Dive Review of Dive Adventures in
St. Maarten

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Dive Adventures: "Easy Diving in St Maarten", Sep, 2023, by Denis Esslinger, PA, US ( 2 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 12781.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations	N/A	Food	N/A
Service and Attitude	N/A	Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Dive Adventures is part of a larger water sports and boat activity company named Aqua Mania Adventures headquartered at the Simpson Bay Resort. Booking was through Aqua Mania Adventures website and I received very little communication after booking my dives. In fact I had to contact them to confirm that they had received the dive trips I submitted. Dive Adventures has a nice 34 foot boat named Dive Machine that has a shade in the center with a retractable ladder on the transom. Soinet was the captain and did a good job getting us to/from the dive sites and getting us into and out of the water. Dive sites were a less than 30 minute boat ride. I did 4 two tank morning dives with Dive Adventures and used their regulators, BCDs and air tanks. Their rental equipment was typical fairly well used equipment. About half of the dive trips my BCD had a minor air leak and since they had no additional equipment on the boat I used the leaking BCD. The boat was good but the retractable ladder was not stable making water exits difficult. There were 4 different dive masters during my dives. Ryan and Steve were good dive masters providing a thorough briefing before the dive and did a great job pointing out marine life during the dive. The other 2 dive masters did not and ended the dive with greater than 1500psi left in our tanks. So the dives were greatly impacted depending on which dive master led the dive. Water was a warm 85 degrees and visibility was good. There was a good amount of fish including squirrel fish, tangs, parrot fish, angel fish, triggerfish, butterfly fish, trumpet fish, puffer fish, and wrases. Also saw a few scorpion fish. About every other dive saw a black-tipped shark and/or a barracuda and/or nurse shark. Also saw a number of spiny lobsters. At the Carib Cargo site there were some large schools, a large sea cucumber, a scorpion fish, an approximately 3 foot diameter shell turtle and about a half dozen lion fish. The Teigland site had lots of marine life including parrot fish, hog fish, squirrel fish, blue chromis, sargeant major, angel fish, yellow snapper, goatfish, blue headed wrase, a reef shark, a nurse shark, and a spotted eagle ray. At Big Momma’s Reef saw some large French angelfish, cowfish, trunk fish, parrotfish, spotted goat fish and a group of about 6 spiny lobsters. Dive master Steve pointed out an octopus that was camouflaged in the corral that I didn’t see. We all kept our distance from the octopus and after a few minutes the octopus walked away. Overall the diving was fairly easy with warm water, good visibility and abundant marine life.
Websites	Dive Adventures
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	[Unspecified]
Closest Airport	SXM	Getting There	Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM) was still undergoing rebuilding from 2017's Hurricane Irma so not many amenities. Waited nearly an hour before baggage from inbound flight was delivered. Also waited in line over an hour to check in for outbound flight.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, cloudy	Seas	calm, currents
Water Temp	85-86°F / 29-30°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	40-100 Ft/ 12-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 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]

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Dive Review of Dive Adventures in St. Maarten

Dive Adventures: "Easy Diving in St Maarten", Sep, 2023,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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 Dive Adventures in
St. Maarten