Dive With Martin reviews?

[brez]

Here's the dilemma: DWM has some great package deals, but I've read some mixed things about them.

Has anyone used them recently? I'd love to hear feedback about them, in particular about their reliability as an operator and the quality of their rental gear.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Florida Coral]

I give DWM a thumbs up. I have dove with this operation for several years and feel they are one of the best on the island. They are very safety conscious and aim to please the diver. There is a new operation in town that I tried on my last visit to Cozumel though, http://www.xtabaydivers.com/ and we were VERY pleased with our diving experience. We picked the locations, and the crew and owner (Christie Rudd) were GREAT! If you use Xtabay Divers tell Christie that Christine from Dallas turned you on to them.

 

[raviepoo]

My sweetie and I were both very happy with them. The boats were confortable and fast. They showed up when they said they would show up. Our divemaster was very professional and knew where to find great critters.

They also seem to be safety (or perhaps liability) conscious. We were one of three unrelated pairs of divers diving with them for several days in a row. On the third day we were scheduled to do a night dive along with one of the other couples. The four of us asked to also dive the afternoon. Martin said no, that's too much diving for one day. The boat came back to pick us up at 4:00 PM and we ended up doing a twilight to dive followed by a night dive. He was honest enough to adjust the price of that dive so we ended up getting the free night dive he promises as part of a multi day package.

We didn't find a single thing to complain about in four days of doing four dives a day with DWM. We are going to dive with them again when we return to Coz in November.

Communication before the trip was a little frustrating. I asked for very specific things in my emails and all I got back from Martin was "Yes! We will love to take care of you!" I was a little worried before we showed up. But on our first day we showed up at his shop and he had our names on the schedule to do the first dive we had asked for. And at the end of the trip we paid the price we were quoted with no funny business. DWM turned out to be much better organized than some of the larger operations I have used here in the US.

I can't comment on the rental gear. I used my own stuff.

 

[brez]

That was a very informative and specific description. Where exactly is their shop located? Are they actually on-site of any of the hotels in the area?

 

[raviepoo]

They are at the International Cruise Ship Pier. They get a lot of cruise ship passengers for their afternoon boats, but the boats that stopped and picked us up at our hotel did not have any cruise ship passengers on them. We did dive with some cruisers on our first afternoon because we boarded the boat right at the shop at a time when a bunch of cruisers showed up wanting to go diving.

 

[SterlingDiver]

Five of us with vary levels of experiance dove 2 dives with DWM in July of this year. We had a great experiance. We did use their equipment, it was all very new Mares mid-range stuff. They were very attentave and our DM (Paublo) was skilled and a lot of fun.
Safety issues were handled very well.

We are planning a another trip to Coz. in July 0f '04, we are planning on using them again.

SterlingDiver