New Resident. A guide to living and working in the Cayman Islands
Cayman Islands New Resident Magazine Sep 03, 2010 
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Diving in Cayman

The Cayman Islands are world renowned for their incredible scuba diving and snorkelling. The underwater visibility is second to none, the seas are calm and there are virtually no currents. A host of dive operators can teach you how to dive, improve your skills, take you snorkelling with friendly stingrays and even turn your passion into a career. Indeed the Cayman Islands offer a wealth of opportunity for anyone interested in getting in, under or on the water, at every level of experience.

 

LEARNING TO DIVE

 Learning to dive is a "must do" for many new arrivals. Without question the most popular form of diver education is made available by an organisation called PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) and is available from a variety of dive operators in Cayman. Having said that, many people "try a dive" prior to committing to a full certification programme and this is an excellent way of testing the water, if you'll excuse the pun. Commonly known on Island as the Resort Course, it consists of a short theory session where you'll learn the simple do's and don'ts, be given an introduction to the equipment and an explanation of some very basic skills. You will get to dive in a pool to become acclimatised to being underwater and then you get to do a real dive in the ocean with your instructor. This programme normally takes about three hours and is a great way to see if diving is for you.

While the Resort Course is a fantastic introduction, it does have its limitations. You have to go with an instructor, you are limited to a shallow depth and it is only relevant in Cayman. If you want to go further, the next step is to complete the PADI course, get certified and go diving.

The PADI Open Water course is often completed in as little as three days and is the licence you need to dive! This is the minimum qualification required to rent equipment, go on excursions and basically get you in and out of the water safely. Many dive stores/operators on the Island will offer weekend courses designed to suit your schedule. This extremely popular course is open to those aged 15 years and up. Children aged 10-14 years old may become certified to Junior Open Water level, although this is at the instructor's discretion, so we advise you to discuss this option with your dive centre. Options even exist for you to be taught at home in your own pool!

For the little ones, there are lots of educational and fun water-based scuba/snorkel activities that kids can participate in while parents are out diving! Programmes include SASY (from age five), Rangers or Seals (from age eight), Junior Open Water Diver (from age 10) and of course guided diving excursions to the shallow reefs and Stingray City.

Programmes range from pool sessions to ocean adventures, with kids learning about marine life, fish identification, coral reefs, taking underwater photos or a cruise on an underwater scooter. As young ambassadors to the marine environment, the kids will delight you with the knowledge that they gain while learning to dive.

Once you are certified and have joined the diving family, there are endless opportunities to go diving on the Island. Shore diving is a very popular weekend pursuit and you'll find new diving friends at various locations. Sunset House, Don Fosters and DiveTech are some of the oldest dive resorts on the Island which boast great shore diving. Ask for discounted rates for residents. 

Once you have gained your initial certification, not only can you shore dive at various locations, you can also go on arranged excursions. This is the best way to discover the 'Walls' of Cayman. For many the main reason to dive in Cayman is to explore the most amazing walls and drop-offs that surround the Island. You will soon have your favourite sites and conversations will turn to North West Point, Tarpon Alley, Great House Wall, Orange Canyon and coral covered swim-throughs leading out to the crystal azure, where you'll share inner space with Eagle Rays, Horse Eyed Jacks and Hawksbill Turtles. The only disappointment will be that you should have learnt to do this years ago!

Before long, you will be taking two tank (two dive) trips to explore the renowned beauty of the West Wall which borders Seven Mile Beach, the breathtaking North Wall and East End, where dynamic scenery and encounters with large species of fish are frequent. Generally, dive boats will leave early and get you home for lunch. The first dive will probably be one of the wall dives you have heard so much about. Experienced divers will have the opportunity to explore with their dive buddy, while novices choose to be guided. The best thing about guided dives is that the instructors know where they are going and will show you the very best that particular site has to offer. After a short surface interval you will be back on a second dive on one of Cayman's shallow reefs. Exploring the nooks and crannies of the reef will enable you to see a host of amazing creatures: lobsters, eels, soft coral, anemonies and more. The colours will amaze you and are exaggerated due to the increased level of light at shallower depths.

Sunset House operates just south of George Town and provides great shore diving as well as boat dives. DiveTech is located both at Cobalt Coast (northwest Cayman) and more recently at Lighthouse Point, a brand new and hardly dived location in West Bay. They also offer great shore dives and boat dives to the walls and have extremely experienced staff offering a number of courses including several advanced/technical programmes. DiveTech's mini wall is a must see! Finally you should also head out to visit Ocean Frontiers in East End to experience some dramatic wall dives with bigger fish. (I saw a nurse shark, reef shark and a hammerhead in a single dive here! Ed.)

Once you have got the dive bug you should head over to the Sister Islands for a few days of relaxing into the slower pace of life and diving some of Cayman's most pristine dive sites and all only a 30 minute flight away. You will not be disappointed in Little Cayman and the Bloody Bay Wall with its beautiful drops-off, corals and marine life. In the Brac you will find one of the Caribbean's most unusual shipwrecks, the 330ft Russian frigate, MV Captain Keith Tibbetts. This destroyer was sunk in the spring of 1998 at a maximum depth of 110ft by the Cayman Islands government and is now a popular dive destination. (When my dive buddy and I dived this wreck we were the only ones brave enough to enter the hull of the ship to explore the passageways, gun turrets and bridge completely uninterrupted. Awesome! Ed.)

 

SNORKLING AREAS

George Town

Just south of George Town you will find a mass of coral heads, caves and abundant fish life, while further north is the Wreck of the Calie, an old four-masted schooner.

 

North Sound

Here you will find the world famous Sandbar where you can feed and interact with stingrays in only 3-4ft of water. Take some squid. The Coral Gardens are nearby where you will find corals and fish in about 10ft of water. Both places are only accessible by boat.

 

Seven Mile Beach

The main snorkelling area here can be found at the north end of Seven Mile Beach at Cemetery Reef, which is about 100 yards offshore, but often in less than 10ft of water. Good for fish life.

 

West Bay

Just down the road from Boatswain's Beach is Turtle Reef, which, as the name suggests, is a great place to find those elusive turtles.

 

Many other sites are dotted around the Island and include wrecks, corals, sea fans, fish, lobsters and many other fascinating forms of life.

 

DIVING AREAS

East End

Dramatic coral and wall diving. Reef sharks, nurse sharks and even hammerheads can occasionally be seen.

 

George Town

Coral, caves, tunnels and even a mermaid just south of George Town at Eden Rock and Sunset House. Look out for the huge tarpon! Also, various wrecks in the area.

 

North Sound

Lots of dive sites on 'The Wall'. Only accessible by boat. Expect to see incredible coral wall formations and occasionally eagle rays, nurse sharks, moray eels and all sorts of other underwater wonders. Inside the reef is the world famous Stingray City where you can interact with stingrays in 20ft of water.

 

Sister Islands

Fabulous unspoilt diving for all levels of dive ability, from shallow reefs and breathtaking walls to some incredible wrecks. In Little Cayman, the Bloody Bay Marine Park with its untouched and beautiful walls is a must, while the Russian frigate, MV Captain Keith Tibbetts in the Brac, is well worth the trip.

 

West Bay

Great shore dives from Cracked Conch, Lighthouse Point and Cobalt Coast.  You can access 'The Wall' via boat trips or underwater scooters, or the mini-wall from the shore.

 

Advanced Dive Courses

You may want to complete further courses to build on your experience. Every dive centre will offer some form of continuing education. The Advanced course is next, and introduces you to deep diving, night diving and navigation. This is a great course and a firm favourite with many, simply because there is very little classroom study and the majority of the course is completed in the water. There are a host of speciality courses which are designed to introduce you to specific areas of interest. The list is endless with choices to suit everyone, from popular photography/video classes to deep diving, search and recovery, stingray interaction, reef awareness, underwater naturalist to technical applications including the extremely popular Enriched Air (Nitrox) course. Many centres offer a very large range of these programmes.

 

Technical Diving

For the truly adventurous, those who know no limits, you can learn to use rebreathers, (devices designed by the military which emit no bubbles or noise), mixed gases and extended range diving. While DiveTech is by no means a purely technical operation, as Nancy will tell you, they can offer all the deep diving stuff you need. It helps having one of the world’s most technically experienced females owning the business!

Technical diving is by definition: dives conducted beyond the 130ft depth limit; dives requiring a decompression stop; dives beyond the light zone; or dives into an overhead environment. Obviously, this type of advanced, extended range diving is not for everyone, and it requires a commitment to safe, responsible, self-disciplined diving. Technical diving is a recreational sport. Just like skiing a black diamond run or climbing Mount Everest aren't accomplished overnight, neither is technical diving. It takes a love of the sport, a lot of training and practice and a little bit of an adventurous spirit to get you there.

Courses in Nitrox, Advanced Nitrox, Normoxic, Trimix and Advanced Trimix enable divers to safely explore deeper depths.

Nitrox diving is open to anyone and is basically diving with a single tank of nitrogen mixed with 32% oxygen. (Air has 21% oxygen). This allows divers to dive to the same depths as normal scuba divers but enables you to dive for a longer time before reaching decompression limits. Nitrox has the added bonus of making you feel less tired after a dive! A Nitrox course costs CI$159 and one tank of Nitrox will only cost about CI$3 more than a regular tank of air.

If you like diving between 100 and 150 feet, Advanced Nitrox enables you to stay safely at these depths for about 45 minutes instead of 10-20 minutes. Basically you dive with double tanks with a side mounted decompression bottle and you have to learn the fundamentals of decompression diving.

Normoxic Trimix takes divers to the 200 foot range, reducing oxygen content to about 18% and adding some helium to buffer the effects of narcosis. For those wishing to go deeper (330ft+), Advanced Trimix and Expedition courses are also available.

Rebreather diving (Closed Circuit Rebreathers or CCR) is another form of diving that has become very popular in the last decade. It basically allows you to massively extend your dive time. You could spend three hours at 100ft! The advantage of using a rebreather is that there are no bubbles (so you get up close and personal with the marine life); the air you breath is warmer and more moist (so you stay warmer and your dive is more comfortable); and of course you get extended bottom times with limited decompression issues. However, this form of diving is for the dedicated diver as courses typically cost CI$900 and you will probably own your own equipment.

At some point, you may wish to turn your passion for the undersea world into a career. Becoming a dive master is the first step. Here you will be trained to develop your skills to a professional level and your academic understanding will increase dramatically. You will work alongside full-time instructors working with real students. At this level you can get paid too!

 

DiveTech

Tel: (345) 946 5658

Email: divetech@candw.ky

Located at their new dive shop at Lighthouse Point, North West Point Rd., West Bay and at Cobalt Coast Resort, West Bay. They offer classes from beginners to technical, equipment rental and boat dives.

 

Don Fosters

Tel: (345) 949 5679

South Church Street, South Sound

 

Ocean Frontiers Ltd.

Tel: (345) 947 7500

Compass Point, East End

Boutique-style diving in East End

 

Red Sail Sports

Tel: (345) 945 5965

Diver certification classes, boat dives, equipment rental. Also catamaran sailing and jet ski rental.

 

Sunset Divers at Sunset House Hotel

Tel: (345) 949 7111

Sunset House's Email: sunsethouse@sunsethouse.com

Sunset Diver's Email: mikep@sunsethouse.com

South Church Street, South Sound

Weekly and weekend resident courses, equipment rental and boat dives, VIP Programmes (train at home).

 

Wall to Wall Diving

Tel: (345) 916 6408

 

Reef Divers

Little Cayman, Tel: (345) 948 1033

Cayman Brac, Tel: (345) 948 1642

Award winning dive operator to Bloody Bay wall in Little Cayman and Russian frigate in the Brac, diver certification and full service dive shop.

 

Underwater Photography Lessons

Cathy Church Underwater Photo Centre

Tel: (345) 949 7415

At Sunset House, South Church Street, South Sound

They offer daily private underwater photography courses in the classroom and on a shore dive. Cost with world famous Cathy Church is only CI$102.50 per hour and CI$49 with staff. They also rent and sell a full range of underwater cameras, all with a free mini-lesson. Call for appointment.

  

Diving To 2000 Feet!

The walls around Cayman are typically from 4,000-6,000 feet deep and no place for a human. However, a new company in Cayman is operating an underwater robot, enabling people to view the incredible sea life at depths of up to 2,000 feet. This unique tour takes you on a journey to view the mysterious depths of the Cayman Trench and the extraordinary creatures living there. Deep See Cayman (Tel: (345) 926 3343 or www.deepseecayman.com) uses a remote submersible that relays real-time, high-definition images of what is happening 2,000 feet below to flat screen televisions, all while you watch and learn in the comfort of a luxury yacht. Trips leave from The Seaside Building at 147 North Church Street in George Town several times a day and the resident rate is CI$59 for adults and CI$39 for kids. Group rates are available.

 

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Copyright 2010 New Resident Magazine 2010. All rights reserved.
Acorn Publishing Co, PO Box 31403, Grand Cayman  KY1-1206, Cayman Islands,
Tel: (345) 946 3200 Fax: (345) 946 2830 Email:
info@acorn.ky    



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