Shore dives in St. Thomas, John, Tortola,VG?

[bluebubble1995]

I'm going in June and my GF has trouble equalizing so we prefer shore dives so she can take her time. Does anyone have recommendations? Is the Rhone close to shore?

[wreckchick]

Before you discount boat diving, you should look at why your girlfriend is having trouble equalizing! This video may help: Doc's Diving Medicine Home Page (http://faculty.washington.edu/ekay/)

Another thing to consider is that many boats have descent lines where she would be able to control her rate of descent to keep her ears comfortable.

As far as St. Thomas is concerned, the only place people regularly shore dive around here is at Coki Beach.

I hope that helps!

Rachel

[bluebubble1995]

Before you discount boat diving, you should look at why your girlfriend is having trouble equalizing! This video may help: Doc's Diving Medicine Home Page (http://faculty.washington.edu/ekay/)

Another thing to consider is that many boats have descent lines where she would be able to control her rate of descent to keep her ears comfortable.

As far as St. Thomas is concerned, the only place people regularly shore dive around here is at Coki Beach.

I hope that helps!

Rachel

Thanks Rachel,
We are downloading the video now...5 hours to go! I'll remember the diving club when we want to go.

[guggie]

I spent a lot of time on St. Thomas years ago. We often dove in the cove at the east end that has Secret Harbor hotel. The dive shop there is called Aqua Action. http://www.aadivers.com/

This is a beautiful reef, easy shore entry, depths to about 35 feet. My parents lived nearby for many years in their retirement. My father was a photographer and made his own plexiglass u/w 8mm movie camera housings for home movies. My kids learned to snorkel there and now are ow certified with me. This is a great spot and would suit you well. If you go, please send me a dive report.

[Rhone Man]

No real shore diving on Tortola (or at least none that is really worth doing). The Rhone is off Salt Island, which is about a 20 minute boat ride from Tortola.

Probably advice that others have already given you, but I wouldn't worry too much about going off a boat in a controlled dive environment. You are on a permanent mooring, and you can descend the line as swiftly or as slowly as you like...

[Aquabear]

I'll be there in 2 weeks can't wait.
Check the 2 below. I have never been to St Tom but I do know the googles! ;)

Do some googles yourself too. My wife dives with me but wants to shore it so no boats this trip. I'll be the dive guide here but I have experience with navigation. I would not reccommendation diving on your own unless you have experience and confidence.
It's not Bonaire but there are shore dive spots on St Tom, hey I am sure its looks better that Bay 8th street in Brooklyn or Ponon Bridge in Long Island.
Have a blast there.


St. Thomas Shore Diving (http://members.tripod.com/mystorecollection/StThomas.html)

The best Scuba Diving in the Caribbean world is in St. Thomas Virgin Islands (http://www.stthomasvirginisland.com/articles/scuba%20diving%201.html)

[diversteve]

Coki Beach is an easy entry shallow site. But don't go much past the Coral World inlet tubes as the current picks up quick there in the afternoon. We wound up being blown almost to the point and had to get out, climb the hill and walk back to Coki Beach. Not easy with full gear. I think it's only a problem some afternoons. The on-site attendant mentioned it when we got back - nice...

Dive In (http://www.diveinusvi.com/lesson.html) has a diveshop on the beach at Sapphire Beach resort. And they do daily shore dives. So there must be some diving off the beach there. We went on their boat so I'm not sure.

Over on Virgin Gorda, you can dive the Aquarium from shore but it's in the boat channel so you'd want to stay deep and probably tow a flag. Look good before you surface, there's sailboats in the area and they're pretty silent. It's a pretty good site, only about 40' deep with lots of fish.

We did it as a second boat dive with DiveBVI, they're a great diveop on VG. We had divers of several levels on our boat one afternoon and they went to a site that had something for everyone.

The other shoredive site there, Mountain Point is for experienced divers only.

You'll also want to snorkel the Baths, they're pretty epic. The Rhone is also easily accessible from Virgin Gorda, we did it with DiveBVI.