Dive Tech in Grand Cayman, thumbs up or down?

[kevink]

What does everyone REALLY think of Dive Tech in Grand Cayman?

I stayed at Cobalt Coast and dove with them in April-May '02. Ari and the staff at Cobalt Coast rate an 11 (out of 10) and garner many more than two thumbs up for their service and attention to detail. They run a class operation and I loved the small out of the way feeling Cobalt Coast had. I would go back and stay with them in an instant.

Dive Tech on the other hand left a lot to be desired. We stayed on the north end of G. Cayman to be able to dive the north end. Everyday we were there we only dove the destroyed 7 Mile Beach area. The first two days they were within their rights, there were 3' - 4' rollers off the dock out back. By our last diving day there was a local fisherman in a 14' boat line fishing off the reef out back, seas were about 1'. Dive Tech has a 50' boat! I was told 'the waters are too rough'. Total BS. These people are meant to cater to more experienced divers, but they base their dives on the sort of nonsense divers that come off of cruise ships.

Dive profiles were STRICTLY enforced, regardless of the level of experience. 1st dive was 100' max for 30min. 2nd dive was 60'may for 40 min. You could set your watch to these dive profiles. On the 2nd dive of my 2nd day I had the DM corral me back to the line of the boat 30 min. into the dive. The best part was that he brought me back to the wrong mooring line. I think I nearly spit the regulator out of my mouth laughing. I had to point to the correct line for him. After that I told the shop if any of the DM's approached me underwater they better be prepared to fight. We did our own thing after that and tried to run realistic dives (50 min. or so).

Their staff was concerned with two things. Leaving on time, and being back for lunch on time. I can't remember a guide pointing a SINGLE thing out underwater. It seemed like the shop moto was 'Run em deep, run em hard, be on the boat in 25 mins'. If you need an underwater babysitter that hovers 10' over the group, they have a ton of staff for you.

After 10 days of this nonsense I am still so ticked off I doubt I will ever visit Grand Cayman again.

Anyone want to go to bat for them?

 

[daylight]

Three friends just spent 10 days diving with DiveTech. Had similar comments and experience you related. If you had a problem with them why did you keep diving there?
Why would you not return to Caymen's because of them?
Sounds like you had been happy with Cobalt Coast. Why not go back there?
BTW, welcome to the board.
Dive Safe,
Larry

 

[kevink]

We had a complete package - lodging, food, and diving. It would have been a little pricey to go and buy more diving on my own nickel.

Before we went to Cayman we did a lot of research an correspondence to see who ran an operation geared towards more experienced divers. Every response we got back, including competing shops, pointed us to Dive Tech. I think asking to do 60min. dives made people think we were looking to do Tech Diving or something.

Unless someone tells me diferently I don't think there is much to see in Grand Cayman's west side. The entire island seems to be geared for people that drop in the water once a year from a Cruise Ship. Am I wrong?

You can breif every west side dive the same way 'Sloping reef starting at 30', descending to 100+' with coral finger formations, lots of pretty sponge and hungry hand-fed angelfish'.

 

[Drew Sailbum]

Cayman has a long-standing tradition of a more conservative approach to diving which was embodied in the CITA (Cayman Islands Tourism Association) Water Sports Committee guidelines. These guidlines have only recently been revised.

The recommendations of this committee effectively formed the community standard for dive operators in Cayman. Legal liability would be increased for any operator that violated these standards.

The old rules:
1)Maximum recommended depth limit of 100ft for recreational dives
2)All deep wall dives shold be guided by a dive professional
3)Certain other restrictions on technical diving and freediving limits.

The new rules:
1)Maximum recreational dpeth limit of 130ft
2)Unguided wall dives are acceptable
3)Tech diving to limits of training
4)Free diving within guidelines is encouraged

The old rules meant that the guide must gear the dive to the weakest member of the group. One person without a computer meant that at least a pass by the boat was necessary within table limits. A bit difficult when skill levels varied dramatically.

That said, dive operators encourage the most skilled to set their own schedules and enjoy the many shore diving locations of Grand Cayman. Some operators are developing programs geared to more experienced divers and set to operate within the new guidelines. More on that to come later.

 

[kevink]

Drew,

Thanks for the great info. This is the first I have ever heard of these restrictions and I had a nice drag out fight with Dive Tech. You think this would be common knowledge and experienced divers would learn to steer clear of Grand Cayman. We are in the 21st Century and multi-level diving has been around since at least '85, why are we still running tables for an entire country?

I still cannot let the guides off for doing nothing but babysitting underwater. If you are not there to enhance my dive by finding cool stuff, why did I bring YOU (the DM) in the water to begin with?

Without a doubt the best and only memorable dives were the night dives off of the Turtle Cove reef.

 

[Cave Diver]

My friends and I spent two weeks diving in Cayman in Sept of last year. We exclusively did shore diving and a large portion of our diving was done from the Dive Tech shop at Turtle Reef, or their Cobalt Coast shop.

I'm not sure I understand the disparity between your two experiences, since both shops are owned and operated by Dive Tech, and the staff is often the same, rotating through the two shops on different days.

We did inquire about doing some boat diving on the east end of the island through another shop, but we declined after being told the price and the profiles. During our trip we did an avg of 26 dives between us, with an avg max depth of 100' and an avg bottom time of 1 hour. The profiles quoted to us by the other shop greatly resemebled the ones you posted. The guy we were talking to even said he would make sure we had nitrox cuz he could tell that we were "trouble" and wanted to make damn sure we stayed shallow. Needless to say, we blew them off.

If you had an issue with your dives, why didn't you talk to Nancy about it? Perhaps she could have found a way to accomodate your skill level better?

And finally, to the best of my knowledge, Dive Tech does not use any DM's. Everyone on their staff is at the very least a BOW instructor.

Even tho we didnt do any boat diving with them, I found their staff to be very helpful and accomodating, even with special requests, mixed gasses, deco bottles, doubles, etc. on short notice from us.

I would recommend them to anyone that asked, an if you have a problem talk to Nancy immediately and I'd be willing to bet she'd straighten it out.

 

[kevink]

I guess shore diving was the way to go in Cayman, with the profiles and times we were looking to do. The only memorable dives were shore dives we did on out own.

I spoke with Nancy after being hounded by her guides. She got them off of my back, but we were still told to keep our times to less than 50 min. per dive. This only added to the tension with the boat crew that wanted to tie up at exactly noon. You could literally set your watch to how they ran their day, absolutely no love of the work.

I used the coloquial 'DM' to refer to the guides on their boat. Most shops require their guides to be instructors. If you have the time and the money, anyone can be an instructor. Look at the factories down in Florida that take you from AOW to OWSI in 30 days (& $3000).

There is a big diference between being a good DM/OWSI and being a good dive guide. A good DM/OWSI babysits certified divers (exactly what Dive Tech delivers). A good guide not only can handle problems with guests, but also makes the extra effort to make the dive interesting by finding and pointing things out.

 

[Northeastwrecks]

Like the original poster, I've stayed at Cobalt Coast and been diving with Dive Tech. I've actually gone twice.

I enjoyed Cobalt Coast. Ari is spectacular. Unfortunately, some of his restaurant staff need to improve their service. However, I'd probably stay there again.

I loved Dive Tech and experienced none of the issues you discussed.

On my last trip, I showed up with my wife. She was a relatively new diver. I had my DM card.

I told them that I planned to shadow the guided tour, but that we might go off on my own. They had no problem with that.

When the rest of our group arrived, I took a group of three relatively new divers on a wall dive. Once again, I told them approximate bottom time and got some general directions.

During the deepest portion of the dive, I ducked my head to check my divers. I noticed one of their instructors about 40 feet behind me. He waved and left us alone. Later he mentioned that he knew that I was a relatively new DM and that he wanted to make sure that I wasn't having problems leading the divers. Since things were going fine, he left us alone. This went for the rest of our group as well. We were given the option of a guided tour or going off on our own. Dive Tech staff members were in the water, but they left us alone unless asked.

Another instructor saw me working with a nervous diver on a shallow reef dive. He offered some constructive criticism that helped me while working with this diver.

Incidentally, our photographers loved the guided tours. I hate diving with photographers, so I avoided them. However, the DM's were happy to give me some suggestions for a good dive.

I also asked one of the instructors about the qualifications that Dive Tech looks for. All of the dive staff are instructors with several years experience. Most of them have technical experience.

We are going back in December. We've already spoken to Dive Tech about chartering Ten Ata for a mix dive on the Carrie Lee.

 

[bridgenet]

I dove a few weeks ago, two days with Dive Tech and 4 with Ocean Frontiers. I've used Dive Tech for tech training but will never dive regular boat dives again with them. Ocean Frontiers were great, let you dive to your ability. With Dive Tech I felt like I was baby sitting other divers and always had to come up with 1/2 a tank left. Ocean Frontiers let me stay down till I was ready to come up and treated you like a real diver. Still will continue to train with Dive Tech but when it comes to recreational diving, Ocean Frontiers is the best operation thus far in Grand Cayman that I have dove with.

 

[TedJ]

Been diving with OF for 5 years and it's always been great. TedJ