New Shore Dive in Grand Cayman

[ianr33]

........Divetech, the biggest thing I like about them is they treat divers like adults

Just to expand on that a little:

A couple of Emails, credit card and trimix card ,15-20 minute surface swim and you can be at 200 feet on a pristine wall that drops into eternity.

No checkout dives,no questions about when we last dived.No inquisition on our Dive Plan.

I asked one of their staff about this. His reply was along the lines of " You have the card,you haven't asked any really stupid questions so go have fun. "

Its really very,very,refreshing.

 

[Alex777]

Although I usually find myself in agreement with ianr33 and Damselfish, I don't quite agree about DiveTech. In general, there are other dive ops on Grand Cayman who are more relaxed and flexible than DiveTech with experienced divers. Ocean Frontiers permits solo diving from its boats as long as you have a fully redundant gas supply. Don Foster's will, with experienced divers, drop you off at 1 site and leave you to navigate to another and meet the boat there. I doubt that DiveTech, who seem relatively "rule-bound" to me, would countenance either of these practices. I have dived on the N Wall with small operators (e.g., Quabo) on windy days when DiveTech was nowhere to be seen. I could cite other examples. Just my $0.02.

 

[Damselfish]

sure, I wouldn't claim Divetech is the best, as I certainly haven't tried them all. Just that they're generally pretty good about this stuff.

I actually had the opposite experience with Ocean Frontiers in 04 (we did a week with DT and a week with OF that time) - OF may have great service, but was one of the most rule-bound-for-no-good-reason ops I have run into. Set too limited dive times, required follow-the-leader for most of the first dive, and a few other really annoying things. I'd be leery of diving with them again except I get the impression they've lightened up. That, and the lack of good alternatives.

 

[Alex777]

Well, things do change, at all dive ops, and OF have most certainly "lightened up" compared to what you are describing. I haven't gone out with DiveTech for a couple of years now so they may have changed also.

In general, I think the MOST liberal dive ops are some of the very small ones. Some ops just think of themselves as water transportation facilities - once you're at the dive site, just go diving. Be back in an hour if you want a ride home. No briefing, no DM in the water, possibly no DM on the boat. No waiver forms, no C-card check. Probably, no emergency O2 or marine radio. On at least 1 of these boats, I had trouble even getting the captain's attention after a drift dive. He was about 400 yds. away and talking on his cell to his girlfriend. For quite a long time. Where was I? Oh, yeh - DiveTech. They certainly don't fit into the "liberal" category as I define it. Whether that's good or bad is another question.

 

[dflaher]

Thanks all for your inputs -- much appreciated! Dan