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Dive Travel Reviews by the Divers of Planet Ocean |
Planet Ocean's many divers are active diving year round all over the world. We encourage everyone to submit a review of your dive trip to be published here. Be sure and check out this site often for new dive travel and site reviews. |
Jamaica! by Joe Pezely OK, while this should be a dive review of my recent vacation, let me start out by saying that this was my first trip to Jamaica and I was almost overwhelmed by the overabundance of things to see and do. My friends and I stayed at FDR, a small all-inclusive resort in Runaway Bay, along the north-central coast of the island. FDR is a very family-oriented resort, so if you want to take your small children with you on your next vacation you’ll appreciate having your own personal "vacation nanny" to help you plan your activities or play with your kids while you’re off diving. I saw more happy kids than I could count. With all of the other things to do, like sailing, kayaking, snorkeling and the granddaddy of all beach vacation activities --- sleeping in the sun --- I only wound up going on two dives during my week-long trip. But your all-inclusive fee gives you access to the resort’s dive boat for one dive every day but Sunday. Out of my group of friends on this particular vacation, I was the only certified diver, so I went on my first dive while my friends were participating in FDR’s resort diver class. With two certified dive masters and an instructor along, I felt pretty secure even though I was diving with people I didn’t know. My dive buddy was the PADI instructor and, since this was my first dive with him, he gave me a quick exam on hand signals and mask-clearing technique before we descended. At 85 feet down the water was still over 80 degrees and the visibility was fabulous. I don’t really know how to describe the reefs we saw except to say that they were wonderful. Huge, colorful fan coral, brain coral the size of a VW bug, brilliant fire coral, wavy anemones, and fish so brightly colored they looked almost artificial. New to me on this dive was our free ascent at the end, and our free-floating safety stop. I was a little nervous about it at first, so I was careful to stay just negatively buoyant. For perhaps obvious reasons I preferred the idea of swimming to the surface over popping up like a cork. But my partner ascended, safety-stopped and then surfaced without moving a muscle in a very fine display of buoyancy control. On my second dive I accompanied my friends on their first dive, which was a great experience for them and another terrific dive for me. This one was around 30 feet and offered conclusive proof that you don’t have to go deep to see incredible things. The north coast of Jamaica also offers a deep trench for those wall-diving fans out there, and there are numerous wrecks scattered about, and although not all of the resorts take divers to them, there are plenty of dive facilities who will. And for those who like wrecks AND wall dives, there is a Spanish anchor on the edge of a wall at about 55ft, whose chain hangs down into the trench. That’s on my list for next time! And also for next time, I was invited along for a night dive, but ran out of vacation for that one. Chatting with our guides afterward about previous dive trips, I asked if any of them had ever done cold water dives. I thought they would laugh themselves to death. "No WAY, mon!" Home | About Us | News & Views | Training | Travel | Contacts
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