Diving Ambergris Caye and Diving Caye Caulker
These islands are the most popular destinations for Scuba Diving Belize as they offer the visitor a nice array of activities other than Scuba Diving however both these destinations offer challenging diving.
The Barrier reef which is the type of diving you will be doing from these islands can be quite challenging for many divers. The Barrier Reef runs 175 miles the entire length of Belize, the reef actually comes right up to the surface and the waves crash over the reef as they head to the shore, what this means is the only way to get out to open sea is by negotiating the breaks in the reef called Cuts, these are natural paths out to sea and deep enough for boats to pass through.
Negotiating these cuts in all but calm weather can be quite tricky for the boat captains and uncomfortable for the divers on board.
During the months of Dec through April you can expect 5 to 8 ft rollers to be coming through the cuts, the boat captains are very skillful at getting through however every now and again you go up and the boat comes down hard.
Many divers are not prepared for this type of diving, most expect flat calm seas like they experienced in the Cayman Islands or Cozumel and find it a little beyond their comfort level. (Not recommended for people with any type of back problem.)
The boat crews do a great job, but if you are not comfortable with choppy seas or get seasick, or you’re not as fit as you should be, maybe this diving is not for you.
The best dive boats for diving in these waters are the ones that exit from the side and enters from the side, after owning more than 20 boats during my dive operator days in Belize including side entry and swim platform boats I can speak from experience when I say rear entry platforms are dangerous in these swells, if you can imagine being thrown around as you try to de-kit with the rear of the boat bouncing up 4-8ft its not only dangerous but unnecessary keep the dive platforms for calm waters.
On a positive note you will become a better diver for it and there will not be many other tropical places that will challenge you like diving the Belize Barrier Reef. Once you have dive the Belize Barrier Reef from these locations most other tropical destinations will be a walk in the park.
The reason the majority of visiting Divers to Belize tend to stay on these northern islands is they offer other things to do than diving such as Mayan ruin tours, Cave tubing trips, the islands have shops restaurants and nightclubs so all in all it’s a nice mixture of things to do other than just diving. For more information on Diving Ambergris Caye visit Dive Belize.