Today, the Cayman Islands boast an environment that is rich and friendly toward advanced divers. Nitrox 32 and 36 are available at many dive shops and on live-aboards to allow divers a safer profile while using their air computers or tables or to extend their bottom time and take advantage of reduced nitrogen loading. Additionally, custom nitrox blends, 100% O2 and trimix gases are available from Divetech and Ocean Frontiers.
Wall cruising anyone? Two dive operators have diver propulsion vehicles (DPVs), also called scooters, available for cruising the walls and exploring the underwater topography of sponges, corals and gorgonians. Scooters can be taken on boat trips or used for shore diving on both guided and unguided dives.
Or how about rebreathers? With virtually no bubbles, rebreathers offer divers a chance to interact with the marine environment, photograph & video marine creatures and enjoy eye-to-eye contact. Semi-closed circuit (SCR) and closed circuit (CCR) rebreathers are available for divers wanting to give them a try; full certification courses can be completed during a vacation. Rebreathers are also available for rental to those certified in their use. Currently CCR's offered for rental or training include the Evolution, Inspiration, Megalodon, Sport KISS, Classic KISS and Optima. You can also bring your own CCR and know that CCR tanks, bailout bottles and scrubber are readily available. We are Rebreather friendly! Inquire with your dive operator for choices of profiles and CCR support.
Operators offer a wide variety of trips and packages that range from Advanced Nitrox dives through Advanced Trimix diver to 100m/300 feet. Guided boat and shore trips are available with trained technical Instructors or unguided dives for certified buddies can be done from shore to enjoy getting off on your own. There are many great shore diving locations that allow exploration of both walls and shallow reefs. Boat trips run mornings and afternoons. With the Cayman walls just minutes off shore, there is no easier destination that Cayman to explore the deep walls and go where no one has gone before.
Grand Cayman has embraced technical diving with one dedicated dive shop (Divetech) that caters to training or dive packages for technical divers. Breathing gases including air, nitrox, oxygen, heliair, heliox and trimix can be obtained at one of the Caribbean's most advanced blending facilities. Training courses from nitrox and rebreather diving through Advanced Nitrox, Technical Nitrox or Extended Range, through Intermediate Trimix and Trimix diving allow tekkies to explore the deeper sites along Grand Cayman walls. A host of new sites featuring overhangs, cuts, chutes and chimneys await those with the training or desire to explore new options.
The Cayman Islands boasts a world class recompression chamber located at the George Town Hospital and all of our professional dive operators carry oxygen, first aid kits, have CPR and O2 provision training. While you won't want to visit it you can be assured that if you do; you'll be looked after well with superb treatment by professional trained staff.
Grand Cayman's Underwater beauty is unrivaled; from Stingray City (a 12 foot dive) to the deep sponge belt (250 and 300 feet), with more than 200 named sites in between. Wrecks from 40 to 260 feet can be explored, including an offshore fuel barge at a depth of 100 feet at 12 Mile Bank, long visited by fishermen and offering an abundance of pelagics and our deep wreck the Carrie Lee, covered in colorful sponges that sits on the edge of the drop off from 165 - 260 feet in depth.
Whether you're coming to the Cayman Islands for your first visit or considering a return, the destination offers divers the flexibility needed for the fullest enjoyment of their diving vacations. Contact your local dive operator to arrange a dive vacation or a training dive vacation. Let them know your training level and requests; you're sure to be accommodated by one of the Cayman Islands' many professional dive operators. If it's a window into the previously unseen underwater world you're looking for, the porthole awaits you here.
TEK Diving
There's been a lot of talk in recent years about TEK diving and while some people have embraced it as a new and exciting addition to our sport many other divers are mystified by the term and unsure of what it means. Undoubtedly most aspects of TEK diving are outside the scope of what most of us would consider safe sport diving, requiring very specialized training and additional redundant equipment. However, one of the most exciting things to emerge from TEK for sport divers is easy to learn and requires little additional equipment - it is NITROX.
NITROX is simply an enriched air. When the scuba tank is filled, the percentage of nitrogen is reduced and the amount of oxygen is increased. (Different 'mixes' are available with different concentrations of nitrogen to oxygen and so it is essential that each tank be tested prior to use). Nitrogen, as we all know, is the gas, which leads to many of the limitations on divers and contributes to such problems as decompression sickness. By reducing the percentage of nitrogen it is possible to safely extend bottom time using specially formulated NITROX tables. To be doubly safe, some people continue to calculate their bottom time using air tables when diving NITROX, thus giving them an extra margin of safety. One unexpected advantage to diving NITROX is that divers feel less tired at the end of the day - our divemasters in particular have noticed this great benefit. Nitrox is not without restrictions however. Because of the greater percentage of oxygen in the mixture, your depth restrictions are limited by the percentage of oxygen in your tank but for recreational sport diving in the 100 - 130 foot range, the most common mix, nitrox 32% is still very suitable.
Most dive operators in the Cayman Islands offer Nitrox diving to divers who have been certified to dive Nitrox. Many of the dive operators throughout the three islands offer Nitrox certification courses. Be sure to contact your dive operator ahead of time to let them know you are interested in diving Nitrox or to take a Nitrox certification course.
