Heading to Jamaica

[mcohen1021]

Yes its included in the price of the resort and its also more of a family vacation than a dive vacation. With that said I am looking to get into more of the good diving in the near future but have to keep the wife and kids happy as well.

Good for you. I really thought the diving out of Negril was nice. Note: if you're not AoW, the resorts may require it if you desire to go deeper than 60'.

 

[Mike Klieb]

I fully intend on getting my AoW before we go I wanted to get Proficient in all of the OW skills and get about 20 dives in before I got my AoW. Just my personal preference and I feel it will help make the AoW a better and easier cert to achieve

 

[mcohen1021]

My advice - check prices. In my wifes case, the resort AoW was slightly higher, but at least there was no drive to the local craphole to test out.

 

[Mike Klieb]

The price of the AoW here is about 250-300 and dive at Lake Travis for test out.

 

[mcohen1021]

yeah, thats what I figured, I dont recall what she paid for AoW but it was within $50 and you do it in clear water - totally worth it. then again, these days I only dive in the texas lakes to help work on waterski courses. I did my time in the murk.

 

[ibj40]

I live in Kingston and haven't dived the north coast recently, but just last night I was talking with a friend who has a dive operation in Kingston and he said I need to go dive Portland as it has made a remarkable turnaround. I've heard similar stories from other divers recently, so it seems the fish sanctuaries they have set up are making a difference even quicker than they anticipated.
Sounds promising, so it's possible you may get some decent dives in.

That is encouraging that there is evidence at dive sites other than what we have witnessed over the past 15 years. Let's hope it can be sustained.

 

[Fastmarc]

Thought I would chime back in since I did a dive in Discovery Bay on Saturday.
The dive was surprisingly poor. The reefs we did wasn't in good condition and there wasn't much fish life. I say surprisingly because this was just outside of a fish sanctuary and my expectation was high after hearing reports from other divers at the other sanctuaries. I dived one a couple of years ago on the north coast further east of this (Orocabessa fish sanctuary) and it was much better. Not sure what's going on here at all, but it may have been the sites we chose. My dive guide wasn't very familiar with the area. That being said, I won't be back there for diving.
The dive operators told me that Runaway Bay area is much better where they are based (Resort Divers/Sharkies), so I'll try to get that side to see in the near future.

 

[mcohen1021]

The dive operators told me that Runaway Bay area is much better

No it is not. Trust me. Waste of time and money

The entire north coast of Jamaica is worthless for scuba.

Negril is awesome.

 

[ibj40]

No it is not. Trust me. Waste of time and money

The entire north coast of Jamaica is worthless for scuba.

Negril is awesome.

Another Negril believer.

Headed back down in December.

 

[mcohen1021]

Another Negril believer.

Headed back down in December.

Yes it is good diving. No, I would not make it a yearly destination. That being said, I do make Cozumel a 1x/yr destination, then try to add a new place. But 2020 might be a duplicate - socorro and cozumel lol