So, after diving with this op for a couple of months, I've decided to put up a review here:
Freestyle Divers: Diving training, trips and equipment in the UAE
Location:
They have new facilities at the Royal Beach Hotel in Dibba (the old Nomad site). There is a pretty good value restaurant, a Starbucks and all the usual hotel facilities you would expect. Parking is fair, can be a bit limited but you don't have to park miles away like most of the other hotel dive ops.
Dive facilities:
They have 3 boats of varying sizes, so I have never been crowded on the boat at all. They have 9x DPV for rent as well as Drysuits in some of the common sizes. All the usual gear is available, with the addition of any and all tech gear you might need. Sidemount tanks, bailout bottles, stages, any O2 blend you may need are all available on-site, on-demand. BP/W, DIR gear sets etc are all available for rent. They also have just got their constant blending system finalized so they now have 32% on tap as needed, without you having to have O2 clean tanks. They are EXTREMELY paranoid about their air quality, way more so than any operator I have seen here.
They also have a reasonable range of equipment for sale, the selection is improving constantly.
Dive sites:
All the usual East coast suspects, the biggest bonus for me is that they are right across from Dibba marine reserve, so Dibba Rock (my favorite site) is a 3 minute boat ride away. Very handy for those who like the diving but aren't good with boats. They will also do dive sites as requested, it makes it super nice to, for example, do two deep dives sequentially (like for an AOW course) without needing to do an extra day or pay extra for the day. Midweek diving is great as well, since they will often be able to tailor times and sites exactly as you need.
Training:
They are very friendly to independent instructors, but also implement their own QA system in order to ensure that any training done through their operation is to a high standard. They can offer up to PADI IDC in-house, as well as RAID courses through to tech diving (normoxic for now), as well as UTD courses through to IDC.
General:
For me a large part of diving is the sense of community. For my money, nobody does community better than Freestyle. It is a family owned and run business, and unlike most other ops, it will often be Darryl or his wife Marine driving the boat, playing DM, filling tanks etc etc. It is also quite common for divers to end up back at the company house in Dibba town after a night dive etc for an impromptu barbecue and a couple of beverages, many is the time they have played taxi driver to take someone home who enjoyed the apres-dive beverages freely.
They take safety of their diving family very seriously, this is not a water taxi service. Often I will see one of them drop in and quietly hang around a pair of newer divers, just keeping an eye on them and making sure everyone has a great time and comes back safely.
Since they got their new facilities, I have been diving exclusively with them since they tick all the boxes i need.
@JohnnyC and @Searcaigh have dived with them, I would welcome their comments as well.
Disclaimer:
As an independent instructor, I get a discount on my diving with them when I bring students, the same deal I have with most of the other dive ops around here. I have no financial incentive for increasing their regular divers.
Freestyle Divers: Diving training, trips and equipment in the UAE
Location:
They have new facilities at the Royal Beach Hotel in Dibba (the old Nomad site). There is a pretty good value restaurant, a Starbucks and all the usual hotel facilities you would expect. Parking is fair, can be a bit limited but you don't have to park miles away like most of the other hotel dive ops.
Dive facilities:
They have 3 boats of varying sizes, so I have never been crowded on the boat at all. They have 9x DPV for rent as well as Drysuits in some of the common sizes. All the usual gear is available, with the addition of any and all tech gear you might need. Sidemount tanks, bailout bottles, stages, any O2 blend you may need are all available on-site, on-demand. BP/W, DIR gear sets etc are all available for rent. They also have just got their constant blending system finalized so they now have 32% on tap as needed, without you having to have O2 clean tanks. They are EXTREMELY paranoid about their air quality, way more so than any operator I have seen here.
They also have a reasonable range of equipment for sale, the selection is improving constantly.
Dive sites:
All the usual East coast suspects, the biggest bonus for me is that they are right across from Dibba marine reserve, so Dibba Rock (my favorite site) is a 3 minute boat ride away. Very handy for those who like the diving but aren't good with boats. They will also do dive sites as requested, it makes it super nice to, for example, do two deep dives sequentially (like for an AOW course) without needing to do an extra day or pay extra for the day. Midweek diving is great as well, since they will often be able to tailor times and sites exactly as you need.
Training:
They are very friendly to independent instructors, but also implement their own QA system in order to ensure that any training done through their operation is to a high standard. They can offer up to PADI IDC in-house, as well as RAID courses through to tech diving (normoxic for now), as well as UTD courses through to IDC.
General:
For me a large part of diving is the sense of community. For my money, nobody does community better than Freestyle. It is a family owned and run business, and unlike most other ops, it will often be Darryl or his wife Marine driving the boat, playing DM, filling tanks etc etc. It is also quite common for divers to end up back at the company house in Dibba town after a night dive etc for an impromptu barbecue and a couple of beverages, many is the time they have played taxi driver to take someone home who enjoyed the apres-dive beverages freely.
They take safety of their diving family very seriously, this is not a water taxi service. Often I will see one of them drop in and quietly hang around a pair of newer divers, just keeping an eye on them and making sure everyone has a great time and comes back safely.
Since they got their new facilities, I have been diving exclusively with them since they tick all the boxes i need.
@JohnnyC and @Searcaigh have dived with them, I would welcome their comments as well.
Disclaimer:
As an independent instructor, I get a discount on my diving with them when I bring students, the same deal I have with most of the other dive ops around here. I have no financial incentive for increasing their regular divers.
