Wall dive with minimal experience?

[ls1dreams]

Hi all,

I'm likely headed to puerto rico for work, and could take a single day for myself.

Apparently one of the better spots in PR is in the SW where the wall dives along the continental shelf exist.

Do you consider these higher risk for a beginner? (bottom can reach 1000 feet+). Not sure about down currents along the wall.

I'd obviously go with a guide, but am wondering if you'd consider this too high risk.

About me:
- 17 dives with AOW. (great barrier reef and thailand)
- buoyancy I feel is just OK

 

[RB7]

Are u referring to the wall diving off la parguera ? I did a 2 tank dive over there a couple of years ago when I had similar experience level <25 dives. The diving itself was quite low key... no currents but surface was quite choppy and getting on the boat with the swinging ladder was a bit challenging. I would suggest that you dive with a good shop ( have to check my logs to see which one I used)... tell the DM upfront about your relative inexperience with walls and buoyancy concerns. You definately dont want to be overweighted so try to dial in your weights as well. If you are open to non-wall diving, I would recommend going to Ricon instead and do dives at desecheo island... much better reef diving with amazing visibility and relative shallow 60ft range if I recall. It is weather dependant and only 1 dive shop goes there so u may want to check in advance with them to make sure they have enough divers. La praguera wall is quite close off the jetty so they will take you out even if you are alone by yourself. I went with me and 2 DMs

 

[ls1dreams]

Are u referring to the wall diving off la parguera ? I did a 2 tank dive over there a couple of years ago when I had similar experience level <25 dives. The diving itself was quite low key... no currents but surface was quite choppy and getting on the boat with the swinging ladder was a bit challenging. I would suggest that you dive with a good shop ( have to check my logs to see which one I used)... tell the DM upfront about your relative inexperience with walls and buoyancy concerns. You definately dont want to be overweighted so try to dial in your weights as well. If you are open to non-wall diving, I would recommend going to Ricon instead and do dives at desecheo island... much better reef diving with amazing visibility and relative shallow 60ft range if I recall. It is weather dependant and only 1 dive shop goes there so u may want to check in advance with them to make sure they have enough divers. La praguera wall is quite close off the jetty so they will take you out even if you are alone by yourself. I went with me and 2 DMs

Yes, probably Parguera or nearby Guanica. I think I have a good idea of where my weighting should be based on my last dive experience (6kg was slightly too heavy, 4.5kg was too light to stay down at my safety stop, so probably 5-5.5kg or so).

Desecheo sounds perfect, but given the distance to the island, I'm not sure I'd have enough time to get out there and back all in one day.

 

[Hoag]

Hi all,

I'm likely headed to puerto rico for work, and could take a single day for myself.

Apparently one of the better spots in PR is in the SW where the wall dives along the continental shelf exist.

Do you consider these higher risk for a beginner? (bottom can reach 1000 feet+). Not sure about down currents along the wall.

I'd obviously go with a guide, but am wondering if you'd consider this too high risk.

About me:
- 17 dives with AOW. (great barrier reef and thailand)
- buoyancy I feel is just OK

Just don't try to find the bottom & you'll be fine.

All joking aside, think of it as a wonderful learning experience. Walls can be magnificent and with fewer visual cues as to your depth, it will be up to you to keep track of your depth and to remember that the deeper you go, the higher your air consumption becomes.

Pay attention to your depth & your air and have a terrific time. (BTW, don't forget to look off into the "deep blue" every once in awhile. you never know what you'll see.)

 

[Neilwood]

Just don't try to find the bottom & you'll be fine.

All joking aside, think of it as a wonderful learning experience. Walls can be magnificent and with fewer visual cues as to your depth, it will be up to you to keep track of your depth and to remember that the deeper you go, the higher your air consumption becomes.

Pay attention to your depth & your air and have a terrific time. (BTW, don't forget to look off into the "deep blue" every once in awhile. you never know what you'll see.)

Very good reminder to folks - it is not just what is on the wall that is good. Did a couple of walls in the Red Sea and made the point of looking out every so often and it was worth it with some very large Napoleon Wrasse and Tuna which tended to swim just off the wall.

As they people above have said, just be concious of checking your depth - I tended to pick a "landmark" at the right depth and followed it as opposed to continually looking at my computer.

 

[UFOrb]

Very good reminder to folks - it is not just what is on the wall that is good. Did a couple of walls in the Red Sea and made the point of looking out every so often and it was worth it with some very large Napoleon Wrasse and Tuna which tended to swim just off the wall.

Shark & Yolanda reef by any chance? Awesome site(s)!

 

[UFOrb]

As they people above have said, just be concious of checking your depth - I tended to pick a "landmark" at the right depth and followed it as opposed to continually looking at my computer.

Yes, so long as you keep an eye on your guide, buddy, depth gauge & other visual cues you'll be fine. Not being able to see the sea floor on my first wall dive was a little daunting to start with but I soon got used to it and loved it! I had less dives than you and was still working towards my AOW at the time.

 

[nolatom]

That same "look around" recommendation applies to ascents and safety stop hangs, too, on any type of dive. We need to watch our depth and pressure gauges, but there's typically time and opportunity to scan around (or rotate yourself around) to look at the ocean.

Lots of good stuff in the ocean--like pelagics cruising by, dolphins circling, barrcuda, some micro stuff too if you have a magnifier in your mask. I'm surprised at how some divers miss the biggest stuff, while others see it.

Look around!! ;-)

 

[UFOrb]

That same "look around" recommendation applies to ascents and safety stop hangs, too, on any type of dive. We need to watch our depth and pressure gauges, but there's typically time and opportunity to scan around (or rotate yourself around) to look at the ocean.

Lots of good stuff in the ocean--like pelagics cruising by, dolphins circling, barrcuda, some micro stuff too if you have a magnifier in your mask. I'm surprised at how some divers miss the biggest stuff, while others see it.

Look around!! ;-)

Yup, I even saw a manta gliding past after surfacing & heading back to the boat at Hin Daeng (we didn't see it on the actual dive). I just kept looking below the surface & there it was - the others missed it, despite me shouting my lungs out for them to look. We did see 3 on the next dive (Hin Muang) though

 

[tdallen]

I'm just back from a trip where I did my first wall dives, so FWIW here's my experience. You can't see the bottom 1,000 feet below you. I didn't find that intimidating, things just faded into darkness. You'll spend much of your time orienting yourself to features along the wall and keeping track of your buddy and the DM. You need to be able to use a dive computer/gauges and have adequate buoyancy control to let you maintain depth within a range. Bring a light, but otherwise keep things simple and focus on the dive and your skills.

I had lots of fun and was glad I tried it.