Dive Review of Wall to Wall Diving/Turtle Nest Inn in
Cayman Islands/West Bay and South side

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Wall to Wall Diving/Turtle Nest Inn, Jan, 2014, by Marshall Kirk McKusick, CA, US ( Reviewer 3 reports with 1 Helpful vote). Report 7490.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Index: 1.) Wall-to-Wall Diving Co. 2.) Turtle Nest Inn 3.) Grand Cayman diving in general 1.) Wall-to-Wall Diving Co.: Wall-to-Wall was recommended to us by "Indigo divers" (who are firm Undercurrent favorites and were fully booked), and we dived with Wall-to-Wall for 8 days in a row. Wall-to-Wall have two dive boats, both are spacious (especially their primary boat, the Chelonia), and are generally limited to 6 divers. They (and several others including "Indigo Divers" and "Off the Wall") operate out of the Lobster Pot Dive shop which has ample parking and easy access. They will also pick people up who are staying along 7-mile beach, although we were further afield in Bodden Town, and had a rental car. When doing multiple days of dives, you can leave your gear on the boat and they will clean it up for you after each day and have it ready for you the next. Unfortunately for us, all our baggage including our dive gear did not arrive until the day after we did. However, Giles who runs Wall-to-Wall, came to our rescue and offered to rent us full sets of kit for only $10, for which in the end he never did charge us. All of the crew were very good, and special mention goes to Kyle and Jenna, both of whom went far above and beyond the usual call of duty to connect with the passengers, and make the days and dives fun. We are experienced recreational divers and chafe at dive operations that require everyone to wait on the surface, drop down with the divemaster, closely follow the divemaster underwater, and return as a group as soon as the first person needs to surface. Wall-to-Wall is the antithesis of this regime. You are free to submerge as soon as the dive briefing is over. Provided you have a buddy, you are free to take off on your own, or follow the Divemaster who will give a 30-40 minute tour of the dive site. You can stay down for as long as you want, provided you have a buddy, 5 minutes of non-deco time left on your computer, and sufficient air to have a safety stop and be out of the water with 500psi (750psi was recommended as the point to go to your safety stop). A standard Wall-to-Wall diving trip begins with a deep dive (typically 100ft) on the wall, followed by a reef dive with a maximum depth of 60ft. They recommended using NITROX on the first dive, but not the second dive. Although many people used NITROX on both, we followed their recommendation. It worked well for us and saved us half the NITROX fees. My buddy had to borrow a NITROX computer from them, for which we were also never charged. Wall-to-Wall offer fantastic value for money, especially if you do six or more dives with them. Our final cost was ~$40 per dive, plus $15 when we used NITROX 31 (plus tip). Considering the small number of divers on the boat and our complete freedom to dive as long as we wanted to, we felt that we'd gotten a very, very good deal. We had more underwater time in two dives with Wall-to-Wall than we typically get in 3 dives with other operators. 2.) Turtle Nest Inn Grand Cayman is a British Territory, and as such is a developed island nation (accommodation and food priced accordingly). We stayed at the Turtle Nest Inn Condos, which gave us a full kitchen, two bedrooms and balcony overlooking the ocean. We had access to a tennis court, swimming pool, and the beach. At $300 per night (which includes a complimentary rental car, local cell phone, and Internet), it was not cheap, but a good deal by Cayman island standards. We could have spent more than this on 7-mile beach, and gotten something a lot less nice. The staff was very helpful in our baggage recovery and incidental maintenance issues. 3.) Grand Cayman Diving We were impressed that one of the boxes that one could tick on the immigration form for purpose of visit was "dive vacation". The local government fully understands that they can make a lot more money off of diving than fishing, and are working with the local fishing industry to attempt to preserve ecologically sensitive areas. They have set up approximately 200 bouys for dive boats to tie off on, and thus no-one ever has to drop an anchor on the reef or compete with another dive boat for a mooring. The result is that the ecosystem is very well maintained. Whilst larger fish are less common due to fishing, the reefs are in fabulous shape, and covered with juvenile and young adult fish. The trademark of Grand Cayman diving (in our experience) was to be in an open-water fish bowl, with more fish per cubic meter than I've seen in an aquarium. We saw Spotted Eagle Rays and Turtles on nearly every outing, and spotted several rarer small critters such as the Leopard Flatworm. The deeper wall dives are dramatic with natural swim throughs, cracks, and sand chutes. I would strongly recommend NITROX to divers who routinely stay down for an hour, since there is a lot to see, and you will likely be nitrogen limited if you dive on compressed air. If you get a choice, I'd recommend Trinity Caves, Round Rock, and Hole in the Wall as particularly epic examples. A huge part of the attraction of Grand Cayman was the topography and diversity of dive sites. The U.S.S. Kittywake is also well worth a visit. It was intentionally sunk in 2011 in 65ft of water, and was carefully prepared as a Diver's playground. It was the one dive that required us to stay with the divemaster, who gave us a 1 hour tour as our "group" (of three plus the D.M.) were all good on air consumption.
Websites	Wall to Wall Diving Turtle Nest Inn
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Belize, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Curacao, Hawaii, California
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm, surge, no currents
Water Temp	81-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	70-140 Ft/ 21-43 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Must exit water when first one of: 5 minutes no-deco left on computer 500psi in tank no buddy
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	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]

Subscriber's Comments

By Craig A Wood in PA, US at Jan 13, 2014 10:54 EST

Hi Marshall, you mention great sites on the West and South Sides, did you get to the North Wall this time of year?

By report author: Marshall Kirk McKusick in CA, US at Jan 13, 2014 13:57 EST

Wall-to-Wall does not operate on the North side and as this was our first trip to Grand Caymans, we opted to stick with the areas in which they dive. We did drive up to see the north side and it appeared to be quite calm and divable.

By Craig A Wood in PA, US at Jan 13, 2014 15:31 EST

Thanks, my family dived with Giles and Deanna and Wall to Wall in 2002, when they were located in the Yacht Club, with easy access to the North Wall. Chelonia was brand new back then.

By report author: Marshall Kirk McKusick in CA, US at Jan 13, 2014 15:39 EST

Glyn (my dive partner) tells me that Wall-to-Wall do run trips to the north wall in the summer. Just not in the winter when apparently the north tends to be a bit rough.

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Dive Review of Wall to Wall Diving/Turtle Nest Inn in Cayman Islands/West Bay and South side

Wall to Wall Diving/Turtle Nest Inn, Jan, 2014,

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):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Wall to Wall Diving/Turtle Nest Inn in
Cayman Islands/West Bay and South side