Which island is better to SCUBA St. Thomas or St. Maarten?

[LisaK]

want to try SCUBA diving on our upcoming cruise. Which island has better SCUBA diving in your opinion?

[PapaBill]

Are you at total new comer to scuba? If yes, try going out to Coki beach in St Thomas.
There is a beach concession there that is used by many of the ship excursions for first time scuba , but you can go there on your own. They will put you in the water and teach you the basics and then take you out to the reef in fairly shallow water and hold your hand through a first dive. I have no idea of the cost. All you need to do as far as I know is show up and say your ready to go. There is a dive shop near the beach entrance, I presume the guys on the beach are associated with them.
Coki is also a great beach , with facilities and is located next to the paid attraction called Coral World.

[Paul Motter]

I sure a diver will come a long and give us more "requirements" even for the novice dives they call "resort" dives. I have done 2 of them.

You need to be free of respiratory and heart problems - no pacemakers. Generally you get 90 minutes instruction and 1 hour in the water. My first one in Curacao was pretty tame, but on my second one, Grand Cayman, they gave us free reign and we went as deep as we wanted.

[LisaK]

thanks for your replies. We are all first-timers looking to just try it out. We have decided to do a ships tour in St. Maarten for our SCUBA diving.