Dive With Clive at Dive Aruba

[boulderjohn]

What am I missing here? So, what is the game plan if good ole Clive has a problem (like has a heart attack) and does not make it back to his boat? That seems like an asinine epitome of a trust-me-dive. If everything goes according to plan, it might be interesting and fun, but if the situation goes sideways, I can hear the refrain "WTF were they thinking?" From the description, Clive's operation sounds crazy as hell, but I am one of those folks that never leaves my boat unattended when someone is in the water.

You are correct, and when I wrote my original review many years ago, I said that you should not use the services unless you are a skilled an confident diver.

The drift dives we did are not like Cozumel, Palau, or anything like that. The currents are very gentle, you are very close to shore. Yes, indeed, if he is in trouble, you are on your own, and you have to be OK with that.

 

[TracyN]

Sounds like if the poo does hit the fan you can easily swim to shore and with all the snorkel, sail, and dive boats around somebody should see you and your SMB.

 

[boulderjohn]

I want to expand upon my previous remarks.

As a competent and confident diver, I can dive by myself and handle problems on my own. Most of my dives are done without any professional supervision; in fact, on many of those dives, I am the professional supervision. On the other hand, there are many dives I do where help is necessary.

• Many dives are too far from shore for an easy swim in, and currents may make such a swim difficult to impossible.
• Some dives are in treacherous currents that can sweep you out to sea where you would be hard to find.

Neither of those is true in Aruba.

 

[Altamira]

Sounds like if the poo does hit the fan you can easily swim to shore and with all the snorkel, sail, and dive boats around somebody should see you and your SMB.

Not having dived Aruba, I can see less of an issue if you can easily get to shore, and Clive, like all solo divers is obviously assuming full responsibility for himself. However, if I ran a dive op, I would not be comfortable abdicating responsibility for the oversight and safety of all divers that got on my boat, and that would certainly include not leaving the boat unattended with divers in the water. But, that is just me, and it obviously works for Clive and some/most of his divers.

 

[jonhall]

Seconding @boulderjohn’s previous 2 posts.

Regarding responsibility of divers, we sign the release form before we dive - must cover being left alone!!!