st marteen

[STUDIVE]

Is there any good diving in St Marteen?
If so what operator should you dive with?

[Bieszczat]

Not the greatest, but a few nice spots. For me, where a vacation is not really vacation without some diving, St. Marteen offers a "fix", but really on the bottom half of typical Carribean quality diving.

I would give LeRoy French and Ocean Explorers a try. Nice small operator whose been on the island FOREVER. Here is the website.

http://www.stmaartendiving.com/

If you are going to be around that area for a while Saba is a nice place to visit and dive. Only 15-20 minute air hop. You can do a day trip because they never get high enough to worry about detoxing...but the current air fares may make it not doable. I have never stayed on Saba, but there are many B & B style places to choose from. It is a VERY small island with not alot on Topside.

Take Care

Tony

[chris z]

I pretty much agree with Biezczat. My husband and I were in St. Maarten in early September. The diving is OK, we got some nice pictures. We were there to vacation and do a couple dives; as opposed to when we went to Cozumel for a dive trip and dove for 5 days straight.

I can also second the LeRoy French/Ocean Explorers recommendation.

If you want to know anything specific, feel free to PM me.

[caymaniac]

Is there any good diving in St Marteen?
If so what operator should you dive with?

I was on St. Maarten last April. I dove with ScubaFun which is about a half mile to a mile walk from the cruise port. If you are bringing all your own equipment, be prepared for the walk. We dove off a zodiac type of craft. The boat was crappy, but I thought the 2 dives I did were quite good. I've heard St. Martin wasn't all that great for diving but the dives we did were just fine. The first dive was on a wreck outside of the harbor and took about 20 minutes to get to. The wreck was in about 60 to 70 feet and we penetrated the wreck to go up some stairs on the inside. It was quite dark inside the wreck, if I had known this I would have taken a light. The wreck had a number of tropicals as well as eels.
The second dive was close to and just east of the wreck in about 40 feet. This was a nice reef, not really spectacular but very nice. Visibility was at or near 80ft. We saw two reef sharks on that dive which I really enjoyed as well as the reef which seemed healthy and colorful. I did not log the names of the those dives so I can't tell you what they were, but if you contact Scuba Fun, maybe they would help you out. I found them on the web.

Also, welcome to the board!

[JAK]

I was on St. Maarten last April. I dove with ScubaFun which is about a half mile to a mile walk from the cruise port. If you are bringing all your own equipment, be prepared for the walk. We dove off a zodiac type of craft. The boat was crappy, but I thought the 2 dives I did were quite good. I've heard St. Martin wasn't all that great for diving but the dives we did were just fine. The first dive was on a wreck outside of the harbor and took about 20 minutes to get to. The wreck was in about 60 to 70 feet and we penetrated the wreck to go up some stairs on the inside. It was quite dark inside the wreck, if I had known this I would have taken a light. The wreck had a number of tropicals as well as eels.
The second dive was close to and just east of the wreck in about 40 feet. This was a nice reef, not really spectacular but very nice. Visibility was at or near 80ft. We saw two reef sharks on that dive which I really enjoyed as well as the reef which seemed healthy and colorful. I did not log the names of the those dives so I can't tell you what they were, but if you contact Scuba Fun, maybe they would help you out. I found them on the web.

Also, welcome to the board!

Well Caymaniac, that is not very encouraging. My wife and I decided out of the blue to vacation in Sint Maarten not really knowing how "poor" the diving is. I guess we will spend most of our time on the beach soaking the sun.

Based on your comments, I guess we will be lucky if we can get more than 4 dives during our week stay.

Thanks for the heads up anyway.

Safe Diving!

Jak

[Scott101]

Greetings,

I think that you will enjoy diving in St. Maarten. I have logged 50 plus dives there (my wife loves the island) and enjoyed everyone. Granted, its not Cozumel, but the vis is good, the marine live is good, and the reefs and wrecks are nice.

I am a big fan of Aquamania (Dive Adventures) in Simpson Bay (under the Pelican Resort). They now have their own Nitrox fill station and the crew are now like an extenced family.

If you would like to see some pics from there (last April I think):

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frasure711/my_photos

Good luck and have a great time.

[Chocoholic]

Greetings,

I think that you will enjoy diving in St. Maarten. I have logged 50 plus dives there (my wife loves the island) and enjoyed everyone. Granted, its not Cozumel, but the vis is good, the marine live is good, and the reefs and wrecks are nice.

I am a big fan of Aquamania (Dive Adventures) in Simpson Bay (under the Pelican Resort). They now have their own Nitrox fill station and the crew are now like an extenced family.

If you would like to see some pics from there (last April I think):

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frasure711/my_photos

Good luck and have a great time.

Thanks for the pics. How warm was the water in April? How about the vis at that time of year? Just dreaming and trying to decide where to go. choco

[JAK]

Thanks for the pics. How warm was the water in April? How about the vis at that time of year? Just dreaming and trying to decide where to go. choco

Hey Choco,

My wife and I were there in late April early May and the vis was great and the temp was around 82. I agree with Scott, Aquamania was very good. Nice bunch of people and very friendly. I would definitely recommend them.

Good Diving,

JAK