Feedback on Divetech, Grand Cayman?

[Nancyrobin]

I will b diving on Grand Cayman 3/28-4/6. I think I settled on Divetech dive operation. Any feedback? I am not staying at Cobalt Coast, where they operate out of. Diversdown looked good(only 8 divers on a boat), but they don't have anyone on the boat during the first dive, and that seems dangerous. What do u think?

 

[ppo2_diver]

I stayed with Cobalt Coast and dove with Divetech exclusively a few years ago. They are a great operation and very friendly. I'd use them again.

 

[CJ's]

There are many excellent 8 max dive operations that do have surface support staff on all dives.
Try Deep Blue Divers, Off the Wall Divers or Wall to Wall Diving for starters.

 

[IceBergSlim]

Divetech was without question the worst experience with an operator I ever had.

On the first day I was annoyed by some awful woman in the dive shop and never went inside again.

They screwed up our reservations and had no record of the dives we had planned so we were forced to stick entirely to the kind of dives we had chosen them specificly to avoid.

They had a tendency to forget to turn the hookah on. After finding it unworking for the second time on the same day I attached my slate to it after writing the message:

"Out of Order. Sorry for any inconvience you may have suffered due to DCS or drowning. Love, DiveTech".

They were not amused when they pulled it back up onto the boat.

If the hookah was shut off a third time on our trip I was going to cut off the second stage and dump it back on the boat. It would have been safer for everyone that way.

Every single tank I checked on the boat was out of VIP. That was at least 12-15 tanks before I gave up looking. (when I mentioned it they stickered them the next day)

We found all but 3 of the staff rude. We found 2 of the staff impossibly rude.

We could not get out of there fast enough.

I would strongly suggest you seek service elsewhere.

 

[artcumming76]

From my limited experience in the Caymans; no surface support is pretty much considered normal practice. I'm sure there are operators that do provide surface support, one just needs to do their due diligence prior to travelling/booking.

 

[Alex777]

The larger dive boats here usually put down a hookah line on deep dives. Most even remember to turn it on.

 

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

I have nothing but great things to say about Dive Tech and Cobalt Coast. I have always found them to be an outstanding operation all the way from recreational through technical diving. I've been there five times and I'm going back next month.

 

[ianr33]

My experiences with Divetech have ranged from good to outstanding.

Anybody that needs a hang tank twice in the same day might want to brush up on gas management.

 

[IceBergSlim]

My experiences with Divetech have ranged from good to outstanding.

Anybody that needs a hang tank twice in the same day might want to brush up on gas management.

I had no need for the hang tank during any of my dives. The profiles were easy and my gas management was more than adequate.

I simply took advantage of my final stop time to test the equipment Divetech uses for the safety of their customers.

The hookah Divetech provided was not working. Twice during the same day.

In both cases I verified that the hookah was turned off at the source when I surfaced. (Oopsie!)

You may disagree but I like to do everything I can to verify personally that gas sources provided under water are funtioning and apropriate to the depth they will be consumed.

 

[divesergeant]

We've dived with DiveTech several times. We have found them to be safe, organized and knowledgable. Sure, there are more divers on their boat than some other boats, but the boat is larger, it's never been too crowded and they have adequate staff. I can't remember ever not having a crew member stay on the boat.

I have never stayed at Cobalt Coast and that has never been a problem. We just drove to wherever DiveTech was leaving from that day and loaded on to the boat.

To have had so many problems with so many different staff people as the other poster had is highly unusual. It sounds like Iceberg's trip got off to a bad start and went downhill from there. I'm sure there could be another side to the story. All the staff, (including Mojo, the dock dog!) have always been friendly and helpful. We always book our trip ahead and get a confirmation from them. We've never had a problem.

If you want smaller groups, we have dived with Neptune's Divers and enjoyed them immensely. Check them out here.. www.neptunesdivers.com. One thing that I like about Neptune's is that they stress reef conservation on their briefings, some other shops do, many do not. A strong reminder about not beating up the reef is always a good thing.

DS