Diving

What equipment will you need?

Most dive operators will have rental equipment available, if you plan to use rental equipment, picking your dive operator becomes more important.  The quality of the equipment varies greatly, and you need to make sure what the rental cost is, some charge, some don't.

I highly recommend brining at least your own, Mask, fins and exposure suit.

What exposure suit you need depends on when you come:

Oct to March: The water averages 78 degrees during these months and gets as low as 74.  During these months I usually have a 5mm full suit and often wear a hooded 3mm vest underneath, I'm thin though and lose heat rapidly!

During the summer months I use a 3mm full suit and when it gets really warm in July and August (sometimes reaching 86 degrees) I wear a 3mm shorty or even no suit at all.

Now for a more detailed lecture on Roatan's Geography courtesy of Doc Adelman:

Roatan is long and narrow, let's say 5 x 37 miles. Some places, much narrower; the length is debatable as the far NE end is rather swampy.

Roatan runs Southwest to Northeast, at an angle. It is usually printed on a map or displayed horizontally, causing "North" to be skewed off to the 2 O'Clock position, making most maps very confusing.

The centerline of the island is a backbone ridge line that runs as high as about 600 feet (I'm too lazy to look at my maps). Roatan and the Bay islands are part of the Bonacca ridge line, a volcanic remnant that still has snaps and cracks, often heard underwater, at a usual epicenter some 30 miles to the North.

This ridge line does not divide the island in half, equally. Nature rarely works that way.

When one drives from the Airport, you hardly notice the gentle easy ascent as you drive from the South to North. As you crest the ridge, most anyone will note the more obvious steeper drop ahead.

This ridge line runs quite a bit closer to the Northern half of the island. As the land descends to the North, it does so (comparatively to the South) rather steeply. This steepness also continues at the Ocean, causing the underwater geography to be shaped in a similar manner.

For millions of years, the heavy storms have come at Roatan from the North. This is what has caused the shape of both above and below water Roatan. When heavy "North ers" arrive (Dec-Mar) or during tropical storm season (Aug-Nov), if the island is getting winds, you will immediately note the salt smell from the crashing surf as you crest over the ridge line from the South.

Roatan is largely out of the historical Hurricane track. It is a rain forest island, which we used to call jungles.

The distance from the ridge line to the South shore is much longer. The Southern shoreline is comparatively at the end of a slower and more gentle descent. The Southern shore is where you will find more mangrove growth.

The Southern geography continues on this gentle slope into the ocean, but only for a short while. Not many feet offshore, running from Coxen Hole to Port Royal, are a series of shallow reef coral heads that start in 5-30 feet and drop to first sandy shelf in 90 feet. From there on, and very quickly, you can get in 3000 feet of water in a blink. There is very little current flow, so visibility can be degraded after a storm (remember those eons of heavy Northerly storms that blow the soil over the ridge line to rest on the Southern slope). The island lies in a position that causes 10+ hours of sunlight a day to fall directly upon exposed, shallow South side reef structures. This causes a lot of florid growth and the microscopic nature of this area. Essentially, for that very reason- limited visibility is not that much of an issue there.

Northern/Western reefs are quite a bit different. The waters there are generally much clearer, dues to the much quicker flow of water and the lack of mangroves (and extant soil deposits). The reef heads start much further offshore and they begin deeper. There is a running underwater plateau along much of the North & West, 90~115 feet from my fading memory.

The darker slopes of the Northside lend themselves to a much more dense vegetation with a lot more vegetable matter on the jungle floor. The South side is widely cultivated and the vegetation is more sparse and concentrated. Island development has occurred along the shoreline of the North and West, with the major landholders of the island declining to sell off much territory along the South shore.

Is the diving better off of one side or the other? Not really, it's just different.

The North side is typical of the diving that one used to be able to find all over the Caribbean. A cresting reef followed by a sloping plateau 20-60 feet deep and then a sudden drop off to thousands of feet, creating a beautiful wall and stunning geological features. Larger predatory fish can often be seen at some of the most popular dive sites, due in part to the prevailing currents bringing nutrient rich water, and also the fish feeding activities of some dive operators.

The South side is for those divers who love the macro life that can be found in expansive soft coral gardens. it rewards the slow and observant divers with better buoyancy skills. You have to be able to hover and get in close to see all of the many micro/macro critters that use the shallow reef structure as an incubator and niche hiding spot. Many divers without those skill sets or an appreciation for the macro walk away hating it.

As a further comparison, consider the artificial placed reefs, the "wrecks".

On the North side, they are newer, deep (100+feet) and not very overgrown due to the depth and darkness. They are the hang-outs of large fish which have been known to put on quite a show when fed. As deep as they are, they have been given an occasional good toss by passing storms. They are super technical dives and good penetration training dives.

On the South side, the wrecks are quite shallow (35~55feet) and have weathered many storms intact, even one since 1984. Even the DC3 aircraft which has literally "flown" in the current, remains identifiable as an airplane. They are covered with soft and hard corals, anemones, and little stuff. Sure, there's an occasional big Eel or Ray, a Grouper or Barracuda, but most people there are looking at the small stuff so they wouldn't likely notice.

The other difference in the island is how it allows itself to be approached. It's geography and the inexorably linked development that it dictates also controls how you may visit or dive the island.

The West End and it's near Northern neighbor resorts lie in the main visitor population center (also not very far from Coxen Hole (on the South side) which is the main local population center) On West End, you will find an excellent variety of day dive operations, small guest houses and an array of restaurants, bars and gift shops. Just to the Northern edge, that's where you will find many upscale condo developments. Further along, there is AKR and BIBR, both well known AI's.

The South Shore is largely given over to two large AI's (FIBR and CCV) and a few smaller players. The Southern shore is not a "day dive-op" area as there simply is no walk by traffic.

Further East on both the North and South, there are other AI's such as Paya Bay and Oak Ridge which have gained a tenuous toe hold in dive operations.