craracer
Contributor
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Well, I just spent 4 days diving in Negril, Jamaica (14 dives) and had a wonderful time! At the suggestion of one of the members here, I decided to dive with Myron from SUNDIVERS NEGRIL JAMAICA
Since I couldn't do my AOW course here in Minnesota without a chainsaw (lakes are frozen over), I decided to do it in Jamaica.
I stayed at the RIU Club Negril. I've stayed at several other RIU resorts so I knew what to expect. The resort is pretty nice and the food was decent. They have nightly entertainment, a good beach and service was friendly.
The group at Sundivers were phenomenal! They really made me feel like a part of their family. They invited me to go out on the town after shop hours, made me traditional Jamaican meals of ackee and salt fish and transported me to and from my resort for diving.
I did my OW and my wife did her AOW course during our last trip to Jamaica (with a different dive outfitter-Scuba Caribe). I thought they did a pretty good job until I dove with Sundivers.
Myron, my instructor, has the philosophy that divers should know far more than what is taught through PADI. He covered all of the mandatory information but went far beyond what the book taught.
Prior to taking the AOW course, I was pretty happy that I was down to using 9# on the weight belt. I was astonished to find that none of the instructors at Sundivers use any weight.
After taking the peak performance buoyancy portion of the AOW course, Myron had me comfortably down to 2# on the weight belt (3 mil full suit)! With some more diving under my belt, I should be able to leave the weight belt on the boat.
I've always heard that the diving in Jamaica was bad due to dynamite/cyanide fishing. If you are looking to see big fish, Negril is not for you. It's is all about the micro-life and small fish. Some of the other divers were complaining about not seeing any big fish and I attributed this to them swimming by aquatic life so fast that they didn't notice it. Once I told them to slow down, they started seeing and appreciating what was actually down there.
The reefs that we dove on were teaming with life! I did my fish identification training and couldn't keep up with seeing a fish and then looking it up on the identification cards.
Apparently a storm had blown through just prior to my arrival so the visibility was anywhere from 25' to 40'.
Sundivers does not have nitrox. Dives were anywhere from 40 minutes to just over an hour (depending on how many newer divers were aboard). I was fortunate enough to be able to dive alone with one of the dive masters (no other divers in the water with us) so our bottom time was greatly extended.
The highlight of my trip was on my 3rd to last dive. We were down at a lobster trap which had a large angel fish in it. The dive master went down to let it out of the cage because there are so few of them left. I looked up and the rest of the group was frantically pointing to something behind me.
I turned around and within 1/2 an arms length of me were 3 dolphins checking me out!! At first it didn't compute to as what I was looking at. I scrambled for my crappy disposable underwater camera and shot as many photos as I could.
I was amazed at how large, graceful and powerful they were. Prior to this experience I had only seen dolphins on t.v. They were quite a curious lot and checked out every single diver before heading down to the trap. the dolphins jambed their noses into the corner of the trap and lifted it up off of the sandy bottom. The dive master told me that they do this to scare the fish to the sides of the trap where they can get a easy meal.
The dolphins were so close to me that I was a little afraid that they might accidentally bump/injure me with their tails as they swam by.
I can't speak for the diving outside of Negril but, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend either Sundivers or Negril as a destination.
Since I couldn't do my AOW course here in Minnesota without a chainsaw (lakes are frozen over), I decided to do it in Jamaica.
I stayed at the RIU Club Negril. I've stayed at several other RIU resorts so I knew what to expect. The resort is pretty nice and the food was decent. They have nightly entertainment, a good beach and service was friendly.
The group at Sundivers were phenomenal! They really made me feel like a part of their family. They invited me to go out on the town after shop hours, made me traditional Jamaican meals of ackee and salt fish and transported me to and from my resort for diving.
I did my OW and my wife did her AOW course during our last trip to Jamaica (with a different dive outfitter-Scuba Caribe). I thought they did a pretty good job until I dove with Sundivers.
Myron, my instructor, has the philosophy that divers should know far more than what is taught through PADI. He covered all of the mandatory information but went far beyond what the book taught.
Prior to taking the AOW course, I was pretty happy that I was down to using 9# on the weight belt. I was astonished to find that none of the instructors at Sundivers use any weight.
After taking the peak performance buoyancy portion of the AOW course, Myron had me comfortably down to 2# on the weight belt (3 mil full suit)! With some more diving under my belt, I should be able to leave the weight belt on the boat.
I've always heard that the diving in Jamaica was bad due to dynamite/cyanide fishing. If you are looking to see big fish, Negril is not for you. It's is all about the micro-life and small fish. Some of the other divers were complaining about not seeing any big fish and I attributed this to them swimming by aquatic life so fast that they didn't notice it. Once I told them to slow down, they started seeing and appreciating what was actually down there.
The reefs that we dove on were teaming with life! I did my fish identification training and couldn't keep up with seeing a fish and then looking it up on the identification cards.
Apparently a storm had blown through just prior to my arrival so the visibility was anywhere from 25' to 40'.
Sundivers does not have nitrox. Dives were anywhere from 40 minutes to just over an hour (depending on how many newer divers were aboard). I was fortunate enough to be able to dive alone with one of the dive masters (no other divers in the water with us) so our bottom time was greatly extended.
The highlight of my trip was on my 3rd to last dive. We were down at a lobster trap which had a large angel fish in it. The dive master went down to let it out of the cage because there are so few of them left. I looked up and the rest of the group was frantically pointing to something behind me.
I turned around and within 1/2 an arms length of me were 3 dolphins checking me out!! At first it didn't compute to as what I was looking at. I scrambled for my crappy disposable underwater camera and shot as many photos as I could.
I was amazed at how large, graceful and powerful they were. Prior to this experience I had only seen dolphins on t.v. They were quite a curious lot and checked out every single diver before heading down to the trap. the dolphins jambed their noses into the corner of the trap and lifted it up off of the sandy bottom. The dive master told me that they do this to scare the fish to the sides of the trap where they can get a easy meal.
The dolphins were so close to me that I was a little afraid that they might accidentally bump/injure me with their tails as they swam by.
I can't speak for the diving outside of Negril but, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend either Sundivers or Negril as a destination.