Beginner at CCV

[Bali1]

Chances are once he gets buoyancy under control and starts relaxing his air consumption will improve as well.

CCV is an excellent place to get your skills honed. The second boat dive is always a drop into the Front Yard and you can request a drop on the Prince Albert the first few times and just get your dad acclimated. Shore dives can do this as well if necessary. Patti and Dockside will help if you want and they are terrific.

After a week of 3-4 dives every day there will be vast improvement. Go slow and relax.

 

[dwlmgold]

CCV also has a solution for those who like air (as I do). There are 100 cu ft tanks available for the asking. The standard tank is 80.

 

[tkaelin]

It will work well. There are several reasons why that will come to be.

The terrain is perfect
When considering the shore dive, which will be your very first dive at CCV, the surface you have to walk on all geared up is hard packed sand, a short 90 staps from the gear-up area to the shore dive entry. From the water to 5' of depth is a sandy path, there you will find something of a picnic table to finish setting up your gear, facemask and all that.

The Front Yard is the dive site that begins immediately after that. NO WALKING from here on out, there's too much life to step on! You are now in a 6 acre area of shallow water that lies shoreside of the wall, basically a swimming pool that maxes out in 15fsw. You could spend the entire day at this depth and environ, I have many times. Lots of stuff to see and- run out of air? No, you'll get hungry first, but if you do suck it dry? Stand up.

Hi Doc, great post. Just was looking at CCV for a trip and my question was if the gear is stored by the boat dock how long a walk and how big a hassle is it to walk over to the other side of the resort with your gear. If I understand your post, you gear up at the dock and walk 90 steps across the property to the shore dive entry. That still seems longer than other shore diving places I have stayed at but your suggesting it is easy and can be easily done multiple times of day.

Another question. Are there plenty of 63s, both air and nitrox? Thanks. TK

 

[dwlmgold]

Hi Doc, great post. Just was looking at CCV for a trip and my question was if the gear is stored by the boat dock how long a walk and how big a hassle is it to walk over to the other side of the resort with your gear. If I understand your post, you gear up at the dock and walk 90 steps across the property to the shore dive entry. That still seems longer than other shore diving places I have stayed at but your suggesting it is easy and can be easily done multiple times of day.

Another question. Are there plenty of 63s, both air and nitrox? Thanks. TK

 

[tkaelin]

?

 

[gr8jab]

Depending on which storage bay you are assigned (they are boat specific) it is between 160 and 190 feet from the locker to the edge of the shore dive. The common practice is to put on all your gear (except mask and fins), and walk over. Even with a camera and pony bottle, it was easy (and I'm old and out of shape).

There are benches and a few tank holders at the shore, but I never saw anyone use them. Frankly, carrying over a tank separately by hand is probably harder than on your back.

I can't claim to be a world traveler, but I haven't been anywhere is easier. Some places different, but not harder.

 

[tkaelin]

Thanks. TK

I can't claim to be a world traveler, but I haven't been anywhere is easier. Some places different, but not harder.

. Our shore diving with gear stored in the lockers at Capt Dons BON,never counted the steps or thought about the distance but it is right on the water, short walk off the dock and in, maybe 30 ft. Gear room at Allwest CUR 35 steps down to the water and after doing this up and down 3-4 dives a day for 7 days with gear you notice and count the steps. Coconut Bay condo in GCM gear set up to ladder in is probably 100 ft mostly level. On google earth the walk at CCV from the dock to the shore entry looked a lot further. In any event, CCV sounds and looks very doable.

 

[gr8jab]

It is nice and flat. I didn't think twice of it, and I'm not very fit. Hope you have fun!

 

[gr8jab]

If you find the walls devoid of marine life as I did, swim up and over the top in the shallows. There's a lot more action there but know this - and maybe that's why it's not advertised- you are swimming directly below an active boat channel. So make sure you have good buoyancy control and situational awareness so you don't find yourself surfacing into the path of an oncoming vessel.

Where exactly? I think maybe you mean the area above Newman's wall (left of Newman's Wall in this picture). I remember some boat traffic in this area, but seem to think they mostly stayed in the channel. Maybe they cut the corner.

I don't think you meant above Coco View Wall, since it is very shallow and a hazard to boats (above Coco View Wall in this picture).

Thanks for clarifying.

Oh, and I'm sure you didn't mean to, but you sounded quite like a curmudgeon in your post. We had a great time at CCV. We feel differently than you, and that's OK. But, I hope the OP hasn't had his excitement and enthusiasm thwarted. There's nothing more deflating than buying a new car, only to have someone tell you why it was a bad purchase. - I mean this in the most conversational and benign tone possible.

 

[Doc]

If one is "above" the corals on either Newmans or CCV Wall, you simply cannot get hit by any boat other than a canoe. More danger of Sunburn than anything.

Salvager- your depth looks correct, but your logged notes are just slightly off... On a drop off dive, if you "crossed over the PVC trail", you are now quite deep West of the wreck, and into the murk caused by Fantasy Island. It is indeed near a boat channel, but rarely used except by CCV boats...and they dropped you off 45 minutes before. Yes, a good spot for Lobsters and Lions. I go there at night- for much more interesting stuff. The other West side of the Channel? I wouldn't recommend for fish life, and the morons from FIBR roar through there too fast, but that's really a non issue for CCV divers.

Those shallows are rarely dived, but they are packed with life. On the North side of the channel is CCV and it's as pristine of a reef as one could ever want. It's packed with micro critters, which most divers have not yet begun to see.

On the other side of the Channel to the Southwest, that's Newmans Wall. It's rather barren by comparison due to heave crashing waves, but visit it on a rare still air night dive, spectacular.

The drop off dive is often maligned as "always the same". This falls into the same category as comments about the wreck.

Many divers can only see the ship, the same ones that can only see the shape of the rocks that make up a wall. It's easier to look at ship structures in a boatyard. If you want to see exciting rock formations, go to the Alps. It is simply NOT about formations and wreck penetrations, it is that "fish like structure".

Do the drop off dive at different depths, stay above 55' and you'll see dramatically different to fish life. I'm not talking about the obvious common stuff, get in, look close, take a magnifying glass and a flashlight.

Roatan's South shore rewards the patient, those with excellent buoyancy and close-up observational skills. It is truly for advanced divers - not because it's difficult diving - no, because only divers who are not preoccupied with diving itself, they can best find and see what there really is to enjoy. If you don't have that skill set yet, stay with the DM, or find a macro photographer and gawk at what he was just shooting.

In general, anybody that is below 65fsw is missing the point, and at CCV I've seen a whole lot of fish-life complaints from the 85' crowd. Go slow, stay shallow.

I've been everyplace that people drool about in dive magazines. Been there, dive that. My wife and I have been doing a yearly CCV, sometimes for two weeks, every year since 1985. Maybe we got it wrong, dunno.

I'll be there with my "fish wife" on May 26, along with, as it turns out- the OP and her Poppa...oops, better start packing!