deeno
Registered
I was in PR this past Feb for business and left some time on the bookends of the week to do some exploring.
My original plan was to dive Rincon and try to get on a boat to Desecheo, but for non-locals, my understanding after talking to some locals is that this side of the island gets nailed by swell this time of year so it is basically best to dive elsewhere in Feb. Taino divers in Rincon was very nice to work with, they called me 1-2 weeks before the dive date to let me know diving wasn't going to happen due to the swell and even gave me some recommendations on where to go. Thumbs up to them, I am greatful for the early notice and if I am ever back I would try to dive with them again.
So this brought me to La Parguera, I ended up diving with Paradise. They have a great shop, are very friendly, have a nice large, fast boat and in talking to the staff, they maintain the moorings nearby. All very good signs. The rental gear was in good shape and I had a fun dive day with them (they even gave some local beer when the day was over, woohoo!). We dove their wall, which turns out to not be what normally comes to mind for me when I think of a wall (ie no vertical drop off, current, drift dive etc). But none the less, it was quite nice, it is a healthy reef system with good coral and a reasonable amount of sealife. Vis was super, 80ft? and water temp 79F from top to bottom. Some gopro footage my wife shot on our dives can be seen here.
Summary: For me personally, I am glad I went and checked out a new place to dive, the coral and reef is in great shape and healthy and I would be more than happy if I lived here and could dive here on weekends. I did not find there to be an abundance of sealife compared to some of the other hotspots in the Caribbean though (Roatan, Cayman islands) so I personally would not make a trip here specifically for a diving only trip as I only dive 1-2x a year.
Some notes about the operator, Paradise. Some of this could just be the locale and how divers do it in Puerto Rico, but overall I found a strong "take care of yourself" vibe to most aspects of diving with them.
1. Bring your own rental stuff from the shop to the boat (it's a reasonably short walk, but far enough where one cannot see the water from the shop). BC, wetsuite, regs, fins, everything except the weights and tanks.
2. For photographers, there is no camera bucket on the boat. I asked the staff and they did say they would be willing to bring one out if you called ahead and let them know. That was nice.
3. They don't tell you anything about the aquatic life in the dive briefing, just a general dive profile. It is nice when guides mention at least highlights of what we are looking for and roughly where they can be spotted, ie when we get to the flat sandy area, look for garden eels etc.
4. Their diving style is quite different here than what I am used to. They did provide 1 DM for every 4 divers (so 3 DMs total for 12 divers), but the dive plan is to all dive together and follow 1 DM. I have never done that before and after doing it, this is really not my style of diving (I prefer small groups especially when there are already DMs in the water who could lead their own group). Naturally it becomes a weakest link scenario with regards to air consumption, so I found that we would do a short "loop" and I would find myself back at the mooring line and exploring back and forth there under the boat. Dive times were 49min/60min. It wouldn't surprise me if I spent 1/4 of the dive exploring the reef below the mooring line on the last dive which for me was disappointing, the reef seemed massive and I would have loved to see more of it.
5. Nobody asked me to check my air underwater even 1x. First time for me that this has happened. Nothing bad came from it, but was a surprise.
Overall the dive felt safe and the operators were friendly. I wouldn't avoid diving with them in the future, but if I were ever to come back, I might dive with one of the other operators just to see what it's like. It could be that they would have watched us more carefully if we told them we were new divers, so I wouldn't let this review dissuade new divers from diving with them.
Some notes about the area itself, La Parguera is a tiny beach town centered around tourism (boat charters of various types, some bars etc). It did not really seem like a place to really hang out though for landlubbers, compared to Rincon. There isn't really a beach to walk around or lay out on or much to explore for shops, restaurants, etc. On the otherhand, I found Rincon be a wonderful city with beautiful beaches and some local things to do top side, restaurants etc. Both places are quite out of the way from the airport and housing in Puerto Rico in generally is much more expensive than one would expect. Expecially around San Juan.
My original plan was to dive Rincon and try to get on a boat to Desecheo, but for non-locals, my understanding after talking to some locals is that this side of the island gets nailed by swell this time of year so it is basically best to dive elsewhere in Feb. Taino divers in Rincon was very nice to work with, they called me 1-2 weeks before the dive date to let me know diving wasn't going to happen due to the swell and even gave me some recommendations on where to go. Thumbs up to them, I am greatful for the early notice and if I am ever back I would try to dive with them again.
So this brought me to La Parguera, I ended up diving with Paradise. They have a great shop, are very friendly, have a nice large, fast boat and in talking to the staff, they maintain the moorings nearby. All very good signs. The rental gear was in good shape and I had a fun dive day with them (they even gave some local beer when the day was over, woohoo!). We dove their wall, which turns out to not be what normally comes to mind for me when I think of a wall (ie no vertical drop off, current, drift dive etc). But none the less, it was quite nice, it is a healthy reef system with good coral and a reasonable amount of sealife. Vis was super, 80ft? and water temp 79F from top to bottom. Some gopro footage my wife shot on our dives can be seen here.
Summary: For me personally, I am glad I went and checked out a new place to dive, the coral and reef is in great shape and healthy and I would be more than happy if I lived here and could dive here on weekends. I did not find there to be an abundance of sealife compared to some of the other hotspots in the Caribbean though (Roatan, Cayman islands) so I personally would not make a trip here specifically for a diving only trip as I only dive 1-2x a year.
Some notes about the operator, Paradise. Some of this could just be the locale and how divers do it in Puerto Rico, but overall I found a strong "take care of yourself" vibe to most aspects of diving with them.
1. Bring your own rental stuff from the shop to the boat (it's a reasonably short walk, but far enough where one cannot see the water from the shop). BC, wetsuite, regs, fins, everything except the weights and tanks.
2. For photographers, there is no camera bucket on the boat. I asked the staff and they did say they would be willing to bring one out if you called ahead and let them know. That was nice.
3. They don't tell you anything about the aquatic life in the dive briefing, just a general dive profile. It is nice when guides mention at least highlights of what we are looking for and roughly where they can be spotted, ie when we get to the flat sandy area, look for garden eels etc.
4. Their diving style is quite different here than what I am used to. They did provide 1 DM for every 4 divers (so 3 DMs total for 12 divers), but the dive plan is to all dive together and follow 1 DM. I have never done that before and after doing it, this is really not my style of diving (I prefer small groups especially when there are already DMs in the water who could lead their own group). Naturally it becomes a weakest link scenario with regards to air consumption, so I found that we would do a short "loop" and I would find myself back at the mooring line and exploring back and forth there under the boat. Dive times were 49min/60min. It wouldn't surprise me if I spent 1/4 of the dive exploring the reef below the mooring line on the last dive which for me was disappointing, the reef seemed massive and I would have loved to see more of it.
5. Nobody asked me to check my air underwater even 1x. First time for me that this has happened. Nothing bad came from it, but was a surprise.
Overall the dive felt safe and the operators were friendly. I wouldn't avoid diving with them in the future, but if I were ever to come back, I might dive with one of the other operators just to see what it's like. It could be that they would have watched us more carefully if we told them we were new divers, so I wouldn't let this review dissuade new divers from diving with them.
Some notes about the area itself, La Parguera is a tiny beach town centered around tourism (boat charters of various types, some bars etc). It did not really seem like a place to really hang out though for landlubbers, compared to Rincon. There isn't really a beach to walk around or lay out on or much to explore for shops, restaurants, etc. On the otherhand, I found Rincon be a wonderful city with beautiful beaches and some local things to do top side, restaurants etc. Both places are quite out of the way from the airport and housing in Puerto Rico in generally is much more expensive than one would expect. Expecially around San Juan.
