Crappy Dive Boat on Maui Hawaii

[DiveMaven]

We dive with Ed Robinsons and although they are DM led dives, everyone is expected to monitor their own profiles and air consumption. The expectation is that you keep the DM within your sight, allowing you to go deeper or shallower, or spend a bit more time on a photograph, or whatever. The DM's typically go slowly looking for creatures and critters to point out, and never once have I felt we were being rushed or on an "underwater tour". Because most dives are live boat dives with ERDA, divers return to the boat as they get low on air allowing everyone to maximize their air time.

The only time we've been limited like divebri describes was a charter we did Lahaina Divers to Lanai. I e-mailed the owner to express our displeasure, she gave us a generous voucher to return, and we've not had even a close to a similar experience since then. They have limited us to 60 minutes maximum, but considering the short SI (45 minutes) and that the crossing back to Maui can get rough, we simply make sure we're first off the boat and last on, with our dives lasting 50-55 minutes typically.

 

[friscuba]

We dive with Ed Robinsons and although they are DM led dives, everyone is expected to monitor their own profiles and air consumption. The expectation is that you keep the DM within your sight, allowing you to go deeper or shallower, or spend a bit more time on a photograph, or whatever. The DM's typically go slowly looking for creatures and critters to point out, and never once have I felt we were being rushed or on an "underwater tour". Because most dives are live boat dives with ERDA, divers return to the boat as they get low on air allowing everyone to maximize their air time.

It's been about 8/9 years, but I had the same experience with Ed Robinson's and Mike Severn's both... long dives, self monitored, no real hand holding, but going in the same general direction. I've patterned our style of diving after that. Makes for some long dives when you've got good divers on board.

 

[floridagulfpalms]

Wht on earth are you talking about? Why would checking in, location blah blah blah have anything to do with this.? I think it was enogh info that I gave... Maui diamond ll. Maui dreams was horrible and that is it. I know what boat I was on and who the crew was. Why are you asking all this are you one of the crew?

I would like to hear a more detailed trip report; perhaps even starting with how you made the decision to book with Maui Diamond II. Did you go to Maui Dreams Dive Shop before going on the boat trip? Is this your first time diving in Hawaii?

How did the check in go at Ma'alaea Harbor? What day and what time of day was this trip? How was the weather? Did you see any whales?

Were there any other non-divers in your friends Intro group. Had they ever done an Intro Dive before? Did they go over the "Flip Chart" on the boat ride to Molokini? How well and where did they do their shallow water skills practice? Did they have successful dives?

How many groups were there? How many divers in your group? Did you get interviewed about your diving experience? Do you remember the dive site names, depths and your dive times? What dive site was the octopus handling at?

And finally, if you had good trips with another operator, please tell us who and give a similarly detailed trips account of them. For examples; were those trips the same time of day, did those trips have Intro divers on board, did the good boat crew handle any critters and were their second dives also close to shore?

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

No I am not crew, nor have I ever had anything other than a not very regular dive shop customer relationship, but I have also not heard of complaints like this about them. For me to really take your accusations seriously, I personally would need much of the detail I asked for.

If your non diver friends made the reservation for an afternoon beginner / non-diver trip to Molokini some of the story sounds only sadly expected.

Without the details we have a new member who joined only to pitch a beeotch 'cause a couple dive guides rubbed her the wrong way.

 

[twhi]

I can really relate to floridagulfpalms posting.

If you have a bad experience and are dealing with an irresponsible operator, it can be very irritating and difficult to resolve.
You just want to make it known to others so it doesn't happen to them.

Venting on a board like this one is one way to get the word out and let go of a little of the frustration.

 

[floridagulfpalms]

Thank you! I cannot understand why people feel the need to stick up for these pompus/arogant divers/operation, when they have not even been out with them I am not a picky person and have had had many many good dive trips. This one with these guys was just so horrendous, that people need to know. If they did an outstanding job then I would say so too.

If a bridge had a great big gaping hole in it, and I knew about it. Would people want to know before they drove off it?

I think so

I can really relate to floridagulfpalms posting.

If you have a bad experience and are dealing with an irresponsible operator, it can be very irritating and difficult to resolve.
You just want to make it known to others so it doesn't happen to them.

Venting on a board like this one is one way to get the word out and let go of a little of the frustration.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

The tours we all went on were horrible a crowded group of beginner dives bumping into everyone the dive master had NO control of the group.

As for the the bumping into each other statement. It WAS in the dive masters control because she was pulling an octopus out of its home and trying to get everyone to handle it in a hurry.

....

As for the dive crew. We specifly asked them "How long have you been on this boat?" and our Dive master cat said about 3 years. The the other one Jeni said about 2 years. So in my opinion the owner/ operater Maui Dreams is well aware of the actions of his crew.

Here is sort of some reasons for getting into the details:

If you possibly worded the question as either "how long have you worked for this company" or "how long have you been diving from this boat" then Kat's answer of 3 years seems correct, as she has been working for Maui Dreams Dive Shop for 3 years and she has probably been making dives from the Maui Diamond II since shortly after starting work for the shop. If you really did ask "how long have you worked on this boat" then an answer of 3 years seems questionable, since the Maui Dreams web site shows Kat's DM certification date as 10/21/09.

In your original post, your run on sentence says the plural "tours we all went on were horrible a crowded group of beginner dives bumping into everyone the dive master had NO control of the group" but then in a follow up post it seems the bumping only happened during the hurried octopus encounter, and if this inking encounter so sickened you how come you were so close to the action you got bumped by everyone?

Also, with regards to the octopus encounter, which site it occurred at does make a difference in many peoples opinion.

As for Jeni, both the Maui Diamond and Maui Dreams web sites do not list her as crew/employee, so it is possible that she is a far down on the on-call list ex-employee who got called in for the really busy holidays. That's one reason I asked what day it was.

Morning charters to Molokini are when most of the experienced divers go to Molokini; the fact that your friends were doing an Intro Dive is the reason I asked what time of day it was. The trips with Intro Divers are typically the trips with the least experienced divers (even the morning ones), because both sites will be less than 40 feet deep.

If any guests wanted to see turtles on the trip, the second dive had to be along the Maui Coast (no turtles at Molokini) and a dive site less than 40 feet deep along the coast will be fairly close to shore.

I will ask questions, that's what I often do. Your refusal to give a more detailed trip report just leads to more questions as I see it.

 

[David_57]

floridagulfpalms I like your avatar, and glad you shared your experience with us this is how we learn to be careful when picking dive ops, just a little more detail helps. lets face it sometimes it could be a one time thing or mis-perception so details help us make up our minds.

 

[gotwake]

Not to be OT, but texting has absolutely destroyed the english language. It hurts to read some posts.

 

[deeper thoughts]

I can really relate to floridagulfpalms posting.

If you have a bad experience and are dealing with an irresponsible operator, it can be very irritating and difficult to resolve.
You just want to make it known to others so it doesn't happen to them.

Venting on a board like this one is one way to get the word out and let go of a little of the frustration.

Yes that is true but if the complaints are not accurate then we are hurting a person who is trying to feed their family.

That is why the more info the better.

At no time am I referring to the OP because I dont know enough to make a decision one way or the other