Very disappointed!!!!

[WB2GLP]

Thanks for the other side of the story, Sean.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Thanks Sean. Always good to hear both sides. And as far as the Captains having final say over where the boat goes. That's the way it should be. And 130 bucks for a two tank dive in Hawaii.

Let's see yes I was teaching and got paid for the class and taken to dinner but I still spent 90 for the hotel, 75 in gas, 25 for other meals, and ten hours of driving round trip for 5 dives in a quarry in Ohio. No sun, colder water, no tropical fish, and no boat ride. Not to mention the lack of white or black sand beaches, skimpily clad females, and fresh pineapples.

Some people just should not be allowed away from their own homes.

 

[toddthecat]

Can't satisfy 'em all!

 

[Dr. Lecter]

The winds were blowing 25kts that day with higher gusts. Imagine 6-10 foot seas and trying to crawl up a dive ladder. It just wasn't safe. again I'd have loved nothing more to get you to a wreck.

Can you clear up (1) the day in question, and (2) what wreck(s) the OP wanted? These are conditions I might be able to believe if he wanted the Corsair, but if we're talking the main wrecks of Waikiki, conditions like that are extremely unusual this time of year. Though we have had a couple tropical whatevers hit the Windward side in the past month or so, and that may have screwed his pooch.

Another problem may have been that the OP was promised wrecks off Waikiki by a shop that operates almost exclusively from Hawaii Kai. I'm sure nobody wanted to pay for the gas for such a long trip on a good day, much less in sub-optimal weather conditions like you described. But that seems less likely now, as I'm pleased to see the town side wrecks seem to have vanished from Reef Pirates' page. That's good; the earlier approach of noting that they rarely dove those sites was good, too. Either is better than what their site said about the rarity of hitting those wrecks when I first contacted them: zilch, nada, nothing.

As for the other post regarding waikiki wrecks. - yes we do them but not very often. we have to go around diamond head to get to them and depending on weather that can be a tricky run. all that is explained as well via our site.

I don't see that anywhere on the site. Mind linking to the relevant page(s)? Still, like I said, it seems like those wrecks are off your site entirely, so the OP's confusion is less understandable.

Rule of thumb for Hawaii: if the shop you're talking to isn't anywhere near the sites you want to dive, get an explanation that makes sense about how they'll make your wishes happen. Will they charter a boat leaving from Kewalo for sites off Waikiki, virtually ensuring you'll get one of the 'big' wrecks? Or, will they wait and see if they have the numbers, gas, and weather for a haul all the way from Hawaii Kai up there? If you want to do the Mahi, and are talking to someone who says their boat leaves from Honolulu...get a better explanation or go elsewhere.

 

[pensacolaracer]

Dr Lecter pretty much nailed it. If you want to dive the big wrecks, leave from the Downtown area.

It's a very short run out there. There are a few good operators out of that area including one I routinely pay money to go dive with... And I have my own boat.




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[IrnBear]

Believe me, this post was not easy for me to do.
My first trip ever to Hawaii.
My request was for wrecks.
My one and only day of diving in Honolulu.

I researched the hell out of Dive Shops on this forum.
Shame on me for not knowing the area. What, oh, yes I was on vacation.
Only reason I made this post is for maybe the more experienced divers of these forums to maybe think twice about the shop they use.
These folks would have been great for the less experienced diver.
Very friendly and attentive with the 3 of us on the boat.
The other two, brand new divers. They called in the day before and joined the boat.

I am no Hawaii weather expert, nor am I a Hawaii dive expert, nor am I a Dive Expert.
I was unable to find any reviews of Reef Divers on these forums.
Yet, many great reviews of another.

I am staying away from Trip Advisor with my thoughts on this. For the main reason that newbies will probably check there before and opposed to checking here.

I do not wish ill will on Reef Divers. I know they, as well as the other dive shops, do not control the weather. Yes the wind was blowing that day. i don't know how bad. Yes there was current at the Reef we dove. I don't know how usual or unusual for the norm.

We had just come off of days of full moons. Maybe that had a lot to do with the conditions.

I don't know.

The dive date was Aug 26th.

My Bad for venting on an open forum. My bad for having unreasonable expectations.
Was I happy to be underwater, yes.... Always am

IrnBear

 

[Dr. Lecter]

What were you told by the shop about what wrecks you might dive during the month you were talking to them? What, if anything, were you told about the fact they'd have to take a long boatride from Hawaii Kai, all the way around Diamond Head and up to Waikiki, to get to either the YO-257 or the Sea Tiger?

Hawaii Kai isn't horrible for diving, if you have a shop and conditions that are willing to do dives along the wall between there and Haunama Bay; spitting caves, sea cave, and that area is fantastic diving. The LCU and Corsair wrecks are fine if you like small, mildly historic, wrecks...I've always enjoyed the fishbowl effect of the Corsair, but it can be "harder" to dive given average conditions. The upsidedown LCU tends to be great for sharks.

Hawaii Kai is generally a more exposed part of Oahu and the fall-back reefs for there, should conditions not meet the shop's desired level of calm, are pretty lousy. Koko Craters is one of the more boring sites I've done on Oahu, and it's a Hawaii Kai staple on windy/choppy days. The reefs elsewhere on the island tend to be better.

One problem for many divers visiting here, IMO, is that Hawaii diving spoils the captains/DMs pretty badly, and they call off diving in conditions that would be heartly encouraged as appropriate for newer divers elsewhere. A "bad" day here in terms of chop/wind/current would be a stellar day on a NJ wreck boat... but since it's worse than what everyone here is used to, you're out of luck. I've seen dives on the YO called for current that was "ripping"...at barely half a knot. For Hawaii, it's bad; elsewhere, not so much.

 

[koozemani]

At least you got to dive. I spent a week on Oahu and couldn't get a single dive in due to weather.

 

[cbm32]

Sad that you didnt get a single dive....on the other hand at least you didnt end up paying to do dives you didnt really want to do.

Of course the Captain has the final say...except in this case, per the OP, he was told afterwards that they could have dove a wreck but they didnt want to make the divers work that hard. Which is it people?

NO you can not guarantee anything when working with mother nature....but when you get ready to head out to do dives that you KNOW a customer doesnt want to do, good customer services says you tell them that up front and give them a chance to take a pass and not end up paying for something the know they dont want.

I dont know the OP and I have never heard of the dive op before. I am just saying that from a customer service perspective someone dropped the ball badly. Perhaps the shop needs better communications between the different divisions of labor in the operation.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

I am just saying that from a customer service perspective someone dropped the ball badly. Perhaps the shop needs better communications between the different divisions of labor in the operation.

As to your last point, I'll go out on a limb and say that Reef Pirates' owner probably stands behind a policy of telling customers that they're on the hook for the full price so long as they are able to go out dive that day at all, even if they'd scheduled for wrecks, deep, or whatever. 'No site, or type of site, is ever guaranteed' is more or less the HI party line, though as your first point notes, shops with better reputations tend to be more flexible about such things.

On the flip side, there are fixed costs associated with going out, and if the call was made on the water that conditions were too bad to continue what began at the dock as a genuine attempt to reach a wreck for the OP... then I'm pretty unsympathetic. My experience with this shop makes me question if that's what happened... but in all fairness to them, it very well could have been.

I remember a trip (not with Reef Pirates) to the Navy Tug late last year/early this year in horrible conditions from Kewalo Basin. We spent a good 45 minutes or more getting the crap beat out of us on an AL-hulled jet boat to reach the wreck... only to have them call the dive once we were on site, because they were worried about recovering divers in 8' seas. Personally, I was pissed: I've reboarded smaller boats in worse conditions wearing more gear, and had we given it the old College try, I think the others onboard could have done it. As a cherry on top, the run there and back ate up so much time that we only got in a single dive that day, and it may have been a stinking reef.

Still, I didn't want to make a fuss over the costs of the dive not changing. The shop had to pay the fuel surcharge for the long run regardless of how happy I was, and they'd made an honest effort to put me on the wreck even if I disagreed with their call. Can't ask for more than that, and you shouldn't put up with less.