Help me out, good dive sites in jamaica

[fenderbender29]

Ok, guys, need your help once again. My parents recently decided to go to jamaica on vacation, the condition was, was that my dad and i got to go on a dive or 2. The problem is is that im not really farmiliar with jamaica, and i do know it is a pretty popular vacation spot, so i dont really expect fenominal diving. Maybe if someone knows a particularly good spot or operator to use, or maybe a little local shore dive, secret spot, small local operator, anything for good diving, i know how bad touristy sites can be.

Thanks all
Doug

 

[Willar]

Try this discussion:

http://www.scubaboard.com/t74003-diving-in-jamaica.html

Sounds to me like Beaches or Breezes would be perfect for you. Good family places with some diving available.

 

[DocVikingo]

Ok, guys, need your help once again. My parents recently decided to go to jamaica on vacation, the condition was, was that my dad and i got to go on a dive or 2. The problem is is that im not really farmiliar with jamaica, and i do know it is a pretty popular vacation spot, so i dont really expect fenominal diving. Maybe if someone knows a particularly good spot or operator to use, or maybe a little local shore dive, secret spot, small local operator, anything for good diving, i know how bad touristy sites can be.

Thanks all
Doug

As your question is about diving in Jamaica, I have taken the liberty of moving it to our dedicated Greater Caribbean & Bahamas travel forum in the hopes it will receive wider response.

Best regards.

DocVikingo

 

[diverkim]

How was the diving in Jamaica?

 

[ScubaTexas]

Based upon my research on places to go in the Caribbean, it appears that Jamaica has some interesting things to do and see but diving is definately not one of them. I have seen the diving described as mediocre at its best. Of course, if I was along for the ride on business or other and it wasn't my money footing the trip, I'd go and bring my dive gear. In my book, any dive in warm salt water is a good dive and beats working any and every day. Have fun.

 

[frenzer3]

We don't know how old fenderbender29 is, but we've been to Jamaica 3 times in the past decade, most recently to the Beaches Negril resort in August. This time, our teen son had his Jr. Open Water, and so we did their "shallow above 40 ft. dive a day" in order to stay together as a family. If you're regular Open Water, you can go on their deeper dives.
Because the resort dive centers tend to use just a handful of shallow sites, we went back to the same anchorage more than once in our week-long stay, and yet the undersea life varied each time. While it's true that Jamaican diving isn't "phenomenal" compared to other places we've been like Belize or Fiji, we felt there was plenty to see, even at the shallow depths. We had opportunities to photograph the "usual" reef fish, as well morays, and even a large turtle on one dive. We were told a group in the morning had a pod of dolphins in the water. While we don't know what the impact of Hurricane Ivan has been to the Negril area, Jamaica is still a nice place to visit. Enjoy!

 

[CA Diver]

I just returned from a busines trip to Jamaica. I got in 3 dives on Sunday with the Dive Shop at the Mariners Negril Beach Club. I was unable to even find an dive operator in Montego Bay.

The Staff (Leondel, Deron & Tom) were courteous and helpful. Fairly inexpensive - $75 for a two tank trip with gear ($55 if you have your own gear, $20 for the third dive) Be sure to slow Deron down before you dive, he tends to move quickly through the dive sites but did find some interesting critters.

While the fish are definitely on the small side the coral and sponges exhibit vibrant colors that make for an enjoyable. The sites we visited were Cathedral, Chinese Reef and another farther north that I do not have the name of. The Ramora's at Chinese reef were a kick. They kept trying to attach to a divers leg.

 

[fenderbender29]

frenzer: im 16, reg open water going for an advanced int he near future

everyone else: thanks for ur input, keep them coming until around christmas

thanks
Doug

 

[frenzer3]

So, fenderbender29, have you gone and returned from Jamaica? Where did you go, and what did you think of it?