Archives for Scuba Diving category

St. Lucia Island Dive Sites

Posted on Sep 12, 2009 under Scuba Diving | No Comment

St Lucia is a beautiful Caribbean island known not only for its beautiful white beaches, hot sun and idealistic setting in sparkling blue ocean, but also for the amazing scuba diving adventure to be be found there. The island of St Lucia has flourished economically in recent years, allowing it to form a booming tourist trade, much of which is based around providing first rate scuba diving trips. As a result a large amount of dive centers and dive shops have opened all over the island, isn’t it neat that there are many diving facilities that any diver could possibly want. There are also ten different dive operators doing business on the island and 23 favorite dive sites to choose from.

One of the most popular diving sites around St Lucia is Anse Chastanet. This dive can be accessed directly from the beach, and has a sudden steep coral wall unlike any other in the world. The coral is a bright, vivid red and the wall continues around much of the island. Also on this dive, locals will insistently tell you of St Lucia’s equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster; a mysterious creature known only as the Thing. Although it is reputed to only be seen at night by all of the dive guides that refer to it, whether or not this local legend is true, there are frequent reports of sightings of this creature from locals and tourists alike.

Along the Anse Chastanet route there is another well known scuba diving area named Fairy Land. Its name is due to the strong current that flows through it, washing the coral and removing debris that decreases visibility in the water such as dirt and algae. If you have an interest in underwater photography, this is a georgeous spot and this gives a bright open appearance with clear water.

For those who would like to try wreck diving in St Lucia, there are the sunken remains of the Lesleen M. The Lesleen M is a freighter that was sunk in 1986 by the Department of Fisheries to form an artificial reef. It is 165 feet long and is in superb condition, allowing it to be discovered in its entirety. It is home for much of the exotic marine life that lives around the island and it is highly recommended if you want to view marine biology at its best.

There are a great number of St Lucia resorts to choose from, for those who wish to go to St Lucia for its diving adventure, and many of these are aimed specifically at divers, making it very easy to gain access to good quality diving facilities. Its great Caribbean setting and wonderful variety of different scuba diving sites available make St Lucia a place highly recommended as one of the best Caribbean diving locations there is.

Technorati Tags: Dive Sites, Scuba Diving, St Lucia Island, underwater, Wreck diving

Who do you turn to when you want to learn how to dive?

Posted on Aug 19, 2009 under Scuba Diving | No Comment

Diving is becoming a world wide sport Fad! Scuba diving has started to take over the world, now at every corner of the planet people are diving there. However there is a slump in the amount of people that are learning to dive. There aren’t in actual numbers that many beginners starting up Diving every year, there are however many professionals. The main problem suggested by some is that they don’t know who to go to, to learn.

Some people won’t even have a clue where they need to go to learn, or who to contact? In actual fact, there is only one group that is best to dive with and that is PADI. The Professional Association of Diving Instructors offer some of the best possible instructors to teach you how to dive. But you don’t have to go to a PADI centre to learn with them. The majority of all tour operators offer a PADI course with the holiday you book.

The most important thing to remember is that when booking diving holidays, you check that the Instructor is PADI qualified, otherwise you could be falling into a dive holiday that could not necessarily work out the way you want it. However it isn’t just PADI that can be trusted. The BSAC, also called the British Sub Aqua Club are a very well known diving organisation. They are happy to teach new divers and to help more experienced ones to reach higher diving qualifications.

If you want to try something a little more adventurous than just diving in the ocean, then I would recommend booking a holiday with a tour operator that has a PADI instructor, shark diving requires an instructor with some high profile skills.

If you are going on a Liveaboard diving holiday, then you need to make sure you have a qualified diving instructor with you, although it’s not as dangerous as wreck diving, it does have risks!

Technorati Tags: diving, Diving holidays, holidays, learning to dive, liveaboards, PADI, scuba, shark diving, Travel

Scouting for Great Scuba Diving Resorts