The ultimate diving and snorkeling thread!

What's your favorite Caribbean dive destination

  • Aruba

    Votes: 3 3.2%
  • Bonaire

    Votes: 11 11.7%
  • Curacao

    Votes: 4 4.3%
  • Caymans

    Votes: 14 14.9%
  • Bahamas

    Votes: 13 13.8%
  • Roatan

    Votes: 7 7.4%
  • Belize

    Votes: 14 14.9%
  • Cozumel

    Votes: 16 17.0%
  • Other..list in thread

    Votes: 20 21.3%

  • Total voters
    94

chefjpaul

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Oh no...fractured spine and disk issues??? What happened? Prayers for peace, comfort and a quick recovery! I’ve snorkeled Belize a few times and used Amigos Del Mar each time and they did not disappoint!

Wasn't anybody's fault at all. Hit a rough wave, was in front of boat on the way to the back. Came down, don't remember much after.

We were in long caye, so about 2 hours out. Ended up in Belize city hospital.

Lesson- always stay in back of boat when very choppy.... knew better.
 

dbraun15

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Glad you’re recovering. Sorry about your accident. Continued prayer for quick recovery. I had total knee reconstruction last week, so can feel your pain(literally—LOL).
 

MBX5

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Wasn't anybody's fault at all. Hit a rough wave, was in front of boat on the way to the back. Came down, don't remember much after.

We were in long caye, so about 2 hours out. Ended up in Belize city hospital.

Lesson- always stay in back of boat when very choppy.... knew better.
dang hope your better soon. I’m always one for the back of boats but I’ve never thought of it for safety reasons.
 

erky

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Wasn't anybody's fault at all. Hit a rough wave, was in front of boat on the way to the back. Came down, don't remember much after.

We were in long caye, so about 2 hours out. Ended up in Belize city hospital.

Lesson- always stay in back of boat when very choppy.... knew better.
did you have trip insurance?
 

erky

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Yeah, we have trip insurance and DAN.
Although it's very cheap in Belize, don't suggest it.
Lol.
being very cheap is one thing, but a policy that is cheaper is better. I spent 18 hours in a Mexican hospital back in december when we were in Riviera Maya, missed a bull shark dive bc i bent over and slipped a few disks. We own a travel agency so we always have insurance but 4k out of pocket for a ct scan and random drugs was a bit to swallow upfront. Working on getting the insurance to pay the remainder now. Glad you are ok!
 

Paul B

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I don't remember if I posted to this thread but I did my first dive on the Great Barrier Reef in 1970. I was in awe.
Later my wife and I dove most of the Caribbean, Bahamian and Hawaiian Islands but the best place by far was Tahiti.
Bora Bora exactly.

Now I am spoiled and won't dive in the Caribbean any more, even if it's free.
In Bora Bora there are so many sharks you have to be careful jumping off the boat so you don't land on them, they frown on that. :cool:

There are also schools of huge manta rays, whale sharks and whales.
Thats my ultimate favorite place.

I have my own boat and equipment so I have a couple of hundred dives here in NY looking for shipwrecks and lobsters but with viability measured in inches, I wouldn't recommend it for a tourist. :oops:





 

Keiki

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Lot of warm water divers it seems - I'm jealous. You all need to head out West and dive the cold waters of Monterey. I do enjoy warm water and most everything is than what I dive most of the time. Having said that I'm still hard pressed to find better diving than what we have here. Its different and of course subjective but cold waters offer different animals than what we see in other places. That and the kelp forests can be surreal. Great thread though and good to see I have been to a couple places listed here.
We used to dive in Monterey Bay when we lived in the Mt. View and San Jose areas. I got certified there back in 1989. It's so different and lots of cool stuff, but I don't miss the thick wet suits at all. Did the Monstery Crawl and the Underwater Chocolate Easter Egg hunt several times. We were lucky and were moved from there to Key West for 3 years.
 

Keiki

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Does an almost dive trip count? We did a 28 day cruise in 2017 of Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. We were scheduled to dive the Barrier Reef out of Arlie Beach. Unfortunately, Cyclone Debbie hit 10 days earlier and there was damage to the platform and a lot of the dive boats were out of commission.

In 2018 we did a very similar cruise but, unfortunately it didn't include that area of Australia.

20170414_134002.jpg 20170414_124618.jpg

Not a dive shot, but a fabulous view. Stayed in the Shangri-la both times. Can't beat it.
20180529_174639.jpg
 

chefjpaul

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being very cheap is one thing, but a policy that is cheaper is better. I spent 18 hours in a Mexican hospital back in december when we were in Riviera Maya, missed a bull shark dive bc i bent over and slipped a few disks. We own a travel agency so we always have insurance but 4k out of pocket for a ct scan and random drugs was a bit to swallow upfront. Working on getting the insurance to pay the remainder now. Glad you are ok!
Wow. That's crazy.
I had day in hospital, CT svan, IV with some kind of pain killer, 4 shots of pain killer, lots of random prescription drugs and still under 1K.
Wife dealing with insurance.

I did the bull shark dive a couple years ago.
Good luck with the back, worst pain.
 

esther

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OMG! Where did you see the leafy sea dragon? Australia? I love those!!
 

esther

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Just got back from a trip from Fiji. We dove a few days on the rainbow reef. The visibility wasn't as clear as normal because a tropical depression just passed through and we didn't time the great white wall properly; but these were still some of my favorite dives to date.

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We dove the Rainbow Reef in 2009 and I have to say it was one of my favorite dive experiences! I'll have to find my photos and post them. Wonder how much it's changed in 10 years.
 

Keiki

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Back from another Belize trip.

Blue hole etc...
Had to cut trip in half, as we had a boat incident and I ended up with a fractured spine and many herniated disks.

Some pics, have many more, just haven't been through them all.

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So sorry that happened to you. Hope you get better soon.
 
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saltyhog

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Presently vacationing in Grand Cayman (East End). Wind is whipping pretty good but the diving was still pretty good today. Didn't take many pictures as I was just wanting to chill today. Hopefully I'll take more later in the week. We do a night dive tomorrow.

Blue porites (1 of 1).jpg

Loved the halameda and other macroalgae around this blue LPS.

Sea Fans (1 of 1).jpg

Nice sea fans on the wall.



Small Caribbean Reef Shark Blue porites (1 of 1).jpg Sea Fans (1 of 1).jpg
 
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saltyhog

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My wife is just starting to take pictures and did a pretty good job today

A picture of me going around the bend.
David seafan.JPG

Check out this huge plating SPS ....the divers are much closer than the coral

huge monti.JPG


Something you don't see as much any more....very large healthy staghorn coral.

Staghorn.JPG

Lots of SPS in this picture.

SPS.JPG

Me behind a school of grunts.

David.JPG
 

Paul B

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Many years ago my best friend and dive partner were diving here in New York with in the City limits where the visibility was probably 36". We were diving for lobsters and for them there is no need to see far because there is no swimming involved. It's just pulling yourself along the huge rocks on the bottom.

You don't need to worry about breaking any coral because there is none. It is just left over boulders from the glacier that receded long before Bernie Sanders was born.

Under those rocks, in holes are lobsters. Anyway, as we were looking for lobsters we found a tire.

(Probably from an Oldsmobile) There are a lot of tires here because they are used on tug boats around the edge to push other boats. In these tires live quite a few lobsters.

In this partially submerged tire was a group of hermit crabs. My avatar was one of them. He is a local New York crab and you can tell by his accent.

The crabs were lining the inside edge of the tire and while we watched, two crabs would take turns going to the center and entering what looked like a wrestling match, although they could have been boxing or doing Kung Fu, Karate, Tai Quan Do or ballet dancing from the theme of the Blue Danube.

I really don't know, but they "fought" for a while until they got tired or one called "Uncle" .

Then they would retreat and another pair would come out to "fight".

This went on until we ran out of air as we couldn't move away and we also had money on the matches.

This is my dive partner and I picking out some new, modern dive equipment. I am on the right.


These are what we normally dove for. These are "real" Manly lobsters, not those Sissy, Girly lobsters in the tropics. These guys will teach you how to scream while underwater as their bite will crush clam shells and Snowflake wrists.



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