Review - Dive Barbados, Barbados

[w&k]

Dive review – Dive Barbados, Barbados

November 28, 2004 (Celebrity Zenith)

 

Rating of 1-5 stars:

Overall *****

 

People *****

Equipment *****

Diving **** (Reef **** 77ft/40min Reef ***** 50 ft/56min)

 

Dive Barbados will DEFINITELY be my contacted operation when diving Barbados again. We also would consider going to Barbados for a land-based trip.

 

Personal dive biases: I am a Floridian with >300 dives, certification through rescue. My diving experience has been under all sorts of conditions, but I no longer dive rough, deep or cold water (why bother?), and avoid weekend warriors whenever possible. My diving preference is drifting on reefs, and I have been known to bring home a bug or two.

 

I got the original tip on Dive Barbados from the Cruise Critic Port board for Barbados, and also found recommendations on Scubaboard.com. The website http://divebarbados.net was great, and I knew I had the right operation when I found a link to bars at the bottom of the page. My E-mail was answered promptly, personally and courteously by John (owner). They were happy to provide pickup for our dive, and John sent pictures of himself and the pickup area outside the gate at the pier complex, and also graciously slid the pickup time back to 9:00am to accommodate our docking time so that we would not have to be in the crazy first rush off-ship. One of our Cruise Critic friends made us a couple of great diving related door signs, and we picked up an extra diver that saw the signs and asked if he could come along (Lenny).

 

We made it off the ship, and hiked to and through the terminal building – barricades funneled us down the length and back so that we would pass all the shops. As we were finally at the exit, a uniformed guard stopped us and asked what was in our luggage. We informed the guard that we came off the cruise ship, we were going diving, and the bags contained our dive gear. The guard then requested to look inside the bags, so we opened both and let him poke around. The guard then requested our customs form. We repeated that we just got off the cruise ship Zenith, and did not go through customs. Keith and Lenny had to go back all the way to the building entrance to get a customs form, and I went out to find John to tell him we were delayed. The guys got the customs form (the official didn’t even look in the dive bags), and were able to submit the form and exit the terminal. We were singled out because we had wheelie bags – carry bags were not questioned.

 

After another hike, the terminal area exited at a traffic circle, but after the terminal problem, and the guys going back for the customs form, we were late, and I was afraid we had missed our pickup. A very nice cab driver offered to call for us, but right then a lady came up and asked if we were the divers for Dive Barbados – she had spotted our giant dive bag. Mary (John’s wife) called to confirm that there was room for Lenny, and we hopped in her truck for a scenic ride to the boat, and she gave us the first-class tour of all the good stuff we were passing. Mary also explained that they were in a bit of confusion because their boat had been stolen a couple of days before, but John had made arrangements for another boat to take us out.

 

Dive Barbados is the classic dive shack on the beach, and the boat was anchored in a couple of feet of water right out in front. We settled with weights and got the other two divers settled with rental gear that looked absolutely brand-new. Set up 1st tanks, and toted gear down the beach to the boat, which belonged to Andrew, an EXCELLENT captain and the son of a family friend who owns a local motel, Smuggler’s Cove (27 foot open boat with bimini).

 

We motored gently out to our first dive site, which was a down and back on the shoulders and top of an extended reef patch. Andrew and John set up gear, and we back rolled into the water. Gorgeous hard and soft corals, and lots and lots of fish. Viz ~90’, water temp ~82 degrees, no current. Besides the three of us and John as DM, there was one gentleman from a hotel. Absolutely a gorgeous dive with all fabulous divers. It just doesn’t get any better than that! When we surfaced, we handed up weights first, then stripped off gear before climbing on. I paddled around awhile while the gentlemen got on and the gear situated, and then they helped pull me back onboard.

 

We motored slowly down to our second site, swapped dive stories, and had an entertaining surface interval. John told us that the viz was normally much better, but they had had excessive rainfall in the preceding week (inches of rain). He then explained the second site is situated on a main wave path, so the reef is broken up a couple of times a year from heavy wave action, which generates a lot of new growth.

 

Gear was re-set, then we back-rolled in, dropped down to the sand, and entered the reef from the land side. The rolling action from high surf was evident in the number of broken coral heads and sponges at crazy angles and turned on their sides. New growth was everywhere, and really cool things were hiding in the nooks and crannies. We saw several turtles, sea cucumbers, conchs, and stonefish. Excellent example of renewal after disturbance. John had me strip off my glove and pet a sea cucumber. I laughed so hard, I blew my mask right off my face & nearly spit out my regulator. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out what it felt like since this is a family board.

 

We then clambered up on the boat again (I got pulled up again), and headed back to the shop. Toted the gear back up the beach, and used the hose, rinse tank and line to wash the salt off the gear and us. After we dried and repacked the gear, Mary took us back to the ship. I only wish we could have stayed longer, and swapped some more dive stories over beverages.

 

Dive Barbados is a little off the beaten track, and well worth the trip! We shall return!

 

Wendy

 

Check out the photos at http://community.webshots.com/user/wendyandkeith

[scubaRN]

Thanks for the review. I'll see if they are open on Sundays.