Island Ventures in Key Largo Florida

[bwilcher]

This operator of dive trips in the keys is the most customer non-friendly dive boat we have encoutered in the keys. We carried a group of twelve divers to their location with reservations to dive the Spiegel Grove, Duane and reef dives over two days. After we had signed-in and paid our money they then tried to say they would not take us to the Grove because two of the twelve only had an open-water dive card. This was never discussed prior to our arrival, not mentioned on their website, or brought to the attention of the three instructors on the boat until we were ready to depart. We demanded they fulfill what we had purchased and they relented and took us to the Spiegel Grove. We were met with good conditions, light current, fifty feet of visibility and a light surface chop. One diver did have to return to the back of the boat for more weight, but the entire group made the dive with no incidents. At this junction we mentioned that we were satisfied to stay and dive the grove again. The captain pulled the mooring and sped away saying their were some divers that had trouble and he was taking us to a shallow reef. After a short trip we dove French reef where he limited the amount of time we could stay in the water and then proceeded back to the dock. Our group was met by one of the owners who proceeded to yell that he needed a pow wow. He informed the group that he would not take us to the Duane as promised, because of safety reasons, and he wasn't even on the boat!. They finally relented to take the same group, the ones that weren't able to make dive two on the grove, back to the grove on Sunday for an am dive. What a bunch of a holes. I WILL NEVER TAKE A GROUP TO THIS OPERATOR AGAIN. THE OWNER SMELLED OF ALCOHOL DURING HIS RANT ON SAFETY, THEY WERE JUST WANTING TO FINISH THEIR DAY EARLY AND GET RID OF US.

 

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

Bert:

Sorry to hear you such a bad experience.

Doug

 

[cudachaser]

That's sounds like a horror trip!

 

[El Orans]

I've sent an email to Island Ventures to point them to this thread.

I'd like to hear both sides of the story.

 

[Marcosis]

The Spiegel Grove IS most certainly an advanced dive! I've seen 2+ knot current and depths to the recreational limits.

I was wondering did you have any MSD instructors with your group? Or were you offered a divemaster guide? Some places do that.

I can understand your anger since there were 12 divers looking forward to an expected and I'm sure expensive dive weekend/vacation!Then having a huge change thrown at you last minute like that.In that situation I would probably be pissed too!

But on the other hand I can see the captain and owners point too!
As I said the Spiegel can be a tough dive even for advanced or better yet EXPERIENCED divers! (AOW DOES NOT ALWAYS=EXPERIENCE!!!)
I don't know this OP/Capt./Owner but in the owners defense,I can understand him being upset finding out his boat took openwater divers to this dive,especially when there were 2 fatalities of advanced tech divers not long ago!

As far as the smell of alcohol... You said he wasn't on board so obviously he was neither the capt.or divemaster on this trip.(I too like a beer when not on duty)

I'm sorry you had a bad time! I too would like to hear both sides of the story because its really easy to trash someone you are mad at. I'm sure there are valid points to both sides.

 

[almitywife]

as much as i welcome the good AND the bad on SB (as they help so much when planning trips!), i get a bit jaded with people that join forums to only ***** about an experience and never to be seen again.

and thanks El for advising them so they have the right of response as im sure there are at least 3 sides to this story. his, theirs and the truth somewhere in the middle

cheers

 

[wardric]

An advanced C-card unfortunately doesn't mean the divers are experienced enough for the Grove or any advanced dive... but the operators are at least better "covered" if they require one.

 

[Island Ventures]

We are truly sorry that this group was dissatisfied with their dive trip to Key Largo. We try to routinely tell all our divers when they make reservations that the deep wrecks are advanced dives – in fact the website does say that the Duane and Bibb are for more experienced divers. This group had paid a deposit on another trip that did not go because of bad weather and this trip was scheduled many months later (we only had a partial deposit). On arrival, the group leader was among the last to sign in – after the dive shop personnel had discovered that four of the twelve divers were open water certified and one diver had not been diving since 2005. When we schedule divers individually, we screen them and require a guide if more than a year and require a refresher if more than 2 years since their last dive date. Since the group leader was not around until just before departure, this could not be discussed with him until then. An agreement was made on the dock for the instructors on the boat to be buddied with the open water divers, since it is our policy to allow open water divers on the Spiegel Grove with a guide. On the dive at the Spiegel Grove, one diver had trouble on the surface with weights or weight belt and the instructor was nowhere around. And when this same diver surfaced after the dive, his buddy/instructor/guide was also not around. Thank goodness there were no incidents with this dive! The captain made an assessment after this dive that a shallower spot was the better choice for the second dive. As a result of this dive trip, we felt that we did not want to break our shop policy to take open water divers on the Duane. We offered to try and salvage the trip by doing a three location trip to keep the advanced divers happy and get a 2-location trip for all the divers. The group leader did not want to do this so we all agreed to return to the Spiegel Grove with closer supervision by the instructors this time. Our safety policies are in place to protect both our divers and us. Because of the misunderstandings, this group was given two nitrox fills and two air fills to try and soften the hard feelings. We are truly sorry for the misunderstandings and will rectify the fact that these policies are not in our literature. However, most reputable shops in Key Largo have the same policies and we do not feel that these are too stringent in light of conditions we have witnessed on these wrecks which are advanced dives.

Ann & Darrell Stadler
Owners Island Ventures

 

[almitywife]

i can appreciate both sides..... an excited group of divers and the legal & safety requirements of a commercial business

thank you very much for your response IslandVenture

 

[DeputyDan]

When a person only has a few posts and they are rants - they don't carry much weight!