Truk Lagoon with a difference

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I can honestly say that being under water for between 4 and 5 hrs a day was why I went there and felt extremely safe especially with the NITROX programme offered for free! I will not argue on this forum but simply reply that I felt I was given two, safe really enjoyable weeks, I did not dive the oite but chose to do the Fumitsuki instead but was offered the oite.

Wasn't interested in arguing, but rather understanding what your profiles were. With that many dives in 12-14 days of diving you were either staying relatively shallow... or pushing your luck.

What kind of profiles were you diving?
 
Hi RJP,

As I have been dreaming about going to Truk since I started diving in 1985, of course I was pushing it LOL��(check out Scubahermit.com) Seriously though, if you really want an honest "no sweat" opinion about my profiles there drop me a note on kjamespi at Aol and I'll gladly let you know. These forums often cause emotions to be fired up and I don't want to encourage any of that.

I noticed a few negative comments about the Thorfinn and simply wanted to add a " positive person with a big mouths" opinion to the negative ones. Often positive opinions don't get the same air time as negative ones. I just want to try to level a playing field.

i sat in the blue lagoon just before leaving listening to a guy on the next table pissing and moaning about the Thorfinn and I couldn't resist asking him when he was on it and it appears he did an Alaskan cruise on it in the 70's which annoyed me a bit, hence the positive comments based on my RECENT experience.

Drop me a line, I would love to hear from you as I sit here in the warm and sunny Bahamas ha ha.
 
I cannot speak for the land based dive operators as I just got back from 2 weeks on the Thorfinn but would like to make it clear out there that 68 dives in 2 weeks is a great vacation by any ones standards, these guys operate a great safety programme , the dive guides can be trusted 100 % and I will recommend them to anyone who wants to eat sleep and dive.
I do know the land based guys offer great diving but for me 5 different wrecks a day was the way to go.
I only managed 17 dives for a wk on Thorfinn last time. And only slightly more on my previous visit.
If I ever go back to Truk it will definitely on Thorfinn again!! The E-Pack 7 days package at US$1,495.00(3 air dive per day) is good enough for me. Odyssey will charge me in excess of 3 grands for 5 dives a day with no discount if I do less. No contest.
 
I was a Truk Stop and heard from fellow tec divers that they don't do any dive planning or organisation and just pretty much leave the tec divers on their own. This isn't great, especially for repeat dives, when you need to plan your bottom time and stops more carefully. They even group rebreathers with twin tank divers on the same boat with everyone doing a different profile.
 
I was a Truk Stop and heard from fellow tec divers that they don't do any dive planning or organisation and just pretty much leave the tec divers on their own. This isn't great, especially for repeat dives, when you need to plan your bottom time and stops more carefully. They even group rebreathers with twin tank divers on the same boat with everyone doing a different profile.
For experienced Tech Divers who already know their bottom times & deco profiles, the Dive-ops "planning & organization" consists of Dive Guides tactically leading mixed teams of Open Circuit & Rebreather Divers thru the wreck, staggering penetration times or locations to avoid running into other groups from the same Dive-Ops, and coordinating run times & surface pick-up details with the skiff drivers (if another boat of divers from say Blue Lagoon Dive Shop was on site first, then we would rather go on to do some other wreck site instead of mixing with Blue Lagoon Divers in a probable silt-out).

Truk Stop/Truk Lagoon Dive Center has the best equipment, tanks & gas logistics support (Oxygen & Helium readily available for the ad lib traveling tech diver -but larger groups should always call ahead of time to ensure availability). The dive guides and manager (Rob McGann) will actually lead penetrations in compatible DIR/Hogarth overhead doubles configuration, AND do the bottom time/deco profile with you, unlike the other dive operations' guides who will only initially escort you to a deep wreck on single tank and then leave you on your own.
 
Stayed at Truk Stop after a live aboard trip and the two are incomparable, wish I done an extra week on the live aboard and it wouldn't have cost me that much more to do when everything is taken into account. Remember you get excellent freshly cooked free meals, snacks and drinks including alcohol on the live aboard whilst you have to deal with the overpriced bland food, poor service and expensive drinks in the hotel.
The diving is fantastic however which option you choose.
On the live aboard we moored over the wrecks and just fell over the side of the ship when we dived. Unfortunately Truk Stop is the farthest place of all the dive operators from the wrecks which means an uncomfortable boat ride to the first dive site, a surface interval rolling about on the boat or they may dump you on an island with nothing to do or see with no facilities, not even a toilet and then a second dive before returning to the dive center. Not ideal, diving from a ship is so much better and totally recommended. I now know why when we saw the Truk Stop boat their divers often looked miserable, especially when it is raining and windy as it often is.
Truk Stop did have good local dive crew and guides, who are sadly mistreated by the owner who fails to provide them with proper equipment to do their job so they need to go to fundraising websites to get the equipment they need. Before you say they should buy they own they get paid a pittance, its just not possible. They only got a proper oxygen kit after one of their guides died. They are still woefully lacking other basic safety gear and just recently one of their skiffs ran aground and sank because they got lost and couldn't get help, fortunately no one was hurt but next time they may not be so lucky.
As for having the best equipment on the island things have obviously deteriorated in recent times as both their Oxygen compressor and booster pump are not working and now I hear that their air compressor is just hanging onto life as well.
 
Stayed at Truk Stop after a live aboard trip and the two are incomparable, wish I done an extra week on the live aboard and it wouldn't have cost me that much more to do when everything is taken into account. Remember you get excellent freshly cooked free meals, snacks and drinks including alcohol on the live aboard whilst you have to deal with the overpriced bland food, poor service and expensive drinks in the hotel.
The diving is fantastic however which option you choose.
On the live aboard we moored over the wrecks and just fell over the side of the ship when we dived. Unfortunately Truk Stop is the farthest place of all the dive operators from the wrecks which means an uncomfortable boat ride to the first dive site, a surface interval rolling about on the boat or they may dump you on an island with nothing to do or see with no facilities, not even a toilet and then a second dive before returning to the dive center. Not ideal, diving from a ship is so much better and totally recommended. I now know why when we saw the Truk Stop boat their divers often looked miserable, especially when it is raining and windy as it often is.
Truk Stop did have good local dive crew and guides, who are sadly mistreated by the owner who fails to provide them with proper equipment to do their job so they need to go to fundraising websites to get the equipment they need. Before you say they should buy they own they get paid a pittance, its just not possible. They only got a proper oxygen kit after one of their guides died. They are still woefully lacking other basic safety gear and just recently one of their skiffs ran aground and sank because they got lost and couldn't get help, fortunately no one was hurt but next time they may not be so lucky.
As for having the best equipment on the island things have obviously deteriorated in recent times as both their Oxygen compressor and booster pump are not working and now I hear that their air compressor is just hanging onto life as well.
From 2007 to 2014, Managers Kelvin Davidson and his successor Rob McGann ran Truk Lagoon Dive Center at the Truk Stop Hotel, which became the best technical wreck dive operation in all of Micronesia (as well as supplying Oxygen & Helium blends & cylinders to the liveaboards Odyssey & Truk Siren). Only the Truk Stop Hotel was chosen -over and above any liveaboard- to host many international GUE Technical Overhead Divers over the years, such as this group in 2013:

https://vimeo.com/138115376
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/
http://cavediveflorida.com/Rum_House.htm

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