Going over there soon so might just drop in and see how the business is run and will report back.
US Expat fatality in Vanuatu
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I know of a dive centre here that did the same, following a fatality when an untested tank exploded. They wanted it understood as a tragic accident and sadly seem to have got away with it.
SwedTekDiver
Registered
Hi all.
After reading this post I cant agree more than that Aquamarine is a very dangerous operator and would not recommend anyone to dive with them.
Before I get to my dive story, here is some pre info.
I booked and pre-paid 10 dives from Sweden, I also booked and paid twin set tanks and deco gases in advance and was promised a private guide due to my set up and dive plans we made over e-mail contact.
When on site we kitted up in a blazing sun and incredible heat, when I asked for some water they didnt have any. (warning sign No 1)
I then see my guide (same one mentioned in the accident report above, Simon) only kits up with a single tank..
I test smelled/tasted my air, and it was full of either oil or exhaust fumes (warning sign No 2..), when I mention this to Rehan he says that it will be fixed to the second dive for the day and I should not worry since this is just a check dive. (warning sign No 3, and do I have to say that it was NOT fixed?.. sign No 4)
Now the guide throws a A4 paper showing the Coolidge onto the concrete bench in front of me to do a dive brefing, at this point Im now so hot in my gear my head almost starts spinning, and then also shows me the deco plan (wich I object to and say I want to do my deco in the way I been teached and conducted all after that, but to no good: its either their way or no dive at all..)
That was day one.
This is my experience with them from July last year taken from my Facebook report:
[start]
"Well..., where to start?..
Morning dive today was kind of nice (exept that the air problems still was not sorted out.., I still have a splitting hadache writing this 8 hours after last dive),we went down to 40m for a medium pentration of the wreck to see the statue of 'the white lady' wich was located in the old smoking area of the ship. Not so hard or dangerous penetration, we always were in a position so that you could see an exit to open water, so it was all good.
Then came dive nr two this afternoon..
1) I dive with twin sets + deco bottle and have been promised, and paid for, a private guide this week and I (of course) expect the guide to also would dive with twin sets.
That have not happened so far, my guide, even that he has a good air consumption he cant stay down as long as me, so the dives are always conducted in a rush..
And of course the dive plans never holds up because of that, if you make a plan to dive to 40m for 25min you expect to do that, not 40m for seven to ten minutes and then rush ascent cause the guide/buddy is running low of air.. (plan your dive and dive your plan)
2) on this the second dive two newly certified OW divers were to follow us well below 30m and penetrate the wreck quite heavily, they also dived with single tanks and were not issued with any computers or bottom timers or torches!! (I here lent one of them my spare bottom timer as also my spare torch)
We decend and follow the rigged line from the entry point to the bow, I took the position as last diver to get a feeling of the OW divers experience, and as I thought they were all over the place having problems with boyancy etc.
We get to the wreck and decend to the cargo hold #2 to start the penetration to the right side seen from our entry point.
We get about ten meters in when one started to panic when it got dark and rust silt was all over the place, and thats because they have boyancy problems and no finning techniques, so now you could see approx 0.5m in front of you, and as you know a torch in heavily silted water is hardly no help at all.., my mask was almost kicked off my head, and I almost also lost my reg to since I was last in line at the back.
My thought then was: "lets turn around before someone dies".
I turn around and guided them out of there using my torch to signal them were the exit is when I reached the entry point.
So far so good..
But hey, its not over yet!
3) we have now turned around and are now back in cargo hold #2 so we can see the exit to open water, fine I think again; lets go up before someone dies.
The guide asks the OW divers how much air they have left; one signals 80 bar, well below the turn pressure, and we are still at 31m about 15-20 minutes in to the dive!!
But no!, the guide then shoots off into another area of the wreck!, a little lighter than before but still quite dark, all to see a f***ing jeep and wants the OW´s to squeeze in behind the steering wheel and me to take photos of them!, its absolutley no use to do it since there once again is a ton of rust silt all over and I of course will have to use the strobe..
I do it because I just want to get out of there asap..
4) I (we, since they have same dive profile as me..) have now over 20min of decompression to do according to the dive plan, I have the air and nitrox to do it but they dont, so now the guide rushes to get to the spare air tank he dropped at 6m, since now the OW diver is down to about 40 bar, still below 30m!!.
I try to follow them with out breaking ascent speeds and I of course starts my deco at the right depth and keep my deco times, but (try to) stay in visual contact with them so if someone run out of air on the way there I'll be ready to assist them with my air.
At this point I can see one of them getting spare air from the guide (if I can get there in time is kinda doubtful since they are now far far away from me but I would try at least)
When I reach 6m I still have ten minutes left on deco but I do it alone since now the guide already sent the OW divers to the surface, after only maximum ten minutes of deco when they should have made 20 min..
I hope they not getting bent later at their hotel tonight..
Actually, this was the first time since I started diving I was afraid, not so much for my self, but for the divers that was with me on this dive..
Im not shure if I will do any more dives here cause of how they are conducted..
I will have a serious talk with the dive operator tomorrow, and if things are not changed I'll rather stay dry and alive for the rest of my stay in Vanuatu."
After reading this post I cant agree more than that Aquamarine is a very dangerous operator and would not recommend anyone to dive with them.
Before I get to my dive story, here is some pre info.
I booked and pre-paid 10 dives from Sweden, I also booked and paid twin set tanks and deco gases in advance and was promised a private guide due to my set up and dive plans we made over e-mail contact.
When on site we kitted up in a blazing sun and incredible heat, when I asked for some water they didnt have any. (warning sign No 1)
I then see my guide (same one mentioned in the accident report above, Simon) only kits up with a single tank..
I test smelled/tasted my air, and it was full of either oil or exhaust fumes (warning sign No 2..), when I mention this to Rehan he says that it will be fixed to the second dive for the day and I should not worry since this is just a check dive. (warning sign No 3, and do I have to say that it was NOT fixed?.. sign No 4)
Now the guide throws a A4 paper showing the Coolidge onto the concrete bench in front of me to do a dive brefing, at this point Im now so hot in my gear my head almost starts spinning, and then also shows me the deco plan (wich I object to and say I want to do my deco in the way I been teached and conducted all after that, but to no good: its either their way or no dive at all..)
That was day one.
This is my experience with them from July last year taken from my Facebook report:
[start]
"Well..., where to start?..
Morning dive today was kind of nice (exept that the air problems still was not sorted out.., I still have a splitting hadache writing this 8 hours after last dive),we went down to 40m for a medium pentration of the wreck to see the statue of 'the white lady' wich was located in the old smoking area of the ship. Not so hard or dangerous penetration, we always were in a position so that you could see an exit to open water, so it was all good.
Then came dive nr two this afternoon..
1) I dive with twin sets + deco bottle and have been promised, and paid for, a private guide this week and I (of course) expect the guide to also would dive with twin sets.
That have not happened so far, my guide, even that he has a good air consumption he cant stay down as long as me, so the dives are always conducted in a rush..
And of course the dive plans never holds up because of that, if you make a plan to dive to 40m for 25min you expect to do that, not 40m for seven to ten minutes and then rush ascent cause the guide/buddy is running low of air.. (plan your dive and dive your plan)
2) on this the second dive two newly certified OW divers were to follow us well below 30m and penetrate the wreck quite heavily, they also dived with single tanks and were not issued with any computers or bottom timers or torches!! (I here lent one of them my spare bottom timer as also my spare torch)
We decend and follow the rigged line from the entry point to the bow, I took the position as last diver to get a feeling of the OW divers experience, and as I thought they were all over the place having problems with boyancy etc.
We get to the wreck and decend to the cargo hold #2 to start the penetration to the right side seen from our entry point.
We get about ten meters in when one started to panic when it got dark and rust silt was all over the place, and thats because they have boyancy problems and no finning techniques, so now you could see approx 0.5m in front of you, and as you know a torch in heavily silted water is hardly no help at all.., my mask was almost kicked off my head, and I almost also lost my reg to since I was last in line at the back.
My thought then was: "lets turn around before someone dies".
I turn around and guided them out of there using my torch to signal them were the exit is when I reached the entry point.
So far so good..
But hey, its not over yet!
3) we have now turned around and are now back in cargo hold #2 so we can see the exit to open water, fine I think again; lets go up before someone dies.
The guide asks the OW divers how much air they have left; one signals 80 bar, well below the turn pressure, and we are still at 31m about 15-20 minutes in to the dive!!
But no!, the guide then shoots off into another area of the wreck!, a little lighter than before but still quite dark, all to see a f***ing jeep and wants the OW´s to squeeze in behind the steering wheel and me to take photos of them!, its absolutley no use to do it since there once again is a ton of rust silt all over and I of course will have to use the strobe..
I do it because I just want to get out of there asap..
4) I (we, since they have same dive profile as me..) have now over 20min of decompression to do according to the dive plan, I have the air and nitrox to do it but they dont, so now the guide rushes to get to the spare air tank he dropped at 6m, since now the OW diver is down to about 40 bar, still below 30m!!.
I try to follow them with out breaking ascent speeds and I of course starts my deco at the right depth and keep my deco times, but (try to) stay in visual contact with them so if someone run out of air on the way there I'll be ready to assist them with my air.
At this point I can see one of them getting spare air from the guide (if I can get there in time is kinda doubtful since they are now far far away from me but I would try at least)
When I reach 6m I still have ten minutes left on deco but I do it alone since now the guide already sent the OW divers to the surface, after only maximum ten minutes of deco when they should have made 20 min..
I hope they not getting bent later at their hotel tonight..
Actually, this was the first time since I started diving I was afraid, not so much for my self, but for the divers that was with me on this dive..
Im not shure if I will do any more dives here cause of how they are conducted..
I will have a serious talk with the dive operator tomorrow, and if things are not changed I'll rather stay dry and alive for the rest of my stay in Vanuatu."
End of Multipart post
clownfishsydney
Contributor
SwedTekDiver, sorry to hear of your awful experience. It is so sad that what was one of the best dive operations in the Pacific has now become probably the worst.
Some more news on this matter, it appears the New Zealand Police have now got involved in this assisting the Vanuatu Police. I understand that they may now have Laila's dive computer, so once this is downloaded, it will provide some evidence to prove or disprove the guides claims.
Some more news on this matter, it appears the New Zealand Police have now got involved in this assisting the Vanuatu Police. I understand that they may now have Laila's dive computer, so once this is downloaded, it will provide some evidence to prove or disprove the guides claims.
SwedTekDiver, I am glad you survived. I made the decision some time ago not to dive with Aquamarine, simply based on how he does business. Alarm bells went off in my head at the time so I went and dived with Alan Power and Paul White. Both which are very professional. After diving the Coolidge I can see how it would be easy to die on it with bad guides and poor planning.
I can see you and all the group were very very lucky indeed.
You did the right thing. I suggest you also put it on Trip Advisor as many people use it as well. We did and although it upset Rehan to a point where he rang me and abused me, I simply told the truth and how it was. I hope that I have saved someone from a spoiled holiday or even death.
I can see you and all the group were very very lucky indeed.
You did the right thing. I suggest you also put it on Trip Advisor as many people use it as well. We did and although it upset Rehan to a point where he rang me and abused me, I simply told the truth and how it was. I hope that I have saved someone from a spoiled holiday or even death.
SwedTekDiver,
First thank you for posting your errors. I'm sure there will be divers that will take valuable lessons from it and it will make a difference for someone.
I'm glad you're ok but I have to ask you, why on earth would you continue on with a technical dive after seeing so many red flags pop up? As a tec diver and instructor, the whole post was hard for me to read. The dive shop made so many bad decisions and you followed along without much hesitation as if you were guaranteed a safe return.
As technical divers we are trained to seek out the dangers and minimize their risks. When the risks (death or great bodily injury) outweigh the rewards (enjoyment of diving, money, etc) we thumb the dive with no questions asked. If the dive operator refuses to refund your money because they wanted you to make a dive that most technical divers would consider too unsafe to execute, then it's an expensive learning lesson about that dive shop.
I'm curious as to what lesson(s) you've taken from this experience?
First thank you for posting your errors. I'm sure there will be divers that will take valuable lessons from it and it will make a difference for someone.
I'm glad you're ok but I have to ask you, why on earth would you continue on with a technical dive after seeing so many red flags pop up? As a tec diver and instructor, the whole post was hard for me to read. The dive shop made so many bad decisions and you followed along without much hesitation as if you were guaranteed a safe return.
As technical divers we are trained to seek out the dangers and minimize their risks. When the risks (death or great bodily injury) outweigh the rewards (enjoyment of diving, money, etc) we thumb the dive with no questions asked. If the dive operator refuses to refund your money because they wanted you to make a dive that most technical divers would consider too unsafe to execute, then it's an expensive learning lesson about that dive shop.
I'm curious as to what lesson(s) you've taken from this experience?
Griffo
Contributor
I dived with Aquamarine in Sep 2011. When we arrived, there were cylinders strewn everywhere, parts of valves etc. When i asked, the (at the time) brand new imported instructor told us they were all in such bad condition that they had had to strip and test the entire fleet of cylinders. I'm not sure if they had actually been tested, or just vis'd. That instructor flew the coop shortly afterwards.
However it seems that Rehan really like to run everything down to breaking point before spending any money. They also were not paying SSI at the time as I had terrible trouble later.
We had our own horror story with Aquamarine and left and went diving with Allan Powers instead.
I might point out here that at the time I was attempting to make a booking I had a discussion with someone who worked with Aquamarine, and they were pretty scathing of the business and how it was run when that person was there. With the combination of what I had experienced and what I was also told that was enough for me.
I might also point out that a business is only as good as the people that work there. It may be easy to blame the workers, however a good business will always have checks and balances to ensure that what they are being told by their workers is also the same picture as the customers have. In other words, checks that the employees are doing what they are supposed to. In diving, it would seem prudent that the boss or a supervisor, regularly dives with the DM's and instructors to ensure that they are providing what the customers pay for. Its really a health check on the business and how its running. I suspect in this case perhaps part of the problem may be that this is not happening. I also think that perhaps its how the business is actually run from the top.
I might also point out that a business is only as good as the people that work there. It may be easy to blame the workers, however a good business will always have checks and balances to ensure that what they are being told by their workers is also the same picture as the customers have. In other words, checks that the employees are doing what they are supposed to. In diving, it would seem prudent that the boss or a supervisor, regularly dives with the DM's and instructors to ensure that they are providing what the customers pay for. Its really a health check on the business and how its running. I suspect in this case perhaps part of the problem may be that this is not happening. I also think that perhaps its how the business is actually run from the top.
Griffo
Contributor
Rehan was quick to take my money, ignored my complaints. The place was a mess, the gear was in terrible condition, and a bunch of other stuff i won't repeat. I know what I think.
SwedTekDiver
Registered
Hi Kelly.
Yes, you are right in all of your points, I should have abandoned the dives in the start of the chain of events. There are no exuses to the errors made by me, I was just stupid and took some very bad decisions chasing a long lived dream.
And what can I say?.., on the first day I just got swept away by the whole experience of finally seeing/diving the wreck and hoping that it will be better the day after with everything I mentioned in my Vanuatu experience above, just to find out it didnt.
Im not proud of it, but glad that I atleast woke up and smelled the coffe in time and did what I should have done on the first day.
Yes, you are right in all of your points, I should have abandoned the dives in the start of the chain of events. There are no exuses to the errors made by me, I was just stupid and took some very bad decisions chasing a long lived dream.
And what can I say?.., on the first day I just got swept away by the whole experience of finally seeing/diving the wreck and hoping that it will be better the day after with everything I mentioned in my Vanuatu experience above, just to find out it didnt.
Im not proud of it, but glad that I atleast woke up and smelled the coffe in time and did what I should have done on the first day.
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