Exceptional Personal Service and Diving

[Martin Moran]

Thanks for the recommendation mwilson55! I just returned from a short trip and David Thomas and Tyrell did a great job taking my nephew and I out for a great reef dive. My wife, sister and brother-in-law joined us the following day for a fishing/bbq/snorkel day which was also excellent, including a manatee sighting. I would highly recommend David Thomas and Belize Magical Adventures.

 

[Martin Moran]

Forgot to mention that we truly enjoyed our conversations with David and Tyrell, both very personable and extremely knowledgeable about Ambergris Caye, diving, fishing and the reef. David also brought along a camera and sent (at no charge) a few dozen photos that he took of us during our dive. Great time!

 

[Zihuabuza831]

Any other shops that offer at least an hour bottom time with good reviews???

 

[mwilson55]

Do you know how much bottomtime he allows per dive? I’m looking for a shop with a great safety record that allows the hour or more bottom time that most shops on Coz do. And can he pick up anywhere?
Thanks, suggestions please.

He will pick you up. He has an excellent safety record. You will have to check with him about bottom time. He is PADI certified and also a certified First Responder.please let me know how it goes.

 

[Caye Caulker Diver B]

I'm sort of "new" to SCUBA, but have 30+ dives, 27+ here in Belize, in the last year, so no "novice". Can you explain to me how a dive shop "offers at least an hour bottom time"?

Isn't "bottom time" determined by depth, diver activity effort & experience, breathing rate and numerous other variables? I've been on many dives, my earlier ones when I was just getting the hang of things, where I was at 500# at 30-35 minutes and had to wait 10-25 minutes for the last of the group to surface. I did the same dives last week, 9 months later and came up at 48 minutes, with 700# left in my tank. (I chose to ascend, as everyone else in the group had been up for 10 minutes or so.) My increased bottom time had nothing to do with the dive shop "offering me more minutes", it was the result of my increased ability, awareness & control.

While I dive primarily with one dive shop here on Caye Caulker, I believe most of the shops operate on a policy of ascending at 500#, rather than a time limit. If you can make 2300 - 2500# last 60 minutes, I'd imagine you'll do just that with most shops down here.

 

[Edward3c]

He will pick you up. He has an excellent safety record. You will have to check with him about bottom time. He is PADI certified and also a certified First Responder.please let me know how it goes.

Those new to diving (and some old timers) are often fixated with how long they must stay down. If you want an hour in the water, then plan it. Don’t rely on others to work it our your you.

 

[Downing]

Isn't "bottom time" determined by depth, diver activity effort & experience, breathing rate and numerous other variables?

That's correct for an individual but not necessarily what's at play on a group dive. It could be a scuba-related reason, like there's a strong current so the dive op wants to descend and ascend as a group. Everybody comes up when the first person runs low on air. Or a non-scuba reason like the boat captain's young daughter has guitar lessons and needs Dad to come home and give her a ride.

There have been some complaints here from time to time about certain dive ops on AC arbitrarily cutting off dives around 45 minutes, presumably for non-scuba related reasons.