Shark Dive with Waihuka Divers, Roatan

[bstone]

Those of you planning to do the shark dive with Waihuka Divers, just be aware that they run a meat shop operation. Even though diving with sharks is always exciting, this operation overloads their boats with divers, requiring you to be fully suited up and ready to jump in the water before your even leave the dock. They take short cuts in safety standards and seem to be more interested in moving as many divers as possible through their meat shop than focusing on the divers and making this a pleasant experience. As our boat raced out to the dive site, we were taking on water, since the boat was overloaded. It seemed unsafe with the large number of divers we had, some experienced and many inexperienced, having problems equalizing. After the dive was over and we ascended, it was like herding a bunch of cattle back to the surface. As I was waiting through my safety stop I notice one of the divers in our group run out of air and had to buddy breath through his safety stop.

Too many divers...greater risk for problems and accidents.

 

[Doc]

I agree that is "advanced diving" for many.

It does involve the use of a long narrow boat, which often dictates that divers gear up when the boat is stable and not rocking. Not a bad thing because the ride is only 10 minutes out. Better to be ready than to have a full boat of divers thrashing about.

There is no qualification for going other than a basic Certification. Cruise Ship divers and the like appear for the big adventure, many having only freshly minted C-Cards.

The dive also contains other "advanced" skills including being intentionally overweighted (you have to know where to begin with your weights first), understanding how a boat line system works (or paying very close attention to the briefing's drawings & diagrams). Many people have not descended in current, nor had to hang on to lines- so it's all "advanced" to them. A lot of people fall short of the mark, but so far- everyone has survived the great ordeal of meeting Mr. Jaws.

You are right- when you put that many mixed ability divers in a group, there is a greater risk of problems and accidents. Just understand, that is their problem, not yours. When we pay to go on these carnival rides, it's up to the individual diver to take care of themselves and if they can- their buddy.

I think the dive is inherently safe and conducted in a proper manner, but as you pointed out- there are a mix of people there- some are in way over their heads. Unfortunately, anybody with the money will go do these dives first thing so that they have something exciting to talk about back home.

I think Roatan has one of the better Canned Shark Rodeos in the Caribbean, but it is what it is and nothing more- Just like a roller coaster, bungee jump, or tandem sky dive. You will know and appreciate the difference after the first time you meet Mr Grey out in the wild, unexpectedly, on his terms. It will happen, given enough time underwater.

In the mean time, canned dives, including Dolphins and Rays, they fill a void for the newer diver who hasn't begun the process of finding and identifying the really cool stuff on their own. The Sharks will come, all on their own, in time- even the Whale Sharks.

If you want to do any dive, by all means, consider well the details involved in the dive proposed. The Roatan Shark Dive is well described here on Scuba Board.

But hey, bstone, how were the Sharks?

 

[leadweight]

Be happy, at least the boat did not sink. I have been out there, but it was a private deal with only about six divers.

 

[cfelliot]

......Just understand, that is their problem, not yours. When we pay to go on these carnival rides, it's up to the individual diver to take care of themselves and if they can- their buddy.......

One thing I remember from the briefing was that they said they'd call the dive if they had to chase someone who lost the line on descent and was drifting away.

Understandable, but I sure wouldn't want to be that diver!

Chuck

 

[Papa_Bear]

Those of you planning to do the shark dive with Waihuka Divers, just be aware that they run a meat shop operation. Even though diving with sharks is always exciting, this operation overloads their boats with divers, requiring you to be fully suited up and ready to jump in the water before your even leave the dock. They take short cuts in safety standards and seem to be more interested in moving as many divers as possible through their meat shop than focusing on the divers and making this a pleasant experience. As our boat raced out to the dive site, we were taking on water, since the boat was overloaded. It seemed unsafe with the large number of divers we had, some experienced and many inexperienced, having problems equalizing. After the dive was over and we ascended, it was like herding a bunch of cattle back to the surface. As I was waiting through my safety stop I notice one of the divers in our group run out of air and had to buddy breath through his safety stop.

Too many divers...greater risk for problems and accidents.

Whats the matter? The level of the dive above you? Sounds like maybe YOU had a bad experience? They are not a "Meat Shop" but a dive operation that provides a service! If you didn't like it maybe you should examine your own skill level and maybe it was too much for you? I have been on that dive many times and have great video of it! If you think you can run it batter, buy it from them and be my guest! The diver who ran out of air, it's his fault not the operations, and a safety stop is just that, if he was not comfortable sharing HE should have surfaced! How do you blame the operation for that? They run a safe operation and they don't test you, so if you think your in over your head call it off! Don't point your finger at someone else for your weakness! Next you will want the government to set standards for shark divers and dives! Just say it was too much for me and don't do it until your ready! I am sure if you wanted to charter the entire dive as a private one just pony up and shut up!

Link to video of the shark dive:http://www.twotankedproductions.com/traveltripinformation/roatan2007.html

 

[ronscuba]

I thoroughly enjoyed this dive, with this operator. I felt they were safe and gave very specific instructions on how the dive would proceed, what to do, what not to do and why.

As a certified diver, I take responsibility for myself, including maintaining my air supply, performing a safety stop and calling a dive if I feel necessary.

IMHO, those of you planning on doing the dive, pay attention during the dive briefing that takes place at the dive shop before you go on the boat. Don't cave to peer pressure and make your own decision whether or not to do the dive.

Here is a preview video I made of my dive.

[vimeo]1383950[/vimeo]

 

[CODMAN]

Whats the matter? The level of the dive above you? Sounds like maybe YOU had a bad experience? They are not a "Meat Shop" but a dive operation that provides a service! If you didn't like it maybe you should examine your own skill level and maybe it was too much for you? I have been on that dive many times and have great video of it! If you think you can run it batter, buy it from them and be my guest! The diver who ran out of air, it's his fault not the operations, and a safety stop is just that, if he was not comfortable sharing HE should have surfaced! How do you blame the operation for that? They run a safe operation and they don't test you, so if you think your in over your head call it off! Don't point your finger at someone else for your weakness! Next you will want the government to set standards for shark divers and dives! Just say it was too much for me and don't do it until your ready! I am sure if you wanted to charter the entire dive as a private one just pony up and shut up!

Link to video of the shark dive:Two Tanked Productions HD & SD Underwater Productions and video services

Papa bear, I'm sorry to say this but I found your reaction to the OP overly strong and quite a bit rude! The OP was just stating his vision and oppinion of the experience he lived, which obviously was negative. But even though he was mainly stating the negative aspects of his experience, he wasn't flaming or trashing anybody and definetly didn't deserve (in my oppinion) such a harsh reaction. Rather you could have calmly explained why you disagree with his oppinion, as RoatanMan did coffee. Escalating like you did just mines your own credibility (at least to my eyes) and turns people off from sharing their oppinions and views on these forums.

I'm sorry to say this and I'm not looking to attack you in any way. But if everybody reacted as you did in this case Scubaboard would be one oozing sesspool instead of the great resource for divers looking to learn/ share their experience!

We all need to take a deep breath before posting and try to keep things constructive (and I'm no exception to this).

regards,

 

[Desert_Diver]

I have made the dive that is the object of this discussion. Obviously, it was probably not at the same time that bstone is describing.

Our boat was almost completely full, but not overloaded in my opinion. We entered the water in "even/odd" numbered backrolls. Everyone descended in an orderly fashion. The divers followed their directions from the pre-dive briefing and there were no problems. The divers made an organized and orderly ascent at the end of the dive. Nobody ran out of air. I personally had more than 1500 psi remaining as I got back on the boat.

I just finished reveiwing my pictures from that dive. We had our wet suits on but not "done up" on the ride out to the dive site. All of the BCs and fins are laying in the middle of the boat at the appropriate divers feet. I have no shots of divers donning gear but from the sequence of pictures, it appears we geared up while the boat was tying in to the mooring.

I have no way of comparing my particular dive to bstone's, but it would appear that we had vastly different experiences on the dive. I was not associated with a cruise. Most of the divers on my boat were guests that week at CoCo View. Some of the divers were assigned to the same boat at CoCo View (Yellow Boat) and I remember them as being generally a competant group with reasonable diving skills for vacation divers.

I will not probably repeat this dive, but not because I was disappointed. I would not discourage anyone from trying it. I enjoyed it.

Art

 

[Papa_Bear]

I answered in the "Tone" of the poster! He called a legitimate dive operation some pretty strong words! So maybe he needed to know how it felt to be attacked instead of asking first others experiences and doing a little exploratory diving first before slandering a well run dive operation! He is lucky the owners seems not to be a SB member! There are ways of approaching these type of disputes, but one isn't to come on here and attack calling names! Something I didn't do, but did point out when your pointing fingers some are pointed back at you! The Sea is far less forgiving than me and if your feeling are hurt on a chat board about your dive skill level, then show me to be wrong by becoming a better diver!

 

[georoc01]

I did this dive through Anthony's Key in September. Rather than using the dive ops boat, we used one of Anthony's Key larger boats (48 footer I believe), Plenty of space and plenty of shade as we took the boat directly from the Anthony's Key dock and didn't stop at the ops dive shop until after the dive to drop the dive op off.

In addition to the Waihuka Divers DM, we had a 2nd DM in the water along with the Anthony's Key videographer. The 2nd DM entered last and stayed on the line to assist any divers having trouble equalizing.

Once everyone was safely down in the sand and the bucket secured did the DM have us swim with the sharks. We did so for about 20 minutes prior to the opening off the bucket. The feeding went really quickly after that and then the frenzy started in the search for teeth began. I personally stayed out of it, but that seemed to be the only chaos on my dive. When then all went up, did our stop and returned to the boat.

They stopped long enough at Waihuka Divers to drop off the DM and let people take a bathroom break prior to the boat ride back to Anthony's Key. We were back in time to make the 2nd dive of the day on our individual boat.

I did enjoy this dive, much more than the Dolphin Dive, where the dolphins really didn't cooperate. Other people have reported the opposite. Such is diving with wild animals.

The price looked to be the same either way. So if you don't like the ops boat, consider the Anthony's Key option.