Coco View,Good for Deep Shore Dives?

[ianr33]

I've done quite a few wall dives from shore in Cayman.Often with multiple tanks,sometimes even below recreational depths. :shocked2:
Love everything about it. Long surface swim ,feeling of exploration,not being on a diveshops schedule and so on.

Would Coco View work for that type of diving? Are the walls within a 30 minute or so swim? Would the resort be OK with us using 3 tanks at once ? From reading around it seems that deco can be done on the swim back in as the reef gets gradually more shallow?

Thanks

 

[deco_martini]

1. long surface swim

Nope, its a short walk and then a dive down, its actually quite nice

2. deep

Not really, its not very deep around the 2 walls near shore. Once you get below 60 feet or so in cocoview, there isn't much to see. 80 or 85 feet is deep for the walls near the shore.


Shore diving around the CCV is nice for finding macro life, night diving, etc, etc. The reefs and prince albert wreck are crawling with neat macro life.

Leave the extra tanks and the deco stops, enjoy the dive.

 

[DocIndyDiver]

Your going to have to bring a shovel if you want to do deep deco dives off of CCV.

 

[ianr33]

Hmmm..... This is what got me interested in this:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/4442704-post2.html That seems to indicate very deep water. Is that not accurate or is it just too far to swim??

 

[Doc]

I wrote that post. I assure you, it is dead nuts accurate. You can easily, on a shore dive, put yourself over 3,000 feet of water. I have seen Whale Sharks in a spot where many people get to on a shore dive.

CCV is good with whatever you want to do, but I would certainly let the on-duty Dive Master know your specific plans if they involve technical, deco, or anything beyond recreational depths. They will thank you for advising them and then point you to the water.

I think what I and the above previous posters were getting at is that there is precious little to see below 55fsw, fairly little below 75fsw, and not much at all below 110fsw.

Most people take advantage of that uniquely slhallow and small zone, in front of CCV and about 2 miles on either side, West to East. It is there that the SSE facing wall gets full exposure to the track of the Sunlight. On the shore dive, the wall breaks within 5 feet of the surface, and drops straight down to the first shelf of sand at 90fsw. It is a brilliantly illuminated and florid wall, perfect for finding a nursery of small and macro critters.

Here is Doc Radawski explaining the unique environment:

 

[ScubaTim]

The map pretty much shows you what is out there. I for some weird reason wanted to know what was deeper last year and planned a deep dive. You can go as deep as you want - and then some! After the end of Newman's which curls back and is on the map you will be in low vis, much cooler water with really nothing other than mud to see. To me i felt i could do a cold water low vis dive at home and even though i did the dive i have zero desire to do it again! I will take the hour and a half 20 foot dive in warm clear water with tons to see! I would doubt you would enjoy diving with three tanks anywhere close to CoCo View

 

[John_B]

Your going to have to bring a shovel if you want to do deep deco dives off of CCV.

My deepest dive to date in Roatan was to 111' at Newman's Wall, just on the port side of the Prince Albert (which itself is just past the shallow reef of Coco View's "Front Yard"). I stopped at that depth because that is the MOD for EAN32, you could easily go deeper if you were so inclined, either on Newman's or Coco View Wall (to the other side of the Prince Albert).

And most of the other wall dives on the south side of Roatan where most CCV dives are done have drop offs or slopes that quickly go way past recreational depths.

The West End dives I've done were an entirely different story, but that's a special day trip from CCV and not part of their everyday dive site rotation.

To the OP, after a short orientation dive to show you how to find your way back to the resort, CCV will be happy to let you do the dives you want to do (but as RoatanMan says, let the on-duty DM know what you're up to), but they only have AL80s (or smaller) and they only pump air or blend 32%, so you'd probably want to bring some hardware to rig up a slung stage bottle or two.

Also, don't discount the very shallow stuff in CCV. Two weeks ago we saw squid in formation, eagle rays, blennys, 'cudas, adult and juvenile octos, and several eels all in less than 10' of water. (Ann, what am I leaving out?) There is also a shelf at the top of one part of Newman's above 20' that is like an aquarium, there is so much sea life.

I've been to CCV three times since November and I already wish I was back there again right now. <sigh>

 

[robint]

Yeah, like the others said, you could possibly do a deco dive off CCV shore, but not much there to see. But on some of the boat dives you could easily go deep, very deep, if you let the DM know your intentions and as long as you make it back to the boat in the 1 hour timelimit. There are a couple of walls that are so incredibly lush, even down at 100' from what I saw, and they kept going straight down like that as far as I could see. I was diving nitrox so no need to go any deeper, plus I want max bottom time... and I also did the dropoff dives right afterwards so I didn't want to limit my time there. One of the really nice things about CCV is that you are assigned to a boat for the week so your DM and boat capt really get to know you, your skills and interests. Our crew knew us very well by the end of Day 1 and let us do our own thing with no issues all week, sometimes we followed the group on the boat dives, sometimes we didn't as we were shooting photos/videos and knew what we were looking for. I like that kind of diving.

We did (me, hubby, and 1 other diver also shooting photo) ask for the boat to drop us off farther out on the Dropoff dive one day. We are all very good on our air, so the DM had no problem with it. The others on the boat got dropped after us closer to resort. Just talk to your boat crew and tell them what you want, they really do aim to please.
Another day it was raining hard as we arrived back at resort, so others on boat just wanted to skip the Dropoff, but we didn't. We had them drop us right on top of the PA wreck... it was awesome! First 20' of water was deep green murky fog but then it opened up to nice clear vis on the wreck. LOL We let everyone know at dinner that they missed a great dive!

robin

 

[John_B]

We did (me, hubby, and 1 other diver also shooting photo) ask for the boat to drop us off farther out on the Dropoff dive one day. We are all very good on our air, so the DM had no problem with it. The others on the boat got dropped after us closer to resort. Just talk to your boat crew and tell them what you want, they really do aim to please.

This month Harold and his friend did a dropoff dive from the far side of Minagerhea's Reef. LOL! I have got to try that the next time I go! He also dropped one site back from the CCV Wall dropoff and eventually passed our slow, pokey team (which of course included my roomie, the photographer ).

I swear I've never done as many 60+ minute dives in one week (eleven) as I did this trip! Having a boat full of experienced divers really helps.

 

[DocIndyDiver]

Eleven?!? an average at CCV is 20+, well for just a rookie you got some catching up to do. I'm glade to hear you're hooked.