My adult sons & I were really looking forward to scuba diving while on vacation. So arriving at the pool, the pool session was cut short because the rest of the party arrived late; my boys & I needed a little extra TLC to get the hang of it, & didn't get the extra instruction. My oldest son had problems with his mask- Sharky said it was bec. of his mustache, but after 15 min & my son almost giving up at the pool, I noticed the mask was folding & had 2 small creases around the nose which was letting water in. There were a few issues that Sharky didn't catch & I had to bring it to their attention. So we got another mask for the boat trip. Our regulators were faulty, old, or something- I could only get 1/2 to 2/3 of a breath of air every time I inhaled with it; we were told that's how they are. (Later we went to a dive shop & tried out a new one- amazing the difference- you could actually breathe with it.
Once at the boat we got handed off to Rocky, & the first thing out of his mouth was ' yeah this was supposed to be my day off'. Well the rest of the day went like exactly that. So Rocky tells us not to touch the coral with our feet, so we spent the majority of the first dive figuring out how find a balance of inflating the vest just enough to counteract all the weights they put in them. to not go too high, & not sink onto the reef. It takes about 1-2 minutes to see the results of incremental inflation or deflation.
So then after a few minutes of frustration he takes us to the surface & threatens to end the dive if we don't stop doing all these wrong things. Well hey Einstein maybe somebody should have TOLD US all these things during the training sessions.
Then once we get our bearings, we swim around the reefs, filming with our gopros. Then he yells at us that we need to stay at arms length near him. So fine, we do, we let him lead. What does he do? Sits at the bottom in the chair position & goes nowhere. WTF dude....
No attention to detail, yells at us for things we weren't trained on, tells us to stick with him, then sits like a bump on a log. I have plenty of video clips of that.
Once we got halfway through the first dive we had a pretty good handle on things.
As I look over, other instructors are cruising around with their students going all over the place- nope not us; we're sitting in neutral trying to stay stationary, yet remain horizontal in the water to not get scolded.
Then getting out of the water onto the boat was the fun part. Rocky mentioned he may tell us to get away from the boat if we get too close- well guess what; when we got topside, the waves were pushing us into the boat. We were told to hang onto the tag line with one hand & our fins were in the other hand. Guess what happens when there's nobody holding the end of the tag line to keep it tight? We're all getting pushed into the boat & the tag line is wrapping around everything (my son got his hand cur from it).
So they're yelling at us to get away from the boat- guess what? kicking with all your might in your bare feet don't do sh** against 3 ft waves. Finally somebody figures out the tag line is just floating around. Hey what a great ideal- somebody pull the tag line out tight so we don't get pushed into the boat- DUH!!!
So before anyone bashes me, I've been an instructor in some capacity most of my adult life. Percussion, teaching kids, teaching martial arts for over a decade, & I've been a nationally certified ski instructor / snowboard instructor for 23 years. So yeah I know a thing or two about instruction. These guys did not that day.
They are good divers & know their stuff underwater, but that never means they know how to teach. Sparky was ok but Rocky offered little instruction.
That day we went & laid down $750, we most definitely did NOT get our money's worth. That is a sh** ton of money for us, & I'm still pissed about the whole thing.
At our ski resort we give more personal attention to students that buy a $15 group lesson than these guys did for us spending $250 each.
They need to check their regulators / get better ones, & spend more time in the pool- we arrived early that day & still got the VERY bare minimum of instruction / practice in the pool; almost no practice in the pool.
I highly DO NOT recommend scuba fun. Never again.
Odpowiedź od gospodarza
Aug 2022
We are very sorry to hear that your family did not have a good experience, as we strive to provide the best possible experience for all our customers at all times.
We certainly did speak to all the staff involved, and we definitely took away a few things from your account to improve upon.
While we completely acknowledge your disappointment in the scuba diving experience with us, we also need to address the bigger picture here and point out that many things you were not impressed with happened to keep you out of harms way.
If students e.g., who are briefed to stay close to their instructor at all times, "wander" off too far away, the instructor needs to make sure they remember to stay close to him/her. And yes, at times, this requires a clear verbal reminder at the surface, or spending more time on practicing buoyancy in the water rather than "cruising" along the reef if a student has difficulty maintaining buoyancy. It helps avoid unnecessary contact with fragile marine life.
Just imagine a beginner student in a skiing class going off-piste several times trying to explore on their own. Would you let that student continue a behavior potentially harmful to themselves or the environment?
We regret you chose not to do the second ocean dive that day to further explore the reefs, which would have given you the extra time to explore and which may have helped end the day on a somewhat better note.
A lot could be added to explain. In short: some things that day were simply beyond our control (e.g. late arrivals, challenging surface conditions), and some things you touched upon (extent of training, proficiency) couldn't be addressed more in depth due to the nature and schedule of this course which is highly regulated by agency/industry standards. Other things, minus derogatory parts, we took to heart and we will work on betterment.