First time to GC 5/26-6/3 some Tips needed

[DandH]

DandH, can I get a copy of the shore diving itinerary? I'm headed there in July and my gf is a novice newly certified diver. I don't want to run into the same thing that you did.

Well, luckily we followed our gut and changed plans before arriving so it all went quite well.

 

[Codeman00]

Wow...thank you for the detailed explanation!!

 

[Blazinator]

Very good realistic description. We are staying at The Reef resort June 5 - 12th, and diving with Ocean Frontiers, but only a few boat dives, the rest will be shore diving at spots like you mentioned.

I'd rather have relaxing shore dives than harrowing boat dives. But then again, I did 100 feet in Hawaii and it was cool - spent most of the dive at 60 ft though. Good to hear that Dive Tech rents 100's. Hoping that the weather will have south winds to shore dive Anchor Point (near Reef Resort).

 

[Blastman4444]

Some last minute stuff came up and we tried to make our flight last night but we missed it because they closed bag checking at 45 minutes before the flight takes off. They could only offer standby and I didn't want to get stuck in another airport though the holiday everything was full they said. I ended up changing our flight to June 4th to the 12th. The reef resort was nice enough to reschedule without a charge. We also plan to use Ocean Frontiers so maybe we will see you there we will be at the Reef resort the same time 6/5-6/12. I also want to try out the auqa scooters at light house. Thanks for the all the information posted also

 

[Blazinator]

Some last minute stuff came up and we tried to make our flight last night but we missed it because they closed bag checking at 45 minutes before the flight takes off.

My heart sank for you hearing that, but I guess it turned out ok, and we might be able to see you at the Reef. Not sure what studios we (four of us - two couples, my wife is a non-diver) will have, but I'll send you a private message with my cell#.

Make sure you book your dives with Ocean Frontiers soon, because we booked three or four weeks ago, and all thier AM dives were filled up for 6/5-12, so we booked three days of PM dives (which we wanted anyhow - hate waking up early to rush around on our vaca). The only disadvantage with PM dives is that surf may be rougher than in the morning.

Maybe we could all go do the Lighthouse point shore dives together too. We are not as newbie divers as you, but essentially are the same - we like to be cautious, and our experience will help you alot. I wouldn't worry too much about the 100 foot dives - they likely say 100 foot in the ads to generate excitement, but they don't force anyone to go to 100 feet. You really don't want to anyway cuz it will cut your dive time down (unless you bounce to it for photo op like me, and then come up slowly).

If you plan to get their on Friday, try to get a shore dive in the same day you arrive or next saturday for sure, so you can get used to your equipment and have a real good confidence building AND EXCITING! experience. All the shore dive ops have guides that you can pay to give you the tour and boost your first-timer confidence. We might try to do a shore dive at Eden Rock or Sunset House before we even get to The Reef resort after we pick up our rental car, so we don't have to drive all the way back to the West side on our first day. Then our plan is to rent some tanks from OF and do AM shore dives before the PM boat dives at OF on Sunday.

Make sure that you check out this website here on shore diving spots on GC: Grand Cayman Islands Scuba Diving, the Cayman Islands offshore scuba diving guide,Shore Diving,Grand Cayman dive site locations

You will see that Anchor Point is quite close to The Reef, as well as some south sites in case the weather is rough on the north side.

I'm excited for you on your first real diving trip, and you will likely cry underwater like I did.

 

[Blastman4444]

It was tough going back to work after getting 20min away from a tropical island vacation. I think we might be less crowded since we aren't going on the 3 day holiday. I didn't know they book up I had planned on just going to there shop and sign up for the dives. I will call them tomorrow. I think scuba diving will be a new horizon of adventure for my wife and I. One of my 2 life goals is to scuba dive and the other one is to learn to fly a small plane or glider. I love the idea of being able to fly a small slow plane over things and look down like a bird and see what the world looks like from up there. Then scuba dive and see a world hardly ever noticed by many who never even swim. I know people at my job who have never swam in an ocean.

 

[Blazinator]

. . . I love the idea of being able to fly a small slow plane over things and look down like a bird and see what the world looks like from up there. Then scuba dive and see a world hardly ever noticed by many who never even swim. I know people at my job who have never swam in an ocean.

Yep. What a world so many miss.
It's hard to get my mind around the fact that God's most visually arresting design work laid for thousands of years of man's existance under the undulating veil of a wavy surface.

That little glimpse through clear water was like God begging man, "just take a piece of glass and seal it into the bottom of a wood box and you will really see it". And those early glimpses through viewing tubes, crude goggles, and then through diving bells firmly planted the seed of innovation that eventually became the current state of diving equipment that allows common folks like you and me to actually be immersed in that very elusive Silent World that so entranced us for years.
A mere facsimile of Heaven.

Sorry to wax so eloquent, but you started it. Got your PM - Hope to meet up at GC.

 

[Damselfish]

While it's certainly possible to do a week of shallower diving on Grand Cayman, if you are a beginner who doesn't want to dive very deep at all I would suggest Grand Cayman is not the best destination to start with. You may be able to arrange shallower boat diving with the right op and do shallow shore diving, but it's not really what Grand Cayman diving is about. There are lots of places much better suited for a beginner wanting to do a bunch of shallow diving (whether boat or shore) and build up some experience.

I would also say that if you want to do the easy shore diving that is available on GC, staying on the East End of the island doesn't work too well because almost all that easy shore diving is on the West End. Most of this is at developed sites with dive shops and tanks on site. As far as any places at non-developed sites where you need to bring your own tanks, the one place you can reliably rent tanks to take wherever is also on SMB.

Blazinator - have you verified with Ocean Frontiers that they are currently renting tanks to take off site for shore diving? Maybe they are right now but historically they have not, same with most ops on Grand Cayman.

 

[Blazinator]

Blazinator - have you verified with Ocean Frontiers that they are currently renting tanks to take off site for shore diving? Maybe they are right now but historically they have not, same with most ops on Grand Cayman.

Great info - very true that GC is all about walls. I did call to verify that OF will rent tanks. They may have said yes to me, because I had booked boat dives with them as well, and considered me a "customer".

If you only rented tanks from them exclusively without patronizing their establishemnt, maybe it would have been a different story.

As it looks weatherwise, I have seen that the winds are all from the East friday, Saturday and Sunday so far, so shore diving from Anchor Point or other east sites might be well out of the question initially. So we will likely shore dive at West sites unless the winds change direction.

 

[Codeman00]

Listen to DandH, and take his advice. This is my 5th year to SMB and still a beginner myself. We did the wall dive as beginners and both my hubby and I were very, very nervous. By doing the shore dives, we were able to see exactly why we were there!

I'm in a bit of a different situation being that I've dove for many years now and am comfortable in most any dive situation (depth, current, etc). My girlfriend is recently certified and this will be her first ocean diving. My goal is to make sure that I don't overwhelm her at first with difficult dives... I've done shore dives and boat dives...both of them have their own share of dangers and stressers. I personally think that boat diving with a guide putting you in a favorable dive situation would be much better than just picking a location and shore diving without knowing anything about the surge, currents, etc. But boat diving has its own share of issues...either one can be challenging.

This information is good...I didn't realize that the boat dives were 100 ft wall dives until I read your posts....and its a good thing I did...and now I have some shore options too. Thank you.