Why You Should Dive Roatan With Native Sons in West End!

[Goingforsound]

I am currently at chillies and been diving for the last 3 weeks with NS. based my choice on a few research I did after seing that thread.

It has been really cool diving, we had a lot of cool dives with Alexandra, Heidi, Hanna and Eddie!

Small operation, most days we are 4-5 on the boat, sometimes with a few snorkelers. We choose were we go, flexible enough to go on the other side of the island, wrecks, night dive at least once a week. I dive my own gear but their rental are free and they are in very good shape!

The owners also took the whole group on a sunset catamaran sail last week free of charge. Trust me, at 30 bucks a tank they are really not after profit!

It is not crowded like the AKR boats or coconut tree divers. These others ops might be good but their group tends to be large.

I like them as much as I liked dive with martin in Cozumel.

Also, the toilet comment in one of the post if very funny, we come back to the shop every surface interval... The boat rides are 5-15min max. Theres a bathroom here, obviously. Sometimes you are better of taking a chance and asking before making your mind and making a big thing out of a simple misunderstanding.

 

[Doc]

It is not crowded like the AKR boats or coconut tree divers. These others ops might be good but their group tends to be large.

.

So, when did you dive with AKR?

 

[Goingforsound]

I was underwater with two of their boats just this morning. They were at least 15 divers "divided in 2 groups that were following each other at hole in the wall this morning.

 

[Doc]

So...you weren't actually on AKRs "crowded boat", just "underwater water with"....same ocean-same day kind of thing. Ok, so they had two boats, 15 divers in the water, divided into two groups of let's say 8 and 8. Sounds like a real mass of humanity. Eight divers each on a 50' boat. And AKR brought two of 'em to the same dive site. Odd.

How far away were you from Coconut Tree's crowded boats?

Hmmm.

NOTE THIS: The OP #1 who first posted this thread and his gushing review made just that one post on SB and never returned after that one-and-done performance. Old fish, starting to stink.

 

[Goingforsound]

Oh well, i dont know what to tell you my friend!

Im pretty sure people like to dive with them and they are a good company.

 

[Crystal A.]

Wow Doc that is pretty harsh. We recently returned from NS and I couldn't have been happier.

There IS air conditioning available in the Mango House for an extra fee - we passed but were fine with the fans.

There also IS food onsite. The only reason I picked the Mango House was because I thought I would die without my own coffee whenever I wake up, but we only ever used the kitchen to wash our underwater cameras and keep a few beers cold. Yahongreh is open every morning at 7am onsite and has fantastic super cheap breakfast and lunch. West End is so small that there are practically a dozen or more great options "on-site."

Communication before, during and after our stay was nothing less than excellent (and I am very demanding and selective). Every single question I had was answered (timely) the owners facilitated connecting us with a local school we could donate books to, and they were very patient with my changes and my many "first timer" questions. They even shipped a blouse to me in the US, that had slipped off the rail and into the garden as I was packing to leave (I hadn't even known it was missing when they contacted me).

The ladies running the office were fantastic, there were always cold cheap bears available, our room was kept very clean, fresh flowers when we returned from diving, we felt very safe leaving our things in our room and with the office.

As for diving, I only discovered snorkeling about a year ago, and am hooked, so hooked that we never made time to try diving, until NS. We had an instructor all to ourselves, and could not have asked for a better experience. It was so fantastic that we went for our AOW also, and are planning our next trip to dive with them. Everyone we interacted with at NS was friendly, went above and beyond, and made us feel welcomed. (I should add that for our AOW we were able to do a wreck dive and a night dive with the "string of pearls," among other great courses).

I would go on but I have to go to work. In short, Native Sons diving and Chillie's were awesome. The location can't be beat, there are budget dorms/cabins as well, we never went hungry or thirsty, the quality of instruction was outstanding, and the owners are fantastic people, they live on site and are legends for their contributions to the community and marine preservation.

Perhaps go check out tripadvisor or their other reviews, the idea that they would need to post a fake thread is ludicrous and only belies your lack of knowledge on this topic.

 

[scrane]

Well, gosh. I posted on the first page and am still here and I just wanted to let everyone know I'm not a shill and will be diving with Native Sons and staying at Chillies for two weeks in October. Great fun, great value, and great diving.