Key West Dive operators

[User0559]

South Point. Very professional, very good.

IMO, Southpoint Divers overall has the best operation, best boat, very knowledgeable crew, easy location. I had 2 very bad experiences with Subtropic just recently.
First time about a month ago, went out on am trip to the Cayman Salvager on the Pelican, never saw the wreck, they sent us down a line that was hooked to nothing. Apparently they were hooked up to a mooring that turned out to be in the sand not the wreck, you think they would know this.:11: Then the second time was just over this past weekend, again tried to see the Cayman Salvager and was on the Pelican. Got out to the location and the current was ripping so they tried to send one of thier DM's in to grab the line and he could not get it, you could clearly see the mooring ball being pulled down by the strong current about 20 feet below the surface. He tried again and again and again untill the boat could only take so much back and forth motion and broke down. We heard them on the radio with other boats and they knew no one was doing the wrecks because of the strong current, but they still tried anyway:shakehead Long story short, we sat there for 3 hours waiting for a tow, got back to the dock at 1 pm, got my money and ran to Southpoint to get wet for afternoon dive. IMO, Subtropic crew knew on the way out about the current and we the customers knew too and had no problem doing a reef dive instead. Thats just too unsafe for me:no I'll be diving for the next week or so with other operations such as Captain's Corner and Dive Key West and post a review. Oh, and BTW the diving is incredible with the blue water in past the reef with vis in the range of 60-80 feet

 

[rickhalprin]

will be in KW early December. A bit spoiled having dove lots of the "worlds best dive sites", but spouse insited on KW vacation. Is the KW diving worth it? The scubaboard posts are mostly negative. Whats missing? And yes- a bad day diving is still better than a good day in the office

 

[Wookie]

will be in KW early December. A bit spoiled having dove lots of the "worlds best dive sites", but spouse insited on KW vacation. Is the KW diving worth it? The scubaboard posts are mostly negative. Whats missing? And yes- a bad day diving is still better than a good day in the office

Rick, it depends on what you want, what you're willing to put up with, and what you're willing to settle for. If you go with one of the bg operators that are well established, you will see the Vandenberg, Cayman Salvor, or Joe's Tug, or one of the tired reefs with mooring buoys on it. If, however, you're willing to go with a smaller charter operator and spend maybe a little more, you can see absolutely pristine reefs with big fish and healthy corals. A lot of what you get depends on you. Can you/are you comfortable diving solo? Do you want to go off the beaten path? Are you happy with healthy reefs, or do you need big action like whale sharks and manta rays to keep you happy?

2 operators cater to divers willing to dive a bit more off the road sites, Keys Mobile Diving and Finz dive center. Both are on the web and google is your friend. Both go where the big fish are, because they are primarily spearing boats, but they will take non-spearo's too, as long as you don't complain too much when the big black you are taking a picture of gets shot in front of you.

Key West diving can be outstanding, but it's a little more work than the usual charter provides....

 

[endurodog]

I was there in March and dove 5 days with Dive Key West. Crews were great as well as the shop. I had a regulator blow up on me and they lent me one. My girlfriend got ill and couldn't go for 2 days after we paid and they worked with us on that. I thought the diving was good. A little colder than Coz and less viz but I enjoyed it.

 

[Beowulf]

I was just there last weekend. Went with Subtropic. I'll never use them again. Wow they were a mess. Boat was waiting for CG release when we arrived, ladder fell off on first dive, ran out of gas on another dive. Our whole group cut trip short to.go up to Largo for our last day to dive with Ocean Divers who were great.

Next trip we'll be staying in the upper keys. Much better reefs and a lot shorter drive.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk

 

[acteg]

I've dived with Captain's Corner on 3 separate occasions.

1. first real open water dive after being freshly certified with a buddy of mine. We did 2 reefs, each about 25 feet. It was the afternoon dive. They had a young deck hand on board who was basically trading his labor for diving, and we buddied up with him.

2. A year later, we dove the same two reefs I think. We booked for the Cayman Salvager, but were told that more people wanted to do reef dives, so that was our only option. This time I went with 2 buddies. Turns out 1 of my buddies was only certified for diving with an Instructor (PADI resort course). I dove with his cousin the previous time who has the same certification and this wasn't caught. Captain's corner provided my buddy with an instructor to finish up his certification. One the second part of the dive the instructor invited all of us to follow him, and he gave us a nice tour of the reef and a giant nurse shark. The only issues we had were the rental gear failing, but it got straightened out.

3. The following day we dove the Vandenburg. We hired the instructor from the previous day to be our guide. Both dives were on the vandenburg. Our dive guide took us into the wheel house, through a couple of swim thrus, etc. It was great. We were all provided computers for this dive and our dive guide walked us through the use of the computer. The vandenberg is an awesome dive, but I think the best part of the dive was the young brazilian woman who did the dive in a thong... very distracting.

Things I liked about Captain's corner

1. Big cool boat. Their boat is called the sea eagle and its an all aluminum 60ft boat that was used in one of the older James Bond movies.
2. Fun relaxed crew.
3. price - we paid $75 each for the reef dives, and $85 for the vandenberg. If you google key west dive trips you will find a crappy looking discount website promising cheap trips/adventures. Give them a call and you can get the $75 price. You could also try calling Capt's corner directly and tell them that is the price you were quoted from a discount website.
4. They have military discount (10% off with military ID).
5. Chetty the dive guide. Cool guy and a good guide. Kind of fearless in a 3rd world country kind of way.

Things I didn't like
1. The rental gear is adequate but pretty beatup. We had issues with a leaking regulator, and a malfuctioning power inflator. Also, the filter on my reg was very very green and the taste of the air from it was terrible. It was so bad it convinced me to buy my own regulator setup.

All in all, I like these guys. They have given me no reason to look else where and I will continue to use them in the future.

 

[txaggie08]

Highly HIGHLY recommend bonsai diving. A small boat, with easy going folks, and a short ride even to the vandy.

Or slide up to key largo and dive with silent world. Both are EXCELLENT dive ops, and I wouldnt regret going back with either

 

[Tropicalwolf]

Always liked "Lost Reef Adventures"...are they still in business?

 

[Bappelt]

Always liked "Lost Reef Adventures"...are they still in business?

Yes they are. I went out with them recently and feel that they are another good option in Key West.