Ambergris / San Pedro / Caulker Dive Ops for More Experienced Divers.

[decreed_it]

Hey @John Trecker how’d it go? Who did you end up using and would you recommend?

J

Thread 'Jan 1-8, 2025: Dive Groups in Ambergris/San Pedro/Caulker'

Oct 3, 2024

If there are others who might be in the Ambergris/San Pedro/Caulker area anytime between Jan 1 and Jan 8, 2025 who would be interested in teaming up together to buddy with existing trips or organize some dive excursions with a private guide, please feel free to direct message me.
Looking to try to organize a group of a few other experienced divers to go on more advanced dives with one of the local dive ops or at least form a group that might be able to do more interesting dives with existing organized trips.
As always safety is top priority! Thank you!

• John Trecker
• Replies: 0
• Forum: Belize

Following here. Group of 8 going next Xmas holiday. 3 experienced divers, 2 slightly less, 3 snorkelers looking to do a full day private mixed and then an advanced day with just the divers. We’re staying near San Pedro (this is locked in). No interest in the blue hole, fine with a long ride out, atolls highly interesting.

 

[HaraldGS]

Interesting about Ramon's dive times reported. I was just there in October for 10 days and all dives were right at 1 hour and I generally had over 1,000 psi left back on board. Our dive master for all days was Koala and maybe that was the difference? Recommend asking for him.

 

[John Trecker]

After many emails and much research, I ended up splitting time between Ramons and Amigos del Mar. This was in part due to location and that they had not completely unreasonably priced options for private dive master.
At Ramons, I dived with Dixon who had great eyes and at one point found juvenile peacock flounders which was the first time I had seen those. He also found several toad fish including a variety I had not seen.
At Amigos Del Mar Dive Shop I dived with JC who was equally good and not just used his eyes but his ears to find toad fish. They regularly find a community of seahorse which is fun.
Ramons is $25 per tank subject to availability. I recommend booking ahead via their USA office who is responsive and helpful. Unfortunately their front desk is less than helpful.
Amigos was $50 for the day for local dives and $100 for the trips which was for 3 tanks. We tried to target being first in and last out which gave more dive time. In between dives, Amigos had fruit, snacks, hot drinks, etc. Not sure if this is standard, but Ramons did not have this.
If I were to return, I would go back to Amigos as I found their operation ran smoothly, friendly, with a high level of customer service, and most importantly - very safely. I would specifically request JC as a private dive master. Amigos seemed to have a lot of repeat local customers on the boats.
Unfortunately, I had concerns about Amigos and am not sure I would send family or friends to the operation unless improvements were made around safety including communication, coordination, and equipment. There was a concerning safety issue on one of my dives sending a Ramons customer to the hospital hooked to oxygen tanks. Ramon's seemed completely unprepared to handle the situation on the boat and there was complete lack of organization and communication. This is apart from the customer service issues around Ramons highlighted elsehwere in this forum- complete indifference to individual customers unless you are part of a large group. No communication. No coordination. No planning. No prep.
One general observation: I did maybe 3 days of local dives with both ops and found that both ops tended to go to the same dive site every day (the closest one). There was really very little variation. Seems like the only way to really get diversity of dive site is to go to different dive ops in different parts of the island. That might have just been from personal experience.

 

[mcohen1021]

Ramons and Amigos del Mar.

Some people enjoy cattle boats, enjoy it!

 

[John Trecker]

Even with the pdm ramons was definitely a cattle car.
But because of the pdm I consistently got over 60 minutes of dive time. Important to be ready to go in first right away with no delay. Then you can dive your air and profile and come back last. I did 5 minute stops as that is how I was trained.

 

[John Trecker]

I think what is happening is that the larger shops sometimes have employees on staff that they are already paying for and for which may not be busy certain days or certain times. If the stars align and you happen to be there, then you can get those folks as a private dive master for not too much more money. For example, $25 per dive With Ramones in the greater scheme of things is actually a good deal as you get a lot more dive time and independence and efficiency in your dive.

 

[Doc Harry]

Even with the pdm ramons was definitely a cattle car.
But because of the pdm I consistently got over 60 minutes of dive time.

We stayed a Ramons for 10 days. All very advanced divers. The DMs called every dive at 40 minutes. I routinely finished my safety stop with 1,200 psi. My wife always finished with more than 1,500 psi.

 

[John Trecker]

We stayed a Ramons for 10 days. All very advanced divers. The DMs called every dive at 40 minutes. I routinely finished my safety stop with 1,200 psi. My wife always finished with more than 1,500 psi.

Exactly what I had heard about all shops and wanted to avoid. What I also observed was that much of that 40 mins for other groups seemed to be spent on coordinating the pod.
The other curious thing about Ramons... they were almost hostile to afternoon dives. I would ask about them, and the stock answer was 'we are trying to organize, if anyone is interested we will let you know.' Never took a name, or number, or anything.
But, then when I checked around the boat on the morning dives, there would be over a half dozen people all interested and all told the same thing. It took a lot of cajoling and prodding to get Ramons to even consider doing afternoon dives. Almost like they just couldn't be bothered. Maybe the incentive system is set up so that there is no benefit to the DMs to do that? I don't know.... But its a very long and costly trip for just two 40 min dives per day. At a destination like this I would expect guaranteed 4 and maybe even a 5th night dive.