Liquid Adventures, Tofo, Mozambique - review

[vegieholics]

We dived with Liquid adventures in Tofo between 12 and 17 Jan 2010. They are situated at Bamboozi Lodge, but it is a separate company.

The company is small and informal and there was no manager present when we visited. All the dive masters were recent arrivals from other countries, while the general staff and skipper are Mozambican. We pre-booked all our dives as part of a package together with the accomodation to get a good discount.
On arrival, we were a bit dissapointed to find that they could not accomodate us on the first dive on our first day as they they were doing a deep dive and insisted that we first do a shallow dive with them (we are already advanced divers).
Their dive plan changes constantly without consultation and they do not take requests into consideration; for example we wanted to go to Manta point, but they never scheduled the dive for us even though we dived with them for 6 days!

It was very quiet in January after the school holidays ended.
We were told that for "far away" dives (30 min) they wanted groups of 4 people as a minimum. This was also valid for the Ocean (Whaleshark) Safari. We booked a Safari on arrival which was cancelled 3 days in a row (supposedly due to weather and rough seas, but it looked fine to us and the other dive schools did go out on these days). On the fouth day we were disgusted to see that our names have been removed from the board and replaced with a large group booking. The staff offered no apology and defended their decision to take the bigger group instead.

As a result of this we decided to book an ocean safari through Tofo Scuba located 5 min down the beach. The Tofo Scuba manager immediately accomodated us and were infinately more professional. When we joined them the for the safari the next day; everything was on time and the personel were very friendly and included a Marine Scientist (whaleshark specialist).

Liquid Adventures are very casual and are always late with their launch. They only had one boat going out when we were there but we did see another parked. All the boats are semi rigid inflatables. In fact all the dive schools use similar boats, but it seems Tofo Scuba has quiter more powerfull engines that have less fumes. P.s. please take anti nausea medication. These boat rides are rough and even those people that do not normally get sea sick become green

The equipment at Liquid Adventures in general was good (all ScubaPro). We were given large cylinders (12 & 15 litre). This means we never ran out of air, but rather out of bottom time. The gear is loaded on the boat by the general staff. They do this by driving it down to the beach with an old landrover. The general staff will also sometimes wash and return the gear after they collected it from the boat.

Boat beach launches involve the divers pushing the boat's nose into the waves and then pulling it into the water. One then jumps into the boat from the water.

Pro's:
Very quiet when we were there compared to Tofo Scuba i.e. less people on a boat
Very relaxed and calm diving
Personal attention from the dive masters
Right at your accomodation if you stay at Bamboozi Lodge
Large cylinders (12 & 15 litres)

Con's:
Disorganised
Always Late
Require 4 people minmum for far sites and ocean safris
Unannounced changes to dive schedule
Cancellation of ocean safari
Unwilling to accomodate requests for certain dive sites (that other operators were going to at that time)
Very quiet, means not enough people to meet the 4 people minimum.

We hope this will help you make your decision on who to dive with.

 

[Jan Kruger]

Our experience whilst diving anywhere in Mozambique or at any remote diving camp , was to go in a group of at least 4 divers or more, to ensure we dont get left at the beach because they generally need 4 divers in a boat to launch. This also ensures that you dive with a group that you are used to and that you are comfortable with.
I hope you had good viz and saw lots of sealife !

 

[chrisgp007]

thanks for the heads up on not usin that dive operation over there. even tho they did have sum pros to ur advice. Hope u had a better time there with tofu scuba then? what where they like then?

 

[jolo]

This goes back to the old story if you do not know the area you are diving in consult with someone who does. We dive in Mozambique 12 to 15 times a year and know most of the accommodation establishments and dive operators if we assist you with your booking it costs you no more they pay us a small commission and we only use the best

 

[Gaz Overland]

Minimum numbers are needed to cover costs of staff, fuel, insurance and alot of other stuff.
Bamboozi lodge is fantastic.
Admittingly may be late but diving is a laid back sport isn't it? Staff can also be abit blah like thousands of other places but isn't diving laid back...
I find all dive centers are like this which is why we travel and dive with an open mind, if you want personnal dive sites to suit you, buy your own boat or pay through the nose, thats life when using resorts.
Sorry just think your wingeing......

 

[tedement]

My wife and I went to Mozambique and stayed in the Guinjata Bay area at Jeff's Palm. We had the exact experience. We had more canceled dive trips than dive trips. With that being said, the dive trips we did go on were absolutely phenomenal. We did get to go Manta Point. Although no Mantas were there the dive was fantastic (numerous lionfish, anemonie fish, ghost pipefish, dozens of different nudibranchs, paperfish, huge stingrays, mothfish, guitar shark, etc.) We were able to do the Whale Shark safari and did see two whale sharks. The trip had been canceled 4 days in a row so I offered an extra $100 to the dive master and we were finally snorkeling with whale sharks. Totally worth it in my opinion!

The diving in Mozambique is overlooked and unspoiled. I agree that it would be best to go with a big group to avoid a bunch of canceled trips. I wouldn't go back to Jeff's Palm but I do have to say the Divemasters were extremely friendly and nice. We just wanted to dive a bit more than 4 dives in one week. Especially when we saw other boats on the water.

 

[LiquidAdventures]

We are very sorry to hear that you had a less than ideal time with us. What you describe is certainly not how we want our customers to experience Mozambique.

Tofo is a fantastic place to dive. Arguably, it is one of the best destinations in the world. With the added bonus of snorkeling with whale sharks and manta rays, there are few places as amazing. Honestly, we hope you come back and give us another chance, if not our shop, then Tofo in general.

With us, first dives always are shallow dives. For any new diver, Open Water through to Course Directors, we require a shallow dive as our first dive. We pride ourselves on having the best safety record in Tofo, and we want you to be comfortable diving with us. This shallow dive gives us a chance to check you out and for you to get accustomed to our procedures under less stressful conditions. Many people haven't done RIB launches or negative entries before, and we find that this is the best way to reduce diver stress.

The rest of your time with us, however, should have gone more smoothly. We all know TIA (This Is Africa), and things run on Mozambiquan time, but too many changes to schedules really isn't acceptable.

And we do have boat minimums to defray operational costs, however we should have been able to accomodate you during your stay. Manta Reef should not be missed, and if you come back, we hope to show it to you.

It's great that Tofo Scuba was able to show you the whale sharks. We often move customers between shops for safaris to help meet boat minimums, but being "bumped" from a safari is also inappropriate.

We have taken on board all of your comments, and rest assured that future customers won't have the same experience.

We've sent you a private message as well, and again, we hope to see you in Tofo again soon.

-Cindy and Paul

 

[muddyh2o]

That's too bad. we had a very different time with liquid. we got to spend a lot of time hanging with the staff(dino's!), and since it was a quiet time with few customers, we were able to choose some of our dive sites.timing was off and we didn't launch on time very often but the view from the shop was stunning and we were happy to chill at the bamboozi restaurant (also a great view).the diving was great and i am glad we weren't always running on packed boats.when there were students on the dive, they were in different groups so we didn't have to wait for them. and we saw whale sharks but had to do two snorkeling trips because we only saw dolphins the first time.you really must swim with the whale sharks if you're there!
we will be back

 

[muddyh2o]

That's too bad. we had a very different time with liquid. we got to spend a lot of time hanging with the staff(dino's!), and since it was a quiet time with few customers, we were able to choose some of our dive sites.timing was off and we didn't launch on time very often but the view from the shop was stunning and we were happy to chill at the bamboozi restaurant (also a great view).the diving was great and i am glad we weren't always running on packed boats.when there were students on the dive, they were in different groups so we didn't have to wait for them. and we saw whale sharks but had to do two snorkeling trips because we only saw dolphins the first time.you really must swim with the whale sharks if you're there!
we will be back