Down Under Dive Shop Gulf Shores, AL

[seadoggirl]

Downunder is a first rate operation. They have several instructors - all are excellent. Mitch is the owner and he runs a first rate operation. Bryan, Beth, Shane, Marcie - They all are great divemasters and instructors. Their boat is beautiful - Hell it is a Newton - you can't do better than that for a dive boat.

 

[meigs3]

Down Under is very safety minded with redundant roll calls, well planned safety briefings and plenty of oxygen on board. Last trip with them, 2 weeks ago, contained a fire drill and two before that a man over board drill.

 

[jwelch_81]

I was in there a few weeks ago.

Great group of people I had scheduled a dolphin tour for my family and due to traffic we were running a tight schedule and I didn't have time to stop and pick up tanks for the weekend. I called the guys and they stayed open a bit later till the dolphin tour was over so I could get my tanks.

They were very helpful and informative about the local shore dives.

I will definitely use them again and would recommend to anyone going to the gulf shores area.

 

[ScubaTodd77]

I'm diving with them for the first time Saturday, so I'll let you know how it goes. I'm sure it will go well, as I continue to hear great things. I may even hire a DM/Guide to go out with me on some shore dives Friday. I've never dove in Gulf Shores, so I can't hardly wait

 

[mike_s]

I have to agree with the above comments about the safety precautions they took on the Down Under boat.

they had a "triple Head count". First they have a "tag in, tag out" board. Everyone gets a tag and you tag in as soon as you get back on the boat. the tag board is on the rear camera table, where the captain can see it from the bridge above. Then I saw them doing physical head counts by at least two people and comparing. Then they also did a "roll call" by name after the dive to triple check that everyone was there.

One of the dives we were on the current was extremely bad. They normally put out a "trailing line" on a float behind the boat as most boat operations do, but the captain had them put out several other lines tied together to extend the line longer. They also had a DM or crew/mate go out with mask and flippers to the end of the long line to let people know it was there. It's a good thing he did, because EVERYONE got blown off the site. most people came up at the end of the 200 to 300 foot trailing line. When we came up, the DM yelled out to swim to the line. The captain doing this kept from having 20 scattered divers in a strong current.

so I think they did a outstanding job on safety items.

 

[boliver_69]

I plan on getting certified there in a couple of weeks. Bolivar, you said you are friends with most of the employees. How do you think they are as far as instruction goes? The guy I bought my gear from seemed very knowledgable.

I am extremely happy with my instruction. I will be doing cavern and rescue with Beth when the summer season starts to slow down.

I tag along with a lot of their check out dives and I am always impressed with the students and their skills. Who is your instructor? It is entirely possible I may be tagging along on your OW dives.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I will be doing cavern and rescue with Beth when the summer season starts to slow down.

I would consider taking cavern from an instructor who's primary diving is in caves, rather than from someone who occassionally dives them. Just my opinion, there are lots of great options here in the panhandle.

 

[bvm2006]

I'm diving with them for the first time Saturday, so I'll let you know how it goes. I'm sure it will go well, as I continue to hear great things. I may even hire a DM/Guide to go out with me on some shore dives Friday. I've never dove in Gulf Shores, so I can't hardly wait

ScubaTodd77, how was the diving Saturday?

Murph

 

[msuman]

I am extremely happy with my instruction. I will be doing cavern and rescue with Beth when the summer season starts to slow down.

I tag along with a lot of their check out dives and I am always impressed with the students and their skills. Who is your instructor? It is entirely possible I may be tagging along on your OW dives.

Im not sure who the instructor is going to be. I've got to call and set all of that up this week. I bought all my gear from Bryan, he said to just give them about a weeks notice. I will hopefully be starting the weekend of Aug 8&9 and then do the check out dives the following weekend. I would like to do it all in one 3 day weekend if I could.

 

[boliver_69]

I would consider taking cavern from an instructor who's primary diving is in caves, rather than from someone who occassionally dives them. Just my opinion, there are lots of great options here in the panhandle.

I agree Mat, luckily she is not just a PADI instructor, but a passionate and experienced cave diver as well. Her stories of cave diving are what has given me the bug (and your dive reports and pics from the surface)
My Cavern cert is her birthday gift to me.
If I decide to keep going after cavern I will be taking the classes with Jeff Loflin.