Cayman Islands dive shop recommendations

[dominikos]

Heading to Cayman Island in a week. Any recommendations for good boat dive operators? Also, 'must-do' beach dives?

It's first time I'm heading to Caribbeans, when renting tank and weights, do they provide soft weights?

Thanks in advance,

- Dominik

[Damselfish]

Where are you staying?

There are a number of shops on the west end of the island with shore dive facilities. Sunset House, Eden Rock, Don Fosters, DiveTech at Lighthouse Point and Cobalt Coast, Sundivers at Turtle Reef. I haven't done them all but from what I know Turtle Reef is the best. These are all private property where you would rent tanks from them. (And all on ironshore, not "beach" - the diving is too far out from the famous beach to swim for the most part. There's Cemetary Reef off the north end of 7 Mile Beach, but I'm under the impression its better suited for snorkleing.

You will see soft weights occasionally, but they're not very common.

[mselizann]

Yes, let's start with where are you staying, and we can give better advice from there........

[heydn62]

Good easy shore dive at Sunset House. Eden Rock is supposed to be good too, but can be busy when the cruise ships are in.

[ianr33]

Originally Posted by heydn62

Eden Rock is supposed to be good too.

Eden Rock sucks !

Both the dive and the shop.

[Daz]

Originally Posted by ianr33

Eden Rock sucks !

Both the dive and the shop.

I'll agree about the shop, but the dive can be decent depending on where you go. I've been a CI regular for years and have yet to have a good experience with ER staff. I know, I should just write them off, but ER is a good spot to take new divers for a checkout/into before doing EE dives so I just suck it up and deal with the ER staff's rudeness and pay for my tank rental knowing that I'll be U/W in a few minutes and they'll be stuck dealing with pod people all day...

[Defman]

Only been there once, stayed at Cobalt Coast, and dove with DiveTech... seemed like a pretty good place and I usually hear good things about them.

I enjoyed Devil's Grotto as a shore dive.

[ianr33]

IMHO the best "regular" shore dives are at the Turtle Farm (Sundivers) and Lighthouse Point (The new Divetech location)
The Turtle Farm location is a great shallow (55 feet) dive. Go left facing out to the Tarpon Cave (overhang is more accurate) Normally lots of Tarpon there.If you are lucky they will be feeding on silversides.I once saw a Goliath Grouper there on a nghtdive.
The deep wall at Lighthouse point is beautiful.A 15-20 minute surface swim gets you to a pristine "wall" that slopes downwards from 100 feet. There are some huge barrel sponges in this area. (At 200 feet is goes smack vertical and disappears into the abyss)

My favorite shore dives are on the North East coast around Babylon.Between the hassle of renting off site tanks,the remote location and a healthy surface swim this is an adventure dive ,but it is awesome. My avatar pic was taken in this general area.