Scuba Diving at Morritt's

[maryk]

We are booked for April 2009. My husband need to get recertified to dive.

What requirements does he need and proof to show them?

If he is the only one in our group diving, how can he get a diving buddy?

What is the name of the dive shop run at Morritt's and are they good? How much will it cost to go ona dive and rent equipment?

Also, can we rent snorkel equipment for my daughter ( age 12)?

 

[Htoo0]

He'll need his 'C' card. It might be better to get re-certified here. The dive operator will assign him a dive buddy. There are usually others without dive buddies. It just requires special attention because the people don't know each other and may want to 'explore' different things. Morritts has Tortuga Divers by Red Sail Sports on site (last that I knew) and they are good. Many use Ocean Frontier which (I believe) you can meet at the Reef dock next door. Red Sail rents snorkel gear but it might be cheaper to buy your own if she goes more than a day or two. As for prices you might try googling both of the above operators. Enjoy! It's a nice place to visit! BTW, there's an unofficial forum site for morritts where may be able to get more information about the place.

 

[caribbeansun]

As said he will need his C card, no need for a dive buddy, Tortuga Divers is Morritt's and Ocean Frontiers is also on East End.

Rental of gear cost can be found here for Ocean Frontiers and I would expect Tortuga to be the same.

You can rent but you might want to buy the mask and snorkel for sanitary reasons and rent the flns.

 

[Judy]

What do you mean he needs to get "recertified"? Do you mean that he is already certified and has a certification "C" card, but hasn't dived in a while? In that case, he'd only need to take a refresher course or a check-out dive (based on how long it's been). Depending upon his certification agency, he should be able to do that either at home or in Grand Cayman.

 

[NTHC]

Myself, my daughter and niece took a scuba class at the Morritts in March of this year. It was incredible. I highly recommend the dive shop onsite. I think it was Red Sail Sports..or something close to that. I don't know how much a refresher course would be, but we took an introductory class. It was $99 a piece and included instruction in the pool and then an afternoon dive.

Needless to say we are all hooked. We came home and took a local class. We are just waiting for our next trip to get our certification....after diving in the Caymans I have no interest in diving in a quarry type thing in VA.

I will add that my daughter and niece were 10 and 11 at the time and had no experience what so ever when we got there.

Hope you have a wonderful time!

Cindy

 

[jtridle]

scuba diving with Red Sail

If you have not been diving in two years, Red Sail will require you to take a refresher course which, if I recall, was nothing more than going into the swimming pool with them and then doing a dive with them. Cost last Sept. was $110 for the refresher course. Or another option for those who haven't dove in two years (and this was done by one of our sons) was to go into the pool back at their home dive store and then take a dive with Morritt's. As i recall last fall the cost of a two tank dive was $110 or you can buy a 3 day dive package before you get to the island and the cost for that was $312 and included 3 days of two tank dives, a t-shirt, a 50% discount on a night dive and a sunset cruise.

If he dives instead with ocean Frontiers, they do have an office next door at The Reef but to catch the dive boat you have to go down the road but that is not a problem as Ocean Frontiers will send a shuttle to get you at Morritt's.

My husband and I have gone with both dive operations and have enjoyed both but I would give the edge to ocean Frontiers. I believe Ocean Frontiers was also charging $110 per two tank dive and they have multiple dive discounts also. I don't think you will find a finer dive operation anywhere than Ocean Frontiers. But it is also nice to just walk out your door and get on the Red sail dive boats.

 

[Sandy VDH]

Ocean Frontiers one of the best dive operators I have ever traveled with.

They provided the best briefings and were extremely helpful. They would go out even if the onsite dive shop would not. Why? Because they would just take their boat somewhere better based on the weather and dive conditions. the onsite shop didn't seem to be interested in anything that was not 1/2 mile from their shop.

Just my experience, Ocean Frontier come highly recommended by me.

 

[caribbeansun]

More to this point - OF tends to run to the south side a lot because the wind typically is out of the east which makes the east and north rougher. Their shop is located on the southeastern tip of the island whereas Tortuga is pretty much on the northeast tip. Having said that OF doesn't hesitate to run north or east if the winds are down and currents favourable. Tortuga could do the same thing but they would burn more fuel...

They provided the best briefings and were extremely helpful. They would go out even if the onsite dive shop would not. Why? Because they would just take their boat somewhere better based on the weather and dive conditions. the onsite shop didn't seem to be interested in anything that was not 1/2 mile from their shop.

 

[ralphd]

More to this point - OF tends to run to the south side a lot because the wind typically is out of the east which makes the east and north rougher. Their shop is located on the southeastern tip of the island whereas Tortuga is pretty much on the northeast tip. Having said that OF doesn't hesitate to run north or east if the winds are down and currents favourable. Tortuga could do the same thing but they would burn more fuel...

The dive shops are less than 3 miles apart, so the gas isn't much of a factor.

 

[caribbeansun]

I agree it shouldn't be a factor but I'm at a loss to explain why else they wouldn't run on days when the wind is out of the east.

 

[RMitchell]

The wind is always from the east (Trade Winds) it has to do with current. I really enjoy the south dives. There are more swim throughs and the reef is healthier. Both dive shops go a little bit overboard with precautions about current on a 2 tank morning dive and Tortuga likes you to stay in formation behind the divemaster on the deep dive. One dive at Tortuga was canceled at Black Rock because of current. We headed closer to Morritts instead. There didn't seem to be that much current but I don't have to worry about insurance and a safe dive record. Just a note, any symptoms of any kind will cause a 911 call on the Tortuga boat.

 

[Bill927]

Cattle Boats - Can you "moo" too?

Tortuga's web site shows 21 diver boats.... Are there any dive operators on Grand Cayman that don't operate cattle boats? Smaller boat (6 pack) diving, when it is done right, is much more enjoyable than joining the herd.

 

[caribbeansun]

OF takes a max of 16 divers. Afternoon dives tend to be less crowded.

 

[Skinsfan1311]

I second and third Ocean Frontiers!!!

I dove with them in '06 and this past summer and their service is second to none.

I would avoid Tortuga Divers. We dove with a couple, at OF, who did a couple of dives with Tortuga. The DM's actually visited the same site twice, (on subsequent days), called it two different names! They got real thin-skinned when one of the divers called them on it.

I guess that they figured that no one would be the wiser.