Scuba Anyone? Who goes diving on vacation?

[CPNY]

Back in the good old days in the 1990s when diving was excellent in so many places, I went on many dive trips in the Bahamas. I went on a couple live aboard trips to the Southern Bahamas and to Bimini (different trips). The diving was really amazing esp in the Southern Bahamas, where visibility was 200’ everywhere we went. It was pristine and better than Grand Cayman IMHO.

As I told you before, I have been on over 300 dives in my lifetime. I saw my one and only tiger shark in the Southern Bahamas. Sharks are plentiful in the Bahamas, more than anywhere else I have ever been diving, but tiger sharks are rare.

When I was just in STT in June, I did 4 dives. The USVIs are not known for diving. I was actually somewhat impressed because I expected it to be worse. There was one dive site we went to that had 3 swim throughs back to back. I was impressed with the rock formations in STT. However, there were not many fish and the coral was not the best I have ever seen. I went diving with one of the best dive shops I have ever gone diving with named Red Hook Dive Center. We went snorkeing several times, including in St John, and I was not impressed at all.

I’ll be in Maui next spring. Just for fun, I am going to do a couple dives to see what it is like these days. In the past, I was not impressed with Hawaii diving. I think Hawaii snorkeling is pretty bad.

As a diver, snorkeling does not hold a candle to diving. To me, even in the worst dive conditions, diving is still one of the most relaxing activities. Just being down under breathing air in and out slowly is a meditative experience for me.

How did you do on air? We were talking about how to conserve air before your trips.

I’m hoping Maui diving is better than I expect.

I did better on air consumption on this dive trip than I did in my first trip in Bora Bora. I do want to do more dive trips, I’m sad to hear STT isn’t that great for for diving. I agree diving is much better than snorkeling!

 

[CPNY]

I agree that getting experience in rough diving conditions as well as low visibility conditions can make you a much better diver. My best dive training has been in pre-hurricane conditions with 10+ foot waves and trying to get in and out of the boat with a tank on!

I did get a bit sea sick on the boat. It was very rocky.

 

[TravelTime]

I’m hoping Maui diving is better than I expect.

I did better on air consumption on this dive trip than I did in my first trip in Bora Bora. I do want to do more dive trips, I’m sad to hear STT isn’t that great for for diving. I agree diving is much better than snorkeling!

Personally, I enjoyed STT diving better than Hawaii diving. I do recommend trying it. I highly recommend Red Hook Divers. I love large rock formations and swim throughs and we went to some dive sites in STT that have these. Some of the soft coral was good. The hard coral was not good and the fish were not plentiful like in other parts of the Caribbean.

BTW, the diving closer to STT is known to be better than diving near STJ. However, my dive operator said the dive shop in STJ shares the same dive sites as STT. He said the STJ dive operator comes over to STT to dive. Right now, there is only one dive shop in STJ, Low Key Divers. The one on the other side of the island just went out of business. STT does have several dive operators so depending on where you are staying, there are several options.

Overall, my impression of both STT and STJ is that it has never fully recovered from the hurricane. They got hit by the hurricane in 2017, then started to rebuild. Right when things started to look up, Covid hit them. It is just a sad state of affairs on both islands compared to pre-hurricane. To me, both islands look run down compared to before. The Ritz Carlton has done an astonishing job at rebuilding but the rest of the USVIs seem like they are still very much struggling.