hi- im planning a quick getaway to aruba. my husband and i have never been. anyone done the scuba helmet thing before, where you can walk around up to 20 ft under? when i snorkled once in the cayman islands in college, it made me nautious always on surface. we loved the included scuba diving in jamaica on our honeymoon 11 years ago (we arent certified, it was included with Sandals).
thanks for your time!

I did a helmet dive in Bermuda once - a friend was visiting with her two kids and they wanted to go, so I went along to lend a hand. I am a scuba diver and was pretty disappointed by the helmet dive. You can't hear anything other than the rush of air bubbles from the hoses, and we were under with 8 people, so we all had to walk in a straight line (holding hands) to keep our hoses from tangling. Wasn't worth it, IMO, and I would rather have done a scuba dive. Another thing you might want to ask is - how many people go on each boat vs. how many are in the water at a time. The operator in Bermuda took 4 groups out, but the three groups who weren't in the water had to sit on the boat, while the diesel engines ran and all we could smell was fumes. So, for a twenty minute dive, we spent almost three hours sitting on the boat, the whole time looking at gorgeous, clear, 10' deep water that we could have been snorkelling in.

thanks for the tip on the groups per boat. I remember when our 1 group went out in jamaica to dive and the ladies that decided to not go under with us were sick from sitting up in the boat inhaling fumes. so that would be bad.
we arent certified to scuba, or otherwise would. and snorkling makes us nautious.

We did the helmet dive at Coral World in St. Thomas. It was OK. The helmet was quite heavy even in the water. You can't turn your head to see anything, you have to turn your entire body. I beleive they do the helmet dive at De Palm Island. There are tons of huge parrot fish there. Just snorkeling or looking down, you'll be able to see them.

Look into the snuba that De Palm offers instead. No heavy air tanks or helmets on your body. Just a scuba mask with a 25 foot hose. You don't have to be certified to snuba.

http://www.depalmtours.com/snuba

thanks for the help KVR! I wondered what the difference was between snuba and helmet, and was leaning toward the helmet because the ad graphics looked more professional. we'll do the snuba instead.

http://www.redsailaruba.com/modules/...y_details/1849

my fav head for the Antilla a 400ft long wreck amazing

helmets claustrophobic confining linit your vision

have done a lot commercially not great.

Snuba a bit better still a tether though not as great

as SCUBA or simple free diving.

Find a PADI shop take some begginer SCUBA

certification courses for an awesome experience there.

We had fun doing the SNUBA, though I enjoyed it more thanmy bride. Her are some pics: http://www.mightymac.org/aruba/10aruba13.htm

Keith, thanks for sharing your pictures. I loved going back down memory lane. We have many of the same pictures, including that fab sunset picture. I so wish we could get back to Aruba, but there are just too many other Islands on our list.