Kayak Diving

[releck97]

Armed with the knowledge that we can rent kayaks for the week at the Reef and being very avid GC shore divers, I can't help but get giddy over the prospects of kayak diving the marked sites out east. Has anyone done kayak diving on Grand Cayman? Any experiences to share? Thanks!

 

[CJ's]

Armed with the knowledge that we can rent kayaks for the week at the Reef and being very avid GC shore divers, I can't help but get giddy over the prospects of kayak diving the marked sites out east. Has anyone done kayak diving on Grand Cayman? Any experiences to share? Thanks!

What time of year will you be there? I'm not sure I'd want to try and kayak through the channels in the reef in rough seas, which occur a lot in the East End.

 

[releck97]

What time of year will you be there? I'm not sure I'd want to try and kayak through the channels in the reef in rough seas, which occur a lot in the East End.

We won't be paddling through any channels (except maybe by Frank Sound). We're also going in late April...hopefully, we'll be past the winter winds...thinking more like Babylon, Julie's, etc. on the north side and totally play it by ear (er, wind) on the south side.

 

[Peter_C]

How do you plan to anchor? I have never seen a rental kayak that offered anchors. Are you bringing your own tag lines? Do you have a way to keep your gear with the kayak in the event of a roll? What is your contingency plan if something goes wrong? Do you have a radio or PLB? Have you ever dove off an unattended boat before?

At least ask yourself the questions above and make sure you are prepared. Enjoy your trip as it sounds like you are going to have an awesome time

 

[releck97]

Important safety tip Egon. We regularly dive off an unattended zodiac up north. When we drift dive, we remain tied to the boat. In this situation, we would tie up to the mooring balls. Polypropylene line weighs next to nothing and floats, making it ideal to travel with and use as mooring and/or tag lines. Being USCG captains and experienced divers, we review all aspects of our dives before we attempt anything. Having regularly dove these sites as surface swims, we are more than a little bit interested in paddling out in a kayak instead of swimming each and every time.
Any GC kayak divers?

 

[Peter_C]

When we drift dive, we remain tied to the boat. In this situation, we would tie up to the mooring balls. Polypropylene line weighs next to nothing and floats, making it ideal to travel with and use as mooring and/or tag lines.

Personally I am not a big fan of poly rope. I use it for tag lines, and also for my current line. To make sure it doesn't come apart I put zip ties into my loops to make darn sure they stay together. Knots seem to have a way of quickly working lose with poly, and braiding it is not something I desire to try. All my anchor and docks lines are nylon rope. I started replacing my tag lines with bungee cord tied into 1" tubular webbing as it has some give to it. Also use the same setup for attaching two kayaks together when kayak diving.

I found at home here, kayak diving is more of a chore than surface swimming to a point. Scooters are where it is at!

 

[releck97]

I would love to be able to scooter. So, you're not a fan of the work involved in kayak diving? There is something to be said about the simplicity of shore diving. I'm currently using the new polypro mooring lines which are braided and handle a knot much better than the traditional lines.

 

[nipi]

I am not a kayaker but it seems like it would be a LOOONG way from the Reef to Babylon.

 

[EastEndDiver]

Also make sure you fly a dive flag if you are diving from a marked dive site in GC.

 

[releck97]

I am not a kayaker but it seems like it would be a LOOONG way from the Reef to Babylon.

We regularly swim out to Babylon. It's normally about 20 minutes of fairly easy kicking. It would be a quick paddle.

---------- Post added October 8th, 2013 at 05:21 PM ----------

Also make sure you fly a dive flag if you are diving from a marked dive site in GC.

We always carry our inflatable dive flag/buoy when we travel