Scuba Diving: Reviews, Dive Operator Info, All things DIVING!
Dive Operation In St. Kitts
About Kenneth's Dive Center
They are located on Bay Road in Basseterre, ten minutes from all the hotels in the Frigate Bay area and two minutes away from the cruise ship dock. With two custom dive cats 40 & 50ft long and a 32ft speedboat, they are able to cater to small and large groups.
Their dive boats are equipped with top of the line snorkeling and SCUBA equipment from Sherwood, Akona and Genesis.
Their two dive cats are the only dive boats on the island with a restroom. Easy entry and exits, experienced instructors and boat crew equals the most safe and enjoyable under-water experience on SK.
They have been the shop of choice for Buzz Aldrin (seen in the picture above) on his visit to SK, Jean Michel Cousteau requested Kenneth as his dive guide when he visited the island in the mid 90s. They are the only dive shop on the island to work with ShoreTrips, serving the cruise industry with no mark up.
Reviews:
By bcopple.geo from New York
The people at KDC are so friendly and have the best attitude towards responsible, enjoyable scuba diving. Great sites, knowledgeable guides. If you are into going underwater to see and appreciate wonderful creatures and dive sites, this is the place for you. There's absolutely none of the competitive/machismo "dive deep and fast without looking around" attitude here (which I've encountered once or twice on other islands, much to my dismay). The reefs here were quite good - comparable in areas to Bonaire, more abundant than the Bahamian reefs. Some interesting wreck sites (don't know if they've been affected by all the recent hurricane activity). If you're going to St. Kitts, I would definitely recommend diving with Kenneth and his great team.
Link to UW Photos from St. KittsSt. Maarten Dive Operator Information
The dive operator we will be using in St. Maarten is Scuba Fun Dive Center. As I don't know too much about this dive shop, here is some input from those who have been there.
Caymaniac
ScubaBoard Veteran
ScubaBoard Veteran
"I was on St. Maarten last April. I dove with ScubaFun which is about a half mile to a mile walk from the cruise port. If you are bringing all your own equipment, be prepared for the walk. We dove off a zodiac type of craft. The boat was crappy, but I thought the 2 dives I did were quite good.
I've heard St. Martin wasn't all that great for diving but the dives we did were just fine. The first dive was on a wreck outside of the harbor and took about 20 minutes to get to. The wreck was in about 60 to 70 feet and we penetrated the wreck to go up some stairs on the inside. It was quite dark inside the wreck, if I had known this I would have taken a light. The wreck had a number of tropicals as well as eels. The second dive was close to and just east of the wreck in about 40 feet. This was a nice reef, not really spectacular but very nice. Visibility was at or near 80ft. We saw two reef sharks on that dive which I really enjoyed as well as the reef which seemed healthy and colorful. I did not log the names of the those dives so I can't tell you what they were, but if you contact Scuba Fun, maybe they would help you out. I found them on the web."
Scuba Fun's Dive Boat:
"Scuba Two" is a 28 feet inflatable, with cabin and hard top, registered for 15 divers, with a 250 hp outboard engine.
"Scuba Two" is a 28 feet inflatable, with cabin and hard top, registered for 15 divers, with a 250 hp outboard engine.
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Dive Operator Reviews: St. Lucia
From a Cruise Critic Review
Member Name: flyerfan22
St. Lucia -– Booked dives with Dive Fair Helen (http://www.divefairhelen.com/). We loved this dive operator. They took such good care of us, from setting up equipment, to personalized dive master attention, to an excellent, hot lunch on the boat. My husband (dive buddy) struggled with equalizing, and took longer than usual to get to depth. Dive Master Grail grabbed my hand and led me around the dive site, while keeping an eye on Steve’s progress. Grail stuck by my side throughout the dive, which gave Steve a chance to take pictures and not worry about being a watchful buddy. I HIGHLY recommend Dive Fair Helen for a tour in St. Lucia. Again, we got back late and didn’t look around the city much.
Dive Fair Helen: "Best Dive OP in St. Lucia !!"
laserdoc85, Atlanta Feb 18, 2007
We went diving with Dive Fair Helen in July of 06 and I can't say enough about this outfit. After months of searching on the internet for a good Dive Op and emails back and forth with Micheal,we booked 6 dives with them.
This is a first class outfit!! I have been diving for over 20 years and I have to say I was very impressed with them. One thing that I have never,never seen on a charter was a full hot lunch served everyday between dives. Talk about good!!! The staff was great and made every trip alot of fun. The owner even set up a night dive for myself and my girlfriend. We traveled by his 4x4 through the jungle and ended up at a beautiful beach for the moonlight dive. He really went out of his way for us. They say Bonaire is the number one place to dive ,but we saw things in St. Lucia that we never saw in Bonaire.
The reefs are healthy and teaming with life. Huge barrel sponges 5 feet tall. Never saw that anywhere else. When we go back there is no doubt that we will dive again with fairhelen. I would not dive with anyone else. They really made us feel like family. I would give them 10 stars!! If anyone needs more info feel free to email us at laserdoc85@hotmail.comGo with these guys and you will not be disappointed!!
Dave & JillAtlanta,Ga.USA
Independent Dive Operator Review
Dive Fair Helen is a friendly independent dive company which is owned and managed by André St Omer, a marine ecologist from St Lucia who has been involved with scuba and marine management on the island since 1986.
Started in 1992, Dive Fair Helen is a PADI Resort Dive Centre which offers a good range of services, from beginners resort courses and children’s bubble-maker programmes to Advanced Open Water Certification and speciality courses such as underwater naturalist and deep diver. They offer referral dives and a number of NAUI certifications and then they also take snorkelling and kayak trips.
The name Fair Helen refers to St Lucia itself, which in the past was known as the Fair Helen of the West Indies. The island is so beautiful and desirable that it was likened to Helen of Troy. And like her, in the wars for empire two centuries ago, it moved whole armies in an effort to capture her. It is true to say St Lucia is beautiful underwater too, particularly for the diversity of the species and types of diving.
St Lucia has reefs, sloping drop-offs and vertical walls, pinnacles, trenches and valleys, some drift dives and a few wrecks. There are even a few scuba oddities such as thermoclines created by the sheer depth right offshore. The Pitons continue as steeply offshore as they are above the water. The dive-sites are mainly down the protected Caribbean coastline, particularly around Anse Cochon and Canaries, and around Soufrière. Very occasionally they further afield, at Pigeon Island in the north or Vieux Fort to the south.
As a marine environmentalist who has been conducting research in St Lucia for over ten years, St Omer is a pleasure to dive with. He was an integral part of the policy of marine management in the island and formulated the plan for the SMMA, the Soufrière Marine Management Area (see below), which was put in place in 1994 in order to limit the pressures placed on the environment by the many different users, from fishermen to yachts and swimmers to course scuba divers. He has also been part of the environment awareness programmes taught to children in schools.
Dive Fair Helen has two locations, one in Vigie Marina in Castries harbour and the other in Marigot Bay, the extremely pretty cove on the Caribbean coast. Divers are brought to the Castries shop (if you are in a hotel right in the north of the island, departure can be as early as 7.45am), where they pick up their gear and then load up onto the boat. There are showers and lockers, so divers who have brought their own gear are able to store it here free of charge.
The ride to Anse Cochon takes about 35-40 minutes and if the day’s trip is headed all the way down to Soufrière then that takes one hour. It is a nice ride though, because you coast beneath the vast green headlands that come tumbling down to the shoreline. Cocoa tea and coffee are served on board. You arrive back in Vigie at between 1pm and 3.30pm depending on the dive-site. The boat can carry as many as 25 people. There can be snorkellers, resort course divers and qualified divers on the same trip, but at the destination they are divided up head off in their separate groups. Practically speaking divers are likely to be in groups that are maximum ten.
For non-divers, Dive Fair Helen also offers snorkelling, close to the west coast beaches and kayaking, including two trips in touring sea kayaks, see Tours below. Finally they also offer private excursions by boat and combinations of kayaking, walking and camping (at the Anse Liberté campground which is set on the hillsides above its own private cove).
Dive Sites
The dive sites are almost all located in the two areas - The Soufrière Marine Management Area and the The Soufrière Marine Management Area. The land beneath the surface roughly mirrors the land above it. In places it drops very steeply from the headlands in some places (particularly off the Pitons), giving near vertical walls, but there are other areas where it shelves out into a bay before rolling down to a deep sea floor.
Anse Cochon
There are beach dives to two reefs in Anse Cochon, and because they start in shallow water they are used for training dives for novice instruction a s wellas snorkelling. The reef starts in five feet of water and descends gradually to 30 and 40 feet. You can expect to see a good variety of colourful corals and small reef fish.
Virgin Cove Reef
Adjoining the reef at Anse Cochon, Virgin Point reef is a sloping drop off from a depth of about fifteen to 50 feet, from where it drops vertically to create a wall. There are boulders near the surface which hold all manner of small fish and small creatures, then the corals become more defined and but in the lower stretches, where there are large barrel sponges, you can see barracuda and turtles from time to time.
Anse La Raye Wall
A near vertical drop off about sixty yards from the coastline. It starts shallow but then drops increasingly steeply from around 30 feet. The reef is clad with corals which then become larger and darker (to gather more of the diminishing light spectrum as you descend)
Lesleen M
Sunk by the Fisheries Department in 1986 to encourage coral growth (and personally sunk by owner of Dive Fair Helen who had sailed on it as a boy), the Lesleen M is a 165ft freighter that sits upright in about 65 feet of water. It has served its purpose and is now furred with corals in which juvenile fish are able to grow in protection. It sees eels and angel fish. It is possible to swim into the hold and the engine room.
Daini Koyumaru
Another wreck, is a 240ft dredger that was sunk (again by the Fisheries Department in an effort to create an artificial reef for fish regeneration) is located at the northern end of Anse Cochon. It lies on its side, its holds open, so that you can penetrate inside, at depths between 75 and 100 feet. It is close to a reef and so plenty of fish go in there, including barracuda.
Soufrière
The diving around Soufrière is characterised by its very steep drop offs, which range in gradient between one in three and vertical. It is steepest directly off the Pitons, where the depth is known to drop from thirty to three thousand in the bleep of a depth sounder. They are covered in corals and you may come across thermoclynes, bodies of hot and cold water than move through one another. There are also currents – this led to one of the dive sites being called Superman’s Flight (also because he flew between the Pitons in one of the movies). The area has been badly fished out and so you will not see many groupers for instance, though you may see eels and smaller fish such as snappers and some of the larger species such as barracuda. Coral Gardens, close to the Gros Piton, is called so because of the variety of soft corals, including sea fans and gorgonians.
From a Cruise Critic Review
Member Name: flyerfan22
St. Lucia -– Booked dives with Dive Fair Helen (http://www.divefairhelen.com/). We loved this dive operator. They took such good care of us, from setting up equipment, to personalized dive master attention, to an excellent, hot lunch on the boat. My husband (dive buddy) struggled with equalizing, and took longer than usual to get to depth. Dive Master Grail grabbed my hand and led me around the dive site, while keeping an eye on Steve’s progress. Grail stuck by my side throughout the dive, which gave Steve a chance to take pictures and not worry about being a watchful buddy. I HIGHLY recommend Dive Fair Helen for a tour in St. Lucia. Again, we got back late and didn’t look around the city much.
Dive Fair Helen: "Best Dive OP in St. Lucia !!"
laserdoc85, Atlanta Feb 18, 2007
We went diving with Dive Fair Helen in July of 06 and I can't say enough about this outfit. After months of searching on the internet for a good Dive Op and emails back and forth with Micheal,we booked 6 dives with them.
This is a first class outfit!! I have been diving for over 20 years and I have to say I was very impressed with them. One thing that I have never,never seen on a charter was a full hot lunch served everyday between dives. Talk about good!!! The staff was great and made every trip alot of fun. The owner even set up a night dive for myself and my girlfriend. We traveled by his 4x4 through the jungle and ended up at a beautiful beach for the moonlight dive. He really went out of his way for us. They say Bonaire is the number one place to dive ,but we saw things in St. Lucia that we never saw in Bonaire.
The reefs are healthy and teaming with life. Huge barrel sponges 5 feet tall. Never saw that anywhere else. When we go back there is no doubt that we will dive again with fairhelen. I would not dive with anyone else. They really made us feel like family. I would give them 10 stars!! If anyone needs more info feel free to email us at laserdoc85@hotmail.comGo with these guys and you will not be disappointed!!
Dave & JillAtlanta,Ga.USA
Independent Dive Operator Review
Dive Fair Helen is a friendly independent dive company which is owned and managed by André St Omer, a marine ecologist from St Lucia who has been involved with scuba and marine management on the island since 1986.
Started in 1992, Dive Fair Helen is a PADI Resort Dive Centre which offers a good range of services, from beginners resort courses and children’s bubble-maker programmes to Advanced Open Water Certification and speciality courses such as underwater naturalist and deep diver. They offer referral dives and a number of NAUI certifications and then they also take snorkelling and kayak trips.
The name Fair Helen refers to St Lucia itself, which in the past was known as the Fair Helen of the West Indies. The island is so beautiful and desirable that it was likened to Helen of Troy. And like her, in the wars for empire two centuries ago, it moved whole armies in an effort to capture her. It is true to say St Lucia is beautiful underwater too, particularly for the diversity of the species and types of diving.
St Lucia has reefs, sloping drop-offs and vertical walls, pinnacles, trenches and valleys, some drift dives and a few wrecks. There are even a few scuba oddities such as thermoclines created by the sheer depth right offshore. The Pitons continue as steeply offshore as they are above the water. The dive-sites are mainly down the protected Caribbean coastline, particularly around Anse Cochon and Canaries, and around Soufrière. Very occasionally they further afield, at Pigeon Island in the north or Vieux Fort to the south.
As a marine environmentalist who has been conducting research in St Lucia for over ten years, St Omer is a pleasure to dive with. He was an integral part of the policy of marine management in the island and formulated the plan for the SMMA, the Soufrière Marine Management Area (see below), which was put in place in 1994 in order to limit the pressures placed on the environment by the many different users, from fishermen to yachts and swimmers to course scuba divers. He has also been part of the environment awareness programmes taught to children in schools.
Dive Fair Helen has two locations, one in Vigie Marina in Castries harbour and the other in Marigot Bay, the extremely pretty cove on the Caribbean coast. Divers are brought to the Castries shop (if you are in a hotel right in the north of the island, departure can be as early as 7.45am), where they pick up their gear and then load up onto the boat. There are showers and lockers, so divers who have brought their own gear are able to store it here free of charge.
The ride to Anse Cochon takes about 35-40 minutes and if the day’s trip is headed all the way down to Soufrière then that takes one hour. It is a nice ride though, because you coast beneath the vast green headlands that come tumbling down to the shoreline. Cocoa tea and coffee are served on board. You arrive back in Vigie at between 1pm and 3.30pm depending on the dive-site. The boat can carry as many as 25 people. There can be snorkellers, resort course divers and qualified divers on the same trip, but at the destination they are divided up head off in their separate groups. Practically speaking divers are likely to be in groups that are maximum ten.
For non-divers, Dive Fair Helen also offers snorkelling, close to the west coast beaches and kayaking, including two trips in touring sea kayaks, see Tours below. Finally they also offer private excursions by boat and combinations of kayaking, walking and camping (at the Anse Liberté campground which is set on the hillsides above its own private cove).
Dive Sites
The dive sites are almost all located in the two areas - The Soufrière Marine Management Area and the The Soufrière Marine Management Area. The land beneath the surface roughly mirrors the land above it. In places it drops very steeply from the headlands in some places (particularly off the Pitons), giving near vertical walls, but there are other areas where it shelves out into a bay before rolling down to a deep sea floor.
Anse Cochon
There are beach dives to two reefs in Anse Cochon, and because they start in shallow water they are used for training dives for novice instruction a s wellas snorkelling. The reef starts in five feet of water and descends gradually to 30 and 40 feet. You can expect to see a good variety of colourful corals and small reef fish.
Virgin Cove Reef
Adjoining the reef at Anse Cochon, Virgin Point reef is a sloping drop off from a depth of about fifteen to 50 feet, from where it drops vertically to create a wall. There are boulders near the surface which hold all manner of small fish and small creatures, then the corals become more defined and but in the lower stretches, where there are large barrel sponges, you can see barracuda and turtles from time to time.
Anse La Raye Wall
A near vertical drop off about sixty yards from the coastline. It starts shallow but then drops increasingly steeply from around 30 feet. The reef is clad with corals which then become larger and darker (to gather more of the diminishing light spectrum as you descend)
Lesleen M
Sunk by the Fisheries Department in 1986 to encourage coral growth (and personally sunk by owner of Dive Fair Helen who had sailed on it as a boy), the Lesleen M is a 165ft freighter that sits upright in about 65 feet of water. It has served its purpose and is now furred with corals in which juvenile fish are able to grow in protection. It sees eels and angel fish. It is possible to swim into the hold and the engine room.
Daini Koyumaru
Another wreck, is a 240ft dredger that was sunk (again by the Fisheries Department in an effort to create an artificial reef for fish regeneration) is located at the northern end of Anse Cochon. It lies on its side, its holds open, so that you can penetrate inside, at depths between 75 and 100 feet. It is close to a reef and so plenty of fish go in there, including barracuda.
Soufrière
The diving around Soufrière is characterised by its very steep drop offs, which range in gradient between one in three and vertical. It is steepest directly off the Pitons, where the depth is known to drop from thirty to three thousand in the bleep of a depth sounder. They are covered in corals and you may come across thermoclynes, bodies of hot and cold water than move through one another. There are also currents – this led to one of the dive sites being called Superman’s Flight (also because he flew between the Pitons in one of the movies). The area has been badly fished out and so you will not see many groupers for instance, though you may see eels and smaller fish such as snappers and some of the larger species such as barracuda. Coral Gardens, close to the Gros Piton, is called so because of the variety of soft corals, including sea fans and gorgonians.
