Grand Cayman – A Divers’ Paradise
Written by Rick Stratton from divenewsnetwork
Located on a plateau in the middle of the western Caribbean Sea, Grand Cayman Island is literally sticking up like a mountain off the surrounding sea floor. Bounded by steep shear walls sliding into the abyss 6,000 feet below, divers revel in the feeling of seeming to soar out over the drop off, while the bottom drops out from underneath them. The feeling of weightlessness combined with soaring like a bird, is one of the many joys of diving. Combine that with warm clear waters, averaging 100+ feet of visibility, a safe family friendly atmosphere, incredible sandy beaches like Seven Mile Beach, one of the largest and best known in the Caribbean where sun lovers can sit and bake their hearts desire. World famous dive sites like Stingray City and the Sand Bar. Tons of restaurants and great shopping make Grand Cayman a cosmopolitan 
destination. All that, combined with incredible diving history as the original diving destination makes Grand Cayman a divers paradise.
With over 50,000 residents, Grand Cayman is approximately 76 square miles approximately 22 miles long with an average width of four miles and is the largest of the three islands located in the Western Caribbean about 460 miles south of Miami, Florida. Grand Cayman offer complete relaxation, exquisite dining, exciting nightlife and an amazing array of underwater sights on the very accessible reefs.
It is on Grand Cayman that you will find some of the most popular Caribbean activities, attractions, and festivals, including the popular Pirates Week and the colorful and exciting Batabano. Other popular attractions include the Cayman Islands National Museum, Rum Point, Pedro St. James, Bodden Town, and the first capital of the Cayman Islands, Cayman Turtle Farm, and the National’s Trusts Mastic Trail, a 2 mile traditional footpath through unspoiled woodlands.
Famous Seven Mile Beach is a crescent-shaped natural wonder with boundless capacity for relaxation is located on the west side of Grand Cayman. The North Sound, a shallow, reef-protected lagoon contains both Stingray City and the Sandbar where visitors have an opportunity to play with friendly Southern Stingrays.
The Eastern districts of Grand Cayman features natural beauty and grace beyond their azure waters and white sand beaches. Visitors can tour through the Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Park and learn about the Cayman rare Blue Iguanas, visit the Wreck of the Ten Sail, or eat freshly caught fish in local restaurants.
Art – Artemis “Art” Hintze is the chief diving instructor for In-depth Watersports, teaching snorkeling through technical diving on Grand Cayman. He also does guided diving throughout the Cayman Islands.
Andy’s Wall, just east of rumpoint on the North wall of Grand Cayman. A deep site, a phenomenal drop-off with amazing pinnacles, swim through’s, caverns and canyonways. The top of the wall is beautifully shallow perfect for the second part of your dive when you come up from the deep at about 50 feet. Very rich in coral life, color and it is one of the few places where sharks are sighted.
Another one of Art’s favorites is a dive site called Bear’s Paw. According to Art, it is a fantastic min-wall site on the North Wall of the island just off of the Barkers National Park. Very shallow, the site starts at 35 feet with beautiful coral fingers reaching outward, deepening as they extend, and maxing out at about 60 feet. “Near the mooring line is a shear up and down section of wall that on night dives is just teaming with cool critters, crabs and snails.. weird things that you just don’t see anywhere else,” explained Art.
Favorite Restaurant: Eduardo’s on 7 mile beach, just down from the Ritz. While not a waterfront restaurant, Art loves it for the staff to see to know everyone’s name. They serve excellent wine, fantastic steaks and amazing seafood pasta.
Bill Coltart, dive instructor and owner of Pacific Pro Dive & Surf Shop in Courtenay, British Columbia has been visiting the Cayman Islands since 1990 and brings groups to the islands through their travel department at Pacific Pro in Courtenay BC. He also helps as a safety diver for Performance Freediving during competitions held each spring. Bill is very familiar with the island, and the various tourist activities on the island.
“We usually stay at a condo complex called Coco Nut Bay Condo’s located in west bay just beside the turtle farm, the macabuca pub and several other restaurants like the cracked conch right there,” said Coltart. We usually dive with a good friend of mine Duncan Heard who owns Stingray Watersports. Heard runs a Newton 48. It is a beautiful boat that holds 22 divers comfortably, on two decks. It is very nice boat and he is a great operator. The thing that I like about using Duncan is often times it is a personal tour. There are no time pressures when we are diving with Duncan.
For more information on Heard’s services, click here.
We love to spend as much time as possible on the North Wall. A dive site called Babylon is my favorite site there. We see Elephant ear corals, soft sponges, lots of sharks, eagle rays, north sound is a large sound where the eagle rays tend to come in and feed. They tend to cruise in and out and we often spot them in that area,” explained Coltart.
Another one of Coltart’s favorites is Ghost Mountain: a pinnacle located on the north wall appears like a ghost as you are cruising along. You see it as you are going along the reef – kind of like a ghost off the wall you see this , enormous pinnacle 75-100 feet away that sticks straight up from the bottom. It is covered with corals, sponges, and tremendous life.
According to Coltart, Stingray City is “the best 15 feet dive on the planet”. “The dive boats pull into North Sound where the stingrays come in to feed. Divers are literally surrounded,” he explains “We get photos and a chance to interact with them. They get 3-4 feet across the back.
Mark Shahagian is the captain of Absolute Divers, located on Seven Mile Beach, which specializes in private dive or snorkel charters for small groups and families for the past 17 years. Mark offers flexible schedules makes that makes each dive trip a personalized adventure. I asked him for some of his favorite sites.
No-name Wall
Located on the North wall, this site features a small shear wall starting in 55 feet of water where divers can sometimes see Hammerhead sharks. This site can be dove deep or shallow. reef drops off quickly. “The thing about this site is that it goes both ways. You can either do a wall dive down to 100 feet then look out into the deep blue abyss or you can go to the shallow side at the top of the reef, looking at the great life on top” explained Shahagian. Divers will see large Elephant ear sponges, giant barrel sponges, colorful corals, among the usual suspects. This site is not as commonly dove as others in the area as it is a bit further away from many of the other site so. “You don’t get as many people on it, so you don’t get as much damage. It is a little more pristine as many of the other sites” that we might dive everyday,” said Shahagian.
Eagle Ray Pass
This site is famous for its large swim through. Starting at 80 feet the divers swim through a large swim through down the wall to 110 feet lots where it opens to the great Cayman wall. According to Shahagian “Looking into the great abyss like a Big TV screen – you look out off the wall and never know what you will see. Then you come back up the wall to a more sustainable depth, lots of critters in the corals,” he said.
Cathy Church, a well-known underwater photographer, now photography teacher and lecturer at many dive shows, is longtime resident of Grand Cayman, she has been living full time since 1986. Cathy received her Cayman citizenship this month. Congratulations to Cathy. Her photography studio is co-located with Sunset House and Sunset Divers. When I asked her what she loves best about the Caymans, she said that she loves the convenience of all the different styles of diving combined with calm water. Calm waters are always close by. Depending on which side of the island, there is always a lee, allowing our divers to dive in calm water nearly 24-7,” she described.
Orange Canyon
According to Cathy, Orange Canyon located on the west bay bite, immune from the easterly and northerly winds, out on the northwest point, is an amazing dive site. Because of its location on the Northwest point is it also exposed to the currents. The site is absolutely gorgeous, a photographers dream site. Beautiful growths, on the edge of the island, it is all covered with beautiful sponges, red finger sponges, pink fav sponges and a lot of the orange Elephant Ear sponges, hence the name orange canyon. “I take my student here all the time because they will be guaranteed to get some real good color in their photos. It I have an assignment where I really need to produce, really need to put together, I always start with Orange Canyon. It is always changing. Sometime there are silversides in the small caves, turtles, real good for groupers especially tiger groupers, large snappers, queen angel fish are fairly common there. An all-around nice place to shoot, Canyon ways, the area is quite large with a series of pinnacles you never tire of the incredible scenery. You can do this whole dive between 60-80 feet, you do not need to go deeper to find great color,” she explained.
Devil’s Grotto
On a sunny day, the Devil’s Grotto offers light bending through the waters, combined with silversides schooling in small caves makes for a fantastic dive experience says Cathy. Divers can access Devils Grotto or Eden Rock from either shore or by boat. The Grotto feature large caves, either site to the north or south, sometimes filled with billions of silversides schooling in the caves. “You do not have to be a photographer to have an amazing experience. The site is convenient and relatively shallow; you can sit on the bottom in 25 feet of water, looking at the fish swimming through the light beams caves, it is amazing” she extolled. With the resident tarpon and jacks will be hanging out in front of the caves – everybody is in there for a big feast. It is a wonderful dive, I have many pictures from my collection from that site.
Favorite Restaurant:
Aqua on Seven Mile Beach has a great traditional menu and has a wonderful vegan and gluten-free menu combined with an open and casual atmosphere.
The Dolches Vida restaurant has an Italian crust melt-in-your-mouth crust that is the discovery of the year.
Dusty Norman, Dive n Stuff Operations Manager for Dive n Stuff has 16 years’ experience diving in the Caymans. Dive ‘n Stuff, founded in 1993 by divers who just wanted to dive, is known for its great attitude. “We offer wall diving, reef diving, wreck diving, night diving, or Stingray City, on either Grand Cayman or Little Cayman. We have very spacious boats, homemade baked goods and more – we take care of all the details,” said Dusty.
Main Street
Located on the north side, Main Street is a great way to break onto the north wall. According to Dusty, this dive site offers a great place to see the big stuff like Hammerhead sharks that we sometime see in the summertime. Reef sharks and schooling jacks haunt the top of the reef. This is an amazing dive site says Dusty. Come out of Stingray City channel, it is the dive site immediately to the left. After tying off to the mooring buoy, descend down the line in 50 feet. There are two beautiful coral fingers that have grown together to create a nice channel or canyonway that brings you out onto the wall. Once you get close to the wall, you drop down to 55-60 feet then cruise down to 100 feet; there you come to this huge crevice that breaks on the north wall. The wall is very sheer there, the wall drops 6,000 feet straight down. “The visibility is stunning there, right along the wall to see the incredible marine life that lives there” said Dusty.
“This is a great side to do in the morning as the sun is rising and you go through the crevice on your right hand side, there is a huge buttress. Looking up to see the rising sun over this huge coral encrusted buttress, it is an awe inspiring feeling and an opportunity to get a silowet shot of the north wall” he described.
Another one of Dusty’s favorites the Sand Chutes are located on the West side of the island. This little dive site next to the Kittiwake has great topography and is a great way to access the Kittiwake” says Dusty. The dive site has amazing breaks in the wall, “gives you a perspective of the wall and the Kittiwake,” he explained. This site has really large swim through’s drop off on the wall. At the end of the dive, as you come up this really long tunnel like swim through- the Kittiwake will appear out of the blue like a mirage – it is really cool. At the end of the dive I like to spend time at the top of the reef with the schooling fish, corals and small macro life.
Favorite restaurant: Dusty’s favorite restaurant is Blue Cilantro. The food is phenomenal. The chef pairs the food with his wine and creates incredible meals. It is not just the food; the service is out of this world.
Wall to Wall Diving owner Giles Charlton-James has 12 years’ experience personally guided diving trips all over Grand Cayman. Featuring large, spacious and comfortable 36 foot and 32 foot boats custom-built dive boats, Giles keep his diving flexible and personalized. We have a passion for diving. We want to share it with our customers in a personal way. We work with individuals and small groups to help them get the most out of their diving,” he explained.
I asked him how he maintained his passion for diving after all these years; he said “I promised myself that I would never again do a job I did not enjoy. Leading dives is what it all about. Nothing is better than dropping down a Cayman wall to see what there is down there.”
According to Giles, picking a favorite is very hard. “Nearly all our sites can be good on a day, however someone else may not think that these are the best sites,, With more than 365 sites, the Cayman Islands offer a diversity and amount of diving that is unparalleled.”
Diving Legendary Stan Waterman is diving in Grand Cayman for the last time. For more information, click here.
West side, Northwest Point Dropoff
Giles selected this site as one of his favorites because of the incredible biodiversity. It’s right on the corner of the Northwest tip of the island. This site can have a little bit of current and that current brings more life. The corals and sponges are at full strength with really healthy beautiful life. This site has amazing color and great fish life because of all that current.” It is a great spot for eels, turtles, nurse sharks, you never know what you are going to see there,” said Giles. This is one of the deeper site on the west side. Because of the depth, divers should be especially vigilant of their buoyancy control and air consumption. Keep a close eye on your dive computer. It is strongly recommended that everyone dive this site with a computer and keep a good safety margin. One of the best places on the islands for spotted moray eels. Turtles love this site; they feed on the sponges that are common at this site.
Located on the north wall, ½ mile east of the main channel through the barrier reef, Round About is another one of Giles’ favorites. Famous for its dramatic drop offs, this site features Spotted Eagle Rays and occasional shark sighting. According to Giles, the reason that it is called the Round About, is that divers can swim around the pinnacle, looping around the pinnacle all the way down where it meets the wall at 100-105 feet. “You can drop straight in behind this pinnacle and see black corals, gorgonian fans, schooling horse eyed jacks swimming between the pinnacle and the wall. It is just a spectacularly scenic dive,” said Giles.
Favorite restaurant: Calypso Grill in West Bay has great food with nice setting on a deck overlooking the sound. His favorite item on the menu is Sticking Toffee Pudding.
Kate and Chris Alpers run Indigo Divers. Since 2004, they focus on raising the bar on comfort and service. They use their 28 feet Sea Ray Bow Rider to combine 5 star services with unrivaled comfort and relaxation. “With just six divers maximum, we guarantee an exclusive experience,” Kate said.
A shallow dive on the northwest point on the island, Hepps Pipeline offers very healthy reef structure with great sponge life, sea fans and lots of critters for macro photography. “This site features a min-wall that kind of curls over the top and creates a canyon effect. Lots of eels, spotted eels, grunts, green-striped grunts hang out here. Shallows octopus, juvenile queen angel fish, banded jewel fish, and is a great place for finding all kinds of really cool stuff,” said Kate.
Northwest Point
Not a classic Cayman wall dive, this dive features more of a gentle slope as it descends along the reef. The dives main features are the beautiful orange Elephant Ear sponges that inhabit the reef and small schools of rainbow parrot fish that tend to get groups swimming through the site. Divers will likely see green moray eels, spotted eels and schools of ocean trigger fish in November and December hundreds when they come in to spawn.
Kate’s favorite restaurant: Blue Cilantro, located in the Seven Mile Beach area, has incredible food but the crab cakes and mushroom soup has her highest recommendations.
One of my friends, Margo Peyton, owner and founder of Kids Sea Camp is a Grand Cayman veteran for many years. Kids Sea Camp is a family friendly dive vacation for kids, parents, grandparents that feature a family activities centered on the ocean, education and fun that is meant to last a lifetime. They offer trips all over the world. One of their most popular trips and longest running trips is the Cayman trip and offers a full week of all kinds of diving events.
I asked Margo why she loves Grand Cayman so much. “I lived in Grand Cayman for five years and logged more than 2,000 there. It is the perfect dive destination for families with terrific conditions for little kids, with easy and great diving literally right off the dock. It has wrecks and breathtaking shear walls, pristine reefs and sandy beaches, it literally has everything a diver or family could want” said Margo. “It is perfect for new diving adults, or even experienced diver who have been diving for years. I have been doing Grand Cayman for 10 years with Cobalt Coast Resort and DiveTech. I love the Cayman Islands.”
They have been working with DiveTech, who is unbeatable in the Cayman Islands. They are great with kids and adults. They can handle anything from kids discover scuba programs all the way through Instructor or technical rebreather programs. Cobalt Coast Resort sits right on the crystal clear waters, it is a spectacular setting.
Kittiwake
I asked Margo for some her favorite sites. She did not hesitate for a moment. “I have dived all over the world. She said. For divers looking for memorable recreational diving experience, the Kittiwake stands out from all the others in the world,” she explained. The wreck sits completely upright in 60 feet crystal clear water, loaded with silver sides, big groupers, stingrays, big garden eels. It is a photographers dream. It is perfectly positioned with sand all around it and the top deck in 15 feet of water. “As a family you can dive this wreck with your new junior open-water diver, stand in the wheel house and capture a great image or memory that will last forever.”
Another of Margo’s favorites is Stingray City. It gives kids and new divers an incredible animal encounter that is a natural experience. The site features a very shallow dive that even PADI seal team divers at 8 years old can do this dive with their families. “I took my own kids there nearly 10 years ago and they had one of their best animal encounters of their lives,” said Margo.
Another one of Margo’s favorites is shore diving right off the dock at Lighthouse Reef. “The site features a mini-wall with large barracuda, turtles, schools of fish, you can rent the sea scooters and go right off the dock, it is like being in a discovery channel episode,” said Margo.
Favorite Restaurant: “My bar at Sunset House. The combination of its beautiful location, casual atmosphere and great cocktails after a great day of diving is unbeatable,” said Margo. Her fav’s: Conch fritters and cold beers on a big beautiful deck overlooking the harbor.
Michael Lawday, dive instructor, dive master and boat captain for Red Sail Sports for the past 5 years has lots of experience diving the Cayman waters. Red Sail Sports is the largest full-service dive and watersports services operator in the islands. They have been operating more than 26 years and have operations all over the island. The staff loves showing off their island and sharing their passion for the Caymans.
Michael favors the West side in the lea of the island for it calmer waters. One of his favorite sites is Big Tunnels, located on Northwest Point a fantastic sloping wall with very dramatic with swim throughs and schooling tarpon. According to Michael, this site sometimes get currents, so this site can’t be dove all the time; it has fantastic coral life.
The Kittiwake was sunk two years ago just off Cemetery Beach and is a former submarine rescue vessel intentionally sunk by the Cayman dive community as an artificial reef and dive attraction. Dive business owner, Nancy Easterbook pioneered the project culminating in the Jan 3rd 2011 sinking.
According to Michael, Cayman took a long time, nearly seven years, to clean the vessel, making it the cleanest artificial reef ever sunk. The boat sank almost upright with a slight lean to the port. Michael recommends that divers start their dive at the south end the ship at about 60 feet, where the large propellers stick right out. “There is tremendous access on this wreck from every angle. It seems that every care has been anticipated.” Free divers have a good time swimming down from the surface and under the propellers. From there divers explore the ship including the recompression chambers that are still on board. Divers do not have to worry about getting trapped; the doors are welled open. There are dive tanks and diving bell on the stern deck, the bridge is a great place to do a safety stop at about 15 feet. “This is an awesome dive,” exclaims Michael.
I spoke with Nancy Easterbook, a member of the Cayman Island Watersports Association about the Kittiwake. The project started in 2002 when watersports operators wanted to create more of a destination attraction for our Island. “We found a good vessel from the US government and then spent nearly nine years doing endless tremendous paperwork. Now two years later, it is covered with life and divers. It is the number one requested dive and a tremendous success,” said Nancy.
Nancy and her husband Jay own DiveTech, a full service dive operator with 18 instructors on staff. They describe it as a medium-sized operator that have a variety of diving that offers unlimited diving including shore diving” They are family oriented, with shallow water diving programs through technical diving programs including rebreathers. They are committed to friendly service and safety keeping an eye on folks ready to render assistance when needed – or just let them be to relax.
Another one of Michael’s favorites is on the East end at a dive site called Snapper Hole. This is an awesome little dive site,” says Michael. The site has an amazing amount of swim through and tunnels, resembling swiss cheese and divers love to play in them like a jungle gym. The best time to dive this site is when the silver sides are in; they can come in so thick that it can be hard to see your buddy at times.
Sally Coppate is assistant operations manager for one of Cayman’s original dive companies, Don Fosters, which has been in business for over 25 years. They offer two tank dives to the Kittiwake and Stingray City plus plenty of great shore diving. They also do courses from Resort to Divemaster.
Hepps Wall is located on the Northwest corner of the island. According to Sally the coral is quite healthy at that site with interesting critters not found in other areas. The site features a wall that slopes steeply and leads to a series of canyonway like swim throughs down the wall with plentifully turtles, lobsters, slipper shovel nose lobster, spotted lobster, the health of coral is great.
Eagle Ray Rock
Located on the southwest side of the island, Eagle Ray Rock is a deep wall dive, with a huge sand chutes combined with shear wall that has incredible topography including really healthy coral. A couple of deep canyon-like cracks run through the site towering above the divers, channeling the divers through the reef. Eagle rays, nurse sharks, big sponges are commonly sighted here.
Arm Chair Reef extends out in coral fingers at 25 feet with schooling fish, eels, spotted eels, lobsters, tarpon hanging out under the ledges. A fairly small site, divers are able to pick their own depth at this site.
Steve Broadbelt, Managing Director of iconic Ocean Frontiers, has been working in the Cayman’s since 1992. Ocean Frontiers is a full service dive operator that specializes in diver freedom, diver safety and diver adventure with full “Dive Valet” service” said Steve. We provide scuba gear handling, storing, rinsing and set up hassle free, we want our customers to enjoy a dive service style that they have never experienced before.
Located on the east end of Grand Cayman, Ocean Frontiers features 55 off the beaten path dive sites and their famous Green short service. The green shorts are worn by the dive staff and “earned” by some customers who go to each one of our dive sites said Steve. They offer the Green Shorts Challenge, a program designed to encourage their divers to visit all 55 dive sites on the East End. If they complete the Green Shorts Challenge, divers get special recognition, bronze plaque as a permanent trophy of their accomplishment, including cake, champagne, and an induction ceremony. Nearly 100 customers have been inducted so far.
To find out how you can participate in the Green Shorts Challenge, visit www.oceanfrontiers.com.
Some of Steve’s favorite dives are the new ones undertaken by the staff including the Glo Dive. The Glo Dive is a new dive done by Ocean Frontiers, at Sunset Reef. On the eastern point of the island, inside of a lagoon about 25 feet deep the diver go on a night dive. They bring special flashlight to bring out the luminesce in the waters. With many anemones that glow under the ultraviolet lights, it makes for an incredible spectacle.
Mysterious, Ocean Frontiers also offers the “X-dive” at a secret, undisclosed location. According to Steve, the boat drops you off, and the divers come cruising along at the top of the wall.
Steve Surrey, owner of Divers Down, has been have been providing visitors to Cayman Islands with a safe, friendly and professional dive experience to the island’s best dive sites for17 years. From three locations, they take small groups on regularly scheduled dive boats to a variety of locations including Stingray City and the Kittiwake.
“We provide a high level of quality service to both our novice and experienced divers alike. We specialize in providing exclusive private dive and snorkel charters for individual families and groups of friends. Our biggest boats will accommodate up to 20 divers, so larger parties can also be catered for,” said Surrey.
White Stoke Canyon, located on the north wall, close to Rum Point, this sight is deeper than most of the sites that the operators visit and is not dove as often as some of the other sights. This site has healthy corals, absolutely teaming with Caribbean lobster. During the summer months, divers have more chances to see large Caribbean reef sharks, hammerhead sharks and eagle rays. During the winter months, the weather does not allow much diving at this site.
Just off the main channel from the North Sound, the Black Forest Reef, gets its name from the black coral at the site. The healthy corals contain enormous amounts of marine life.
Trinity Caves, located on the west side of the island close to NW point, in about 50 feet of water. According to Surrey, the site features a sandy bottom, goes to into a large swim through takes you right onto wall in about 100 feet of water. Divers can swim around the pinnacle then swim back through the ultra large canyon, back to the top of the reef. “Divers see garden eels hiding in the sand, lobsters, spotted eagle rays, among the usual suspect,” said Surrey.
Wow – that is quite a list. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did researching and writing it. I personally can’t wait to visit Grand Cayman Island. When I do I plan on trying to dive as many of these sites as possible. My friend Nancy Easterbrook summed it up pretty well calling Grand Cayman a divers’ paradise. With plenty of warm clear water, incredible wall topography, and intense fish life combined with friendly dive operators I am definitely adding it to my bucket list.
All photos by Bill Coltart
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