I spent the weekend diving with Boardwalk Divers and stayed at the Boardwalk Inn.
The hotel (Ph: 047-252-2893): Located in the freeport economic zone very close to the beach. Cross the road and walk past a playground and you're at the beach. The rooms have two twin beds but have enough room for a third (whether the hotel would provide a third is something else). The rooms have A/C, a TV with cable, small fridge and the bathroom has hot water. I saw a wrieless router but didn't have my laptop to check availability. The sign at the front desk said 1750P Sun-Thurs and 1950P Fri & Sat.
Opinion of the hotel: Good location, basic room. I disliked the bed, pure foam with no support. I didn't eat at the restaurant but the people I was with did and said the the service was slow (even by local standards) and the food was poor.
Boardwalk Divers (Ph: 047-252-5357): Located next door the the hotel, the dive shop was convenient. The shop is a mix of recreational and technical, the shop will rent the basics but also has lights, backplates, doubles, etc. There was talk of helium as well but I wasn't sure if that was present or forthcoming.
The shop has three boats of varing sizes and speeds. Briefings on significant wrecks come with nice drawings that indicate direction, various depths, etc. Once ready to dive, the boatmen load the gear into a cart and haul it to the boat. You carry what you wish (light/camera/computer) down to the beach and to the boat. It's a 5 min. walk from the shop to the boat.
Dive Shop opinion: The shop didn't have much problem with leading people into wrecks. Admittedly, most of the time they were simply complex swimthroughs with more than enough exit availability, the fact is that at least one unprepared diver got confused and turned around and lost the DM. While I'm sure the DM would have found him long before anything happened (the DM would have had to pass him to leave), the guy simply wasn't prepared. This is just my opinion but people wearing splitfins, using a flutter kick and carrying a small LED light with no backup shouldn't be in small dark silty places. (The guy's light couldn't reach the 6 feet he had separated from the DM. By the time I realized that while I was following him and he was following no one, the distance had increased a bit. I shined mine around, found the DM and pointed the guy on).
We did do some line laying inside the USS New York. I wasn't privy to any conversations about ability that may have occured with any of the other divers. At least one diver had gone through 135 cubic feet of gas (had 500 PSI left in doubles) by the end of the dive, I'm guessing he hyperventilated in the wreck since the guy is supposed to be an experienced instructor. For those who know how much I consume, I used 1500 PSI.
To be fair, the owner doesn't just let anyone do any dive without questioning their abilities. He and I connected pretty quickly after I showed my best C-Card, talked about my DIR-F experince and we exchanged some shared experiences in Mapating. And when the guy I was with expressed interest in a site at 180 ft, the owner started asking me more pointed questions about his level of skill and experience.
I used doubles filled with 31-33% on every dive. Cost was 850P per dive plus 250P per tank of nitrox for a total of 1350P for a doubles dive with Nitrox. Some of the other places (like the shop attached to Vasco's) want 2500P for one (1) doubles dive with Nitrox. Boardwalk was a friendly place with people who have some knowledge of tech diving in addition to recreational.
I'll be going back.
The hotel (Ph: 047-252-2893): Located in the freeport economic zone very close to the beach. Cross the road and walk past a playground and you're at the beach. The rooms have two twin beds but have enough room for a third (whether the hotel would provide a third is something else). The rooms have A/C, a TV with cable, small fridge and the bathroom has hot water. I saw a wrieless router but didn't have my laptop to check availability. The sign at the front desk said 1750P Sun-Thurs and 1950P Fri & Sat.
Opinion of the hotel: Good location, basic room. I disliked the bed, pure foam with no support. I didn't eat at the restaurant but the people I was with did and said the the service was slow (even by local standards) and the food was poor.
Boardwalk Divers (Ph: 047-252-5357): Located next door the the hotel, the dive shop was convenient. The shop is a mix of recreational and technical, the shop will rent the basics but also has lights, backplates, doubles, etc. There was talk of helium as well but I wasn't sure if that was present or forthcoming.
The shop has three boats of varing sizes and speeds. Briefings on significant wrecks come with nice drawings that indicate direction, various depths, etc. Once ready to dive, the boatmen load the gear into a cart and haul it to the boat. You carry what you wish (light/camera/computer) down to the beach and to the boat. It's a 5 min. walk from the shop to the boat.
Dive Shop opinion: The shop didn't have much problem with leading people into wrecks. Admittedly, most of the time they were simply complex swimthroughs with more than enough exit availability, the fact is that at least one unprepared diver got confused and turned around and lost the DM. While I'm sure the DM would have found him long before anything happened (the DM would have had to pass him to leave), the guy simply wasn't prepared. This is just my opinion but people wearing splitfins, using a flutter kick and carrying a small LED light with no backup shouldn't be in small dark silty places. (The guy's light couldn't reach the 6 feet he had separated from the DM. By the time I realized that while I was following him and he was following no one, the distance had increased a bit. I shined mine around, found the DM and pointed the guy on).
We did do some line laying inside the USS New York. I wasn't privy to any conversations about ability that may have occured with any of the other divers. At least one diver had gone through 135 cubic feet of gas (had 500 PSI left in doubles) by the end of the dive, I'm guessing he hyperventilated in the wreck since the guy is supposed to be an experienced instructor. For those who know how much I consume, I used 1500 PSI.
To be fair, the owner doesn't just let anyone do any dive without questioning their abilities. He and I connected pretty quickly after I showed my best C-Card, talked about my DIR-F experince and we exchanged some shared experiences in Mapating. And when the guy I was with expressed interest in a site at 180 ft, the owner started asking me more pointed questions about his level of skill and experience.
I used doubles filled with 31-33% on every dive. Cost was 850P per dive plus 250P per tank of nitrox for a total of 1350P for a doubles dive with Nitrox. Some of the other places (like the shop attached to Vasco's) want 2500P for one (1) doubles dive with Nitrox. Boardwalk was a friendly place with people who have some knowledge of tech diving in addition to recreational.
I'll be going back.
