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Roatan Shark Dive :: Roatan diving
Roatan Island Honduras is famous for its spectacular wall dives, sheer drop offs and giant sponges. However, its also home to magical drift dives, fascinating wrecks, incredible night diving and a reef oozing with crevices, canyons, swim thru's, caverns, sandy slopes, coral gardens ... yes, its got it all.
While larger pelagics are more common on the Pacific coast, Roatan still regularly hosts dolphins, reef sharks, whale sharks, whales, hammerhead sharks, and manta rays. Typical sightings include turtles, rays, moray eels, and a huge diversity of reef fish, many not found anywhere else in the Caribbean.
Water temperature ranges from 78 degrees - 84 degrees with visibility consistent between 60-100ft, sometimes more! Diving takes place on both sides of the island. When it is choppy on one side of the island the other side is usually calm and provides the experience you hope for even in bad weather.
The Roatan Marine Park provides patrols and up keep within the south-west region, with plenty of shallow moorings ideal for novice and beginner divers. Currents are gentle, making Roatan an ideal location to get certified.
Hugely popular and rightly so, taking your "Advanced" introduces a wide variety of new skills and environments that will take your experience to the next level. Deep, wreck, night, nitrox, and drift dives will add adventure while choosing dives such as peak performance buoyancy, navigation, naturalist, fish identification, or photography will improve your dive skills and self reliance. You will feel like an advanced diver after this one.
Combine your Enriched Air Nitrox certification with your advanced course.
Prerequisite: Open Water course or equivalent
Duration: 2 to 3 days.
General Price: $265 - includes equipment rental, all materials and instruction.
Certification Fee: $20
12% Honduran Sales Tax not included
*The deep dive and underwater navigation dive are required for advanced open water certification.
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Most instructors believe everybody should, choose this advanced dive option. Can you honestly not find any necessary improvements in your buoyancy control? This class is perfect as your opening advanced course dive often sets you up for more enjoyable, controlled and longer dives the remainder of the week.
Perfect for improving your picture taking, night dive confidence, deep dive bottom time, air consumption, and looking good in the water!
Pre-dive topics relate to body positioning, correct weighting and distribution, equipment operation, consideration and suitability, plus effective breathing and kicking techniques.
Putting it all into action through the hoops and swim thrus makes this not just great learning, but fun to do too.
Going a little deeper makes all the difference in many locations around the world. Drop-offs, wrecks, and some of the ocean's larger fish are often found at depths greater than 60ft/18m.
The advanced deep dive enables you to get certified to 100ft/30m* while providing the necessary theory to do so in a safe and assured way. Your instructor will review topics including ascent rates, safety stops, decompression theory, nitrogen narcosis and dive planning that will give you the knowledge and confidence to dive deeper and more safely.
*For Junior Advanced certification maximum depth is 70ft/22m
If deep diving really fascinates you then consider the deep dive specialty course.
Drift diving, some say, is the only way to dive. Drift divers usually encounter some degree of current, which often feeds a healthier reef system, an abundance of marine life, the feeling of flying underwater and a real adrenaline rush.
During this section you'll learn drift diving techniques regarding ascents and descents, surface supervision and markers, assessing conditions and environments and how to get that weightless feeling as you dive.
Drift diving on Roatan has significant benefits when using enriched air nitrox!
Come out of the blue and see what's down here! Although this advanced dive may not sound so "advanced," it will benefit all of your future dive experiences by helping you identify or characterize almost everything you see under the water with simple techniques.
If you are already familiar with some fish species, you'll concentrate on more diverse creatures, their habitats, and their behaviors.
Knowing what to look for, what it is called, and where to find it will enhance all of your future dives. Just knowing how to look for eels under barrel sponges, pipefish in the sand or shrimp in anemones for example will help you have a much more enjoyable dive finding all the creatures your dive master may miss
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Have you ever wondered just how those dive guides find the mooring line at the end of a dive, even at night?
It is very likely that every diver could improve their navigational skills. In this dive, you'll practice using elapsed time and kick cycles to determine distance, master underwater compass use with your buddy, and use natural navigational techniques that your instructor will brief you on to successfully find the boat every time!
Enjoy diving independently? Take the navigation specialty course!
You'll never forget your first night dive, whether it's a skulking octopus, feeding eagle ray or roaming eel that your flashlight detects, you'll likely find this advanced dive the one that excites and exhilarates you the most.
Your instructor will expand upon what you've read in regard to signaling, differing diving techniques, use of special equipment and navigational tools in the dive planning, so you'll be prepared and confident for your first dive at night. Don't miss this one!
This option not only enables you to get certified as an advanced diver but has the added benefit of an EAN specialty credit at the same time. You'll still complete five advanced dives, but on two of those dives you'll be using EAN, allowing you to experience the extended bottom times this creates. The deep and wreck dives are ideal for just this purpose.
*If you are already advanced open-water certified then consider taking a deep/nitrox specialty combination.
Dives: 5
Duration: 2-3 days
General Cost: $350
Includes all materials, equipment and instruction
If you believe in the familiar saying, "A picture paints a thousand words." then the underwater photography option is for you. Pre-dive reading and discussion focus upon proper care of photographic equipment, use of light and composition. You'll also receive tips to overcome the common problems of blurred and blue photos.
You'll see instant improvement in your underwater shots after this advanced option.
You and your pictures will benefit by taking the Peak Performance Buoyancy class before this class.
On Roatan, we are blessed with three excellent wreck dives so this is a popular advanced option. Discussions on wreck diving techniques, unique hazards, points of interest, and how to navigate a wreck will precede descent to see what else is attracted to these artificial reefs besides ourselves.
For extended bottom time on this dive choose Enriched Air Nitrox, it's ideal.
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Thinking about diving for the first time or just looking to fine tune you skills? Either way Roatan Dive Shops have the course for you.
PADI Certification Course
Duration
Price
(General Guidelines)
Discover Scuba Diving
3 - 4 hours
$100
Open Water
3 - 4 days
$325
Advanced Open Water
2 - 3 days
$265
EFR - Emergency First Response
1 day
$80
Rescue
3 days
$285
Scuba Diver
2 days
$200
Dive Master
6 weeks
$700
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If you want to dip your toe into the world of scuba diving before plunging into a certification course, then the Discover Scuba Diving Experience is perfect. The experience is designed for non divers as an introduction to the exquisite underwater world of colorful fish and coral.
A PADI Instructor will guide you step by step through the 3 part experience, where you will learn to breathe and swim freely underwater. The first part consists of an orientation to the basic concepts of scuba diving including equipment, diving skills, and safety measures. The second part includes your first breaths underwater. Your instructor will lead you through basic scuba skills in shallow water that is often crystal clear. Once the scuba skills are completed, you have the option to move forward to part three: your first dive. Your first dive is an unforgettable event viewing the underwater world as you never have before.
The DSD experience is a PADI standardized program and can count toward your open water course. If you choose to continue to the open water course then the DSD could be complimentary. (Ask your chosen dive shop for futher details about price.)
Prerequisite: Ability to swim and completed medical statement
Duration: 2-3 hours (approximately)
Cost: $100 - includes equipment rental.
12% Honduran Sales Tax not included
The EFR course is designed to give you the skills and knowledge to confidently manage life threatening emergencies as well as provide secondary care to victims until more qualified personnel are available.
The course is divided into two sections: primary care and secondary care. You'll also need to complete the participant manual and study the EFR video.
This section focuses on subjects such as opening an airway, providing rescue breaths and chest compressions, circulation checks, control of serious bleeding, shock management, spinal injuries and scene assessment.
In this section you'll look at non-life threatening topics including bandaging, splinting, types of bleeding and illness and injury assessment. Your instructor will have you practice on one another, mannequins and during scenarios so you can put your skills into action.
Cost: $80
Duration: 1 day
Prerequisites: Minimum 12 years old
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