Steel tank ops - a comparison between Living Underwater and Aldora

[divingjd]

A frood should always know where his towel is! Don't panic!

I will agree that the groupings on Aldora boats are not always perfect, but at least I'm always with other nitrox divers. Many times (but not always) the divers on our boats have all been very good.

I don't mind the lack of snacks. I generally keep a granola bar in my dry bag for emergencies and we normally go to a beach club for SIs. I don't mind buying something there. It's just an early lunch. YMMV.


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[cvchief]

I don't mind the lack of snacks.

Oh, I forgot about that. That make a lot more sense then.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

A frood should always know where his towel is! Don't panic!

I will agree that the groupings on Aldora boats are not always perfect, but at least I'm always with other nitrox divers. Many times (but not always) the divers on our boats have all been very good.

I don't mind the lack of snacks. I generally keep a granola bar in my dry bag for emergencies and we normally go to a beach club for SIs. I don't mind buying something there. It's just an early lunch. YMMV.


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Nothing is perfect, but they do try.
On our last Cozumel trip, there was a diver who was just SO annoying that customers and guides alike insisted he be with a different group each day. We had the pleasure of diving with him twice, since there was only one boat going out for the night dive.
If they'd not had the option of moving him around, I am pretty sure someone would have turned off his air.

 

[MMM]

Heh. We had one of those on this trip. Each day, he got voted off of every boat he got assigned by the divers and the DMs. They finally gave him his own DM and put him in the water by himself (with no other clients in the the vicinity) with that unlucky DM.

Nothing is perfect, but they do try.
On our last Cozumel trip, there was a diver who was just SO annoying that customers and guides alike insisted he be with a different group each day. We had the pleasure of diving with him twice, since there was only one boat going out for the night dive.
If they'd not had the option of moving him around, I am pretty sure someone would have turned off his air.

 

[Basscat]

Nothing is perfect, but they do try.
On our last Cozumel trip, there was a diver who was just SO annoying that customers and guides alike insisted he be with a different group each day. We had the pleasure of diving with him twice, since there was only one boat going out for the night dive.
If they'd not had the option of moving him around, I am pretty sure someone would have turned off his air.

So I gotta know, what did he do that was so annoying? I've had a few on the boat that I was glad I didn't have to dive with again, but that sounds pretty extreme...

 

[MMM]

Don't know about DD's experience but the guy we had was all over the place like a ping pong ball with observably no awareness of other divers in the water, banging into them, swimming up from behind and then cutting in front of them, swimming over top of them (and hitting them), etc. etc. all with a GoPro outstretched in front of him. He was so busy looking into the camera and recording every moment of his dive that he was oblivious to everything and everyone around him. After he kicked me in the head for the third time, I finally grabbed his fin. He turned around with a surprised look on his face and I gave him the underwater sign for "back off". Apparently on earlier dives (on different boats) he kicked one diver's mask off and was grabbing the reefs to get his important shots. The DM apologized to me after everyone else had been dropped off for having this horrid diver on the "advanced" boat. I had never even raised the matter with him. But he said it was embarrassing to him because he saw 2 of the 3 times that he cut me off and kicked my head and actually asked me to approach management and ask that the guy be reassigned to a different dive group. When I did so, I ran into other divers in the shop who said "oh yeah, we had him too and asked that he be moved". Props to Aldora for doing about the only thing they could...give him his own boat and his own DM! He was truly one of the most inconsiderate, unaware divers I have ever dived with. But one who told everyone about how advanced he was, training-wise, experience-wise, ability-wise. On the upside, he didn't appear to be all that bad on air.

Nothing is perfect, but they do try.
On our last Cozumel trip, there was a diver who was just SO annoying that customers and guides alike insisted he be with a different group each day. We had the pleasure of diving with him twice, since there was only one boat going out for the night dive.
If they'd not had the option of moving him around, I am pretty sure someone would have turned off his air.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Don't know about DD's experience but the guy we had was all over the place like a ping pong ball with observably no awareness of other divers in the water, banging into them, swimming up from behind and then cutting in front of them, swimming over top of them (and hitting them), etc. etc. all with a GoPro outstretched in front of him. He was so busy looking into the camera and recording every moment of his dive that he was oblivious to everything and everyone around him. After he kicked me in the head for the third time, I finally grabbed his fin. He turned around with a surprised look on his face and I gave him the underwater sign for "back off". Apparently on earlier dives (on different boats) he kicked one diver's mask off and was grabbing the reefs to get his important shots. The DM apologized to me after everyone else had been dropped off for having this horrid diver on the "advanced" boat. I had never even raised the matter with him. But he said it was embarrassing to him because he saw 2 of the 3 times that he cut me off and kicked my head and actually asked me to approach management and ask that the guy be reassigned to a different dive group. When I did so, I ran into other divers in the shop who said "oh yeah, we had him too and asked that he be moved". Props to Aldora for doing about the only thing they could...give him his own boat and his own DM! He was truly one of the most inconsiderate, unaware divers I have ever dived with. But one who told everyone about how advanced he was, training-wise, experience-wise, ability-wise. On the upside, he didn't appear to be all that bad on air.

Could have been the same guy... And once he got in for his pictures, he wasn't about to move until after he'd scared the critter out of sight.
Except this guy used more air than me, and I consider myself something of a Hoover, with a SAC that runs 0.45-0.55.
He also had a knack for breaking gear, and then expecting someone to have repair parts or loan him something. Aldora did loan him a reg, which was nice of them. They did the same thing for me once, when my inflator broke. Difference is, I expected to sit out the dive and buy parts. He assumed someone would fix it right then and there.
He did do one thing that I thought was at least entertaining.
After the night dive, we were on the boat and heading home. A flying fish landed on the boat between him and our Kim. Sue saw it, laughed, and pointed. Kim saw it flopping and shifted away to see what it was. The Annoyance screamed like a 6 year old girl and leaped from port side front to starboard rear where he gibbered until someone tossed the poor fish back into the water.

 

[scubafanatic]

Could have been the same guy... And once he got in for his pictures, he wasn't about to move until after he'd scared the critter out of sight.
Except this guy used more air than me, and I consider myself something of a Hoover, with a SAC that runs 0.45-0.55.
He also had a knack for breaking gear, and then expecting someone to have repair parts or loan him something. Aldora did loan him a reg, which was nice of them. They did the same thing for me once, when my inflator broke. Difference is, I expected to sit out the dive and buy parts. He assumed someone would fix it right then and there.
He did do one thing that I thought was at least entertaining.
After the night dive, we were on the boat and heading home. A flying fish landed on the boat between him and our Kim. Sue saw it, laughed, and pointed. Kim saw it flopping and shifted away to see what it was. The Annoyance screamed like a 6 year old girl and leaped from port side front to starboard rear where he gibbered until someone tossed the poor fish back into the water.

You should have used the 'killer flying fish attack' to your advantage by casually (accidentally ) mentioning that YOUR dive boat will frequent dive sites with high flying fish populations and maybe he should transfer to another, much safer boat!

 

[dmoore19]

There was a diver that kicked my mask off, kicked the reg out of my mouth and kicked me in the jaw so hard I saw stars. All on my very first night dive on my first dive trip ever. It wasn't on an Aldora boat but it happened. I am especially aware of others zooming in over the top of me to see what the DM is pointing out. I look at it now as a pretty good test of my training as I cleared my mask, found my reg and continued the dive.

 

[Mike]

I had always thought they were a "luxury" op. .

I've never thought of them as a luxury op, whatever that is. perhaps the 'valet' service is where this misconception comes from? Valet is hardly a unique dive service anymore, there are plenty of dive ops who offer it in Cozumel and elsewhere.

Dave and his operation to me I've always thought of Dave as being a diver's diver and his business appeals to more serious divers who are interested in the diving part of the equation (the under water part). He's put serious emphasis on bottom times and opening up unique dive sites, east side, and now north sites. He's also put serious emphasis on safety and reinvestment into his business to the benefit of his customers - own fill station and investment into a large dive boat to open up more diving territory and to be able to go out when other ops with small boats can't due to partial port closures, adding boat after boat to their fleet so they can better separate divers by ability. His dive masters are all super enthusiastic about getting under water, not really so much about luxury dive experiences, I think if you book your diving with Aldora because you want pound cake and back rubs between dives you'll be disappointed, but if you want to maximize your diving experiences, bottom times and exposures to unique sites you'll be with the right operation.