Dive Review of ProDive Cairns in
Australia/Cairns

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ProDive Cairns: "Good value but . . .", Apr, 2019, by Hugh E Aaron, FL, US ( Sr. Contributor 23 reports with 19 Helpful votes). Report 11087 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We spent over two weeks in the Cairns area in April 2019. In addition to two live aboard trips out of Cairns (ProDive and Reef Encounter), we stayed in downtown Cairns and Port Douglas before, between and after the live aboard trips. We loved Cairns, especially bicycling around town and all of the inexpensive international restaurants. Port Douglas was a little too crowded for us and seemed like a bit of a tourist trap. When not diving, we particularly enjoyed visiting the world-class Cairns Botanical Gardens and the spectacular Daintree National Park. Also, don’t miss the evening lecture at Reef Teach in Cairns. Pro Dive is a high volume operation that offers inexpensive live aboard diving for those that want to get in a lot of diving in a short time. The crew and guests were fairly serious divers. There were not a lot of beginners or non divers, although the diving would be fine for beginners. The boat is a monohull that leaves from the Cairns Marina and spends three days on the GBR. The crossing to and from the reef was rough. Some guests got seasick. As might be expected for a budget operation, many of the guests were young backpacker types from all over the world. Although we are couple in our late 50s, we enjoyed the young crowd. The boat stays on the GBR for three days moving between dive sites all of which were very close together. Consequently, we only experienced a tiny section of the total GBR. We did four dives the first day, including a night dive, and three dives on days two and three. We skipped the day 2 night dive. The dive briefings were excellent. The boat was full and the dive deck was crowded. Gearing up was a challenge. Everyone dove at their own pace and we were not required to follow a dive guide. We liked that. In mid-April the water was quite comfortable without wetsuits. Stinger suits (dive skins) were required although stinger season was pretty much over. The three areas we dove were Milln, Flynn and Hastings reefs. All of the dives sites showed a lot of stress. We were not sure how much of that was due to the heavy volume of divers, nutrient overload, rising sea temperature or other causes. Our best guess is the reef health has been affected by all these factors. That said, being mostly Caribbean divers, we found the diving interesting with a nice variety of pacific corals and fish. The food was basic but good. The main cabin lounge was tight but comfortable for eating meals. The boat did not offer many other comfortable areas for relaxing. Our cabin was uncomfortable. It was tiny with stacked bunk beds. Getting in and out of the top bunk was challenging. The top bunk would not be usable by anyone with any physical limitations. There was no storage in the cabin. Everything must be “stowed” on the floor or on the bed. There are shared heads throughout the boat. We never had much of a wait to get head access. The heads were kept very clean. The boat stays moored on the reef at night and, like most monohulls, it rocked back and forth on the mooring all night. In summary, ProDive offers an inexpensive live aboard with a lot of GBR dives over three days. But the dive sites are struggling and the accommodations leave a lot to be desired. If we go back to north Queensland, we will probably try diving some of the reefs off of Port Douglas. We heard that they may be in a little better shape. The other alternative is one of the longer live aboard trips that dive more remote areas of north Queensland (such as Mike Ball’s trips). But they are much more expensive.
Websites	ProDive Cairns
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	USVI, BVI, California, Hawaii, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, Caymans, Curacao, Dominica, Roatan, Belize, Saba, St, Barths, St Kitts, Nevis, Saint Martin, Culebra, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Bahamas, Bonaire, Thailand
Closest Airport	Cairns	Getting There	Cairns has an international airport with good connections from/to most anywhere.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas	choppy, no currents
Water Temp	80-81°F / 27-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	20-50 Ft/ 6-15 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	One hour time limit. Diving was fairly flexible.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of ProDive Cairns in Australia/Cairns

ProDive Cairns: "Good value but . . .", Apr, 2019,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of ProDive Cairns in
Australia/Cairns