I had an interesting and somewhat annoying experience with a local dive shop- Scubaworks in Jupiter, Florida. It was honestly pretty weird to me, and I wondered if I'm crazy.
Back story: diving on a local boat, which has worked out a deal with the shop, so one day a week the shop "runs" the boat. The boat, Emerald Charters, caters to divers who have their stuff together and are ready to have fun. I love their boat, and enjoy diving it. The experience-being treated like a competent diver-is simply unparalleled in a world full of mediocre divers and nanny dive boats.
The diving in Jupiter tends to be 60 to 140 feet deep drift diving done 3+ miles offshore in federal waters. Fine for air, usually perfect for 32%, which is all I keep in most of my tanks as it's banked in north FL cave shops.
Here's the part where I decided I won't go back to the dive shop, and will only dive with Emerald on the days they don't partner with Scubaworks.
We called the day before the dive, to make sure our spots were booked and to make sure bringing our own doubles was not a problem. Scubaworks said no problem, confirmed our spots and said see ya tomorrow.
When we show up, they wanted our email addresses and phone numbers-data mining, in my opinion. We told them no thanks on the email list. Then they ask if we are diving nitrox. Figuring it was just idle chit chat, since we weren't getting fills, we told them yes. At that point, they refused to let us dive on a boat that wasn't theirs until we could each produce nitrox cards.
There's the rub. I don't carry my nitrox card. I have it handy when I need fills, but not otherwise. I keep my Divemaster and full cave cards, but have no need for a nitrox card if I'm not getting gas.
I pointed out that we had called the day before and specifically mentioned we were bringing our own tanks, the perfect chance to mention their card requirement. They said it had to do with insurance. I pointed out it wasn't their boat and that they still should mention it. Somehow I convinced them to let me dive between the DM and full cave cards, but I still find their demand ridiculous, and their lack of explaining their policy over the phone ludicrous.
I can't even re,e,bet the last time I had to show my nitrox card to get a fill.
I'm pretty decided that I'll not go back to that shop. Breathing gas is easy to get from shops that go out of their way to treat you well and not make up silly policies. I still had a great time on the Emerald and can't wait to go back.
Or maybe I'm crazy and they were right to ask me to drive 30 miles to get the card and 30 miles back. I had time, what with the, not calibrating their analyzer and having to fill my friend's tanks twice to get the o2 right...
Back story: diving on a local boat, which has worked out a deal with the shop, so one day a week the shop "runs" the boat. The boat, Emerald Charters, caters to divers who have their stuff together and are ready to have fun. I love their boat, and enjoy diving it. The experience-being treated like a competent diver-is simply unparalleled in a world full of mediocre divers and nanny dive boats.
The diving in Jupiter tends to be 60 to 140 feet deep drift diving done 3+ miles offshore in federal waters. Fine for air, usually perfect for 32%, which is all I keep in most of my tanks as it's banked in north FL cave shops.
Here's the part where I decided I won't go back to the dive shop, and will only dive with Emerald on the days they don't partner with Scubaworks.
We called the day before the dive, to make sure our spots were booked and to make sure bringing our own doubles was not a problem. Scubaworks said no problem, confirmed our spots and said see ya tomorrow.
When we show up, they wanted our email addresses and phone numbers-data mining, in my opinion. We told them no thanks on the email list. Then they ask if we are diving nitrox. Figuring it was just idle chit chat, since we weren't getting fills, we told them yes. At that point, they refused to let us dive on a boat that wasn't theirs until we could each produce nitrox cards.
There's the rub. I don't carry my nitrox card. I have it handy when I need fills, but not otherwise. I keep my Divemaster and full cave cards, but have no need for a nitrox card if I'm not getting gas.
I pointed out that we had called the day before and specifically mentioned we were bringing our own tanks, the perfect chance to mention their card requirement. They said it had to do with insurance. I pointed out it wasn't their boat and that they still should mention it. Somehow I convinced them to let me dive between the DM and full cave cards, but I still find their demand ridiculous, and their lack of explaining their policy over the phone ludicrous.
I can't even re,e,bet the last time I had to show my nitrox card to get a fill.
I'm pretty decided that I'll not go back to that shop. Breathing gas is easy to get from shops that go out of their way to treat you well and not make up silly policies. I still had a great time on the Emerald and can't wait to go back.
Or maybe I'm crazy and they were right to ask me to drive 30 miles to get the card and 30 miles back. I had time, what with the, not calibrating their analyzer and having to fill my friend's tanks twice to get the o2 right...