New Waves certification Dives in St Marteen and Thomas

Okay so I finally decided to go for the certification program and signed up today.

I was wondering if anyone has done the Princess New Waves program in St Marteen and St Thomas. Can you tell me about the actual dive sites? Anyone know the depths? I like to get as much info as I can so I have no surprises waiting.

I did this several years ago, and things may have changed. That said, here is my experience:

In St. Maarten we went to Little Bay. There was a dive platform anchored offshore in about 40' of water. The bottom was sandy so it was not a great dive, but it wasn't a bad place to get a lot of the skills out of the way. The certified dive tour boat dropped us off and picked us up on the way back. The big thing I remember was the certified dive hit 4' plus swells (fairly typical I think) and many of the divers got sick, so the tour operator brought them back to our location for their second dive. Several of the divers decided not to do the second dive because of sea sickness. Because we stayed in the sheltered bay, we had no problem with rough seas.

In St. Thomas we accompanied the certified divers. Our group stayed together. One dive was at the Navy Barges and another was a nearby reef. I believe both were in less than 55’ of water. Both of these dives were much better than the ones in St. Maarten. There was more and because we got a little ahead in St. Maarten, we had more time to explore.

Overall, if you don’t mind committing two full days to classes and pool work, this is a great way to get certified. I know others who have done it and feel the same way. The classes I have seen have never had more than four students and most of the instructors are excellent.