Barbados (Dive Sites)

.../> I wouldn’t go to Barbados just to dive, as there are probably better places, but I would go back because it’s such a great place. I really enjoyed diving with these guys, would do so again and would recommend them.



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We’ve just been on a fleeting one-week visit to Barbados. We stayed in the St Lawrence Gap area on the South coast and luckily I managed to pack in eight dives while here

I did all of my diving with Exploresub who have a shop at the West End of the Gap, as it was handy just to pop along after breakfast. Most of the other operators I looked at would pick you up and return you to your hotel. Having a non-diving partner whose extensive patience I don’t like to stretch, I opted for closest at hand rather than cheapest.

As it turned out they were a pretty good choice. It worked out at about 25 quid a dive, apparently the average price in Barbados. This included hiring a BC, reg, mask and fins, as I only took my computer.
The equipment was a flat 10-pound per day, so doing 3 dives a day is an economical option if you don’t take gear with you. . A lot of the people diving with them had either dived with them on previous visits or come because friends had recommended them, always a good sign. The majority of the clientele were British, I’m not sure if that means anything though.

Exploresub are one of the oldest operators on Barbados. They are a 5 star PADI outfit that offer a full range of courses. Mike who appeared to be owner or co-owner was involved in the cleanup and sinking of the SS Stavronikita. An upright, 365ft purposely sunk Greek freighter lying in 42m maximum up to 6m, this is a good pretty good wreck dive. It was supposed to be an artificial reef but sank slightly deeper than planned. There are plenty of entrances and exits as the dive operators doctored it before it was sunk in 1978. The vessel caught fire in 1974 and was purchased by the Barbadian government in a moment of wisdom, to turn over to the then existing 5 dive operators for clean up and sinking.

Exploresub have three boats. I only saw two of them, the one we were on could carry about 18 divers (averaged 6-8) and had twin 300hp jet engines, so it could cover a pretty good range. The other, smaller, boat I saw had twin 200hp outboard motors. Charlie, the (very professional) skipper of the bigger boat said the smaller one was the Ferrari of diveboats and was the fastest used around Barbados. This operated from their other shop in Bridgetown.

The diving here is pretty good. I would rate is as similar reef to Jamaica (Montego Bay), but much more life. Other Brits said it wasn’t as good as the Red Sea, but everyone thought it was worth the effort of getting their T-Shirts wet. The water was about 27C, so not many people bothered with wet suits.

The Stavronikita is a good dive that I would like to have done several times. The visibility was poor for most our dives by Barbadian standards (12-15m), because they’d had nine days of rain prior to our arrival. This meant we didn’t see the submarine, which apparently visits regularly. The dive operators that sank the Stav planned out seventeen different penetration dive routes on her. We did number one, the baby route with a maximum depth of 30m, but it still involved enough penetration to be quite exciting.

On the dive following this, “Clark’s Reef”, (After a 50-minute surface interval) we racked up an 11-minute decompression stop according to my Suunto Favor (Dive computer). I don’t have a problem with deco diving, but it seemed a bit inappropriate as some of the divers had fairly limited experience although they were put close to the instructors. I was a bit surprised as I was under the impression that PADI (The organisational umbrella Exploresub operates under) diveshops don’t go in for this kind of diving.

Another excellent dive site was “the boot”. As well as the usual reef fish and corals we saw three Hawksbill Turtles, a Stingray, a Spotted Eagleray, two sea horses and several Moray Eels. They had told us to expect to see plenty but most of us came out of the water gobsmacked. If you dive here and you’re split into groups, get into Mikes, he gets the best bit of the boat, the best currents, goes in first and is a dab hand at finding seahorses.

Various other sites we visited included “Castle Reef”, where we saw 5 Hawksbill turtles on one dive. This was a pleasant drift dive to 28 m max. Close Encounters, the “House Reef” where they have a tame Stingray that was absent, and several Morays to a maximum depth of about 18m. Mount Charlie, which was bog standard reef and nothing very big, max. 30m

I wouldn’t go to Barbados just to dive, as there are probably better places, but I would go back because it’s such a great place. I really enjoyed diving with these guys, would do so again and would recommend them.

 

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