Why You Should Dive Roatan With Native Sons in West End!

[njshorescubaguy]

Any dive shop can put you in the water. Native Sons dive shop in West End, Roatan Honduras will take you exploring the vibrant Roatan Marine Park. Owned and run by Alvin and Mish it is the kind fo dive shop every diver hopes to dive with. They care about their island, they care about the reef and they care about their divers. And.... they just LOVE diving! (As for Utila vs Roatan... due to it's protection now over 10 years in the Roatan Marine Park there is alot more sea life and more fish off Roatan.)


I have been diving with them now for part of every winter for 5 years (other divers have been diving with them even much longer!) and could not recommend them more highly. The shop is right on "straight out of a movie" beautiful Half Moon Bay and has two excellent dive boats. The dive masters are some of the best I have ever been lucky enough to dive with (after 400+ dives all over the world). They know the reef instinctively and that means YOU see more great stuff on every dive. They shoot for a full hour dive each time depending on depth, your skills and air consumption. They are professional and safety conscious at all times yet still always bring a personal and inspired energy to every dive.


With a well run family owned dive shop, the sense of community you feel diving with them is palpable. If you want impersonal 'resort' diving, pay a lot more and go somewhere else. If you want to feel like you are diving with kindred spirits of the sea and with 'old friends' from the time you hit the water, dive with Native Sons! They cover the entire Roatan Marine Park and when conditions dictate, dive the south side wall. The dive shop also has it's own really solid very reasonable lodging at Chillie's Hotel which is right at the dive shop. I recently made a video from my last trip to dive with in January / February 2016. here is the youtube link to that video! Book a flight soon as your plans permit and head down to Roatan to dive with Native Sons dive shop. You will be have a great dive experience both above and below the surface! Enjoy the video!

 

[gkrane]

From the website I was under the impression that Chillie's has no AC in any of the units. Is this correct? I would imagine that could be downright uncomfortable for some (including myself) in a tropical jungle climate. Is there any shore diving out front that Native Sons will allow you to use tanks if you dive with them?

 

[gkrane]

Your video is excellent!!! Was this all shot during one recent trip? What post production software do you use to get the color corrections?

 

[gkrane]

I sent an email to them asking a few questions and one of them was about shore diving since the website says the reef is a short 5 minute swim from the shore. Here is the response in case anyone else was interested.

If you are staying at Chillies our recreational day dives are
all at $30. Night dives are
$40 + $5 for a light. All prices include equipment and there is no reduction in cost if you have your own. We don't do shore diving here as the swim to the reef is quite a distance in full gear. We are also in a marine protected area and we like to keep an eye on divers to make sure they are being well behaved!

I definitely do not want to pay for rental gear I wont be using, and I sure don't feel like I need someone to keep an eye on me to make sure I am behaving. If they had shore diving it might have been a factor considering the small cost savings but with no A/C in the rooms......Big X in the negative column.

I did some cost comparisons for a stay of 1 week for 2 divers:

Hotel Chillies and Native Sons (West End)
Lodging $385 No meals (No A/C)
Diving $980 Includes 3 boat dives per day and 1 night dive
Food,Drinks, and Spending money for the week $1000 ( may be high on the estimate but from what I understand it isnt that cheap to eat there)
No Tax if paying cash. 19%-23% if using credit card.
Total $2365 cash/ $2814 with credit card. Unsure how much airport transfers will be

Media Luna (South Side)
$2500 for 2 divers which includes:
All Lodging with A/C
All meals including non alcoholic and alcohol, beer and wine
5 days of 3 Boat dives per day plus one night dive
Unlimited Shore diving during shop hours which I think is 6 pm (Half Moon Bay Wall is house reef)
19% Tax Included as well as round trip Airport transfers
$400 Spending Money (Just a guess since meals and drinks are covered)
Total $2900.00

Los Rocas (West Bay and Dives the Northern Sites)
$1200 for 2 divers which includes:
All Lodging with A/C
Daily Breakfast
5 days of 2 boat dives per day (No Shore Diving)
Airport Transfers
$300 to add the 3rd boat dive daily for 2 divers for 5 days
Food Drinks and Spending Money for the week $800 (estimate since breakfast is included)
$285 for the 19% tax
Total $2585.00

I hope this helps anyone who is looking for a comparison betweeen these three places.

 

[jodylynn007]

I don't like to post negative things too often but given the title of this thread I feel I should give my two cents on why you should NOT DIVE Native Sons.

A couple of years ago I booked a trip for myself and a female friend to stay in Roatán and dive Native Sons for two weeks (we booked nearly 10 months in advance). As we both loved the idea of having a bathroom on the boat, we chose NS for that reason and advised them of why they were chosen.

Shortly before the trip, I called to confirm our arrangements and was advised by Native Sons that as a large group had called to book since our original booking and as they would require the large boat (the one with the toilet), we had been moved to the other boat (no toilet) ... so obviously they knew we had booked the boat with the bathroom and chose to bump us!!

Clearly they were more concerned with $ and making the larger group happy than with my friend and I who had specifically booked first. Honoring our booking was not important to them and therefore they don't deserve the business. We cancelled and they have lost repeat business from me, my friends, and any referrals I make for Roatán from the huge local home diving community I belong to in Vancouver/Seattle. We ended up booking with a different dive op, Roatán Divers, for that original trip (unfortunately no bathroom on the boat but had exceptional service) and I have since been back to visit several times, including leading a group trip of my own with 9 divers this upcoming January 2017.

 

[diversteve]

A couple minor corrections - Los Rocas is in West Bay about 2 miles west of the West End. It's on the east side of West Bay though and there's the water taxi.

There is sort of 2 shore dives in the West End. One is really shallow, probably a better snorkel off Half Moon Bay cabins. In fact we saw snorkelers out there almost every day.

The other is when we asked about it - Coconut Tree Divers offered to drop us off on Half Moon Bay Wall after our boat dives to swim back into Half Moon Bay but it would be a healthy swim - probably the last part on the surface. You'd either have to get out at Half Moon Inn's dock or swim all the way into the Beach - another 100 or so yards.

There's also a dive at Seagrape - detailed below. Seagrape is on the east point of Half Moon Bay but once you commit to it, you'd likely have to drift all the way to Half Moon Inn to get out also - and that's a long way.The issue there is the whole length of the pooint is about 8' of ironshore cliffs - this is Cocolobo next door - http://www.cocolobo.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/about_cocolobo-920x3831.jpg

Here's some details on both sites - sites #8 & 9. All the rest of listed are private property off resorts (1,2,3 are Cocoview #7 is Anthony's Key) or no longer accessible - BIBR closed some years ago and blocked access to Spooky. The owners of Sunnyside don't allow diving off their dock if anyone is renting one of the 4 cabins there. They were when we tried.

Scuba Shore Diving Site Listing for: Honduras, Roatan, Caribbean

The other issue there is most of the shops only do boat dives - often on pangas. So tank availability for non-guests is very limited. I asked a DM once and he only knew of two places that "might". One has since gone OOB.

Roatan is really not shore dive friendly unless you stay at Cocoview or maybe Fantasy Island next door if they're still open. Reef House resort also has a shallow dive off their property afaik. All south side.

Native Son's rental price is actually pretty good. A lot of shops used to offer it, now many are 10dives/$350 and some charge $5 more for gear.

 

[scrane]

If you are after luxury, better to pass Chillies by. If you are after value and a friendly atmosphere, give them a try. Native Sons is a small operation that tries to tailor their dives to the wishes and capabilities of everyone on the boat. Being small, they do their utmost to ensure everyone has a good time and comes back next year. I have recently returned from my third visit with Chillies and Native Sons and am already looking forward to returning next year.

 

[gkrane]

After doing my cost break down Chillies and Native sons really didnt have much cost savings value over the other 2 I outlined.

 

[beluga2]

I think there will be a large variance between forecast and actuals for West End. A typical day:

breakfast $5, lunch $6, dinner $12, drinks $10 = $33 or $231 per week

Of course, you can have a $1 baleada or a $100 night of drinking fancy wines but that is your choice.

 

[gkrane]

Another place I have read about is Seagrape but the website appears to not be working so I can't get any info.