Dive Center Horror/Hero Stories

[Trace Malinowski]

I think that was back around 2008. Ten years of going to the Keys and never brought them any business. When I worked in Key Largo at Divers Direct/World Watersports, I used to call Quiescence every morning for a reef report. WWS had a large board listing diving conditions for customers and I liked to fill it in. No one else ever did. I thought it was too nice and too helpful to leave blank. So, as a new hire, I took it upon myself to call around and Paul at Quiescence was all too happy to help me provide that service. I'd send customers to Quiescence and Island Ventures because I started working at Island Ventures in the morning guiding divers and crewing for Brian Berry and WWS in the afternoon from 2 PM - 10:30 PM. The divers Paul had were some of the first to be diving deep again after diving became tame. Some of the kids he had working even used the Cousteau triples in the plastic packs.

One day, a super sexy Asian woman came into WWS with a computer battery that needed to be changed. I told her we couldn't work on her brand, but I knew who could. I called Paul at Quiescence and he told me to have her stop by West Marine and buy battery number whatever it was and then go to Quiescence where he'd change it for her. She did. She came back into WWS the next day and told me that no one had ever done something like that for her in a dive shop. A dive shop calling another shop to provide customer service was unheard of in her experience. She asked if there was anything she could do for me because I had been so nice and saved her morning dives. She ended up taking 3 specialty classes from me and became my girlfriend from there. She used to dive in a white bikini, no wetsuit, and looked like a Bond girl. Really the stuff of teen fantasies come to life. She was an E.R. doctor and we nearly got married, but I broke it off because I knew I wouldn't like becoming a kept man or leaving diving to get a job that would allow her to quit practicing medicine and be a stay at home mother. She eventually found a great guy who was as well-off, owned a beach house and sailboat, and would make a better family man so I'm happy for her. You never know what might happen if you are nice to a customer.

I had another customer come in with a million questions about swim goggles. We spent over an hour looking at goggles and he didn't purchase any. I didn't mind. The next day he came back to thank me and put in an order for a swim team. We had pooled commissions so it didn't matter, but I was glad to have helped.

Paul at Quiescence died and whoever took over the shop ruined it. There might be different owners now, but I just wrote the shop off as a loss.

 

[macado]

I can attest to the common observation that about 40% of the time spent in PSI-PCI training involves repeated and repeated and repeated stories attesting to the fact that PSI-PCI is the absolute greatest tank inspection program in the world, with the entire scuba industry bowing in recognition of its superiority. That time (and the other 40% of the time spent looking at pictures of exploded tanks) still leaves enough time to learn how to inspect tanks.

I found this to be very true as well. Lots of kool-aid drinking about how PSI-PCI is the first and the "best". I think I recall several people even losing their PSI-PCI instructor ratings because they also certified through another training agency.

I also went through SDI / TDI's Visual Inspection / O2 Cleaning course because another shop was offering it and their deal was if you took their course you could come in and fill your own tanks and use their booster without having to wait for someone qualified to do it. I did that mainly because more information is always a good thing and it would save me time if I ever needed to use their fill station to blend gas which I have in the past.

 

[Wookie]

Paul at Quiescence died and whoever took over the shop ruined it. There might be different owners now, but I just wrote the shop off as a loss.

Paul was only a partner. Rob Bleser has owned it for 30-something years.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Ah! I stand corrected. There were a couple young Point Break looking DM's with the longer hair and beards before that was back in fashion who were doing some of the deeper stuff on staff at Quiescence when I worked at WWS around the year 2000.

 

[Wookie]

Ah! I stand corrected. There were a couple young Point Break looking DM's with the longer hair and beards before that was back in fashion who were doing some of the deeper stuff when I worked at WWS around the year 2000.

Rob's younger brother and a Fling captain named Ken McNeil. Ken is now an airline pilot. No idea what Rob's brother's name is. Ronnie maybe.

 

[vovanx]

One of the most famous tank explosions happened with an oxygen decompression bottle. The owner, who nearly died in the blast, had taken the tank to a local shop for oxygen cleaning and inspection. The analysis of the remains of the tank showed the shop had used silicone to lubricate the threads, which is a clear no-no for oxygen service. The investigation showed that the man who did the oxygen cleaning and tank inspection had never had any training whatsoever in either skill.

sorry for the flood by this gonna be my second W.T.F! for this thread.