St. Croix dive buddies 4/8 - 4/12/24?

[JUMP]

I'm staying in Christiansted for about a week, and wondering if any board members will be there who might want to dive or if anyone can recommend any great spots.

Maybe if you've been recently and you had good/bad experiences with any of the charters - that would be great advice to get as well! I'm from the cold, dark Puget Sound so when it comes to warm water diving I'm easy to please.

Thanks!

 

[gmerick]

I live in C'stad. There is an active club on the island -- CRABBS , they are on facebook. There are a number of dive operators right on the boardwalk in C'stad. google is your friend.

 

[jonhall]

anyone can recommend any great spots.

In 1 week you can experience some pretty good dives/sites. From Christiansted, there are sights that have walls and submarine canyons. I would suggest a trip to Frederiksted, on the west side (about a 30-35 minute drive) to dive the reefs/wrecks, and if not for those, at least for the pier. One of my favorite boat dives would be one with wrecks: the Rosa Marie wreck is a short, deep dive - it is not penetrable - maybe a max of 45 minutes because of depth. If not doing that wreck, the Butler Bay wrecks are shallower - all 3 can be done on a tank. My favorite reef dive is The Swirling Reef of Death - sounds scary, but an easy fishy dive. Water is generally calmer on the west side of the island. The pier can be done as a shore dive (guided or not guided) and some dive ops may start the dive from a boat at the end and swim in toward shore. I would recommend doing it as a night dive also. In Frederiksted, Nep2une Scuba is a good dive op - you can set up pier dives with them as well as boat dives.

 

[Rob9876]

We actually enjoyed shore dives in St. Croix more than the boat dives that we did. We had guided tours with Jeff Dykstra (now with Adventures in Diving STX) who also has some great STX diving video's on his Triton's Realm YouTube channel. We did guided day and night dives in Cane Bay, a day dive at Northstar (somewhat rough entry, but best reef/wall dive we did).

We also loved diving the F'sted Pier, which is a great and easy shore dive day and night. Adventures in Diving STX also has a good fill card deal for renting tanks and weights, and it's an easy walk from their shop to the Pier. You'll want to check the cruise ship schedule for F'sted, as you cannot dive at the Pier when a ship is docked, but most ships still leave in time that you can do a night dive.

 

[JUMP]

There is an active club on the island -- CRABBS

Thanks for the tip, I will definitely be looking into them.

@jonhall Thank you! I definitely want to check out the wall, and definitely anything named the "swirling reef of death" haha

We actually enjoyed shore dives in St. Croix more than the boat dives that we did.

Definitely looking forward to some shore diving. That's what I'm used to in WA, and I'm hoping that I can stretch my budget a little more by doing the shore/pier stuff. I'll keep an eye on the cruise schedule. Thanks!