By: Ryan Seltz
Hello again, my fellow teen divers. I come to you now with information on another Kids Sea Camp: Grand Cayman. This was my first time on Grand Cayman, and I have to say, it was a really fun week. It was a totally different experience than Bonaire or Fiji (the other two Kids Sea Camps I have been to). But Grand Cayman was different in a good way, so don’t think it’s a bad thing.
Grand Cayman was mainly different because the program is totally different than your average Kids Sea Camp. There was no teen diver program where you just go on the boat and dive. There are three different groups offered for teens at Kids Sea Camp Grand Cayman. You can do the Junior Open Water program, where you become a certified diver. There is also the Advanced Open Water program, where you take your diving one level up from your regular Open Water Certification. The AOW program requires that you do dives such as a night dive, navigation dive, scooter dive, etc. Finally, there is the Photo/Scooter program (what I did, and for the record, it rocked). That is where you get your DPV (Diver Propulsion Vehicle, or Underwater Scooter) specialty as well as your Digital Underwater Photography specialty.
All three of these groups do require a little bit of work (I know’ it’s summer, who wants to work?), but it isn’t too bad. The JOW and the AOW groups require more work than the Photo/Scooter group, but it still isn’t that much. Using the DPVs was so much fun. When you are on the DPV, you feel like you are flying underwater. You get to see so much more, and you use a lot less air and energy. You also get a Reefmaster Mini camera in this group. It is a small, 6MP camera, and even though the camera cannot come out of the housing, it works underwater and on land. And the pictures come out really well. In order to get the AOW certification or the two specialties, you have to be twelve years old. So, sorry to all you preteens. All the groups take a photo editing clinic, where we use iPhoto on Macbooks to edit our photos to make them even better. So then you can put your photos on Facebook, MySpace, or print them out to show your family.
Grand Cayman is a fun island all the time, even when you are not diving. We go to the Turtle Farm for a day, which has a lot of fun stuff to do. You can also hang out at the famous Seven Mile Beach (which, for the record, is now five and a half miles long). And to al of you skateboarders and surfers, Grand Cayman is home to the second largest skate and surf park in the world, but there is no time to go there during the week. While in Grand Cayman, I highly recommend you try some Tortuga Rum Cake (parents, it isn’t that much rum, so don’t worry. And to the teens, Pirates of the Caribbean had to get the name Tortuga somewhere). It is very good and is served once a week at the hotel after dinner. The main town and capital of Grand Cayman is Georgetown. There is a lot of stuff for any type of teenager to do there. There is shopping, movie theaters, restaurants, basically anything American teenagers are into. Be warned, stores close at 5 PM on Grand Cayman.
During the week, we stay at Cobalt Coast resort, located at West End of Grand Cayman. It is about a 30 minute drive to town from the resort, but the hotel is right by the Turtle Farm, as well as The Cracked Conch (pronounced Konk), a very good restaurant I recommend eating at. Located in Cobalt Coast is Dive Tech, the dive center you will be diving with.
Like Bonaire, Grand Cayman is a great place for all types of divers. The water is clear, calm, and warm, and there are no jellyfish (at least there weren’t any when I was there, but I was told they are very rare in Grand Cayman). There is a lot of fish and coral, so it is a great place to get some good pictures of sea life, as well as your friends underwater.
You can tell your parents there is plenty for them to do as well. There are spas, shopping, and they can take a tour of the Tortuga Rum factory. So everyone will have a good time at Kids Sea Camp Grand Cayman.
###
