which dive shop should i go with on st thomas?

[runsongas]

I will be in St Thomas at the end of April for a week. Looking to get about 4 days of diving in. Anybody have opinions on the dive shops on St Thomas? Admiralty Dive, St Thomas Dive Club, and Red Hook are the 3 I have looked at. St Thomas Dive Club is closest to my hotel (Marriott Frenchman's Reef).

 

[lackluster]

Don't suppose you have received any helpful private responses to your question?... I'm also researching dive ops near that Marriott.

I will be in St Thomas at the end of April for a week. Looking to get about 4 days of diving in. Anybody have opinions on the dive shops on St Thomas? Admiralty Dive, St Thomas Dive Club, and Red Hook are the 3 I have looked at. St Thomas Dive Club is closest to my hotel (Marriott Frenchman's Reef).

 

[runsongas]

I think I'm gonna go with the St Thomas Dive Club since it is close then go with Low Key to the HMS Rhone

 

[Gurth]

I will be in St Thomas at the end of April for a week. Looking to get about 4 days of diving in. Anybody have opinions on the dive shops on St Thomas? Admiralty Dive, St Thomas Dive Club, and Red Hook are the 3 I have looked at. St Thomas Dive Club is closest to my hotel (Marriott Frenchman's Reef).

Don't know if this is too late but in case anyone else is needing info...

We stayed at Bolongo Bay so went with St. Thomas Dive Club. I checked out reviews ahead of time and they were positive and being able to walk out of my room and onto the boat made it a no-brainer.

I am very pleased with the diving that I did with them and would go with them again if I ever return to St. Thomas. In addition to myself, my 14yo son went and these were his first open water dives.

They partner you with a DM, so if you prefer to do your own thing, best to call ahead.

The boat is in good shape and the crew and DMs were all friendly. The equipment seemed to be newer and was in great shape. They had integrated weight BCDs which isn't always the case and was nice.

The diving was very good if not great (compared to say Grand Cayman) and we saw a lot of sea life. Reefs seemed to be in good shape.

Here are some photos from the diving portion of the trip: 1.jpg Photo by Gurth17 | Photobucket


Went to Buck Island (Turtle Cove & the Cartanza Wreck), Ledges of Little St. James, Packet Rock, the Kennedy Wreck and Supermarket.

 

[runsongas]

thanks for the post gurth. was the buck island dive in the afternoon? How was it? I am kinda undecided whether I want to stick to the morning ones or do the mixed scuba/snorkel one in the afternoon.

 

[Gurth]

thanks for the post gurth. was the buck island dive in the afternoon? How was it? I am kinda undecided whether I want to stick to the morning ones or do the mixed scuba/snorkel one in the afternoon.

The Buck Island dive is where I believe they go every afternoon - assuming that they have customers. It's also where they will take the resort divers and beginners.

We did that one first as I hadn't dove in several years and it was to be my son's first actual dives, so it was an easy start.

The first dive was the Cartanza Wreck which was okay. Some cool sponges and some fish, but definitely not a ton of interest compared to all the other ones we went on.

The second dive was around the front (north) of the island in Turtle Cove. We started in maybe 45' and swam towards the shallow waters - ending in maybe 20'.

There were some nice sponge fields and we saw garden eels and a few smaller coral formations. The attraction for this dive is when you get to the 25' area and there are several turtles (greens and hawksbills) always around as there is the grass on the bottom that they feed on.

We were also surrounded 360 degrees by a huge school of southern sennet fish which was really cool. Beyond that though, there wasn't much else of interest.

Long and short is that your time is most likely better spent on the morning dives as they were far more interesting (imo anyway) and you'll most likely see turtles (we did) just about everywhere else anyway.

 

[runsongas]

thanks for the info gurth, i think I will skip the afternoon dive and hit up magens or coki then

 

[diversteve]

If you're going to dive Coki, the best part is past the Coral World outfall tubes to the right. In the afternoon current there can be extreme. We did two dives there - on the 2nd we couldn't make any forward progress back towards Coki Bay so wound up climbing out at the far end of the Coral World parking lot and walking back. When we got back the Coki Beach operator was just getting ready to come get us with the jetski - he "forgot" to mention it could happen. It's possible that we could've drifted around the point, swam into the harbor and walked back across the road also. But the way we were heading, I could see St. John in the distance - 5 miles away...we saw a little path down to the water near the end of the point so figured that was our best option instead.

There's also a few shore dives off St. John. You can "drive" there - car ferry from Red Hook. Low Key has some details: http://www.divelowkey.com/dive_stjohn.html?PID=6

 

[runsongas]

thanks for the input steve, i'll consider shorediving on st john. i heard the dive shop that is inside the NP is closed though.

 

[amoses]

We are going to St. Thomas in May of 2015 - I know it's a long way off but I am starting to get similar info already for that trip. We will be staying the Ritz-Carlton (it was a gift) and Patagon Dive Center is on their property. Does anyone know anything about them? They are $125 for two tank dive. Is that pretty average for St. Thomas? If you buy 5 two tank dives then you get a discount ($500). Price isn't everything of course, I do want a quality dive op! Any suggestions for other good quality ops around that part of St. Thomas?