack of bigger fish like grouper. Some spots were really pristine; Nick, John's nephew (our DM for most of the trip) explained that they were sections of the reef that only Scuba Fun dives and have had no pressure from divers at all. Penon 1 and 3 were great, and even Viva Shallows, though a bit beaten up and with more particulates adrift, was very much alive with a large number of spotted morays in the daytime, and two nice octopus (and more of course) on the night dive. Lots of basket stars, which I always like to see at night. Plentiful trumpetfish on many dives, including some quite large ones with pronounced blue coloration on their heads. Fields of garden eels near the dive sites at Catalina along with some yellow headed jawfish. The second site we dove at Catalina was particularly pristine with lots of delicate tunicates, and even a very large lettuce leaf sea slug I spotted near the end - we had to cut the Catalina dives a bit short to accommodate all the snorkelers, unfortunately, or these would have been 70 minute dives as well. My wife was with the snorkelers, said there was much to see and enjoyed spending the day with the rest of us. Visibility was very good to excellent on most of the dives all week except for Viva Shallows.
I was very pleased to find plentiful healthy pillar corals on several of the sites we dove - these are increasingly uncommon even in places like Little Cayman, Belize, and Cozumel. We saw few elkhorn corals, and no grouper or sharks, but you can't have everything, I guess. We did see one hawksbill turtle and a large green moray. Nick found us two gorgeous Seahorses on one of our dives, along with baby trunkfish (dice size). Altogether the reefs were better than I would have imagined for Hispanola.
John came out with me to dive the St George wreck. It is deep with the keel at about 145'. He and I penetrated throughout and down to the engine room at 130' - a very cool and enjoyable dive! Just four of us went for the day - John and I, and DM Igor with another diver. John and his DM's are great fun and very safety conscious; we did a deep stop for the St. George, took plenty of time ascending and still surfaced with 1000 psi.
Thank goodness I stock my drybox pretty well; I blew the small o-ring on my reg hose just as we turned on the valve to splash for the second dive that day - but I had one in my kit along with the wrench to do the job. Most boats have spare tank o-rings but are not likely to have small ones. We had a nice long 70 minute second dive at The Rifles dive site. Interestingly, we found that someone had set up a staghorn coral cutting nursery nearby; neither John not Igor knew who.
I would heartily recommend anyone considering diving in The Dominican Republic to go for it - I agree with others that based upon what we saw this diving destination is underrated. ScubaFun was a great choice to dive with, and there are plenty of good sites to dive.
Please enjoy a few photos from the trip - on the following posts.
Safe Diving!
---------- Post added September 5th, 2015 at 08:15 PM ----------
---------- Post added September 5th, 2015 at 08:19 PM ----------
---------- Post added September 5th, 2015 at 08:28 PM ----------
---------- Post added September 5th, 2015 at 08:30 PM ----------
We had a great time diving with John's op - my 21 year old daughter and her boyfriend who got certified for this trip both were thrilled and said that the choice of shop made the trip. Her bf made his first ocean dives, proved to be both calm and competent and enjoyed all his dives, including his first night dive.
Most of the dives were shallower and simpler (little current and no swim-throughs) than what I'm used to in Cozumel, for example, but that was ideal for the new diver - and the reefs we visited were in pretty good to excellent shape save for the lack of bigger fish like grouper. Some spots were really pristine; Nick, John's nephew (our DM for most of the trip) explained that they were sections of the reef that only Scuba Fun dives and have had no pressure from divers at all. Penon 1 and 3 were great, and even Viva Shallows, though a bit beaten up and with more particulates adrift, was very much alive with a large number of spotted morays in the daytime, and two nice octopus (and more of course) on the night dive. Lots of basket stars, which I always like to see at night. Plentiful trumpetfish on many dives, including some quite large ones with pronounced blue coloration on their heads. Fields of garden eels near the dive sites at Catalina along with some yellow headed jawfish. The second site we dove at Catalina was particularly pristine with lots of delicate tunicates, and even a very large lettuce leaf sea slug I spotted near the end - we had to cut the Catalina dives a bit short to accommodate all the snorkelers, unfortunately, or these would have been 70 minute dives as well. My wife was with the snorkelers, said there was much to see and enjoyed spending the day with the rest of us. Visibility was very good to excellent on most of the dives all week except for Viva Shallows.
I was very pleased to find plentiful healthy pillar corals on several of the sites we dove - these are increasingly uncommon even in places like Little Cayman, Belize, and Cozumel. We saw few elkhorn corals, and no grouper or sharks, but you can't have everything, I guess. We did see one hawksbill turtle and a large green moray. Nick found us two gorgeous Seahorses on one of our dives, along with baby trunkfish (dice size). Altogether the reefs were better than I would have imagined for Hispanola.
John came out with me to dive the St George wreck. It is deep with the keel at about 145'. He and I penetrated throughout and down to the engine room at 130' - a very cool and enjoyable dive! Just four of us went for the day - John and I, and DM Igor with another diver. John and his DM's are great fun and very safety conscious; we did a deep stop for the St. George, took plenty of time ascending and still surfaced with 1000 psi.
Thank goodness I stock my drybox pretty well; I blew the small o-ring on my reg hose just as we turned on the valve to splash for the second dive that day - but I had one in my kit along with the wrench to do the job. Most boats have spare tank o-rings but are not likely to have small ones. We had a nice long 70 minute second dive at The Rifles dive site. Interestingly, we found that someone had set up a staghorn coral cutting nursery nearby; neither John not Igor knew who.
I would heartily recommend anyone considering diving in The Dominican Republic to go for it - I agree with others that based upon what we saw this diving destination is underrated. ScubaFun was a great choice to dive with, and there are plenty of good sites to dive.
Please enjoy a few photos from the trip - on the following posts.
Safe Diving!
---------- Post added September 5th, 2015 at 08:15 PM ----------
---------- Post added September 5th, 2015 at 08:19 PM ----------
---------- Post added September 5th, 2015 at 08:28 PM ----------
---------- Post added September 5th, 2015 at 08:30 PM ----------