Caye Caulker Dive Shop Advice

[diverfish]

If you are going to dive on Caye Caulker, the only shop I would dive with is Belize Diving Services. I own a dive store in New Hampshire and have taken many groups diving in many parts of the world. I found them to be one of the best.

The captains and the dive masters are very good (Miner/Major the captain and Eugene the dive master). Safety is their first concern, at the same time giving you diving freedom. Our bottom times averaged 60 minuets on most dives. They will give as mush attention as you need.

Boats are neat and clean and in good repair. Diving equipment is very good and every one gets a dive computer. Chip was installing a new Nitrox system in February when I was there. That will make Belize Diving Services the only dive shop on the island with Nitrox.

Chip the owner is very easy to work with and pays attention to detail and will do everything that he can to make your diving experience on Caye Caulker a good one.

I have made several trips to Caye Caulker and have aways been very satisfied with Belize diving Services.

If you are looking for a place to stay check out Popeyes Beach Resort.
Popeyes is a good value. Make sure you check out the pig roast every Sat.

Dave
Aquatic Specialties Merrimack NH

 

[drbill]

Gaz - perhaps you are unusual amongst recreational instructors. I have been specifically directed by PADI to certify a student who had met all of the detailed requirements of the OW course, but nonetheless to my mind wasn't fit to be let out.

This to me is somewhat frightening and highly unsafe. Since when does the organization, having no direct contact with the student or knowledge of their skills level, know better about the advisability of certifying a student than an instructor who spent time in the water with them assessing their actual skills level.

IMHO an agency should accept the opinion of the instructor as to the student's abilities. To force an instructor to certify a diver who is not fully capable underwater puts all of us at risk in the event they become our buddy or we have to effect a rescue on them.

I am not a PADI basher nor am I a dive "professional."

 

[peterbj7]

Bill - I understand and to a large extent agree with what you say. that's why I greatly prefer the vastly more demanding standards of IANTD (though I'm no longer registered as an instructor with them).

I used the wrong language. I wasn't "forced" as such, but the certifying body simply asked me if i could point to any specific deficiencies in the student's performance, and when I said I couldn't they said their were no grounds for withholding certification. Clearly they would have done if I hadn't. Most dive agencies lay down very clearly the requirements that must be met to warrant certification - with some agencies they allow a great degree of latitude and interpretation to the instructor, whereas with others they are more prescriptive in the interests of uniformity. PADI, and I am not bashing them, are pretty strongly towards the latter end of the scale. The fact that they have become by far the largest agency says that this is what the putative diving public wants.

Over the years I have seen many certified divers, both at my resort operation and at others'. The proportion of low grade divers is alarmingly high. I don't necessarily mean they're unsafe in normal conditions, because apart from anything else they're always accompanied by certified and pretty aware divemasters (at least here). But they're not good divers and I doubt they would react well if confronted with an emergency. Fortunately such emergencies are rare, but they do happen occasionally. I want to see a diver more prepared for these occasions than the certification standards of some agencies, most of the recreational ones to be honest, cater for.

There is a grey scale of performance, and I think the point of satisfaction has slid too far in one direction. The standards I applied to the divers in question were probably more demanding than the agency's.

 

[Hwntw]

Bill - I understand and to a large extent agree with what you say. that's why I greatly prefer the vastly more demanding standards of IANTD (though I'm no longer registered as an instructor with them).

I used the wrong language. I wasn't "forced" as such, but the certifying body simply asked me if i could point to any specific deficiencies in the student's performance, and when I said I couldn't they said their were no grounds for withholding certification. Clearly they would have done if I hadn't. Most dive agencies lay down very clearly the requirements that must be met to warrant certification - with some agencies they allow a great degree of latitude and interpretation to the instructor, whereas with others they are more prescriptive in the interests of uniformity. PADI, and I am not bashing them, are pretty strongly towards the latter end of the scale. The fact that they have become by far the largest agency says that this is what the putative diving public wants.

Over the years I have seen many certified divers, both at my resort operation and at others'. The proportion of low grade divers is alarmingly high. I don't necessarily mean they're unsafe in normal conditions, because apart from anything else they're always accompanied by certified and pretty aware divemasters (at least here). But they're not good divers and I doubt they would react well if confronted with an emergency. Fortunately such emergencies are rare, but they do happen occasionally. I want to see a diver more prepared for these occasions than the certification standards of some agencies, most of the recreational ones to be honest, cater for.

There is a grey scale of performance, and I think the point of satisfaction has slid too far in one direction. The standards I applied to the divers in question were probably more demanding than the agency's.

I think you are right, my AOW cert in no way prepared me for my first really big current in the red sea, and I had been made so paranoid about touching the coral that I was petrified to hold on, I was not good enough for the AOW qualification, and I got the impression that my instructor was pressured to pass me by his employers, who were under pressure from me when I didn't know better.

 

[peterbj7]

As a UK diver you would do well to join your local BSAC club and continue your diving education with them. You cannot overestimate the value of mentored learning and experience in such an environment. I started with BSAC and indeed am a (lapsed) BSAC instructor, and although I don't like the cliqueness that became common in many local clubs, that has now largely gone and the teaching/learning experience is second to none.