On the north coast of DR, Sosua is the place for diving. In the small city, there are no less than 16 dive shops.
Of course, the term "Dive Shop" is used here in the loosest of terms. In other words, to open a "Dive Shop" all you need is a dive flag and a couple square feet of space you can claim and a boat you can borrow. A rowboat may prove sufficient.
Of all those "Dive Shops" the only one that deserves mention is Northcoast diving .
They offer products and services one may expect from a normal dive shop, that is, they have a boutique, they have equipment rental, fill their own tanks on the premises.
I really liked the way the shop is setup. The only drawback, which isn't one really, is that the shop is not directly on the water. One has to walk to the beach and then walk into the water to get on the boat. There is no docking. But that's okay, I did that in Percé and it adds to the fun.
I brought the strict minimum with me and walk with my socks in the streets and onto the boat. I keep my socks when I use no boot fins because I've had problem with chafing before. I also dove with my short and T-shirt and only my dive watch. No weights needed since my back plate provided me with way more ballast than I needed.
Viz was definitely sub par for the first two dives. The first one I had trouble with my right ear and it took me about 10 minutes before I could dive and join the other. I had the same problem last year in Cuba.
Since I was less than 30 feet (10 metres) above the group, I could easily see them and didn
The third dive was a shallow dive and of course, viz was excellent. At times, we were surrounded by sargent majors. I learned that for years they've been trained to expect divers to feed them so that is why they clump up around us. Recent law now forbids feeding the fish, but old habits die hard.
I will upload a video of a diver surrounded by sargent fish next time.
