Dive passes in French Polynesia (Top Dive and Te Moana)

[shark girl]

My husband and I will be sailing through French Polynesia this year, and I'm trying to figure out our diving budget. We have limited personal gear so will need to use dive companies.

I'm looking at the dive pass options- Top Pass and Te Moana. Te Moana seems quite a bit more economical and covers a couple more islands so seems like a no-brainer- have any of you used either of these and is there a reason to choose one over the other?

Thanks!

Andrea

 

[Boiler_81]

I used a pass when I was in FP several years ago. The particular site I used is no longer in business. However, the Te Moana site lists two of the centers I used; Dive Spirit on Fakarava and 6 Passengers on Rangiroa. I was very satisfied with both centers.

One note, the French don't put much faith in an Open Water certification. I would highly recommend Advanced PLUS Rescue. This will make you an equivalent diver in their book to a French CMAS 2 star diver. Anything less and they will restrict your diving to the most basic dives.

 

[shark girl]

Thank you for the info! I didn't know about the French opinion of OW- I'm currently AO, but don't think I'll be able to pull Rescue together before I leave in a few weeks. Worth knowing! I'll check with shops before I book but do briefings tend to be in French or is English available? My basic conversational French is ok but I'll need to learn the dive terminology!

 

[Boiler_81]

The three places I dove all did briefings in French and English. The owner of Dive Spirit was the DM for the dives I did with them. He took a magic slate on the dives and wrote notes underwater in English and French.

See if you can get a crash course for the rescue card before leaving. Having it will insure you the most possible options for your dives.

Here is an CMAS equivalency chart: Equivalent Diving Qualifications: BSAC, PADI, CMAS, NAUI, etc - SCUBA Travel Without the Rescue you will be a 1 star (I'm assuing you are PADI). One star has a CMAS depth restriction of 20 meters. Rescue would get you to 2 star and a depth of 40 meters. I'm not sure why having rescue has anything to do with going deeper. Personally I don't think it makes sense but their country their rules.

Here is a trip report I did after returning from the trip. It has more information on the two dive centers. Trip report for Rangiroa and Fakarava in French Polynesia

I would suggest Wingy Wingy as a resource for FP. She has been many times and has a lot of good information. I'm sure she will see this thread at some point and post. If not send her a PM.

 

[shark girl]

Thank you for all the information- your write up is very useful!

The only reason I've found for the difference between the two certs is that CMAS level 2 gets you to 49 metres, so PADI's 40 isn't deep enough (thought I agree- not sure how rescue gets you deeper!). I'll see what I can do about the rescue cert- I think time is against me and the local course is very expensive so I'll look into options in FP too. Otherwise it still sounds like you had some great dives (though I'd love the chance to see those hammerheads!). I appreciate the time you've taken to help me!

 

[Boiler_81]

You are very welcome. Helping each other is a big part of what this board is for. I had no clue where to go or who to dive with when I went. Through the help of others here, I found some great locations and operators.

Have fun and let us know about your experience when you return.

 

[Wingy]

The hammerheads sit at 48.9m - according to my computer - are you sailing independently on your own vessel or on a cruise ship? Do you have an idea of where you want to dive other than the passes or only the passes at Rangi and Fakarava? Do you have much experience in big current drift diving?

The CMAS** qual actually gets you a bit more than just a few extra metres...different ideology and methodologies in some things. Happy to help more if you can give me specifics (Im a sailor too so also can answer anchorages and give some hints about how to judge when to attempt entering a pass if you are going to sail through them)

 

[shark girl]

Great to meet another sailor! Thank you for your help!

We're on our own sail boat. We're coming from New Zealand, so first stop will be Raivavae, then to Fakarava. From there we'll work our way up to Toau, Rangiroa and Tikehau. Maybe Apataki (I haven't read up anchorages there yet). Then we'll go to Tahiti, and work our way west before we head up to Kiribati- probably Moorea and Bora Bora for snorkelling, Raiatia, Huahine and Tahaa are on my radar too (we probably won't manage all of them, but we get 6 months to see what we can do!).

I'm open to any diving recommendations! My husband and I both love the big pelagic things, though I enjoy macro too (and still enjoy any reefs where you struggle seeing the coral for the fish!). I think the 48.9 metre hammerheads would sadly be beyond me, but I've done a bit of current diving in Komodo and Kadavu- I'm comfy in a pass but also don't need every dive to be an adrenaline rush, so would enjoy mixing in the odd sedate dive to potter along and look for nudibranchs! Budget-wise I'm probably looking at up to 20 dives- which I know isn't anywhere near enough, but we're heading on to Canada via Kiribati and Hawaii, so it will be a while until I'll be recharging the dive coffers again!

Round Fakarava we're definitely looking at anchoring to the south to start with (Tetamanu?) and doing some dives on the South Pass, and probably snorkelling from our tender. Then we'll head north near the town. That's about as fine tuned as we have it- we have a cruising guide from SV Soggy Paws but if you've got any need-to-know or can't-miss info then I'd really appreciate it!

I believe pass navigation is at slack tide (midday?)- and try not to sail into the sun! In Fiji and Indonesia we've popped my hubby on the spreaders to do bommie watch!

 

[ColoDale]

I used Six Passengers in Rangiroa but not on a pass. Dive briefings were in English but they did have difficulty if I asked too much in depth in English. Due to tides were not able to dive the passes but instead dove outside the reef. The current can be a bit of a washing machine near the pass entrances. They did have a bit of an issue with psi pressure versus bar as I had my own gear. If you use rental, you should get bar gauges. We devised hand signals for half tank and I think 700 psi. I dove with newer 100 cu ft AL tanks by request.
Very friendly staff and SI at their shop.

We did have a fellow diver who used a Top Dive pass and seemed pleased.

I dove using PADI AOW. I did not have time to add rescue. We did not dive deep in FP though I've been significantly deeper in Mexico. I think we dived 70-80 ft max in FP but we had hard bottom near the edge of the reef walls and shallower in the lagoons. On Rangiroa, we did see mantas and when coming back through the pass, we had dolphins riding the bow wave. No hammerheads on the outer reefs.

Our trip was more exploratory to see where we might do a land based trip in the future. I did a trip report on SB - Trip report – French Polynesia – Society Islands and Tuamotus Dec 2016

For the islands I dived, we saw significantly more black tip reef and lemon sharks at Moorea sites than elsewhere. All lagoons had lower visibility than outside the reefs.

 

[shark girl]

Thank you for all the information- and good to know you had a decent experience diving with AOW! Also exciting to know about the extra shark opportunities round Moorea!