Need info on Puerto Rico

[Jim Lapenta]

I have just signed up my wife;s cousin for OW class. He will complete his cert by Dec 1st. Either the second or third week of January he will be in Puerto Rico on business. Staying in San Juan. He has invited me to come down since his company is paying for the accommodations and dive Sat, Sun, Mon, and perhaps Tuesday AM. ANY info on water temps, ops to use, shore dive sites as well would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Wally1716]

.
January is not the best month for diving, specially in the north coast.
You might have to hide in the south, best sites are in Parguera.
Several local dive shops can cater to your kind of diving from very
basic to the highest tech. Enjoy.
.
Wally Barnes
\\\ \

 

[Aquabear]

I'm going down in Nov- Thanksgiv week. Been doing lots of research and I agree Jan not great especially on North coast huge Atlantic swells. South coast better, its the Caribbean side which is much calmer. Seems to be limited shore sites on south shore. Parguera is (I hope) a world class wall dive.
Desecho I heard is great but again rough waves heard will cancel trips.
I reccommend a copy of Lonely Planet Puerto Rico for some small ideas on diving south shore, for shore and small islands offshore and outfitters.
Vieques/Culebra is awesome- if you can get there.
Wanted to go back to Crash boat but heard atlantic winter waves will probably make any diving from popular shore sites- Shacks/Jobos/Tres Palmas/Submarine caves around there impossible.
There are older posts- and I mean old which give more insight into this.
Before going down I will call the LDS in PR and ask how condition are, if (might be dreaming) there are no waves, I'll do shore dives at above locations.

Good luck, if you find anything let me know.

 

[smokey braden]

jimlap,
i was in pr back in august.
we stayed on the s/v juliet.
we dove Desecho 4 times.
the rest of our trip we were out 40mi. on mona island.

the one thing that impressed me a great deal was the condition of the reefs.
all the coral both hard and soft were there with many colours and textures.
the food chain was was very apparent with the reef sharks down to the cleaning stations.

i did not expect the quality of the reef system to be so high.
i know you are not going on a liveaboard, but some of the shops will take to Desecho.
the current there was something to keep in mind.

i hope you have a great time and discover pr's beautiful reefs.
regards,

 

[pdelannoy]

I can recommend West Divers in La Parguera. I would call them and ask directly about conditions in December.

PD

 

[Jim Lapenta]

How about Puerto Rico Technical Diving center? I like that they are NAUI and IANTD. They also did not try to sell me on boat dives and told me that my student and I could shore dive for a week and not see the same places. Of course currents and surf might limit some areas but we are not looking to go crazy. These will be his first ocean dives and quite likely first dives after cert. We also are able to stay anywhere on the island. His plant is on the southeast side but we are not stuck there or in San Juan or anywhere really.

 

[Luis H]

Hi Jim

PR Technical Diving in Aguadilla is a nice shop and Tony Cerezo (the owner) is a great person.

I grew up in Puerto Rico and loved diving in Crash Boat Beach, etc., but the last time I was in Aguadilla the waves stirred the water so bad there was almost no visibility. The next day we dove in Parguera and it was fantastic.

The time of the year you are thinking about going is probably not the best for shore diving in PR. In general, in PR the shore diving is never as good as the diving in Parguera or Desecheo.

The wall in Parguera is some of the best diving you will find. Desecheo is also fantastic, but again the boat trip it is exposed to the weather from the north.

I would recommend staying in Parguera and diving with West Divers.

Here is a report I wrote from my last trip (I way overdue to go back):
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/gr...ort-puerto-rico-1st-week-november-2007-a.html


The report has information of all the dive spot and operators we tried and I can’t say anything bad of any, but that time of the year IMO the south west coast is your best bet.

 

[pdelannoy]

I understand your reservations about the new divers. I would still contact West Divers and speak to Roxanna and Victor about your situation and see what they say. I was there this summer with my 14 year old daughter and though she had around 30 previous dives, I was still nervous about diving the walls with her but West Divers is a great operation and took really good care of us and my daughter did fine.

Read my trip report.

PD

 

[Luis H]

Yes, I would not be concerned at all about a new diver in Victor’s boat.

This is the Caribbean, you know… 3mm wetsuit or shorty, minimal weight, no gloves, no hood, warm water, unlimited visibility… this is the easiest diving in the world… ultra low stress.

West Divers boat is also set up very nicely. Nice layout, roomy, with a good tank rack, and a good ladder. They also hang a long hose with multiple second stages into the water in case anyone needs it during a safety stop.

Another great detail is that they hang a down line with a milk crate at the bottom with weights. It makes it very handy to fine tune your weights when you can pick or drop weight right at the bottom of the down line. This is very handy not just for a new diver, but a traveling diver with different or new light wet suit.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Jim there is a shore dive on low tide with a swim through caves and maybe a cave in theat sort, Jeff cruise on this board lives there now, not sure of avatar, you can google katrina cruise, as she is an underwater photographer, they bougt kyaks at costco, so kyak diving is a possibility along with shore diving.

happy diving