Looking for a great Roatan dive shop – West End/West Bay - 5 ppl/1 week

[mrgenki]

Hi Scubaboard-ers

I’m new here except for some occasional lurking. My mother-in-law is in dive training and as a birthday present the family is taking her for a weeklong dive trip to Roatan. We have already picked the destination and the accommodation, so those are no longer up for discussion, but what we need is an outstanding dive shop.

I’ll give as much info here as I can and would be extremely grateful for any suggestions.

-We have a group of 5 divers of varying experience/ability levels, from AOW/longtime diver (me) to the mother-in-law who will need to complete her referral dives on the first couple days. The others skew more toward beginner end of the spectrum.

We’re not looking to shore dive or dive independently. Are there outfits where we could have all or most of a boat to ourselves, go out with, say 1-2 DMs (definitely 2 while mother-in-law is completing cert)?

I’d say we’re looking to do 2 tank a.m. daily with a smattering of possible afternoon, night, or special dives. I think probably shallower and graduating to more challenging dives (over the course of the week I mean) makes sense. We're not looking to dive constantly -- we have 2 non-divers (any suggestions appreciated -- but definitely quite a bit.

-The vacation rental is located almost exactly halfway between West Bay and West End, supposedly walkable to both. It has a shared-use dock where, in an ideal world, we could be picked up. Unclear whether we’re going to have a car, though I don’t get the impression it’s necessary.

-Everyone needs full equipment. It seems that some outfits include equipment, some charge a flat fee, and some charge by the piece. Over the course of the week this makes a significant difference in expense.

-I'm a big guy (250 lbs) and although I have never had any problems, if anyone has arger (100 cuft) tanks, that's a bonus for me.

-Trip is March 3-10. Do I need to book now/soon with a dive shop?

 

[Mike]

Mother in law is in dive training -??? does this mean she is getting certified now or is going to get certified there? Is she taking pool and classroom at home and will do the open water in Roatan?

If you're accessible to West Bay, I can recommend Mayan Divers at the Mayan Princess resort, right in West Bay. They are all about dive training. Good quality instructing going on, very safety minded. We just did our rescue diver certs there in Nov and have also dove with them before.

5 divers most likely won't fill a boat to get one all to yourself. 5 divers won't get you 2 DMs. However if some of your group are diving and your mother in law is getting certified that would put 2 DMs on the boat.

They do 2 morning dives about 8:00am and an after noon dive at 2:00pm. Night dives are scheduled by demand. It's typical in a week to be able to fill at least one night dive. Forget about any specialty dives, not going to happen.

I'm going to guess they won't pick you up at your dock, you'll probably have to meet at the dive shop every morning and of course afternoon or night for your dives. A rental car will make life a lot easier.

I've never heard of any dive op that includes rental equipment for free. But it's not an excessive expense with them.

No 100s that I know of, never seen any or any offered.

For what it's worth it way easier to dive and stay at the same place. WAY EASIER. I can't stress how much easier it will be.

With that amount of divers, with the amount of dives you are wanting to do, just think how much easier it would be to roll out of bed, go down to a break fast buffet every morning. Walk back 30 ft to your rooms, grab your gear and walk 100 ft to the dive shop then go diving. Come back to the resort about 11:00 ish, trot back onto the beach from the dive boat, wash your gear, go get lunch, lounge around on the beach, take a nap, hang out by the pool, then at 2:00pm stumble back to the dive shop, grab your gear and walk back down to the dive boat and go out. Repeating this daily. Or the alternative of 4 trips back and forth daily in a cab or car or a long walk hauling gear with you all the time.

 

[diversteve]

I suggest contacting Coconut Tree Divers in the West End. Coconut Tree Divers - A PADI Career Development Center in Roatan, Honduras

While they're in the center of Half Moon bay - a little farther from your location than some other shops, they have 100's if you ask in advance. (I used two all week) $35/dive including gear or $30 if you do 10 dives. PJ & Gay own it, they're good people. Gay knows everybody so ask her about other things for the non-divers inc. restaurants. There are zip-line tours on Roatan if that's of interest. The beaches are nice in that area but there can be sand flies and other no see-ums. West Bay has the nicer beaches but I spent one pleasant afternoon on Half Moon Bay beach. The non-divers might be interested in the Dolphin program at Anthony's Key, there's an encounter, a snorkel and a dive - we did the dive. http://www.anthonyskey.com/en/dolphins/index.html

CTD will often go deeper down the wall on the first dive but since I was filming w/o lights, most dives I stayed above 60' and someone from their staff stayed nearby. I didn't need or ask for it, they just did it at n/c. Marco - one of the instructors - was on just about every dive also. 2nd morning dives and afternoon dives are shallower - they do cert/training dives in the afternoon. Night dives can be scheduled with 4 or more - IIRC most nights. They also do DM training in the afternoons so a couple of times we had as many as 2-3 other DM's on the boat - not counting the ones assigned our group - their boat is big enough w/o being crowded. Often the DM's shadowed us as part of their training.

CTD is adjacent to a main road into the West End and the taxi stand is across the street. I personally wouldn't drive on Roatan due to the liability issues if you hit something. Cabs are cheap if you negotiate.

There's also a couple of panga sized boat operators in that area - you'd likely have the boat mostly to yourselves. Might be harder to re-board for newer divers - there can be a swell off the West End at times. I liked the looks of Reef Gliders also.

Are you renting one of those houses in that 6 house complex on the beach? We looked at them also but thought they might be too far from everything - we wanted to walk the West End at night - so rented a house in Half Moon Bay. At one time (they likely still do) CTD used to pick up their divers via boat from their other location in West Bay - maybe they can get you on the trip back.

 

[Shawnda]

Another vote for Coconut Tree Divers. Plus they have a dock to access their boats from where as outfits in West bay do not.

 

[cr8tn]

Many good ops to choose from. Reef Gliders in West End have been very accommodating and flexible.
Might be worth contacting

 

[SoSiouxme]

For your party, I would suggest Coconut Tree Divers. They check all your boxes. Contact them and tell them exactly what you want, and they will tell you exactly what they can do.

 

[mrgenki]

Thanks for all the replies

 

[sololady]

PJ, Gay, Tree, Will and their large professional staff will be able to give all of you both the individual and group attention you will want for your family. Just contact them. at coconuttre edivers. com. They'll take very good care of you all.

 

[Doc]

-We have a group of 5 divers of varying experience/ability levels, from AOW/longtime diver (me) to the mother-in-law who will need to complete her referral dives on the first couple days. The others skew more toward beginner end of the spectrum.


We’re not looking to shore dive or dive independently.

Good, that's night the right area of the island for doing that.

Are there outfits where we could have all or most of a boat to ourselves,

You will have 4 divers in a boat and likely the 1 in an open-water cert process you will be isolated from them. West End/Bay boats are relatively small to start with, so you may have the boat to yourself, or it may get filled. Buy the boat out and you'll have privacy.


go out with, say 1-2 DMs (definitely 2 while mother-in-law is completing cert)?

A DM will be in the water with you on any given dive. What you want the DM to do or expect of them is not subject to your design... unless you hire one for your exclusive service. They will then hover over you and make things easy, as safe as they can, and interesting. Otherwise, a DM that is included in the dive... well, that's anybody's guess. It just works that way when you leave US soil, and quite often, even here the DM has varying responsibilities. Hire a personal DM, it's not all that expensive to do on the Bay Islands. Plus- you'll see more cool stuff.

The mention you made of "while mother-in-law is completing cert"? That has absolutely no relevance to the number of DMs who will be on hand. You Mominlaw will have an Instructor who will have precisely nothing to do with you or your diving.

I’d say we’re looking to do 2 tank a.m. daily with a smattering of possible afternoon, night, or special dives. I think probably shallower and graduating to more challenging dives (over the course of the week I mean) makes sense. We're not looking to dive constantly -- we have 2 non-divers (any suggestions appreciated -- but definitely quite a bit.

"Shallower graduating to more challenging dives" isn't really how they are "graded", at least not on Roatan. Any dive operation will take everybody out on the first day and sort out who you are. This is a universal truth. If there are absolute noobs who are having trouble with buoyancy and basic skills, any dive op would likely split your group into two. This might mean placing 1 to 3 of you already cert divers on different boats. They will take you to progressively more challenging and more un-touched reefs as the week progresses and your skills come back after not having been diving.

Special Dives? On Roatan they generally fall into the category of dive-sites that are a-ways-away. You are in an interesting locale for diving, but the "specialty" dives are about as far afield from you as you could get. The North/West would be the two deep wrecks, to the South is Mary's Place. Quite a hike, and they will charge extra for that. They will likely have no option to take you to Dolphin Den or The Prince Albert Wreck.

In this zone on Roatan, they only regularly offer a night dive on one night of the week, and then only if there are X number of divers. You fulfill the quantity if you get everyone to go, just pray for nice weather the scheduled night. Who knows, with 4 they might do you more than the one-a-week.

-Everyone needs full equipment. It seems that some outfits include equipment, some charge a flat fee, and some charge by the piece. Over the course of the week this makes a significant difference in expense.

No one "includes" equipment- you are getting charged for it, maybe a bit less in a dive package price. Daily or weekly rental? It really depends upon your dive schedule. Right now, it's still pretty vague. Firm it up, do the math. CTD has nice rentals.

-I'm a big guy (250 lbs) and although I have never had any problems, if anyone has arger (100 cuft) tanks, that's a bonus for me.

Take this opportunity to take a peak buoyancy class and master that. The need for a 100 tank will dissolve, your freedom will be granted evermore.

-Trip is March 3-10. Do I need to book now/soon with a dive shop?

Wouldn't hurt. That's a busy time of the year.

 

[billmosel]

My vote goes to Bananarama divers www.[B]bananarama[/B]dive.com West Bay. I have used them a couple of times. They have had 1 DM for 1 person in training and another for the other 4 on the boat. On one dive they had 2 different DM's doing 2 different trainings and gave us a safety sausage on a reel and let us go on our own. They probably don't do that for everybody but after 9 days of diving with them they knew what our diving experience was. I highly recommend them!!