Cayman shore diving?

[ianr33]

perhaps the English sense of humor was out of place with you.

I am English so I think I understand English humor.

Another option explained to you was to return the equipment the next day.

Which would have involved a 20 mile round trip in Georgetown traffic from West Bay.

I apologize for your bad experience and hope you will continue diving in Cayman and forgive us for not meeting your expectations.

I will continue diving in Cayman,but it wont be with you. Nothing personal but your staff blew it badly.

 

[DiverDebbie]

I'm sorry to hear you had such a negative experience with Eden Rock. We did a late afternoon shore dive there after the boys got of work and we were told straight out if the tanks weren't back by 5:30 we would have to return them the next day. So that's what we had to do. The site was average to say the best, as was the service there. There's one guy in particular who isn't very friendly at all. I walked in, he didn't smile, didn't even acknowledge me. I was the only person in there too! I wandered the shop waiting to see if he's say ANYTHING. Nope. So I left.
To me, service is paramount, and on an island with lots of competition, there's no point diving where the service isn't good.
To be fair, we haven't tried the sites at DiveTech yet, but that dive left me feeling that the shore diving isn't that great.
Just for the record for the person who posted earlier, the "other" Eden rock place is a little bit down and not the same site. The "real" Eden rock does not allow outside tanks. There's a few ok little swim throughs, but to give that site a miss would be no loss IMO on an island surrounded by fabulous boat dive sites.
We went out for a 2 tank boat dive with Don Fosters and I must say that although the boat had a few more divers than we would have liked, the service was very friendly and professional and we got to do a couple of nice dives with great profiles. We're going out with them to Stingray city on Sat. Not many shops seem to do Stingray city on the weekends (which is the only time the boys can go) Me, I am going for a little 1 tank this afternoon. Short notice. Just booked this morning
This Sunday we are going out with Ocean Frontiers to do the East End, since they're out there and the boat trip wil be shorter.
Oh, and we went out to Rum Point on Sunday and brought our dive gear in case we had a chance to get wet. No such luck. Red Sail is apparently all that's there and they only go out on Wed!

 

[Damselfish]

To be fair, we haven't tried the sites at DiveTech yet, but that dive left me feeling that the shore diving isn't that great.

The shore diving (or any diving) is not the same no matter where you go off Grand Cayman, like most places you wouldn't expect it to be. Grand Cayman has a very varied shoreline and structure underwater. The shore diving at Turtle Reef (old Divetech site) is very good and it sounds like the new place is pretty good too. The real problem at Eden Rock though, more than the location (which is ironshore and I'm sure was very nice once upon a time,) is it's a famous site that's been dived so heavily for many years. You could also go to some of the heavily dived sites on the West wall and come to the conclusion that the boat diving isn't that great, which would also be a bad assumption.

 

[nipi]

The site was average to say the best, as was the service there. There's one guy in particular who isn't very friendly at all. I walked in, he didn't smile, didn't even acknowledge me. I was the only person in there too! I wandered the shop waiting to see if he's say ANYTHING. Nope. So I left.

I have lived in Cayman for 15 years &, unfortunately, in my experience this is typical of this particular operation.

 

[DiverDebbie]

I have lived in Cayman for 15 years &, unfortunately, in my experience this is typical of this particular operation.

That's unfortunate. I thought maybe it was just the one guy who needs some lessons in customer service.

As for the shore diving, that was exactly my point that people will make an assumption about the shore diving (or diving in general) if all they were to do is come in on a cruise ship and do Eden rock. I just think it would be a shame for someone to come in for a day and just wander down to that site when there's better diving is all. That's why I said "To be fair..." I didn't mean to bash all the shore diving, as I admittedly haven't even scratched the surface.

So... yesterday afternoon I got to Don Foster's for my dive only to find out I was the only one. I figured they would cancel for sure. Nope. It wasn't even a consideration. They took me out all by myself! It was like a private charter!!!! Just the boat captain, my guide/buddy and me! We didn't go too far out (East), but that was just fine. We had a nice long 60' dive with the whole reef to ourselves, and saw a couple of turtles, a big lobster, and a variety of very large fish cruising around.
I can't say enough good things about Don Fosters. (Really, how could I possibly complain! haha) The guys who were here first went in there because the location is great for us, but the service keeps us coming back. The staff are all really helpful and friendly in there.

 

[pir8]

Never been to Eden Rock's Dive Shop but I have done the site by boat and loved it. I thought it was a great photo op. Afternoon time when the sun is high in the sky, the formations give some great frameing oportuneties.

 

[munkispank]

Wow- I had a completely different experience. Well- somewhat different.
I encountered two different staff members at Eden rock on two days- the first chap was 'surly' and didn't offer anything in the way of pleasantries, I think this was perhaps the same day that ianr33 was diving (23rd?) - but he wasn't rude, just dis-interested.

The second staff member on Sunday 25th morning (perhaps the owner I think) was awesome- very chatty nice and professional. Gave us a great dive briefing and was a joy to talk to. I really enjoyed my dive and talking about it after.

I also enjoyed the dive sites immensely- I was surprised by this as I was expecting more damage and signs of wear, but they were both a joy to dive. My buddy got a bit carried away with all the swim-through's and failed in his navigational duties, but it was really enjoyable. I actually wished we had done more than two dives here. It's much nicer when the cruise ships are not in- not so much for crowds, but just so you don't hear the noise of the thrumbing engines whilst diving.