St. Thomas Shore Diving

[Jaeger62]

Going to St. Thomas in January and wondering if the diving is worth spending time/money on. I've looked at Coki Bay and Secret Harbor beaches that both have dive shops doing shore dives.

Aqua Action Dive Center on Secret Harbor has 2 different shore dives, an easy and shallow one which I wouldn't really be interested in, or one that goes to 5 Finger Reef after a surface swim. Sounds like another option with them is a 1 tank boat dive.

Cokie Bay Dive Center also does surface dives, but the vibe I'm getting by looking around is that they are pretty tame and maybe not worth the time.

If neither of the above are really worth it, I'll probably just park it on a beach somewhere, since I'm on a cruise with my non diving wife and already doing a 2 tank dive a couple of days previous at Grand Turk.

Thanks!

 

[diversteve]

Some of the cruise excursions (snuba, beach etc) go to Coki Beach if you want (to pay for) a ride. Coki Dive is just to the right between it and Coral Worrld and we were able to get tanks at the Coki Dive shack on the beach.

It's a so-so dive, pretty sparse and shallow off the beach. If you swim far enough you can get to some depth - maybe 80'? We swam right towards Coral World and once we crossed the outflow pipes it got a little better. Scale of 1-10 about a 6.

Later afternoon the current picked a lot up and we couldn't get back so we got out south of Coral World and climbed a small path to the very end of their parking lot.

Later we figured out that if we'd let the current take us past the point, you could swim to ta small boat anchorage area and getting out there would be across the street from Coki Beach.

I don't know the other site you mentioned.

There's also a dive shop and shore dive on Hull Bay but it's farther north and I've read can be murky. I'd be concerned about getting back to the ship from there unless you rent a car - it could take a while for a cab.

 

[diversteve]

Are you looking for boat dive? Admiralty will pick you up at the cruise dock (by van), Their shop is on the waterfront near downtown and their boat is moored across the street.
https://www.admiraltydive.com/

 

[ana_dive]

Save your money on shore diving. St Thomas has some great dives, but all of those are boat dives. Check out www.DiveAquaMarine.com, they have great boat and can take you to some amazing dives

 

[Protondecay123]

Going to St. Thomas in January and wondering if the diving is worth spending time/money on. I've looked at Coki Bay and Secret Harbor beaches that both have dive shops doing shore dives.

Aqua Action Dive Center on Secret Harbor has 2 different shore dives, an easy and shallow one which I wouldn't really be interested in, or one that goes to 5 Finger Reef after a surface swim. Sounds like another option with them is a 1 tank boat dive.

Cokie Bay Dive Center also does surface dives, but the vibe I'm getting by looking around is that they are pretty tame and maybe not worth the time.

If neither of the above are really worth it, I'll probably just park it on a beach somewhere, since I'm on a cruise with my non diving wife and already doing a 2 tank dive a couple of days previous at Grand Turk.

Thanks!

I dove Coki many moons ago and it was a great shore dive. The vendor I used has passed on, but I would dive it again.