hiring dive gear

[Ralph Lennox]

Hi guys, what a great site, been reading it for months. 11/10 steve! My wife and i are visiting tobago for the 1st time in april, staying with'ali' & steph in castara. We're both divers, i'm an instructor. Questions to all the old pros: where is best place to go for organised dives, where should we hire gear to do our own shore diving and where should we go? Top ten shore dives?? We'll hire a car. Finally, mozzies love me, an autan a day or what? (:)) R

[Bob White]

Try R and Sea Divers for organised dives. Good people, knowledgable and safe. They know the best dive sites around the island. They have recently moved their base to the Toucan Inn. This is their e-mail address.

[email protected]

If you write to them with your diving requirements I'm sure they will accommodate.

Regards,

Bob.

[Paul Tallet]

Hi Ralph

For diving ... I guess you have read the 'activities' section in this site, otherwise I guess Kevin Hampson is your man on all the dive sites.

Mossies?

Here is the good news ... no mossies in Castara ... if you find one it will be a lonely one, as long as you stay near the beach and don't go wandering off into the rainforest where they will be waiting patiently for you.

Castara has a thriving population of sandflies ... if mossies like you I guess sandflies should not bother you ... unlike me, of course where it is the opposite ... never been bitten by a mossie in Castara though.


Cheers

[Kevin Hampson]

Wow I'm classed as the MyTobago Dive Guru by Paul "Hurricane" Tallet I am Impressed.

Any way on to the query. I don't recall any dive centres in the Castara area which is a pity as there are some good dive like the Sisters close by. Ali may know different or have some local contacts so its worth asking him.

Having said that its not a bad spot as its about equie distant from the two main dive areas of Speyside (North Atlantic coast) and Crown Point (South Caribbean coast) which are both about an hour away. My personal favourite centres are Aquamarine at the BWI in Speyside and Undersea Tobago at Coco reef but if you look at Steve's Dive section you will see there are a good few centres many of which are quite good and one or two that are best avoided (Steve doesn't pull his punches)

Almost all the centres only do guided dives so renting gear for independent diving not going to be easy. The only one I have ever found that may help is Aquamarine but they will only let you have gear for unsupervised shore dives if you have been diving with them for a bit and they are happy with you and your buddies skills. It's not like the UK or the States where you show you C card rent some kit and go off on your own. It's not as bad as it sound as there is not much good shore diving any way (who am I kidding I'm happy in the UK with 6 oC and 2m vis) OK but all the really best stuff needs a boat. Both the centres mentioned are pretty accommodating and if you have any special requests they will try and meet them.

http://www.aquamarinedive.com & http://www.underseatobago.com


If you need any more info just ask.

Regards
Kevin

[Paul Tallet]

Hi Kevin ... you are the 'one' ... but steady on dear chap, you forgot to acknowledge my expertise in the area of 'voracious sandflies' !!!

Credit where credit is due ... eh?

Cheers and thanks for your tips on the snorkelling sites.

[Gabrielle E]

Mossies? Sandflies? They all bite and they all eat me! I don't think they're that choosy....

But agree in Castara sandflies are the real problem. Frankly I think you just have put up with it and accept the rum takes the itching away....

[Kevin Hampson]

Hi Paul,

I don't do mozzies or sandflies, I'm more than happy to leave that to the experts. My own method to avoid them is always wear a full 3mm wet suit and spend most of your time underwater. It works a treat

Regards
Kevin

PS enjoy your trip, it can't be that long to go till you get your hands on a few rum punches.

[Ralph Lennox]

Thanks guys,

Bob, will try RS divers thanks
Paul, if there's even a lone mossie it'll find me, i got bitten through my wetsuit in mozzie-ambique!
Kevin, can't believe a shore dive anywhere in togago isn't better than the clyde in winter!!
Gabrielle, is this an internal or external appln of rum?!

Thanks again, Ralph

[Paul Tallet]

Thanks Kevin

Just 518,400 seconds to go.

Been out to get my anti-sandfly potions today.

Gabrielle, I will let you know if the potions work and the place to go to get them.

Ralph, I have a theory that Rum taken internally encourages sandflies and mossies as they like alchohol in your blood ... if I see that lonely mossie I will tell him to back and join his mates in the rainforest.

But seriously, watch the sandflies ... if you wake up at 0200 after a few hours sleep with shreds of bum and leg flesh under your fingernails ... it is NOT a mossie ... it is the dreaded Sandfly ... adverse reaction to the bite can take up to 10 hours.

They bite everyone ... so it is just down to how you react.

Cheers

[Kevin Hampson]

Hi Ralph,
I dive in the southwest but as I said 6oC and 2m vis is a good day and yes, Tobago shore dives tend to be better than that. I think my worst ever was 5m vis and 26oc but 29oC and 15m+ is more the norm with 40m+ not being uncommon, (It's like diving in gin!)

I think the biggest issue is the dive centres just aren’t set up for independent divers who want to go off and do their own thing. However, Ali may be able to help as he has lots of contacts.

Speyside is well worth a visit for the diving and all the dives are within a 15 minute boat ride I have posted a couple of dive reports over the last few years that you may have seen which will give you a feel for the set up.

Enjoy your trip and dont forget to let us know how you get on when you get back.

Regards
Kevin

[Kitty Hibben]

Hi there

I would highly recommend either R & Sea (who first trained me to dive) or Scuba Adventure Safari (SAS) http://www.divetobago.com which several of my friends work for. Both teams are great and really friendly. I know SAS rent out equipment, not so sure about R & Sea.

Have a fantastic time!

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Kitty

I'm sorry to jump down your throat, but for safety reasons (not just personal opinion) I must jump in here.

I would strongly advise readers to apply great caution before considering Scuba Adventure Safari, who are based at Pigeon Point and the Rex Turtle Beach hotel. There are allegedly a great number of safety issues with this outfit. See our dive article for full details, but our panel of dive experts awarded SAS just half-a-point our of a maximum six points and one professional dive instructor, who has worked on the island for many years, recently told me that he thought half a point was over-generous. Based upon everything I discovered during the 18 months we were conducting research and interviews for the article, I have to say that I would rather take up knitting than recommend that anyone dived with SAS. Out of the 18 dive shops on the island, only five fell below an acceptable standard. None of the other four dropped below two points. That shows you how badly our panel of international experts considered SAS.

I appreciate that you have friends who work for them, Kitty, but I am surprised that you can mention R&S, one of the very most professional dive operations on the island, in the same sentence as SAS. I don't think R&S will be very happy if they read this and think that they are being compared.

[Kitty Hibben]

Hi Steve

That was only my opinion as someone who has dived with both companies. Obviously I am not an expert or professional and I did not mention SAS simply beacuse I know people who work there, but purely beacuse they are the only dive centres I have had experience with. I had a thoroughly good time with both teams and and I was not trying to compare them in any way.

Obviously I would not want to recommend a dive team who you see as dangerous or unsafe but I had never heard about any safety issues with SAS, and I was just giving my opinion as someone who has had no problems with them.

Hopefully anyone planning to dive would research well and make a good decision.

Kitty

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Kitty

Yes, I realise that and am truly sorry that I had to trash your comments. The truth is that any of us just taking up diving, or not very experienced, can only judge the firms we dive with by what we see - and that inexperience may well cause us to miss things that might be obvious to more experienced divers. The trouble is, that's why I had to express comment. Diving on Tobago is perfectly safe - if you are in the right hands. It can be a killer in the wrong hands.

As a matter of interest, when did you learn to dive with R&Sea? I forgot to say in my reply that R&Sea changed hands two years or so ago. The old company had a poor reputation and a number of fatal incidents to their name. The new people are world's apart and highly professional. Their only mistake of the new owners was that they were not aware of the record of the 'old' R&Sea and therefore didn't see the need to change the name of the firm until it was too late.

[Kitty Hibben]

Hi Steve

Yes I totally understand the situation. I was with R&Sea last summer, but it is strange beause I was recommended to them buy a family friend who been diving with them for several years previously beacuse he was good friends with the guy who ran it.

Do you happen to know who the former owner was? Does Ricardo ring any bells?

I may have my wires crossed, so I will check and get back to you. I know there were several fatalities one year when freak currents (or currents stronger than expected) killed a couple of tourists and 1 or 2 quite experienced dive instructors, but I can not remember which dive centre they came from.

Yes R&Sea were really professional and lots of fun! They even sent me a postcard when I returned home thanking me for diving with them, which was a really lovely touch!


Kitty

Ki

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Kitty

Yes and Yes - Ricardo and a serious accident that shouldn't have happened.

Fortunately, new owners Tracy, John and Wendy are a different kettle of fish and in a very short time have placed R & Sea amongst the best operations on the island.