I just got back from St. Kitts yesterday - tried to go diving but NO DIVING due to another deceptive dive operator who will only increase the chances of a post like this.
I emailed the two dive shops showing in the PADI website, got a response from Kenneth Dive Shop. The other one, Pro-Dive, the email went to the Maldives and they answered my questions as if I was going to the Maldives, I don't understand why. They told me I made a mistake. I emailed from the Pro-Dive website in St. Kitts. Huh?
I asked Kenneth via email about the viz, temp, conditions in St. Kitts, thought I had a good rapport with him. I mentioned that I wanted to go to some of the more advanced sites, deeper, and I wanted to avoid any rookie divers or DM's with attitude. I didn't make a big deal about it, just signed my name as an Instructor.
As my wife is pregnant I told him I wanted to spend the first couple of days with her but would call him when I wanted to dive.
What I also noticed from the weather reports and he confirmed, was that the winds were really blowing (30mph), even on the Caribbean side, so we left it open when I would actually do any diving. Just give him a call...
When we got there, it was really howling wind with big surf on the Atlantic side. Rain alternated with sun every hour. My wife, a non diver, and I, did some snorkeling close to shore on the Caribbean side at Timothy Beach Resort, which has a really nice little reef along the big hill to the left of the resort facing the sea. We saw many of the usual Caribbean fish and fauna. She was excited to see a cuda as well as squid and a porcupine fish. Many schools of grunts and goatfish. The corals were somewhat mottled, my theory is it is the effect of wastewater, and many fan corals broken off indicating either poor buoyancy on the part of snorkelers, or the effect of hurricanes that went through the area this year. Farther along the rocky shore I saw many conch shells, obviously broken on the tips and harvested. No big pelagics except a school of cerro mackeral I believe they were, they went by quick.
The wind finally died down 5 days into our trip so I called Kenneth Wed evening and left a voice message identifying myself as Chris from Toronto, we had emailed the week before, and that I wanted to go diving the next day if they went to Nag's Head (what looked like a fun drift dive between Nevis and St. Kitts) or somewhere deep.
Kenneth called me back the next morning at 7:15am and told me where they were going "Sandy Shoals and Brimstone Reef". He said they would probably go deeper. Pick up would be at my hotel at 8:00am (Great) and the cost would be $75US. I brought some extra to tip the DM.
Well, I waited until 8:40 and finally got picked up by a big bus driven by Kenneth, an older black man, and a tall thin blonde fellow named Barrie whom I knew was an Instructor as indicated from web site reviews I had found. There was only one other client onboard, a 30ish Ameriican engineer that I introduced myself to, to strike up a conversation and figure out credentials. The guy started babbling on about diving, lit up a cigarette, and told me he was flying out that same day at 4:30 so he wouldn't be going "deep". Hmmmm.
We got to the boat, Kenneth carried my bag (nice as I have lower lumbar pain), and on the big pontoon boat there was a young girl and obviously her Mother. Noone else except for 4 young dive professionals. Kenneth got my bag onboard and then he and Barrie disappeared. I got on the boat and one of the DM's told me to take my shoes off. I pretended to not hear, and took a seat on the other side of the boat. Again, I was told to take my shoes off - OK, no problem, I guess it makes it easier to suit up people without equipment to get them all shoeless on a boat, even though the tanks are pretty heavy on a toe!
While we waited (I thought, for more divers), I went to chat with the young girl and her Mother. I asked her if she was going to do some diving that day? She just stared ahead, seemed pretty nervous. Her Mother was smiling and nodding. I say she was 11 years old 12 at the most.
Then, the guy who was expecting to fly after the dive (or vice versa?) I was trying to sit away from him, so as not to be buddied with a potential accident case. But the DM and I were told to sit together and he asked us for our C-cards and when we last dove. The want to fly on the same day guy pulled out some money and receipts from the Marriott, said he didn't have a card, but he paid for the dive, blah blah etc. He seemed like he didn't have a clue about it. The guy's an engineer working for Marriott supposedly making sure the structures they were buying around the hotel were up to standards. Geez.
Well, I was watching to see if VJ was going to allow the guy to dive, he howed and hawed and then turned to me before making a decision.
I gave my NAUI Nitrox Instructor card to him. He seemed to raise an eyebrow, but then started to try to suit me up by asking another DM to get me an XL BCD, etc.
I said I had my own equipment. I guess the 4 guys didn't notice I had a big yellow dive bag with me.
Then we got the briefing speech VJ says that girl is doing her checkout dive, we would not be going any deeper than 20 feet.
At that point I interrupted, I politely said that I had emailed from Canada, to be assured of an advanced dive, I had confirmed the same with Kenneth on the phone that morning, and that I wasn't going to do this dive. So I got my bag, and headed off. I pulled VJ aside and told him the guy beside me was planning to fly at 4:30 that afternoon.
I was kind of irritated, but as this kind of thing has happened to me in one form or another (rookie buddies, DM's who can't adapt to an experienced customer, etc). I was not surprised. I figured I'd buy my wife some treats with the $75 US I saved.
But WHY do dive operators chase the money rather than try to actually satisfy differing levels of customer? Why is it so hard for an Instructor to get a decent dive on a tourist boat? Doesn't Kenneth know that i will tell all my dive professional buddies in the GTA that his service was lacking?
I ran with my bag to the opposite side of the harbour (10 minutes) to see if Pro Dive was going out. Although they advertise 9:30 departure times, they left at 9:10am so I just missed them. I walked around town and then all the way back to my hotel. My wife and I had an excellent night snorkel, saw lobster and crab, tiny shrimp. The rocking motion of the waves made my wife queasy after awhile, so we had to turn around. But it was a beautiful night, with lots of stars, and the above mentioned Monkey Bar and Mr. X. Shiggidity Shack (don't you love that name?) had a bonfire party going on the beach, so we had no problem knowing how to get back to our entry point. And all free of charge.
Maybe that's the ticket. Just don't bother paying for recreational scuba diving anymore. I've recently moved to Barrie beside Lake Simcoe here in Ontario, and I plan to start a dive charter here, that actually tries to please its customers, give them value for their hard earned money.
Even if I have to say "Sorry but No, we can't do the dive you want to do today".
