My wife & I just spent a week on Barbados (April 2009), went diving with 3 different outfits & spoke with a couple more. Here are our comments on what we learnt, in the hope it's perhaps useful for others planning on diving there.
Our first couple of dives were with Barbados Blue, the largest dive operator on the island and frequently referred to in these forums. They operate out of the Hilton hotel. The dives were Friars Craig (a broken up wreck & surrounding reef) and Carlisle Bay (a bunch of wrecks). Both are excellent dives. Barbados Blue has some decent equipment & nice folks. However our big complaint with them, and the reason we would NOT recommend them or dive with them again, is because they run timed dives. With Barbados Blue you get a 35 to 40 minute dive; that's it. For example, on our second dive, with lots of great stuff to see, lots of bottom time remaining, etc, we had to surface while still having 1400 PSI. Very annoying & frustrating. Talking with others on the island, Barbados Blue has a reputation for this: short timed dives, and all their dives are kick kick kick - very difficult to slow down to look at things, take photos, etc. Unless you're someone who sucks a tank dry in 30 minutes, I'd suggest avoiding this outfit.
Dive Barbados Blue - Scuba and Snorkel with PADI’s Best at the Hilton
Our next couple of dives were with Reefers & Wreckers, at the northern end of the island. We specifically wanted to dive a wreck called the Pamir, and a second dive of their choosing (turned out to be a reef called Brightledge). Both were excellent dives. We really liked this outfit. Decent gear, really pleasant relaxed & very helpful folks, and no imposed restrictions. In the case of the Pamir dive, we followed their divemaster around as he gave us a tour of the wreck & nearby "yellow submarine", then afterwards with plenty of air remaining the two of us simply wandered around the wreck looking at things & taking photos until our air was up. Others who'd dived the wreck before just buddied up & did their own thing. To my way of thinking, this is how it should be, and we enjoyed it. We'd very happily dive with these folks again.
Welcome | Reefers & Wreckers Dive Shop Barbados
Our final dive was with an outfit called Underwater Barbados. We wanted to do another dive in Carlisle Bay (a full dive, not a truncated Barbados Blue version) and actually had a tough time finding a dive operator because 4 (four!) cruise ships had pulled in & suddenly the island was flooded with people. By a combination of luck & circumstance we ended up with Michael from Underwater Barbados, joining him as he & his crew took a boatload of cruiseship passengers snorkelling. Michael used to do a lot of diving, running lots of people through, but found that work very tiring & now predominantly runs groups of snorkellers, with only an occasional few divers. We had a very enjoyable hour underwater with Michael exploring the wrecks & he's someone else we would happily dive with again.
Underwater Barbados
Aside from the outfits listed above, we also spoke with a couple of others.
"Eco Divers" we really liked, and we chatted with them a couple of times. A small outfit, they run a max of 5 divers at a time, and have a relaxed easy-going attitude. No timed dives, and they cater to photographers (the fellow who runs the shop is a keen photographer), so the pace is relaxed & patient. We would have liked to dive with them, but they were closing up shop for a week to go diving themselves on St Lucia when we spoke with them.
Barbados Diving: Eco Dive Barbados
"The Dive Shop" we spoke to a couple of times, and they've been recommended on these forums, but we just couldn't make anything happen with them. The big problem was that we'd ask the simple question, "Where are you planning on diving tomorrow?" and they'd always answer, "We don't know". What these folks wanted us to do was to sign up with them, pay our money, get on board the boat, and then they'd decide where they would go diving. Well that didn't really didn't appeal to us. We didn't want to commit our day & our money to get on a boat which could then potentially decide to do dives we didn't want to do (either because they'd be outside our abilities, or because we'd just done those dives the day before). We understand that plans can change because of conditions, but at least start with a plan, and these folks never seemed to have a clue.
The Dive Shop Ltd. - SCUBA DIVING IN BARBADOS!
That's it. We had a great time on Barbados. I hope this helps anyone else thinking about diving there.
Our first couple of dives were with Barbados Blue, the largest dive operator on the island and frequently referred to in these forums. They operate out of the Hilton hotel. The dives were Friars Craig (a broken up wreck & surrounding reef) and Carlisle Bay (a bunch of wrecks). Both are excellent dives. Barbados Blue has some decent equipment & nice folks. However our big complaint with them, and the reason we would NOT recommend them or dive with them again, is because they run timed dives. With Barbados Blue you get a 35 to 40 minute dive; that's it. For example, on our second dive, with lots of great stuff to see, lots of bottom time remaining, etc, we had to surface while still having 1400 PSI. Very annoying & frustrating. Talking with others on the island, Barbados Blue has a reputation for this: short timed dives, and all their dives are kick kick kick - very difficult to slow down to look at things, take photos, etc. Unless you're someone who sucks a tank dry in 30 minutes, I'd suggest avoiding this outfit.
Dive Barbados Blue - Scuba and Snorkel with PADI’s Best at the Hilton
Our next couple of dives were with Reefers & Wreckers, at the northern end of the island. We specifically wanted to dive a wreck called the Pamir, and a second dive of their choosing (turned out to be a reef called Brightledge). Both were excellent dives. We really liked this outfit. Decent gear, really pleasant relaxed & very helpful folks, and no imposed restrictions. In the case of the Pamir dive, we followed their divemaster around as he gave us a tour of the wreck & nearby "yellow submarine", then afterwards with plenty of air remaining the two of us simply wandered around the wreck looking at things & taking photos until our air was up. Others who'd dived the wreck before just buddied up & did their own thing. To my way of thinking, this is how it should be, and we enjoyed it. We'd very happily dive with these folks again.
Welcome | Reefers & Wreckers Dive Shop Barbados
Our final dive was with an outfit called Underwater Barbados. We wanted to do another dive in Carlisle Bay (a full dive, not a truncated Barbados Blue version) and actually had a tough time finding a dive operator because 4 (four!) cruise ships had pulled in & suddenly the island was flooded with people. By a combination of luck & circumstance we ended up with Michael from Underwater Barbados, joining him as he & his crew took a boatload of cruiseship passengers snorkelling. Michael used to do a lot of diving, running lots of people through, but found that work very tiring & now predominantly runs groups of snorkellers, with only an occasional few divers. We had a very enjoyable hour underwater with Michael exploring the wrecks & he's someone else we would happily dive with again.
Underwater Barbados
Aside from the outfits listed above, we also spoke with a couple of others.
"Eco Divers" we really liked, and we chatted with them a couple of times. A small outfit, they run a max of 5 divers at a time, and have a relaxed easy-going attitude. No timed dives, and they cater to photographers (the fellow who runs the shop is a keen photographer), so the pace is relaxed & patient. We would have liked to dive with them, but they were closing up shop for a week to go diving themselves on St Lucia when we spoke with them.
Barbados Diving: Eco Dive Barbados
"The Dive Shop" we spoke to a couple of times, and they've been recommended on these forums, but we just couldn't make anything happen with them. The big problem was that we'd ask the simple question, "Where are you planning on diving tomorrow?" and they'd always answer, "We don't know". What these folks wanted us to do was to sign up with them, pay our money, get on board the boat, and then they'd decide where they would go diving. Well that didn't really didn't appeal to us. We didn't want to commit our day & our money to get on a boat which could then potentially decide to do dives we didn't want to do (either because they'd be outside our abilities, or because we'd just done those dives the day before). We understand that plans can change because of conditions, but at least start with a plan, and these folks never seemed to have a clue.
The Dive Shop Ltd. - SCUBA DIVING IN BARBADOS!
That's it. We had a great time on Barbados. I hope this helps anyone else thinking about diving there.
p). Does anyone know if that's true?
