If your a water baby, then St. Croix is the place for you- the undersea world is as exciting as the fun you'll have on the islands. Warm water, great visibility, and neat stuff to look at are all found off St. Croix. Less than five miles off Teague Bay, (to see the map, click here) is Buck Island, a national preserved park with great snorkeling.
Please Note: In order to get air tanks, rent equipment, obtain air fills and join others on guided tours, divers must show their C-card - certification of training card - from a recognized international program.
Most U.S. Virgin Island dive operators offer full certification courses. But, these are intensive 32- to 40-hour schools take as little as 3 very full days. Dive operators recommend that dive students do their book and basic pool work at home, then transfer from their home instructor to Virgin Islands to finish up their four open-water dives and complete qualifications for C-card. Minimum age for PADI instruction is 12.
As an alternative, resort courses are available that allows beginners to sample the sport of diving. These short classes, which do not count towards certification, start out in shallow water in a pool or off a beach, then transition to a 30 to 40 foot dive. I did an introductory dive with Dive Experience and had the BEST time of my life.
As pictures are worth a thousand words apiece, below you'll find a 6,000 word essay on diving in St. Croix.
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