St. Thomas diving advice

[T.C.]

Hello,

My family will be visiting St. Thomas in December during Christmas. I would appreciate some help for planning for this trip. We will be staying in Peterborg for a week, and will have two vehicles for getting around.

There will be three divers ranging from experienced to new, as well as two snorkelers who would love to snorkel along the shore.
I would like to know of a good dive shop or two that we can use for diving. In addition, if there is a shop I should avoid, please let me know too!

How easy is it to shore dive there? Is there a map or guide to the shore sites? What are the rules; do we need a marker? How difficult are shore dive sites to find? Are there any generally strong currents, bad viz, or other hazards we should know about that are not easy to spot?

I enjoy hunting Lionfish, and I plan to bring my spear if it permitted. What rules and regulations concern Lionfish? Is there any hunting bans, permits or classes needed? What should I know about hunting Lionfish in St. Thomas?

Please help me to plan this trip out. If there is any information you can offer, I’d love to hear it!

Thanks!

 

[diversteve]

Peterborg is the east side of Magens Bay - I've read the nicest beach on St. Thomas. Tourists, locals, cruise excursions all go there. Your friends can snorkel there.

Pretty much there's only two shore dives on St. thomas unless you just want to kick around in the shallows. We did one and no one offered/suggested a flag. Scuba Shore Diving Site Listing for: St Thomas, Caribbean

The next bay over to the west from Magens is Hull Bay. There is a shore dive there. I don't believe it's very deep though. They also do a bioluminescence night snorkel there. This is the on-site shop: St. Thomas Scuba and Snorkel Adventures | A private tour company. - no personal experience with them.

East about 3 miles is Coki Beach. It's also pretty shallow and in some spots pretty barren. We got to about 50-60' there by going east past Coral World - kind of a 70's aquarium - past their outflow pipes I thought the diving got a little better there. Coral World also has walking Snuba like tours - they use those hardhat tethered things. Seemed kind of stupid to me but we saw them dropping people in the water as we swam by.

Coki Dive is at Coki Beach. They also do Snuba in small groups. Coki Dive Center We rented tanks from them but that's all I know of them. Coki is also a popular locals beach, we had a good afternoon there - a few tourist things, water toy rentals, food options. Little bit of ganja around if you have kids. Not so much on the beach but near the restaurant area 100' away.

I like Red Hook Diving in Red Hook for boat dives. They do some of the better dives and the staff is mostly all instructors. Red Hook Dive Center | Scuba Diving in St. Thomas US Virgin Islands Red Hook is the American Yacht Harbor and their shop is in the heart of it. 50' to the boat and there's restaurants etc. in the same building and nearby. Cow/Calf Rocks nearby is an interesting shallow dive. Carval Rock is one of the better dives but it's sort of advanced. The Cays diving, Grass, Congo, etc. would be for most levels. We did a shallow drift there - quicker moving but only about 40' deep the entire dive.

From there you can easily "drive" (1/2 hr. by car ferry) over to St. John also. St John has the best snorkeling in the VI's. Best Snorkeling on St John | St John Beach Guide

You can also drive straight south - more or less - to Charlotte Amalie. Just a couple of miles - same trip you'll make to your rental basically. Both Admiralty and Blue Island Divers are based there. They dive a lot of the wrecks south of C.A. among other dives. Blue Island has an interactive map here: Blue Island Divers Dive SItes Both ae more or less waterfront near downtown.

You could also look into a day trip to the Rhone in the BVI's - Cruz Bay Watersports or Low Key - one of them - does it. It's the signature BVI wreck, big - split in two so two separate dives. If you've seen "The Deep" it was filmed there. I'm not a wreck fan but I liked that one - some interesting machinery etc. on the back half.

They also do an all day snorkel trip to the world-famous Baths on Virgin Gorda - too shallow to dive but a popular snorkel stop. Ned passports for either.

I don't hunt but it is a U.S territory... I doubt you can hunt off St. John, much of the island to the east is some sort of official marine preserve.

 

[CptTightPants21]

Admiralty Dive Center (Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands): Hours, Address, Scuba & Snorkeling Reviews - TripAdvisor

Admiralty Dive Center. Search for them on this site, they have excellent reviews on this site and I highly recommend them. There are a few shore dive locations on the island.

 

[Malpaso]

Reviewed here - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/cr...-cruise-diving-tips-needed-2.html#post6447733

 

[afdgf]

We have gone with Red Hook Diving twice now and had very good experiences with them both times. I just seems that diving with them is so very easy compared to other places.

 

[T.C.]

Thank you all. Based on the responses I received from the shops and your advice, we've decided to do most of our boat diving with Blue Island Divers.

diversteve, does Coki Beach rent tanks that you can take to other sites? Hull Bay was recommended, but it's away from their shop.

 

[diversteve]

diversteve, does Coki Beach rent tanks that you can take to other sites? Hull Bay was recommended, but it's away from their shop.

I didn't ask since the only shore dive we did was there.

I don't know for a fact but I wouldn't be surprised if Red Hook Diving did. They have a daily/weekly tank rental listed and being the only shop in the yacht harbor likely get requests from people doing bareboat charters - Island Yacht Rentals is based there and there might be a Moorings location also nearby.