Recommended dive operators in Turks & Caicos - Provo

[dgangi]

My wife and I are headed to the Sands at Grace Bay from Aug 2-8 and plan on diving 3 of those days (plus at least 1 night dive). I've read all of the Turks & Caicos related threads on this board and have seen a lot of recommendations for Caicos Adventures.

My only concern about Caicos Adventures is the size of their operation -- appears to be more of a "cattle car" operator that would tend to attract lots of beginner tourists. The wife and I are both AOW certified with a lot of dives under our belt and prefer diving with more experienced divers as opposed to the more "casual" newbie -- they frankly scare us. Even when we were "newbies" ourselves, we took our diving very seriously.

Am I off base on that concern w/Caicos Adventures?

I looked at a few other operators that pride themselves on running smaller boats -- Flamingo and Big Blue. How do these operators compare to CA? I've also seen numerous mentions about Dive Provo - are they any good?


Thx...Doug

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

I've only dove with CA and Turtle Divers. I know Flamingo and Dive Provo both runs boats out of the South Dock which is closer to the best diving. Big Blue runds out of Leeward Marina which is on the east end of the island and might make for lobger boat ride and/or diving in Grace Bay which IMHO is not the premier diving near the island. The thing that separates CA for me is the big dive boat that never really feels crowded. I've never heard anything bad about Flamingo or Dive Provo. They run 42' Newtons if I recall.

As to the "newbie" factor CA usually separates groups by experience level although this may take a few days to sort out. They also don't object to divers doing their own profile.

 

[Rescue Diver68]

We loved Caicos Adventures, Dive Provo, and Turtle Divers (in that order)

 

[djcheburashka]

I tried all three of them and liked all of them. Caicos Adventures and Dive Provo were, basically, very similar operations, both running large boats. Turtle Divers is somewhat smaller. All of them are going to have novices on board. All of them will - at least if you say so - let you run your own profile. All of them will also, however, arrange the day so you end up with a 2-3 hour surface interval. If you want to set your own profile without them enforcing long delays like that, you're better off with a smaller operator like Turtle Divers.

 

[SusanWH20]

Hi Doug,

I just posted a recommendation for Mickey and Jayne over at Flamingo Divers. They run a very personalized operation so you can dive your skill level regardless of who's on the boat (we had a junior cert. on the boat and he stayed with Mickey or Jayne while we were free to explore at our own comfort level). We had one very advanced diver on the boat and we certainly didn't hold him back - he was always last one back on the boat and that was just fine. We're looking forward diving with them again in November.

 

[doole]

I tried all three of them and liked all of them. Caicos Adventures and Dive Provo were, basically, very similar operations, both running large boats. Turtle Divers is somewhat smaller. All of them are going to have novices on board. All of them will - at least if you say so - let you run your own profile. All of them will also, however, arrange the day so you end up with a 2-3 hour surface interval. If you want to set your own profile without them enforcing long delays like that, you're better off with a smaller operator like Turtle Divers.

Just yesterday finished 2 weeks with Dive Provo. Only requirement for surface interval was 1 hour.

They do ask that you keep within rec limits.

I was thrilled with the service. NO compaints, here.

 

[ZoSo]

Caicos Adventure has a great cat dive boat (nice and stable) gets you to great dive sites at West Caicos and French Cay real fast. Very pro staff.

 

[DiverDebbie]

I can't recommend, since we just dove with Club Med, but in hind sight, I have definitely rethought the whole smaller op (ie. 6 pack or 8 diver max) is better concept, especially for a location like Provo. Having a big, stable, fast cat in rough seas, and for long trips to dive sites is a huge plus over being stuck in a small monohull. Believe me, I was very thankful for that. Sure, there may only be 6 or 8 people, but in a smaller, not well organized boat that can seem much more crowded than 30 people on a huge cat. I've done both, and unless the dive site is only a few minutes away, I'd never bother with a small boat again. What really matters is if they let you dive your own profile, on your own, and/or how big the groups are. It's only horrible if they were to make everyone dive together in a herd with the profile of the biggest air sucker. Not our experience with CM, and from the sounds of it, not the case with CA either. Just my 2 cents worth.