Join us for a dive in the warm waters of Aguadilla and Isabela!
We offer both beaching diving and boat diving off the Northwest coast of Puerto Rico. From pristine reefs to underwater caves, our dive sites are some of the best locations on the island! Join us year-round for fantastic diving. If you’re new to diving, we have the perfect beach location for you to learn and build your new skills. Aquatic PR offers both scuba diving tours and PADI and SSI certification courses.
Dive Sites in Aguadilla and Isabella
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About Crashboat Beach
Depth: 0-40+ ft. (30 ft average)
Difficulty: Beginner
Accessibility: High
Facilities: Food, drink, toilets, parkingCrashboat beach is perfect for new divers or divers refreshing their skills. You can put all of your equipment on in the parking lot and just walk right into the ocean. The most common route is diving out along the pier over a gradually downward sloping sand bottom to a set of platforms called dolphins standing in about 30 feet of water. The pillars holding up the dolphins are covered in colorful and healthy corals which attract schools of sergeant major fish as well as other fish listed above. Once you explore the three standing dolphin platforms, there are two others which collapsed and are on the ocean floor.
We take our Discover Scuba Divers and Open Water classes to Crashboat Beach because the gently sloping sandy bottom and calm conditions provide a learning environment that’s great for mastering the basic safety skills. Once students are ready, the instructor leads them along the pier to the dolphins platforms where they can get their first close-up look at the variety of marine life while breathing underwater.
This site is easily accessible and has food, drinks, and bathroom facilities. The conditions are usually calm with 40+ feet of visibility all year round. Crashboat is our most frequented dive site because conditions are usually great here even when they are not so good at the other sites. Crashboat is also our favorite spot for night dives because it’s easily accessible and the parking lot has lights at night.
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About El Natural Beach
Depth: 0-70+ ft. (45 ft average)
Difficulty: Advanced (Open Water cert required)Accessibility: Low
Facilities: ParkingFor more advanced divers, El Natural Beach is another beach-entry dive with a healthy reef system. The dive site extends directly outward from shore along a gently sloping bottom about 200 yards to about 40 feet of water where the reef meets a sandy bottom. From there, divers can head northward along the reef with a gradual slope until about 70 feet. Divers frequently head diagonally back to shore, based on air consumption or no decompression limits. You might only make it to 50 or 60 feet before starting to head back. There are many similar fish to those found at Crashboat, but you have a greater chance to see sea turtles, spotted eagle rays, large eels, and dolphins at this location, the deeper and more northward you go.
Natural is a great site for certified divers looking for a guided dive. If you sign up for two dives in a day, Natural will likely be your first dive because it’s a deeper dive. Since this site goes deeper than 60 feet, you can get your deep dive specialty at this site as well, which will count towards your Advanced Open Water certification.
Natural beach is more difficult to find than Crashboat Beach. There are no facilities within walking distance, just residential houses. You can drive on paved roads until about 200 feet from the beach where there are a grass parking lot and a path down to the beach. Divers can don their equipment in this parking lot and then walk down to the beach. If you have a Jeep or pickup truck with good clearance, there is a rocky dirt road past the parking lot that takes you to 30 feet from the beach. The conditions are usually calm with 40+ feet of visibility all year round, but Natural is a little less sheltered than Crashboat; surge and currents can be stronger here.
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About Shacks Beach
Depth: 0-33+ ft. (25 ft average)
Difficulty: Advanced (Open Water cert required) Accessibility: Medium
Facilities: NoneShacks Beach is an exciting reef cavern dive starting right from the beach. From shore, divers swim on the surface about 400 feet out to the entrance to a 30 foot deep “blue hole.” Divers then descend and navigate through, up, and around a series of caverns and overhead environments, exiting back through the entrance to the blue hole. The caverns provide a unique and exciting sensation different from normal reef diving. Open Water certification is required because different planning, protocols, equipment, and skills are necessary to safely navigate overhead and cavern environments.
A professional guide who knows this dive site is highly recommended. It’s easy to get lost or stuck in the cavern system if you are not familiar with the site. It’s important to know the entry and exit points of every cavern and how you can get to the surface at all times. This cavern dive can be unique, fun, and exciting, but only if done safely with the proper supervision.
While the roads to Shacks beach are great, there are no designated parking areas. You will most likely have to park along the street about 700 feet from the beach. If you dive with Aquatica, however, we’ll suit up 200 feet from the beach. There are no facilities within walking distance, only residential houses.
