Island Ventures in Key Largo Florida

[Cave Diver]

We bought the company on July 1, 2005. No we worked at Kelly's and Aqua-Nuts before buying the business. Brian moved to North Carolina.

Oh, ok. We dove with Brian a few years back. We went out several times with him and another Capt. that was about to get married. I thought it might have been you we were on the boat with.

Brian was an interesting character and we had some great dives on the Grove, the Duane, the Bibb and especially the Eagle.

If we ever make it back down that way, we'll give you a try as long as you don't mind PIA Techie types who wanna use doubles for 30' reef dives.

 

[Divergirl4U]

Everyone has the right to voice their opinion. I think by posting what happens to you it can save other divers from making the same mistake. We all do it and do not deserve negative treatment for doing so.
The divers should have investigated the chosen dive sites long before they booked a trip on deep wrecks, we have too many OW divers getting hurt and I understand the dive shop point of view.
OW is up to 70ft or is it 60ft … this means past that depth you must have further training or current practical experience. All of the wrecks are past most of your groups certification level. I am just happy that you and your group are all OK
KP

 

[Bratface]

Wreck diving is serious business. I dove the Spiegel Grove a few weeks back with some inexperienced insta-buddies. They made me a little nervous, but we made it back to the boat safely--in a blowing current. We were like flags on a pole hanging on the line. Personally, I would never dive a wreck with an OW cert.

 

[Rick Murchison]

I don't like that the subject of this thread says "beware".

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Agreed. Thread title changed.
Rick

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[Lone Frogman]

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

Ditto that.

 

[Doc]

Everyone has the right to voice their opinion.

God bless America and the "internets"

I think by posting what happens to you it can save other divers from making the same mistake.

You'd be very surprised by how many divers go to some rat-trap island resort and then get on SCUBABoard to tell how awful it was.

You might be even more surprised how many of them never once did a search here on SB before throwing their money at a deposit. SCUBABoard is the single greatest resource for this kind of information.

We all do it

No, some people just realize that they contributed in some way to their own satisfaction. A real mensch just sucks it up, puts on the big girl panties and learns from the experience.

and do not deserve negative treatment for doing so.

Initial, beginning and first posts raise suspicion. :no

Why do angry posters come here to share their awful experiences with the regulars of SB.... they have never thought to share their life experiences with us before.

Why all of a sudden? At the very least, they are using SB as a soapboax platform for their anger.

All of a sudden. Makes me feel dismissive of their rant, whether it's dead-on or not.

 

[wardric]

Wreck diving is serious business. I dove the Spiegel Grove a few weeks back with some inexperienced insta-buddies. They made me a little nervous, but we made it back to the boat safely--in a blowing current. We were like flags on a pole hanging on the line. Personally, I would never dive a wreck with an OW cert.

I dived (dove, doved,...) with 2 instabuddies on the Grove some years ago (2003) and both had advanced certification. One (let's call him diver #1 ) had done it the fast way OW and then AOW but not any experience in between or after his courses. The other one was also AOW but I didn't really know his experience (let's call him diver #2 ). I was doing my rescue at the time.

#1 didn't have a computer and didn't know his tables very well. He wanted to "share" my computer (no comments). #2 didn't want to plan the dive saying "it's gonna be fine" to every thing I was asking him (How deep do you want to go, how long, what part of the wreck, etc...)

On the first dive, the "more experienced" #2 didn't look at his buddies and kept racing away altough we had not specified we would be solo diving. I decided to stick with #1 who was less confident and keep an eye for #2 repeating in my mind the techniques I was learning in my rescue class. I had been "raised" by an instructor who was very strict on buddy diving and team diving (not DIR at all though) and diving in 0-15' viz, buddy diving meant an arm's lenght. But this guy was keeping a 20+ft distance all the time. #2 finally came to me and signaled he was at 500 psi when we were not even near of the line. At least # 1 was close to me so I found the line for #2 who was pretty lost and he rushed to the surface without doing a safety. I got out (after doing a safety stop with #1) with 1200 psi.

On the second dive, same scenario but this time, it's #1 (who stayed close to me the whole dive) that signal me he's getting low on air (close to 500 psi.) #2 is very far and not caring to look at his buddies. I decided to go up with the low on air buddy since I had no time to swim to #2 who was very far when he finally decided (or was it by accident) to look at us and I signaled him it was time to go up in an unequivocal way. I got out with 1000 psi after doing my safety. I dont remember if #2 did his but I stayed with # 1 all the time.

After the dive, I told #1 he was a safer diver than # 2.

Since then, I made these conclusions:

I dont trust instabuddies until I see them diving
C-cards alone dont mean anything
More experienced does not always mean safer
they let anyone dive on the Grove

btw, if diver #2 recognize himself, I need your name for my logbook since you left pretty fast.

 

[Rick Murchison]

I dived (dove, doved,...)

On the horns of a dilemma with that, eh?
I never can decide either, so I've abandoned the active verb for the gerund...
and use "I went diving..."

Rick

 

[deeper thoughts]

I have heard nothing but good things about this op

 

[John_B]

From what I've read in this thread, I have no doubt that Island Ventures is doing all they can to run a safe charter operation.

That said...

It might help to prevent future misunderstandings if the dive charter posted whatever requirements a dive might have right there where they are doing the advertising for it. While they point out that Duane and Bibb are for more experienced divers, there is such no caveat for the Grove. They only mention the medallion. And they don't point out what they mean by "more experienced divers". Is that AOW? A recent deep dive or dives? Does hiring a guide count?

From the Island Ventures website:

Come dive with us and we'll take you on your "Dream Dive" We offer custom guided tours of Key Largo's awesome wreck sites.

Try out our brand of "No Stress" wreck diving that will give you a dive you'll remember for a lifetime!

An annual Medallion for diving the artificial reefs of Key Largo will be required. The cost is $10 and the collected monies help maintain the artificial reefs of the Upper Keys. These wrecks include: Duane, Bibb, and USS Spiegel Grove.

The wrecks are also home to a great number of spectacular corals and fish. There are sites that have wreckage from a number of time periods and vessels, for all divers. These dives include, The City of Washington, a ship with a history dating back to the 1800's and The Benwood, which was sunk during W.W.II times....... and more.

Also for the more experienced divers we have the artificial reefs, the US Coastguard ships Duane and Bibb. Since 1987 these sister ships of 327 feet long have done their new and last assignment very well.

The USS Spiegel Grove is a Landing Ship Dock (LSD 32), which is now the largest vessel ever intentionally sunk as an artificial reef. The vessel is 510 feet in length, 84 feet wide. Hurricane Dennis accomplished what man could not: She sits upright - as she was intended to sink! Come and see the great "new" wreck of Key Largo!

The sea life has adopted them as their home.

John