Riding Rock Inn; San Salvador Bahamas

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Tgrdvrmd

New
Messages
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Location
Columbia, SC
# of dives
1000 - 2499
Good day to all. I haven't been there in about 5-6 years. Has anyone been there recently? Thanks for any info re diving, boats, hotel, etc.
 
Hi:

You might want to post in the Bahamas thread, but I was there with our LDS 2 years ago and the shop is going back in April. Very diverse corral structures and sharks, sharks sharks on every dive. Mostly Reef sharks, but a few hammers. We really enjoyed the diving and found it tied with Saba for the most interesting and varied in our Caribbean experience. Riding Rock is a nice, motel style place run by a family. Michelle, the owner is very easy to work with and takes all suggestions. Food is good in buffet style, but usually one choice per meal with sides and veggie option. Diving is 3 per day, but we asked for and received four every other day. Night dives can be done. All is all a great diving location with healthy and varied reef structures, good fish life, a decent resort structure with good food and very good ownership. My wife and I would have gone back with the shop in April, but we decide to spend a few weeks in Spain...the non-diving trip of the year.

Rob
 
Good day to all. I haven't been there in about 5-6 years. Has anyone been there recently? Thanks for any info re diving, boats, hotel, etc.

...Riding Rock is a nice, motel style place run by a family...Food is good in buffet style, but usually one choice per meal with sides and veggie option. Diving is 3 per day, but we asked for and received four every other day. Night dives can be done. All is all a great diving location with healthy and varied reef structures, good fish life, a decent resort structure with good food and very good ownership...

It's hard for me to believe that it has been so long, but I just checked my log book and we visited Riding Rock Inn 24 years ago! My husband and I were talking about it the other day and saying "That was a great trip, how come we never went back? We should consider going there again!"

The description of a small, privately-run motel with family-style meals, a good dive operation and lovely reefs is consistent with my memories. I don't recall that the diving was strenuous, but we were a much younger when we dived there. We've developed a few health issues since then, like my back isn't as good as it was and it is getting harder to schlep tanks, weights, and heavy gear around. Could you tell me about the dive operation, boats, and diving so that we can figure out if it is an okay place for some divers that are getting older? What is the gear storage like and what are the dive boat procedures? I seem to remember that the boat trips to the reef weren't very long, is that correct - or am I thinking of another dive location?

What kind of planes fly to San Salvador these days? I remember that we took a small propeller plane and that they weighed the passengers and the luggage before putting us on the plane! Do you depart from Nassau? They were just building the Club Med when we were there, has that changed things?

We haven't dived in the Bahamas for some time; in recent years we've mostly dived in Bonaire, Caymans, Turks, and St. Croix; how are the reefs in terms of lionfish, algae, and healthy sea life? And even though it has been a long, long time, I still remember getting badly bitten-up by mosquitoes and no-see-ums on San Salvador; was that your experience too?

Thanks in advance for your information!
 
Hi KathyV.
Lionfish are everywhere in the Caribbean so, makes no difference. The dive master did spearfish them and leave them for the sharks and groupers. With the sound of the spear gun came the sharks. Not my idea of what to do and may produce longer term behavior issues for the sharks, but my guess is you could ask them not to and they would not while with you.
Dive operation: The shop transports your equipment to the boat where it stays all week. Your wet suit gets hanged in a locked cage next to the dock. The only thing I carried back and forth was my computer and camera. It is about a 5 minute walk to the harbor from the resort. Very simple. Diving is not strenuous, but is deep and easy to go too deep. The sand bottom slopes down gently making perception of depth harder. You might be at ninety, swim to a corral head that you think is at even depth and be at 110-120. Watch your gage and trust your ears and you'll be fine. There is one dive down a chute that comes out neat 130, but you can skip the chute is you wish. Healthy corral and fish life is on par with most of the Caribbean. the diversity of dive sites appealed to me more than Bonaire, where I've been twice and like it.
Mosquitoes and no-see-ums did not seem bad, but I did not stay outside much at dusk. I used a repellant as well. If not for Spain, we'd be going back. As to aging, we are a bit north and just a few months south of 60, so no Spring chickens. You can PM me with anything more specific, but you would experience the good diving you remember and it is not strenuous as to the operation. The Club Med is open and looks nice, but not my cup of tea for a dive vacation. The Island still has nothing, and I mean nothing, besides these two resorts and an amazingly small town...3 buildings or so. That's why both resorts are all-inclusive.
Well as opposed to diving, we're off this afternoon to go ice skating for the first time in years. This will be much more dangerous than diving, but it's winter and ya gotta go with the seasons.
Attached are a couple pics, including a grouper trying to swallow a lionfish. IMG_0575.jpgIMG_0621.jpgSan-Salvador-Bahamas-09-FEB-2012-009.jpgIMG_0590.jpg

Rob
 
Peeweediver, thanks for the information! We are also located in the Chicago area, which LDS do you frequent? We are thinking of an October trip so we couldn't go with that group but I would like to find out more about their plans. We are careful and comfortable with deeper, recreational dives, we were on a liveaboard in the T&Cs 2 years ago so that is not a big concern. I am investigating vacation options now and plan to do more research at the Our World Underwater show in Rosemont in late February.

A return to Riding Rock Inn sounds like it may be a good option for us. We did one Club Med scuba trip (St. Lucia) many years ago and would never do another; but a small, diver-dedicated all-inclusive is fine.

I remember how small the island is, but lovely and quiet. We took a tour and were shown many monuments and churches and the tiny town. I remember seeing an elderly lady sitting under a palm tree and weaving a basket; the driver told us "this is our straw market!" We would probably spend some time in Nassau before traveling to San Salvador to do some "touristy things".

Have fun in Spain!
 
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KathyV
Check out Scuba Sensations dive shop, It is located on Pratt and Western. I also teach (I'm an Instructor...more hobby, not vocation) with Elmer's Watersports in Evanston near Asbury and Oakton. My wife and I travel with both. Check out both websites as they each sponsor multiple trips a year and Lake Michigan charters. Each has a very big trip late in 2016...Cocos Island and Wakatobi. I'll be at Our World also on Saturday. Think about Saba also. Scuba Sensations did a trip last October and we dove with Sea Saba. Great diving and a cool town, plus an amazingly beautiful island.
Rob
 
KathyV
Check out Scuba Sensations dive shop, It is located on Pratt and Western. I also teach (I'm an Instructor...more hobby, not vocation) with Elmer's Watersports in Evanston near Asbury and Oakton. My wife and I travel with both. Check out both websites as they each sponsor multiple trips a year and Lake Michigan charters. Each has a very big trip late in 2016...Cocos Island and Wakatobi. I'll be at Our World also on Saturday. Think about Saba also. Scuba Sensations did a trip last October and we dove with Sea Saba. Great diving and a cool town, plus an amazingly beautiful island. Rob

Rob, I will check out their websites, thanks. We did an Explorer liveaboard trip to Saba several years ago and spent time on the island after the trip; beautiful and unusual place and great diving! We will also spend one day at OWU, probably Sunday but I am not sure. Thanks, Kathy
 
Consider Club Med. We had great wall diving with them on San Salvador (which they call Columbus Isle). And the food spread on the boat at the surface interval should be required by law on every dive boat on the planet!
 
Consider Club Med. We had great wall diving with them on San Salvador (which they call Columbus Isle). And the food spread on the boat at the surface interval should be required by law on every dive boat on the planet!

We did one dive trip with a Club Med resort and will never do another. It was a long, long time ago so things may have changed but the dive boats were cattle boats, we were jammed in so tight it was hard to move. The dive masters were Gestapos that forced divers to follow their regimen (one of them made everyone take their snorkels off their masks and put them on their legs!) And the boats were loaded with incompetent divers that had gotten "Club Med C Cards" so that they could go from resort to resort to dive without ever actually getting certified.

I hope that Club Meds have changed but I am not interested in finding out for myself!
 
Re Clubmed on San Salvador and in general... I believe the dive ops in San Salvador and Turks were the last to be owned/operated by Clubmed. They have turned over to an independent op now as well. So that tends to make things a bit better. We like to go to San Salvador Clubmed for a vacation with some world class diving. Great food, killer beach, whats not to like :wink: They do use these monster cats so there can be a lot of divers. Newbies/groups set up on the inside rows and experienced buddy divers on the outside. So the trick is to set up close to a ladder (2 on each boat) so you are first off. The other "trick" is to dive with a buddy and do not play follow the leader with the dm/groups!!!! They do a very thorough briefing although sometimes its in french :wink: First off, last back on and you can have an hour dive without too much grief from the dm's. This Clubmed is known to be the least crazy of the clubs... Families and older divers. So fewer hungover divers hurling on your fins :) I don't know, maybe I'm more tolerant of this cattle boat thing. If I can do a safe hour dive on an amazing reef I guess I'm not bothered by other bs going on around me. And of course there are these:
hammerhead.jpg
 
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