SADivemaster
Registered
Has anyone stayed with Adventure Mania in Sodwana? I have just gotten back from what was possibly with worst dive weekend imaginable with them. Just wondering whether others have experienced the same unprofessional service?
Sodwana Bay - Adventure Mania
- Thread starter SADivemaster
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
sbloomer
Contributor
SADivemaster:
Hiya SAD. I have never dived with them. What went wrong?
Simon
OP
SADivemaster
Registered
1. All dive charters I have stayed with in South Africa will take both you and your dive gear to the beach in time for your dive via some shuttle service or the other. At Adventure Mania you have to drive yourself and your dive gear to the bay, which is around 25km away. For those, like myself, without a 4x4, you have to lug the gear (tank and all) all the way to the gazebo, which is out near the river mouth.
2. The boat ride - The DM gave us our briefing just before all 12 of us got onto the boat, the sma eboat that wascertified to carry 10. But wait... The DM was also our skipper! I thought at that stage about calling it quits then, but decided to see what happens. When we get to 2 mile reef, we all start kitting up like normal, that is until the DM/skipper realises that the boat has started taking on water. Once the water level had reached my knees, the DM/skipper decided to announce that once you where kitted up you must just fall in in your own time, but soon, cause the boat is still taking on water. Once most of us, including the student, who was on her first sea dive had fallen in and been separated sufficiently, the skipper entered the water, leaving on of the gear carriers from of the the beach (yes, those ones...) to man the boat.
3. The dive - One of my dive group, who had rented his BCD from Adventure Mania had his power inflator stick. I was not close enough to assist, but close enough to see that the DM hadn't even noticed. I realise that the DM is not there to baby sit, but come on?
4. The return trip - After the DM had called a 54 minute dive (for hitting critical pressure on a 11m reef - good air consumption...) we all got onto the boat, only to find the local from the beach who was left to captain the boat could not start the starboard engine. After checking the fuel, and swapping tanks because not surprisingly one was empty, the motor still wouldn't start. After screaming and shouting at the to quote his words "Bloody kaffir", it took three of us to start the motor.
5. The landing - After a somewhat quite trip back to shore, we got off the boat. Instead of putting our gear into the trailer, it was put slap bang onto the beach, while the trailer was manhandeled towards the other boat which had just landed.
6. The planning - From all other resorts and diving communes I have stayed in, it seems to be an unwritten rule that should you have a late launch one day, you are intitled to an earlt launch the next, and visa versa. Despite asking, we where still landed with a 10am one day and an 11am the next.
I am a reasonably safety conscious diver, by no means do I expect a dive charter to go overboard with regard to safety, but I do expect the bare minimum. I made a point of approaching the local who manned our boat, and no, he does not possess a skippers licence. I then inspected the boat for oxygen. No.
After the first dive, my girlfriend and I called it a weekend in terms of diving. It is a pity, as driving from Joburg all the way to Sodwana is a long trip, and a blatent waste of time when you get to do only one dive. I honestly would not feel safe nor comfortable diving with Adventure Mania again.
2. The boat ride - The DM gave us our briefing just before all 12 of us got onto the boat, the sma eboat that wascertified to carry 10. But wait... The DM was also our skipper! I thought at that stage about calling it quits then, but decided to see what happens. When we get to 2 mile reef, we all start kitting up like normal, that is until the DM/skipper realises that the boat has started taking on water. Once the water level had reached my knees, the DM/skipper decided to announce that once you where kitted up you must just fall in in your own time, but soon, cause the boat is still taking on water. Once most of us, including the student, who was on her first sea dive had fallen in and been separated sufficiently, the skipper entered the water, leaving on of the gear carriers from of the the beach (yes, those ones...) to man the boat.
3. The dive - One of my dive group, who had rented his BCD from Adventure Mania had his power inflator stick. I was not close enough to assist, but close enough to see that the DM hadn't even noticed. I realise that the DM is not there to baby sit, but come on?
4. The return trip - After the DM had called a 54 minute dive (for hitting critical pressure on a 11m reef - good air consumption...) we all got onto the boat, only to find the local from the beach who was left to captain the boat could not start the starboard engine. After checking the fuel, and swapping tanks because not surprisingly one was empty, the motor still wouldn't start. After screaming and shouting at the to quote his words "Bloody kaffir", it took three of us to start the motor.
5. The landing - After a somewhat quite trip back to shore, we got off the boat. Instead of putting our gear into the trailer, it was put slap bang onto the beach, while the trailer was manhandeled towards the other boat which had just landed.
6. The planning - From all other resorts and diving communes I have stayed in, it seems to be an unwritten rule that should you have a late launch one day, you are intitled to an earlt launch the next, and visa versa. Despite asking, we where still landed with a 10am one day and an 11am the next.
I am a reasonably safety conscious diver, by no means do I expect a dive charter to go overboard with regard to safety, but I do expect the bare minimum. I made a point of approaching the local who manned our boat, and no, he does not possess a skippers licence. I then inspected the boat for oxygen. No.
After the first dive, my girlfriend and I called it a weekend in terms of diving. It is a pity, as driving from Joburg all the way to Sodwana is a long trip, and a blatent waste of time when you get to do only one dive. I honestly would not feel safe nor comfortable diving with Adventure Mania again.
sbloomer
Contributor
Sheesh, sounds like an operation to avoid. How did they compare in terms of prices to the other Sodwana operators?
Not only were they lax in the services they were supposed to provide, some aspects were illegal. The boat was overloaded, and no boat is allowed to be left in the hands of someone who is not a qualified skipper. Even if there was oxygen in the boat, is the DM qualified to admister it? Probably not.
And insulting a local the way he did is, as you are only too well aware, leaving himself open to legal action in terms of hate speech.
Dive operators like this should be used for chumming.....
Not only were they lax in the services they were supposed to provide, some aspects were illegal. The boat was overloaded, and no boat is allowed to be left in the hands of someone who is not a qualified skipper. Even if there was oxygen in the boat, is the DM qualified to admister it? Probably not.
And insulting a local the way he did is, as you are only too well aware, leaving himself open to legal action in terms of hate speech.
Dive operators like this should be used for chumming.....
OP
SADivemaster
Registered
Can not think of a better thing to do to them than that.
Cheers.
The accomodation was fairly cheap, but the dives where on par with everyone else.
Cheers.
The accomodation was fairly cheap, but the dives where on par with everyone else.
adsadiving
Registered
ditto on the chumming...
wow, what a disaster.
We regularly dive Sodwana with our clients but have never experienced this kind of neglect and bad attitude. As a tour operator, this is definately unacceptable, it's bad for business and bad for Sodwana and scuba diving in South Africa as a whole.
Best not to refer our next client to them...
SADivermaster - next time you dive in Sodwana, try Coral Divers (http://www.coraldivers.co.za) or even Triton Dive Charters (http://www.tritondiving.co.za)
wow, what a disaster.
We regularly dive Sodwana with our clients but have never experienced this kind of neglect and bad attitude. As a tour operator, this is definately unacceptable, it's bad for business and bad for Sodwana and scuba diving in South Africa as a whole.
Best not to refer our next client to them...
SADivermaster - next time you dive in Sodwana, try Coral Divers (http://www.coraldivers.co.za) or even Triton Dive Charters (http://www.tritondiving.co.za)
caymaniac
Contributor
adsadiving:ditto on the chumming...
wow, what a disaster.
We regularly dive Sodwana with our clients but have never experienced this kind of neglect and bad attitude. As a tour operator, this is definately unacceptable, it's bad for business and bad for Sodwana and scuba diving in South Africa as a whole.
Best not to refer our next client to them...
SADivermaster - next time you dive in Sodwana, try Coral Divers (http://www.coraldivers.co.za) or even Triton Dive Charters (http://www.tritondiving.co.za)
Last time I was in Sodwanna, it was 1998. We used Coral Divers and they were great. I would use them again.
Dive Safe,
Caymaniac
SADivemaster:
More and more often somebody uses my name...
Mania
SA-Diver
Contributor
We use either Sodwana Lodge charter or Coral Divers and have always received great service.
When are we going down there for the chumming ceremony?
When are we going down there for the chumming ceremony?
adsadiving
Registered
quote: When are we going down there for the chumming ceremony?
haha, we need to arrange that...
why not start a new topic - "dive charters, To chum or not to chum ?"
haha, we need to arrange that...
why not start a new topic - "dive charters, To chum or not to chum ?"
Similar threads
