Misc Key Largo diving questions...

[DivingDoll]

Just wanted to throw in a "thanks" for the info on this thread. We are headed to the Keys tomorrow (spur of the moment trip, yay!) and I didn't know where to start to look for a good dive shop. Thanks for all of the info. Scuba Board rocks

 

[Diver Durf]

I just returned from a weekend in Key Largo and chose Rainbow Reef Divers for our charter. The Good to me is a nice sized boat, good crew, fresh water rinse, fresh drinking water, and cookies. The bad to me- they pack their boats to the hilt with divers, and I don't like being amongst "21" divers when 17 of them are students......but that's just me. ;-) As already mentioned, it's very evident that they push different crew members through their op because I observed some tension amongst a couple of the hired help (the younger girls mostly). I'd use them again but probably later in the season when it's colder and not as many divers are present.

Last year I used the Florida Keys Dive Center. They are top notch in my book and will go out no matter how many divers sign up- they are in it for the enjoyment as much as they are for the money. Great people and never a bad experience. My LDS uses them solely for all of their Keys trips.

 

[aquaregia]

I had a great time with Horizon. Nice guys, spacious boats, good briefings. I'm not interested in a guide or someone touching my gear and happily they did neither

I did a few dives with Ocean Divers too. Their boat was filled to two-thirds capacity, so they split us onto two different boats. Students on one, fun divers on the other. Was awesome. They also didn't make me follow someone around and didn't screw with my gear. They have steel LP85s, which seemed unusual for the area. I usually like diving steel, but I was a little sketched out by their condition.

While not Key Largo, I've dove with Lost Reef in Key West. The owner and the shop were a bit dodgey, but the DM and Captain were great. Amazing briefing (DM spent like fifteen minutes with a map and talked to us about what we wanted to see), but they tried to help me out by switching my tanks. They were understanding when I politely mentioned that I'd prefer to do it myself.

 

[Kksmama]

Does anyone in the Keys make divers follow a guide? That wasn't our experience with Rainbow Reef. Who else puts routinely puts guides in the water?

I appreciate ops that offer to switch over gear, but haven't seen any insist when I told them I'd rather do it myself. Agreed that you can end up on a full boat with students, that is why we chose more advanced dives with RR and the Explorer boat. We'd probably book a six pack for shallow stuff rather than be with more than 8-10 divers.