AlaskaDiver
Contributor
- Messages
- 612
- Reaction score
- 6
- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
I had to wait a while to cool off before writing this trip report as everything would come out negative. It wasnt all negative though. The trip itself was a fun trip of a lifetime that we will never forget, however due to the cattle boat mentality of our dive boat operator, I will no longer use Sams. I heard sparkling reviews of Sams as to how they have personalized service and great lunch time activities including walks to caves etc. After the first few days of Blue Hole and Blue Corner intermittently interspersed with lunches at rat infested Ulong Island doing absolutely nothing, we expressed a desire for more variety. We were met with mumbles of 'yeah sure'.
Sams had absolutely no rhyme or reason as to how they loaded the people each day on the boats other than head count. All the boats going out were cattle boat style with 8-14 divers. There apparently was a shortage of boats at Sams so some rickety boats were borrowed with captains who were only interested in chewing betelnut. If you were unlucky enough to get scheduled on those boats, you really suffered the 1 hr ride out to the dive site. Sometimes it wasnt the boat, but rather the divers themselves. One day we were put onto a boat with 4 other Germans who were quite possibly the rudest divers I have ever encountered and who smoked the entire dive day. Our dive master for the day giggled and said her English wasnt that good and apologized for the two dive briefs. She spent the entire day conversing with the Germans and ignored us. Back at the shop, we requested politely from the scheduler a different dive master and preferably English speaking divers. In the shop (apparently not aware that I was buying a pair of booties within earshot) the dive master complained to the scheduler that she did not have enough people. I could immediately see where her priorities were.
We requested wrecks and any kind of historical WWII and Palauan historical information including site visits. Our requests were met by the dive masters all fumbling through scripted responses of our kayak tours do some of the land visits, but we dont have time. We voiced our opinion up the chain of command through the manager Dermott. The next few days were great fun diving although we were the only ones on a boat one day with a dive master who went to several locations (the German Lighthouse was a fun hike and the stone money caves were interesting) that he said he hadnt gone to in over 5 years. I was shocked. Apparently Sams only went there when they were working hard to provide service for their customers. Now the cattle boat mentality prevails.
I wouldnt say that the dive masters were inexperienced, but they were very comfortable with going to only a handful of dive sites. I was disappointed that folks appeared not to know very much about tide and current timing for Blue Corner and Peleliu. It was all schedule and timing of driving the boat rather than tailoring to the dive sites or the divers abilities. Of the 4 times I went to Blue Corner, the tide and currents were decent only once allowing us to see big fish. I suspect this was due to the fact that the current was 3-4 knots and there were not the usual 10 boats moored up top with awaiting divers.
On our trip to Peleliu, we encountered and upwelling of a 5-6 knots current which dispersed the group and once I hooked in, I nearly lost my mask. Fortunately I was wearing a long wetsuit, released the hook and began to surface slowly. Others wearing shorts or shorties were bleeding from the knees or arms upon their pick up.
I was also more dismayed as to the unpreparedness of other fellow divers. Some simply did not have the proper gear (i.e. no safety sausage, no light, no strobe/signaling device). Once in the boat, the divers pulled out of the swells insisted on talking about themselves and their experiences rather than assisting the captain to locate the other divers. That really irritated me. One man ditched his weights, lost his hook and after getting brought onto the boat with his wife (she was visibly shivering and shaking) ignored his wife and spent time chatting with the dive master about his experience. The man wasnt being an intentional creep, he just didnt recognize the signs that his wife was in need of water and was traumatized by the ordeal. To say the least the group was lucky to get back in the boat without someone getting seriously hurt. To Sams credit, our captain was a local Palauan with excellent boating skills.
I spent the final three days of our two week time there almost begging to go to Jellyfish lake during lunch or at least as a side visit. It was ridiculous. Finally in our final few days I resorted to persuading other members of our boat to request wreck dives. As I was leaving, the owner Sam appeared. I explained to him as to what we had experienced. He was not apologetic, behaved sheepish and was apathetic. Others who expressed their views noted that he behaved in the same way. He has lost touch with the divers and now is consumed by the operation. Sams Tours has become just another cattle boat operator. Id only recommend them if you are a diver arriving for 3 days of diving, just want to do the big three dives locally and dont care about being herded into a boat.
While I loved photographing all the creatures and cherish the time I spent diving the wrecks and walking on the islands, I will never use Sams again. It will be a long time before I return to Palau. There are so many other islands in the South Pacific. In the meantime emails were sent to Fish & Fins (another operator) and they too had the cattle boat generic response of wreck dives are done for a week on an annual basis otherwise they just hit the usual spots. If I were to rate Palau diving on a scale of 1to 10, Id rate it as a 7 or an 8. Sam Tours gets a 4 or a 5. It looks as though our next trip will be on a liveaboard despite the expense.
Sams had absolutely no rhyme or reason as to how they loaded the people each day on the boats other than head count. All the boats going out were cattle boat style with 8-14 divers. There apparently was a shortage of boats at Sams so some rickety boats were borrowed with captains who were only interested in chewing betelnut. If you were unlucky enough to get scheduled on those boats, you really suffered the 1 hr ride out to the dive site. Sometimes it wasnt the boat, but rather the divers themselves. One day we were put onto a boat with 4 other Germans who were quite possibly the rudest divers I have ever encountered and who smoked the entire dive day. Our dive master for the day giggled and said her English wasnt that good and apologized for the two dive briefs. She spent the entire day conversing with the Germans and ignored us. Back at the shop, we requested politely from the scheduler a different dive master and preferably English speaking divers. In the shop (apparently not aware that I was buying a pair of booties within earshot) the dive master complained to the scheduler that she did not have enough people. I could immediately see where her priorities were.
We requested wrecks and any kind of historical WWII and Palauan historical information including site visits. Our requests were met by the dive masters all fumbling through scripted responses of our kayak tours do some of the land visits, but we dont have time. We voiced our opinion up the chain of command through the manager Dermott. The next few days were great fun diving although we were the only ones on a boat one day with a dive master who went to several locations (the German Lighthouse was a fun hike and the stone money caves were interesting) that he said he hadnt gone to in over 5 years. I was shocked. Apparently Sams only went there when they were working hard to provide service for their customers. Now the cattle boat mentality prevails.
I wouldnt say that the dive masters were inexperienced, but they were very comfortable with going to only a handful of dive sites. I was disappointed that folks appeared not to know very much about tide and current timing for Blue Corner and Peleliu. It was all schedule and timing of driving the boat rather than tailoring to the dive sites or the divers abilities. Of the 4 times I went to Blue Corner, the tide and currents were decent only once allowing us to see big fish. I suspect this was due to the fact that the current was 3-4 knots and there were not the usual 10 boats moored up top with awaiting divers.
On our trip to Peleliu, we encountered and upwelling of a 5-6 knots current which dispersed the group and once I hooked in, I nearly lost my mask. Fortunately I was wearing a long wetsuit, released the hook and began to surface slowly. Others wearing shorts or shorties were bleeding from the knees or arms upon their pick up.
I was also more dismayed as to the unpreparedness of other fellow divers. Some simply did not have the proper gear (i.e. no safety sausage, no light, no strobe/signaling device). Once in the boat, the divers pulled out of the swells insisted on talking about themselves and their experiences rather than assisting the captain to locate the other divers. That really irritated me. One man ditched his weights, lost his hook and after getting brought onto the boat with his wife (she was visibly shivering and shaking) ignored his wife and spent time chatting with the dive master about his experience. The man wasnt being an intentional creep, he just didnt recognize the signs that his wife was in need of water and was traumatized by the ordeal. To say the least the group was lucky to get back in the boat without someone getting seriously hurt. To Sams credit, our captain was a local Palauan with excellent boating skills.
I spent the final three days of our two week time there almost begging to go to Jellyfish lake during lunch or at least as a side visit. It was ridiculous. Finally in our final few days I resorted to persuading other members of our boat to request wreck dives. As I was leaving, the owner Sam appeared. I explained to him as to what we had experienced. He was not apologetic, behaved sheepish and was apathetic. Others who expressed their views noted that he behaved in the same way. He has lost touch with the divers and now is consumed by the operation. Sams Tours has become just another cattle boat operator. Id only recommend them if you are a diver arriving for 3 days of diving, just want to do the big three dives locally and dont care about being herded into a boat.
While I loved photographing all the creatures and cherish the time I spent diving the wrecks and walking on the islands, I will never use Sams again. It will be a long time before I return to Palau. There are so many other islands in the South Pacific. In the meantime emails were sent to Fish & Fins (another operator) and they too had the cattle boat generic response of wreck dives are done for a week on an annual basis otherwise they just hit the usual spots. If I were to rate Palau diving on a scale of 1to 10, Id rate it as a 7 or an 8. Sam Tours gets a 4 or a 5. It looks as though our next trip will be on a liveaboard despite the expense.
and for my future reference, which dive shop would offer this 5 dives per day?
