shopguy
Contributor
My wife and I will be staying in San Juan for the month of February. I love diving, my wife doesn’t hate it, but doesn’t like the cold (we live in Washington state and dive in 50 degree water with no sun ever).
We will have a rental car and be exploring the entire main island (not the others). I hope to dive at least 3 days per week. We will start in the protected Escambron area, so probably makes sense to rent gear from Scuba Dogs.
I hear the diving isn’t very good in San Juan, but the one or two I’ve managed to find on YouTube look pretty good to me, so maybe that is just compared to other tropical sites, but still amazing for people used to cold dark waters. So I’m thinking I’d like to try some diving in the area to judge for myself, and we are staying 1 block from Candado beach, so super easy to try.
My main concern is safety though. I hear currents can be strong on the north side of PR. To make things worse once I started searching on things related to currents and diving, I’ve seen horrible stories of divers being dragged to their death by such currents, like one gut wrenching story at Santa Rosa Wall in Cozumel. Probably getting my head all messed up...
So how likely am I to come across dangerous currents in various parts of PR, and what can I do to avoid them? I plan to talk to locales at dive shops near where we dive to check conditions/tides/etc, but will probably not be doing any guided dives, will just be diving from shore with my wife only. We are happy just getting wet and seeing a few fish really, and typically do not exceed 30 foot depth. The one time I took my wife on anything a little exciting was the wall in La Jolla. When we hit the edge at 30’ and looked out in to the darkness she was not enjoying it at all. We did end up making it down to 60’, but called it quits before the next ledge.
I’ve dived probably 1,000 times in the last 8 years, but all but a few were in somewhat protected bays with average depths of 20’, and I’ve only been certified for less than a year. My wife has done 3 dives, 2 in San Diego and one in Washington.
Aside from safety I am starting to think maybe I should bring my gear with me. With how often I want to dive, and not have to run back/forth to rental places daily, long term gear rental could get expensive. Thoughts? I couldn’t use my 7mil wetsuit, but probably don’t even need a wetsuit myself (my wife will want a thin one probably). We will be flying from Seattle to San Juan.
Thanks to these forums I have a list of places on the west side of PR to try, 1.5 to 2 hour drive, not bad, but would love it if we can also dive right in San Juan some.
We will have a rental car and be exploring the entire main island (not the others). I hope to dive at least 3 days per week. We will start in the protected Escambron area, so probably makes sense to rent gear from Scuba Dogs.
I hear the diving isn’t very good in San Juan, but the one or two I’ve managed to find on YouTube look pretty good to me, so maybe that is just compared to other tropical sites, but still amazing for people used to cold dark waters. So I’m thinking I’d like to try some diving in the area to judge for myself, and we are staying 1 block from Candado beach, so super easy to try.
My main concern is safety though. I hear currents can be strong on the north side of PR. To make things worse once I started searching on things related to currents and diving, I’ve seen horrible stories of divers being dragged to their death by such currents, like one gut wrenching story at Santa Rosa Wall in Cozumel. Probably getting my head all messed up...
So how likely am I to come across dangerous currents in various parts of PR, and what can I do to avoid them? I plan to talk to locales at dive shops near where we dive to check conditions/tides/etc, but will probably not be doing any guided dives, will just be diving from shore with my wife only. We are happy just getting wet and seeing a few fish really, and typically do not exceed 30 foot depth. The one time I took my wife on anything a little exciting was the wall in La Jolla. When we hit the edge at 30’ and looked out in to the darkness she was not enjoying it at all. We did end up making it down to 60’, but called it quits before the next ledge.
I’ve dived probably 1,000 times in the last 8 years, but all but a few were in somewhat protected bays with average depths of 20’, and I’ve only been certified for less than a year. My wife has done 3 dives, 2 in San Diego and one in Washington.
Aside from safety I am starting to think maybe I should bring my gear with me. With how often I want to dive, and not have to run back/forth to rental places daily, long term gear rental could get expensive. Thoughts? I couldn’t use my 7mil wetsuit, but probably don’t even need a wetsuit myself (my wife will want a thin one probably). We will be flying from Seattle to San Juan.
Thanks to these forums I have a list of places on the west side of PR to try, 1.5 to 2 hour drive, not bad, but would love it if we can also dive right in San Juan some.
