D.Co
New
After reading many positive reviews of the Scuba Iguana dive operation on Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos, I was really looking forward to diving with them during my April 2015 trip. I booked four days of two-tank dives without hesitation, even at the heady price of $250 per day.
Unfortunately, my experience with Scuba Iguana was disappointing, disturbing and downright scary.
Scuba Iguana seems like a very well-run dive operation. Their boats are sturdy, accommodating and well-maintained. The 1:4 guide-to-diver ratio is great -- when the guides are paying attention (more on that point later). The boat and dive briefings were thorough (though dive plans often changed from shallow to deep, or macro to open water, depending on conditions and sightings). They offered snacks during surface intervals and hot lunches on the ride back to port. I heard no complaints from divers who rented gear, and the crew rinsed and stored the gear I brought with me between days of diving.
None of that excuses any of the blatant dive safety issues I either witnessed or personally experienced. No one from the dive crew ever asked to see my C-card, and when I offered, they waved it off (trusting, I suppose, that the copy I emailed months earlier was legit and actually from me). No buddy pairs were assigned, just guide groups. Second dives were routinely deeper than first dives. Most alarming, when my console computer flooded the first day and my backup locked out for 24 hours for a deco violation the second day, my dive guide told me it was no problem, and that I could still safely dive the third day! I opted to obey my computer and sit that one out, even though it cost me $250 for the missed dive.
Although Scuba Iguana maintains they dont allow divers with fewer than 30 dives to attempt the challenging conditions at Gordon Rocks, I was in a group with a teenager who clearly was in over her head. She was never assigned as my buddy, but as a rescue diver, I felt compelled to keep an eye on her, asking our dive guide to adjust her weight belt to allow for proper right-hand release after she had looped the free end behind the buckle. During dives, she was unable to maintain buoyancy, kicking up sand, grabbing at coral and knocking urchins off walls. Her vertical attitude subjected her to the notorious currents at Gordon Rocks, and I constantly had to pull her down as she was caught by upwellings. Scuba Iguana requires all divers, regardless of certification level, to undergo a perfunctory skills check on their first dive (something repeat divers have to wait out when new divers get on the boat on subsequent days). Yet this check still did not disqualify this hapless young diver, who I later learned was related somehow to one of the crew.
I also experienced the detrimental effects of something other reviewers have touched on: Scuba Iguana dive guides penchant for shooting video of every dive to sell to divers in a forced pitch back at the office. When I dive somewhere as challenging as the Galapagos, I want my dive guides undivided attention. I want both of his or her hands free in case of emergency. And I dont want my guide to rush to film an animal first before clients get a chance. This last was especially disconcerting when we came upon a group of five white tip sharks nestling on a ledge, a behavior I have longed to see and photograph. My guide, however, swooped in first, got his shots and rattled to alert the rest of us, just in time for us to watch them swim off without getting so much as a single image. Another time I found a large moray eel and signaled the group, only to be practically elbowed aside by the guide, who stuck his camera in the eels face and scared it so far back into its hole I never got a shot. The videos were later pedaled to us for $25 each during a dive logging session back at the office. If a dive shop wants to sell videos, fine, just assign a separate staff member other than the guide to shoot the video.
On several occasions I observed the guides handling the animals. This shouldnt be done anywhere, much less in the Galapagos, where authorities impose a seven-foot rule to avoid human interactions with the unique species there. But I saw guides petting sea lions, luring eels out of hiding, and removing sea urchins to provoke the territorial behavior of damselfish, all for the amusement of other divers.
A few other points to be aware of:
· Scuba Iguanas dive boats have no fresh water buckets to rinse cameras, or even saltwater buckets to keep cameras wet and safe when the boat is moving. Instead, cameras handed up after dives are piled on the seat cushions, there to sit salt crystals and all until you can get back to land one or two hours later and rinse them off
· Weights are available only in multiples of 4 lbs. Woe is he who dives with 10, 14, 15 or 18lbs.!
· If you miss a dive day, even for a deco violation, and they dont have enough divers to take the boat out on the only other day youre able to make up the dive, youre out $250. No refunds.
Unfortunately, my experience with Scuba Iguana was disappointing, disturbing and downright scary.
Scuba Iguana seems like a very well-run dive operation. Their boats are sturdy, accommodating and well-maintained. The 1:4 guide-to-diver ratio is great -- when the guides are paying attention (more on that point later). The boat and dive briefings were thorough (though dive plans often changed from shallow to deep, or macro to open water, depending on conditions and sightings). They offered snacks during surface intervals and hot lunches on the ride back to port. I heard no complaints from divers who rented gear, and the crew rinsed and stored the gear I brought with me between days of diving.
None of that excuses any of the blatant dive safety issues I either witnessed or personally experienced. No one from the dive crew ever asked to see my C-card, and when I offered, they waved it off (trusting, I suppose, that the copy I emailed months earlier was legit and actually from me). No buddy pairs were assigned, just guide groups. Second dives were routinely deeper than first dives. Most alarming, when my console computer flooded the first day and my backup locked out for 24 hours for a deco violation the second day, my dive guide told me it was no problem, and that I could still safely dive the third day! I opted to obey my computer and sit that one out, even though it cost me $250 for the missed dive.
Although Scuba Iguana maintains they dont allow divers with fewer than 30 dives to attempt the challenging conditions at Gordon Rocks, I was in a group with a teenager who clearly was in over her head. She was never assigned as my buddy, but as a rescue diver, I felt compelled to keep an eye on her, asking our dive guide to adjust her weight belt to allow for proper right-hand release after she had looped the free end behind the buckle. During dives, she was unable to maintain buoyancy, kicking up sand, grabbing at coral and knocking urchins off walls. Her vertical attitude subjected her to the notorious currents at Gordon Rocks, and I constantly had to pull her down as she was caught by upwellings. Scuba Iguana requires all divers, regardless of certification level, to undergo a perfunctory skills check on their first dive (something repeat divers have to wait out when new divers get on the boat on subsequent days). Yet this check still did not disqualify this hapless young diver, who I later learned was related somehow to one of the crew.
I also experienced the detrimental effects of something other reviewers have touched on: Scuba Iguana dive guides penchant for shooting video of every dive to sell to divers in a forced pitch back at the office. When I dive somewhere as challenging as the Galapagos, I want my dive guides undivided attention. I want both of his or her hands free in case of emergency. And I dont want my guide to rush to film an animal first before clients get a chance. This last was especially disconcerting when we came upon a group of five white tip sharks nestling on a ledge, a behavior I have longed to see and photograph. My guide, however, swooped in first, got his shots and rattled to alert the rest of us, just in time for us to watch them swim off without getting so much as a single image. Another time I found a large moray eel and signaled the group, only to be practically elbowed aside by the guide, who stuck his camera in the eels face and scared it so far back into its hole I never got a shot. The videos were later pedaled to us for $25 each during a dive logging session back at the office. If a dive shop wants to sell videos, fine, just assign a separate staff member other than the guide to shoot the video.
On several occasions I observed the guides handling the animals. This shouldnt be done anywhere, much less in the Galapagos, where authorities impose a seven-foot rule to avoid human interactions with the unique species there. But I saw guides petting sea lions, luring eels out of hiding, and removing sea urchins to provoke the territorial behavior of damselfish, all for the amusement of other divers.
A few other points to be aware of:
· Scuba Iguanas dive boats have no fresh water buckets to rinse cameras, or even saltwater buckets to keep cameras wet and safe when the boat is moving. Instead, cameras handed up after dives are piled on the seat cushions, there to sit salt crystals and all until you can get back to land one or two hours later and rinse them off
· Weights are available only in multiples of 4 lbs. Woe is he who dives with 10, 14, 15 or 18lbs.!
· If you miss a dive day, even for a deco violation, and they dont have enough divers to take the boat out on the only other day youre able to make up the dive, youre out $250. No refunds.
