Dive Op recommendation in Roatan

[CajunDiva]

So happy to hear it Mark Washington is SUCH a good DM. He was our DM during our first trip to Fantasy Island way back when, and we've been buddies since. LOTS of fun to dive with. Please tell him Jackie & Hank said hi...

Are you seeing lots of spotted eagle rays as well?

 

[PlayMore]

Cocolobo and Coconut Tree--cannot recommend these two enough! They are both superb.


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[chillyinCanada]

Cnspotts,I'm confused. You are staying in West Bay? West Bay has an Argentinean Grill?

 

[beninfl]

If only BIBR hadn't gone under...............IF you were staying on the north side-----that is..........EDIT....btw, where you staying??

Im staying at parrot tree plantation. Across the island from black pearl.

 

[victorzamora]

Im staying at parrot tree plantation. Across the island from black pearl.

A friend owns a condo in Parrot Tree, we stayed there a few years ago. The only problem with Parrot Tree is its distance from practically all of the other diving. When we stayed there, we rented a car and made the 40-minute drive (like 25 if there was no traffic and I could open up all 1.8L and 85bhp) daily to go diving out of West End.

I started reading up on Andora, and I can't tell for sure what you're looking for out of the dive shop. What a lot of people are calling "valet" I'm calling "babying" and I can't tell where the distinction lies. Maybe I'm fussy, but I only trust me to set up my gear. Not even my wife does it just right. West End Divers sets up (or used to) any rental gear for you. I'd get on the boat and BCD/Tank/Regs would be assembled and out there. I haven't been back since I bought all of my own gear.

 

[cnspotts]

Cnspotts,I'm confused. You are staying in West Bay? West Bay has an Argentinean Grill?

Yes, it's their 2nd location. Opened in Dec

 

[beninfl]

Aldora doesn't just mean valet service. Aldora means dive your brains out on big steel 120s at advanced sites or sites that only they access with divers grouped by experience and every dive is about max bottom times, leaving early to get to the dive sites before anyone else. And then on top of all that is the valet equipment thing, but that is the least of the services they offer that influences my diving with them.

So who does all this on Roatan?

Mike's absolutely right. I'm not looking for 'valet' service (I can carry my own gear), but I am looking for someone who's going to get me out to the sites I want to dive. Steel tanks are nice, but not a must have.

 

[Mike]

I started reading up on Andora, and I can't tell for sure what you're looking for out of the dive shop. What a lot of people are calling "valet" I'm calling "babying" and I can't tell where the distinction lies. Maybe I'm fussy, but I only trust me to set up my gear. Not even my wife does it just right. West End Divers sets up (or used to) any rental gear for you. I'd get on the boat and BCD/Tank/Regs would be assembled and out there. I haven't been back since I bought all of my own gear.

Maybe you missed post #9?

Valet is nothing new and nothing extraordinary. It just means leave your sh*t on the boat at the end of the dive and the next morning it's back on the boat ready to dive just the way you like it. If you don't trust a dive shops ability to set up your gear which amounts to what? Attaching your BCD to a tank? Hooking up a regulator, connecting an inflator hose? If you don't like them doing it for you a valet shop will typically have no problem just hanging your BCD over the fresh tank in the morning on the boat and letting you fuss with it. Setting up your gear is minor and takes the average person what, about 2 minutes or maybe 60 seconds to verify or adjust if somebody else already set it up? The part most people enjoy about valet diving services is not carrying anything back and forth, leave it all on the boat, come back the next day and it's all waiting for you, cleaned and rinsed from the night before. Your BCD will be hooked up to the tank, your mask and fins will be sitting neatly with your tank. Any good valet style shop will listen to any special request you have about your gear and typically they will set it up special if you tell them, or like I said just leave it for you to do it you like.

BUT.... as was said, valet service is a minor component of Aldora and I'm sure is a minor factor in what the OP is looking for in Roatan.

The long and the short is I don't know of any dive operation in Roatan that will offer the type of diving Aldora offers in Cozumel. Mayan Divers while a nice safe outfit, certainly is nothing like Aldora, they typically dive sites 5 minutes away for quickness and convenience not for a grand diving experience, very tame sites, usually heavily influenced by trying to combine sites that they can piggy back snorkelers on board with you, which limits the dive sites you are going to experience. We just about had to bribe them and beg them to get to dive Texas the last time we used them, after diving Mandy's eel garden three times, that was enough for us.

 

[roatandivingdiva]

If you're staying at Parrot Tree, Barefoot Divers isn't too far, about a 15 min drive I'd guess (compared to 40 to get to West End, or 50 or more to get to West Bay), and valet diving is offered there (they take your gear to the boat, set it up, break it down, rinse it and put it away for you). Dive groups are small, 8 diver max. Most of the dive sites visited are close by (5-15 min boat ride) so that the boat has time to get back for the next scheduled dive, but they also do excursion trips far east or far west, which include 2 dives, so you can get to some sites that you wouldn't normally be able to get to.

 

[cnspotts]

So happy to hear it Mark Washington is SUCH a good DM. He was our DM during our first trip to Fantasy Island way back when, and we've been buddies since. LOTS of fun to dive with. Please tell him Jackie & Hank said hi...

Are you seeing lots of spotted eagle rays as well?

we've only seen a single spotted eagle ray on this trip. Lots of turtles & a sting ray, sea horses, grouper being fed freshly speared lion fish courtesy of Mark! Plenty of big eels, small flounders, banded coral shrimp, essentially it's been amazing as ever!
I will pass along your "hello" to Mark. We did a 68 min drift, @ 54ft on our 2nd dive. I'm sad I've done my last dive today & for this trip.