Poor experience with Nautilus Dive Tech, Cabo San Lucas

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Lemonshark100

Registered
Messages
15
Reaction score
6
Location
Colorado
# of dives
200 - 499
My husband and I decided to try a day of diving in Cabo San Lucas after diving both in La Paz and in Cabo Pulmo. We had low expectations because we had heard about the crowds and the Vegas type of development of the area, but we certainly did not expect it to be some of the worst diving we have ever done. Unfortunately the diving only ranked slightly above the checkout dives I did years ago in a lake in Arkansas. My husband had spoken extensively with Casey, the Nautilus Dive Tech shop owner, the day before about our diving experience and what we were interested in doing. When we got to the shop we filled out necessary paperwork and started loading up the truck to leave for the marina. It looked like it was just going to be the divemaster, Greg, and us. At the last minute they told us that another diver would be joining us. The diver that joined our group was a PADI-certified AOW diver who had been trained by an instructor at Nautilus Dive Tech. That instructor had recently been let go, and it soon became apparent why as the guy was unable to even set up his own equipment. It was unclear to us if he had actually paid for diving that day or if the shop was letting him come along to try to retrain him. We headed out to the bay for our first dive near Pelican Rock, but before we got there we had to stop and get gas, which took 20 minutes or more. Greg gave a good briefing and we got ready to enter. There were tons of boats in the area with snorkelers, partiers, you name it onboard. It was important that we surfaced together due to boat traffic, which according to Greg had recently proven lethal to a dive master in the area.

Only 10 minutes into the dive, the incompetent diver was out of air and had to use the divemaster's spare reg. The diver was unable to use his inflator hose and had no idea how to achieve neutral buoyancy. Our total dive time was cut to about 25 minutes and we came up with almost 2000 psi. There wasn’t a lot of fish life in the area and the sandfalls were a mere trickle. Just when we were getting around the rock to check out the other side, we were instructed to start our safety stops. Needless to say, I was upset that our dive had been cut so short due to the incompetence of a diver that the shop had "trained". The owner obviously knew how incompetent the diver was, and despite this he knowingly put the diver with us. This is very poor business practice, and seeing how poor this guy’s training was, we would never recommend Nautilus Dive Tech for any training.

The second dive was done a little further out in the bay at Los Moros. A short time into the dive, the divemaster had to ascend with the flailing diver and allowed us to stay down to finish our dives. In addition to our poor experience with this operation, there was not much to see underwater in the bay. The water was murky and there were hardly any fish. We would never return to this area--we would stick to sites outside of La Paz and sites in Cabo Pulmo. On a positive note, our divemaster Greg did his best to try to rectify the situation, and his briefings were very thorough. Greg is an ex-Navy diver with a lot of interesting experience and knowledge. It is too bad he is not working with a better dive operation—one that cares about all paying customers.
 
Cabo is full of Marine life there are over 800 species of Tropical fish is this area. You must have had a bad Day.These photos were taken on the same Dive. GOPR5862.jpgGOPR5949.jpgGOPR5863.jpgGOPR5944.jpg
 
It sounds like the major issue you had with Nautilus was that they put a crappy diver on the boat with you. I'd like to know what your solution to this would have been? It sounds to me that you weren't on a dive site that the diver wasn't qualified to dive so the dive operator isn't guilty of putting a diver on a site he was unqualified to dive, so if you were the dive operator and you had 2 divers going out that day and a 3rd wanted to go who was certified and qualified for the site, would you have turned him away, told him to dive with somebody else? Would you have sent the lone diver out on another boat with another dive master? I don't think any dive operator would stay in business very long doing those things since those choices would be highly unprofitable.

Unfortunately you got unlucky and ended up with a crappy diver on your dive, the divemaster did what he could to extend the dive by putting him on his octo to extend your bottom time, after that what could he do? Violate basic dive safety by sending him up by himself? Leave you and your dive partner while he took the other diver up?

You also seem to make some connection to blame based on Nautilus AOW'd the diver. Regardless of AOW or not, the diver was still OW certified somewhere else. Even if he's a hot mess, he came to Nautilus that way. Just because he passed the simplistic AOW course doesn't mean he's a great diver or make him a not a heavy breather.

I don't see what the dive shop did wrong. I don't see how you have over 100 dives under your belt and don't see how this all works by now. Maybe you left something out?

A 25 minute bottom time for a shallow dive site certainly sucks big time, and would grate me the wrong way too, but I'd be blaming the heavy breathing diver for ruining my diving and not the dive operator.
 
And take a deep breath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and exhale.
If you had just hopped on a boat, then that is what could happen, but apparently you had the discussion before you paid. Next one will be better. I hope.
 
The reason I blame the dive shop is:
1. We spoke extensively to the owner about our experience the day before
2. Nautilus Dive Tech knew exactly how poor the diver's skills were (they trained him and should never have given him an AOW certificate). It wasn't as if he was an "unknown" diver that just hopped on the boat. In that case, of course the dive shop wouldn't be to blame for anything.

Solution: they should have had the diver wait to go out to dive in the afternoon, and perhaps they could have worked one-on-one with him to improve his skills. As I mentioned it wasn't clear that he was even paying for these dives.

And actually, Mike, it is because we have over 150 dives that we realize this isn't how a good dive shop operates. We've had many great experiences with professional outfits that take into account everyone's experience level.
 
Sounds like someone needed a 'private' DM. It was a shortfall of the center not to at least suggest this as an option (assuming there were options of getting another DM at short notice).

If safety wasn't an issue, it is pretty harsh to judge an entire operation, as well as an entire diving area on two dives.
 
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