Den Laman + Buddy Dive for tanks (Brilliance or Stupidity?)

[DiveMaven]

I've read the June and July 2009 reviews on TripAdvisor, and I have to say that since we were there at almost the same time, it was almost as if we were staying in totally different places. We didn't experience anything even remotely close to what these folks reported. Mind you, that doesn't mean what was reported was incorrect, instead show individual experiences that aren't necessarily the same for everyone.

We've literally never had a negative experience with any BDA or Den Laman employee, but we're also pretty "low maintenance" travelers/divers and don't usually ask much. Once we do the orientation (short version!) and get our weights, we pretty much go about our business and don't interact with the employees. We also don't get freaked out when something like the panel on the front of the dishwasher falls off....it doesn't affect the operation, so doesn't bother us in the least.

So when are you going to be at Den Laman in July?

 

[speuci]

We're going to be there July 17 to July 24.

We are not high maintenance - rather we are just concerned with not getting enough tanks by BDA's close of business each day.

The way we see it, we could wake up each morning and either load tanks at DBA, or take a short drive over to Buddy's and pick up there. We don't want to need to worry each day about getting to BDA by 4:00 to load up tanks.

 

[DiveMaven]

Looks like we'll just miss you, we're leaving on July 17.

Can't blame you for not wanting to worry about getting back to get tanks, makes sense you'd want to go with someone who has a bit better hours (BDA's hours do suck!). You might want to check with Buddy about their policy about taking tanks from the dock to dive off-site. You don't want to be told you can't do it once you've already arrived.

 

[Darcey]

On second thought...my only bark about BDA is O-rings. I went through 12 O-rings in a week. I guess what can you expect with that many divers going through there every day though? Take extra o-rings...and be prepared regardless of what dive op you go with.

 

[skynscuba]

On second thought...my only bark about BDA is O-rings. I went through 12 O-rings in a week. I guess what can you expect with that many divers going through there every day though? Take extra o-rings...and be prepared regardless of what dive op you go with.

I agree with this. Even with very careful picking of tanks based on condition of o-rings, we still had a few with slight bubble streams, and had to replace one with a very obvious leak when first pressurized.

I've stayed at Den Laman three times (mid-May, mid-August, and first of Oct), and never had trouble getting enough Nitrox tanks . Mid-May, two weeks ago, was very non-busy. I think BDA could do a bit better, but I wouldn't consider staying at Den Laman and bothering to go to Buddy to get tanks. I assume the original poster will be doing the orientation dive at Buddy?

 

[jbinbonaire]

We have used both BDA (twice) and Buddy Dive. Hands down Buddy Dive is significantly better. At BDA our experience was that (1) Not very friendly (2) Forgot about us for orientation (delayed us over an hour before someone could do it) (3) O rings on about 50% of the tanks are dry rotted (4) at BDA the hours and availbility of tanks is less accomodating. No doubt we will use Buddy Dive this year!!

 

[Scotttyd]

like the others said, BDA works fine for me. We never had issues getting tanks. The worst thing that would happen is if we decided to do a night dive after the shop closed, we had to dive air vs nitrox (air tanks are available at the dock). Generally if our plans were to do a night or early am dive, we would through some nitrox tanks in a locker and be good to go. I would think driving to Buddy would be more hassle than it is worth,

 

[dukeh20]

We have stayed at Den Laman twice and Golden Reef twice. The package at Golden Reef used Wannadive as the dive op. Wannadive is much more convenient and we never had a problem getting nitrox for the four of us that were diving together.

BDA put us in a position of having to "squirrel" tanks away in a locker or in the back of our truck. That was a pain in the neck. It was particularly annoying since there were only four of in our group and it should not have been so difficult to come up with 8-9 nitrox tanks.

 

[helimvee]

I've stayed at DL 3X (1 in Feb and 2X in Nov). The focus was always making sure we had tanks for the evening/morning dives - which is annoyiung considering it is supposed to be 24/7 diving freedom. I think that is part of the problem. People throw 3 tanks PP in the truck to work around the limited hours and it quickly reduces the tanks available. We tried putting tanks in the lockers and had people take them (many lockers were not lockable then and I understand none of them are now.)

I've used Wannadive twice (GRI and Bellafonte) and never had any issues. I've also used Buddy (BelMar location) and again had no problems and did not have to worry about getting tanks for the evening/morning.

DL is a great location. Nice rooms and easy access to restaurants and ice cream. If I stayed there again I would use Wannadive for tanks unless BDA expanded the hours.

 

[piikki]

The focus was always making sure we had tanks for the evening/morning dives - which is annoyiung considering it is supposed to be 24/7 diving freedom. I think that is part of the problem. People throw 3 tanks PP in the truck to work around the limited hours and it quickly reduces the tanks available. We tried putting tanks in the lockers and had people take them (many lockers were not lockable then and I understand none of them are now.)

I think this is the focus of the problem for me too. I do understand the OP thinking about this. Way too much effort went into planning and making sure one was back in time on the base to hoard tanks. I have stayed at Den Laman Jan and April. Both times I had to work because we started diving at sunrise. Both times there were close calls getting back for nitrox tanks in the afternoon - a problem because it would have meant missing them for both night and two morning dives.

I could not be annoyed at other people taking extra tanks because maybe they had the same dilemma. It certainly was not diving freedom, and I can see why certain times of the day the tanks just vanished. We quickly learnt just when to go get the pumped up tanks before the crowds came.

And what you say about lockers is true too, you can't trust tanks staying. That's why I was disappointed hearing the locking possibility has been removed (?) Apparently, some lockers got 'permanent' users and that led to it. I was leary leaving tanks on truck because the eye-balling. Maybe staff would throw them back into shop

Just a tad too much worrying, would be nice to have a solution to this. Can't believe BDA could not solve this on their own since other ops can. Maybe Den Laman/Sand Dollar has enough biz regardless of the Dive Op and they don't care - even though I hear from condo owners that BDA's contract is up for renewal and there have been some discussions...