Diving in Guam

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sinners

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Hi All!

It is good to be back in this forum again. My wife and I are going to dive in Guam. e only are diving 2 dives there, so:

1. Where would be a good place to dive?
2. What is the cost for 2 dives?
3. Anything we should be awre of?

Cheers!
Alrick
 
Go with either Guam Tropical Dive Station or MDA. If you require hotel pickup, the costs for a 2 tank dive is somewhere around $75-100(but also includes lunch and a guide). But if you drive yourself there, the 2 tank dive is only $35 (at GTDS). Almost all two tank morning dives that they do start off with a semi-deep to deep dive along Orote Peninsula, typical spots are Blue Hole, Sharks Pit, Barracuda Rock, etc. The second dive is usually either in Agat (Haps Reef), or inside the harbour area (Gab Gab I and II, Western Shoals, etc.) Sometimes they do the 2nd dive along Orote as well, like at the Crevice or nearby. If you want to dive up north or down south, you have to sign up for a scheduled dive that goes down/up there.
 
Thanks man! Do you have an email address or website?

Cheers!



h3o:
Go with either Guam Tropical Dive Station or MDA. If you require hotel pickup, the costs for a 2 tank dive is somewhere around $75-100(but also includes lunch and a guide). But if you drive yourself there, the 2 tank dive is only $35 (at GTDS). Almost all two tank morning dives that they do start off with a semi-deep to deep dive along Orote Peninsula, typical spots are Blue Hole, Sharks Pit, Barracuda Rock, etc. The second dive is usually either in Agat (Haps Reef), or inside the harbour area (Gab Gab I and II, Western Shoals, etc.) Sometimes they do the 2nd dive along Orote as well, like at the Crevice or nearby. If you want to dive up north or down south, you have to sign up for a scheduled dive that goes down/up there.
 
http://www.mdaguam.com

Also check their "boat schedule" on the website ... it lists dives in addition to the daily morning boat.

When are you going to be here ? .... Lot's of us locals do diving other than the "scheduled" dives.

And you can find rental cars cheaper than having a guide pick you up at the hotel... otherwise we are really "dive-friendly" here on Guam.
 
I spent a few days there last november and dove with MDA. I signed up as a 'member' and they allowed me to share the 5 included dives that membership entailed with my son. All in all I think it ended up being $100 for 5 dives. Added on to this were rental charges for weights, tanks, and a reg for my son. I can't remember the rental charges so they must not have been that bad (though alot more expensive that what I'm used to being charged in the philippines!). If you choose MDA make sure you book at the shop and don't go for the hotel pickup package, it ends much more expensive.

I had a look in GTDS and wasn't so impressed. Before people get to upset though I will say that I didn't actually dive with them so I certainly don't have any direct complaints. MDA was a lot busier and had a better selection of gear around the shop. I have a buddy here in HK that was also there recently, he chose MDA too.

Can't remember all the dive sites we did off the top of my head but I do remember that we dove the crevice once and Gab Gab as the 2nd dive on both days I went out. Diving was ok, vis is great but honestly, I usually have better diving at most of the hot spots here in SE Asia for much less cash. I can imagine that some of the other locations near guam (chuk, palau, etc.) are much more impressive. Unfortunately, I was there for a specific purpose and only squeezed a couple of dive days in around my other commitments.

good luck and have a great trip!

PS I know that mda has a web page that i visited - google?
 
Apart from the other comments I would just say don't expect too much. It was great to be in the water and visability was great but the underwater life was mediocre at best. I heard this was a function of its location, meaning that it's not near any channel flows that carry all the good stuff that attracts the food chain. I remember a lionfish, dart fish and a turtle from my 4 dives. Plus an area where some dive operators hand feed fish so naturally (or unnaturally) large black trevally would come to congregate.

Didn't have any problems with GTDS and would probably dive with them again, except that they share a boat with other dive shops and it was jam packed. Granted it was high season with Japanese school kids on break, but there were 30+ divers on the boat and it was crazy. MDA has their own boats and when we passed by them on, it didn't look like herded cattle.
 
Oh Damn! I just [literally] signed up with them.



slee416:
Apart from the other comments I would just say don't expect too much. It was great to be in the water and visability was great but the underwater life was mediocre at best. I heard this was a function of its location, meaning that it's not near any channel flows that carry all the good stuff that attracts the food chain. I remember a lionfish, dart fish and a turtle from my 4 dives. Plus an area where some dive operators hand feed fish so naturally (or unnaturally) large black trevally would come to congregate.

Didn't have any problems with GTDS and would probably dive with them again, except that they share a boat with other dive shops and it was jam packed. Granted it was high season with Japanese school kids on break, but there were 30+ divers on the boat and it was crazy. MDA has their own boats and when we passed by them on, it didn't look like herded cattle.
 
I wouldn't sweat it too much. I still enjoyed my time, it's just that I didn't know what to expect and had never been on a crowded or shared dive boat before. If you know what to expect going in then you'll be better off. I chaulk it up to good experience. In the end it wasn't unbearable, just something to be aware of. Lunch was good and who knows, maybe the boat won't be full when you go. I dove with a Japanese guide. Never caught his name but he had "WADA" written on silver and black Mares fins. If you end up in his group, tell him a Korean American guy from New York City living in Seoul says hi.
 
MDA Owns 3 of their own boats, unless Pete has sold them as an April Fools joke again, they have daily boats to Blue Hole or the Crevice and a second dive every day as well as numerous additional dive trips on Weekends. If you have a group of six or eight they have a smaller boat that is a reasonable charter.
 
Hello All!

Over the long Easter weekend, I went to Guam. I am from Singapore but now live in Hong Kong.



Part of the trip was dedicated to a day dive consisting of 2 tank dives. Guam is a beautiful island and it is surrounded by great waters, clear blue with a visibility of 30m minimum.



We signed up with Guam Tropical Dive Station, http://www.gtds.com . We were picked up from the hotel at 7:40am and hurdled into a van with 4 Japanese tourist.

We then went along to another hotel to pick up some other diver. We were driven to the GTDS's shop were we were asked to fill in the Waiver Liability Form and to show our diving cards. I was shocked to see that a Japanese couple had no diving card but claimed to be able to dive, was allowed to go on the trip.



After all the formalities were done, we were driven about 15 mins away to a jetty to dive!

I was really excited up till then.



We arrive at the jetty and I were told to wait for the boat. While waiting, I was asked to help carry other people's rented gear to the boat. I am complaining, I usually help out when I used to go on dive trips to Malaysia, but there is one big difference here, everyone helps. All the Japanese just watched, while I carry the stuff, My wife and I were both pissed off.



We get on the boat, and guess what? There are 52 people on the boat, yes 52, and with the exception of say 4 people, everyone was diving. That means 48 divers on a boat. I have dived countless times in Malaysia and 30 people on the boat is cool, but 48 was crazy. But bear with me, here is why?

We were not given a proper space to rig up, like the other 45 divers, we [my wife, a HK man and me] were asked to rig on the floor, while everyone had a proper seat to rig up.



The first dive: GABGAB 2

We get into the water and there is hardly any fish, the dive master is order to make it worth our time, pulls out a pack of sausages and gives it out to us to feed the fish.

Hold on! I thought as divers, we don't feed the fish, we are just there to observe the beauty?

The next thing that freaks me out, is the dive master is picking stuff off the seabed.



The 30+ min plus dive is uneventful.



The second dive: Finger-Reef

We are told that we can hold on to the corals if we need support before the dive. Shocking!

We are also told since 2 new dives are joining us, we have to dive at max 12m. For God Sake, I am an advance dive and my wife an open water, and we have 60 dives among ourselves, in the last 13 months. We are not newbies.

We were told to do a giant stride, and wait at the rear of the boat for everyone else. We spent 15mins there waiting for the newbies to get into the water, surely, another dive master should have been there to take care of the newbies and another to take care of the others right?

As you can imagine, we see nothing at all.





The dives were a completed disaster. I had email GTDS at least 15 times, explaining that we were certified dives and we were bring out camera and wanted to dive at good spots. But all we got was basic dives in a crowded boat.



Comments anyone?
 
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