What would turn you off from a dive operator?

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

(nevermind, just saw it's related to Florida)

General red flags:

• Unsafe skippers - someone who would drop divers in the water without the ability to pick them up later due to weather.
• No safety equipment on the boat or safety equipment that is clearly broken (radios, life vests, O2, ...)\
• Sloppy operation or safety culture,
• Skippers who miss wrecks and/or slack.
• Skippers or crew who lie to divers - about the dive sites, weather, plans, tides, safety, available gases,...
• Skippers who are just far too strange or funny in the head - all of them are characters but some are more than others, far too burned out, alcoholics etc.
• Overly dirty boat, faulty engines etc.
• No cabin to hide from the weather.

On a more personal note:

• Limited runtimes (unless there are really good reasons).
• Weird booking systems, dives announced last minute.
• No or limited parking nearby, difficult access to gas.
• Boat full of hammer & crowbar spidge hunters who strip the wrecks clean.
• Cliquey boats where you just don't feel welcomed due to a strong prevailing "boat culture" - unwritten rules or types of people who are the regulars.
• Boats that attract unsafe divers (usually goes hand in hand with the previous two).

Also all the really weird stuff that only happens across the pond like

.:

• Guided dives with DMs ?
• Tipping culture ??
• Crew touching my gear ???
• No dive lifts ?????????

 

[ROUS]

I'll add one to points above and it will not be shared by everyone. If the dive professionals are all very young, I have concerns. Now, one cannot judge books by their covers and there are some very capable pros out there in young bodies. But, as an old guy that has experienced a few things in life, I prefer having an old fogey or two around. Your mileage may vary.

 

[johndiver999]

Well, that’s unfortunate. Hopefully you were able to cover up the deceased crew member for the trip back to shore. Safe bet those customers still chose to go elsewhere for future trips.

Funny you should mention that: A towel was placed over his body and the crew kept washing blood off the deck with buckets of water- his head had been split by a propeller.

I can still clearly picture the image of him laying there, with his fins uncovered and sticking straight up in the air with 20 passengers seated all around him on a packed boat, lifting their feet up as the deck was periodically rinsed.

About half the customers were on an open water certification dive trip. Incidentally, THEIR instructor (from that trip) got killed diving too - maybe 5 years later.

I would not want to be the person responsible for counting people on a packed boat. A roll call is much safer and much easier to implement for the crew, but possibly LESS convenient for the customers.

 

[DivingLane]

local dive club here in San Diego used a local charter that usually has about 20 people. They are an amazing operation, do everything you would want for safety and convenience. Never crossed my mind that 20 was too many.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

For the operation:
There are more divers than seats.
There is no safety briefing.
No O2 or med kit on board.
Being required to follow a DM or Guide.

From the captain and crew:
Any kind of political crap - signs, stickers, pushing views.
Any kind of religious crap- signs, stickers, preaching.
You can't keep paying customers from doing it but I can tell them to shut up and stay away from me.
If they started it at the dock, chances are I'd not get on or if already on, I'd get off the boat.

 

[happy-diver]

What happened Jim, when I spoke with you all those years ago you were a quiet softly spoken even gentle guy
I know the dive industry happened Jim, and divers

Got on board and they did NOT do a headcount.

We have a couple of guys quietly mingling with the crowd, also getting depths and times and pressures

that then compare their results

Without name yelling to affect the ambience, hey and after a few hundred trips I'm still here, great, huh!

Not is it all as it seems or we don't think or ask


I've heard descriptions of trips I have been on from others that were not on them from others that were

and they weren't describing the same trips

That is why when you join a boat you make yourself known tell the crew they have most beautiful wives
and then they won't leave you behind or maybe they will

 

[dflaher]

But in general any operator taking 20 people to a dive site is sort of a turn off.

Bullseye

 

[heftysmurf]

Hey all -- thanks for the replies. I'm glad I'm not unreasonable scratching them off of my list.

To be fair, 20 folks and I didn't feel crowded. We were able to space out a good deal so I suppose at its fullest, it is certainly a cattle boat but it looked about half full with 20 folks on it.

Skipper was good and mate/DM was good. Mate/DM was young but we chatted and he just finished his AN/DP to enter into tec so seemed like he was capable. There were some, "If you're not on the boat at this time, we're heading back with or without you" remarks that were joking, I'm sure and I'm not soft but I couldn't imagine if a teen was listening and mildly nervous how they'd feel.

Nonetheless, it doesn't matter as again, there's plenty of ops in Key Largo plus I'll be moving soon so it's kind of a non-issue.

Thanks again.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

@MrChen good list.
I'm refraining from commenting on a dive in the keys where the DM treated us like we flunked kindergarten. . Will NOT use that dive op ever again. And there are a couple other shops in the keys are just as bad if not worse. I'm thinking its mostly a Keys thing. So many vacation divers show up and have not dived for a long time.. reefs fragile, training is minimal. Have not been treated like that elsewhere in the state.

 

[Mike_4635]

I was using the same dive op in Cozumel 3 to 4 time per year. Got to the point they started to treat me like one of their DMs and buddying me up with new divers without asking. Finally talked to the owner but no change. Next trip used another dive op. I now mainly use live aboards and claim to dive with the crew. Not had a problem.