This past weekend my local dive store did a trip to Dutch Springs, and while the diving was good the service was horrible. Since they let instructors park in the parking lot near the entrance to the water that is where we parked. We were told that you could not double park in that lot, which is fine, but since when is a trailer considered a second car? Their rules say that you must have a buddy to enter the water, so a group of three entered the water, did our dive and one finished early and did not feel like having to carry her BCD back out and making the long surface swim so we took her BCD. Upon exiting the water never once were we asked what happened to our third diver whose equipment we had. But god help you if you try to enter the water by yourself they are all over you like flies asking a million questions as to where and when your buddy will be there. So that was the issue with the water.
Tanks
When it comes to filling tanks we all agree that they must be current vip and in hydro, and to have nitrox you must have a sticker. The staff gave us a hard time about not having the tanks O2 cleaned, which I can see their point if they were filling partial pressures, but they are not. They gave us a hard time about having nitrox stickers. What they did not give us a hard time with was the set of tanks that was two months out of VIP which we did not notice till we had returned to our shop. They had filled those tanks at least seven times that weekend and not a single one had picked up on the fact that they needed a vip. How about some due diligence? If youre going to enforce the rules your staff should all be on the same page and rules are there to protect the divers, not just for show.
I found the diving to be nice and relaxing but the staff seemed rude and inconsiderate to the divers that support their quarry, almost as if they did not want us to be there. They have a rule where all divers must be out of the water by 6pm on Saturday, however when you exit the water at 5:45 and are getting consistently yelled at for not being off the property by 6pm it is a bit disheartening. If you wanted the divers to be off the property by 6pm why wouldn't you have them out of the water at 5pm? Nothing like paying for an amusement vacation where you can be treated like a piece of cattle. My local dive store pushed this trip all year long and they had gotten 40+ divers to go, well there are 40+ divers that will not go back to that place. The store bent over backwards to make things right and to make the divers enjoy their vacation, something that Dutch Springs failed to accomplish.
Tanks
When it comes to filling tanks we all agree that they must be current vip and in hydro, and to have nitrox you must have a sticker. The staff gave us a hard time about not having the tanks O2 cleaned, which I can see their point if they were filling partial pressures, but they are not. They gave us a hard time about having nitrox stickers. What they did not give us a hard time with was the set of tanks that was two months out of VIP which we did not notice till we had returned to our shop. They had filled those tanks at least seven times that weekend and not a single one had picked up on the fact that they needed a vip. How about some due diligence? If youre going to enforce the rules your staff should all be on the same page and rules are there to protect the divers, not just for show.
I found the diving to be nice and relaxing but the staff seemed rude and inconsiderate to the divers that support their quarry, almost as if they did not want us to be there. They have a rule where all divers must be out of the water by 6pm on Saturday, however when you exit the water at 5:45 and are getting consistently yelled at for not being off the property by 6pm it is a bit disheartening. If you wanted the divers to be off the property by 6pm why wouldn't you have them out of the water at 5pm? Nothing like paying for an amusement vacation where you can be treated like a piece of cattle. My local dive store pushed this trip all year long and they had gotten 40+ divers to go, well there are 40+ divers that will not go back to that place. The store bent over backwards to make things right and to make the divers enjoy their vacation, something that Dutch Springs failed to accomplish.
