jsdellinger
New
On July 5th 2010 I dove with Costal Scuba in North Myrtle Beach. After reading negative review after negative review here I was a bit apprehensive. I found some reviews to be on the mark and others to be somewhat misleading. Ive found that everyones definition of whats acceptable or good varies so I will attempt to first state what I saw and experienced and conclude with opinions of my own.
I arranged a few days ahead of time with the shop to reserve a space for an artificial reef whose name is eluding me at the moment. (Paulies Reef maybe?) The reason I chose thi,s as I explained to the person on the phone, is that I wanted something shallow and suitable for a novice diver with only 5 logged dives. This reef is the one they use for cert. dives and is 30-45 FSW. They take my credit card info and give me the address for my GPS.
The day of I arrive at the address via GPS and there is no water in sight. A quick phone call moves me down the road 400 yards to the marina and also gives me a neglected piece of information. The boats name is Safari 4. We load up 18 divers, captain, and 2 hands (24 max divers possible) and are about 20 minutes late due to waiting on slow arriving divers. BCDs are attached to tanks, and mask / fins are stowed in a center overhead. C-Cards are checked and release waivers are signed before they let you on the boat.
We tear out of the anchorage at speed and need about 45 minutes to get 10 miles out to Barracuda Alley A few things to mention here. First once everyone is on board the captain says, I dont want to go to the scheduled reef. Lets vote .do we want A or B. So my beginner site switches to Barracuda Alley and a 60 FSW. Also with 18 divers on board there is not enough seating for everyone so about ½ are standing as the boat makes its way to the site. There are two large ice chests on either side of the boat; one is filled with water for the divers, the second filled with Budweiser for the fishing charter that follows after the dive. Both are so full it is impossible to fit any drinks brought personally on board.
About 10 minutes out we get a gear up warning, as well as an explanation that You have 1 hour and 50 minutes from the time the stern ladder hits the water until we lift anchor so plan your dives accordingly. Basically this worked out to 20-25 minutes at 60 feet with a 45 minute interval. A basic explanation of the Carolina down line system follows and entry is either by giant stride off the stern or roll entry from the side. The seas were almost flat calm the day I was out <1 swells so the distance form the stern deck to the water was 12 18. The site was nice; visibility was 30+ feet and the water temp ~ 78° with a 3° thermocline at 55. (I felt fine in my 3mm shorty.) On diver recovery, the staff was good about keeping everyone back from the stern ladder in case anyone fell. However, you did hang on the stern line for quite a while as the two large coolers did double duty as entry seating and so you waited while others got their gear off. Assistance from the deck hands consisted of holding your tank yolk to steady you as you waddle to the cooler.
Once everyone was on board from the surface interval the deck hands grabbed spear guns and made for the bottom. Coming up with a couple of flounder and quite a number of living sand dollars. Forty minutes later to the shouts of, Lets go in the water! we complete our second dive. As we boarded the boat they counted 1.2 18. All In! The deck hand released from the wreck and we were off back to the marina. On the way back in a large plastic container of orange slices is brought around by the captain.
Back at the marina there were no wash tables. I was directed by a deck hand to one of two 5 gallons buckets on the boat for equipment washup. One was fresh water and the other had some detergent chemical in it. So I had to wash out all of my equipment back at the hotel. Also at the marina a metal tip box appeared along with a 5 minute speech along the lines of 15% - 20% is good, as well as a Hey eat over there at that restaurant and tell them I sent you. All told we left port about 7:20 AM and arrived back about noon.
I brought all of my own equipment except tanks, and I noticed some serious problems with the rental gear being used. TWO sets of regulators had to be switched out for hose bubbling and I personally had to switch tanks (Steel 80s) TWICE because they were leaking where the valve and the tank meet. Others had the same problem and the captain said they Have a lot of that, so I usually just overfill at the compressor in the morning so if they lose 200 PSI out to the site its no big deal. Also be advised that if you want to use their weights then it is an additional fee along with the tank rental.
My opinions:
1. Not having a rinse area is inexcusable. This is my biggest complaint and really showed how Coastal Scuba seems to focus on their fishing charter more than their dive charters. I.E .Get everyone off the dock so the fishermen can get on.
2. Renting weights when they are already stored on the boat?!?! Really just increase the price by $2 for everyone and stop nickel and diming us.
3. Your charter boat is well maintained .why is your rental SCUBA equipment that someone is breathing from not subjected to routine maint?
4. Costal Scuba looks at itself almost as a taxi service only.
5. There are several other posts talking about how high the entry point was. From deck to sea calm is 12-18 however I can see that if you had 3 seas and your timed your jump into a trough how you could get a 6-7 entry. However, this is not Costal Scubas fault.
6. There really should be more of an effort to assist divers if you are going to break out the tip box. If you dont carry, assist or generally make yourself useful why again am I tipping you?
I arranged a few days ahead of time with the shop to reserve a space for an artificial reef whose name is eluding me at the moment. (Paulies Reef maybe?) The reason I chose thi,s as I explained to the person on the phone, is that I wanted something shallow and suitable for a novice diver with only 5 logged dives. This reef is the one they use for cert. dives and is 30-45 FSW. They take my credit card info and give me the address for my GPS.
The day of I arrive at the address via GPS and there is no water in sight. A quick phone call moves me down the road 400 yards to the marina and also gives me a neglected piece of information. The boats name is Safari 4. We load up 18 divers, captain, and 2 hands (24 max divers possible) and are about 20 minutes late due to waiting on slow arriving divers. BCDs are attached to tanks, and mask / fins are stowed in a center overhead. C-Cards are checked and release waivers are signed before they let you on the boat.
We tear out of the anchorage at speed and need about 45 minutes to get 10 miles out to Barracuda Alley A few things to mention here. First once everyone is on board the captain says, I dont want to go to the scheduled reef. Lets vote .do we want A or B. So my beginner site switches to Barracuda Alley and a 60 FSW. Also with 18 divers on board there is not enough seating for everyone so about ½ are standing as the boat makes its way to the site. There are two large ice chests on either side of the boat; one is filled with water for the divers, the second filled with Budweiser for the fishing charter that follows after the dive. Both are so full it is impossible to fit any drinks brought personally on board.
About 10 minutes out we get a gear up warning, as well as an explanation that You have 1 hour and 50 minutes from the time the stern ladder hits the water until we lift anchor so plan your dives accordingly. Basically this worked out to 20-25 minutes at 60 feet with a 45 minute interval. A basic explanation of the Carolina down line system follows and entry is either by giant stride off the stern or roll entry from the side. The seas were almost flat calm the day I was out <1 swells so the distance form the stern deck to the water was 12 18. The site was nice; visibility was 30+ feet and the water temp ~ 78° with a 3° thermocline at 55. (I felt fine in my 3mm shorty.) On diver recovery, the staff was good about keeping everyone back from the stern ladder in case anyone fell. However, you did hang on the stern line for quite a while as the two large coolers did double duty as entry seating and so you waited while others got their gear off. Assistance from the deck hands consisted of holding your tank yolk to steady you as you waddle to the cooler.
Once everyone was on board from the surface interval the deck hands grabbed spear guns and made for the bottom. Coming up with a couple of flounder and quite a number of living sand dollars. Forty minutes later to the shouts of, Lets go in the water! we complete our second dive. As we boarded the boat they counted 1.2 18. All In! The deck hand released from the wreck and we were off back to the marina. On the way back in a large plastic container of orange slices is brought around by the captain.
Back at the marina there were no wash tables. I was directed by a deck hand to one of two 5 gallons buckets on the boat for equipment washup. One was fresh water and the other had some detergent chemical in it. So I had to wash out all of my equipment back at the hotel. Also at the marina a metal tip box appeared along with a 5 minute speech along the lines of 15% - 20% is good, as well as a Hey eat over there at that restaurant and tell them I sent you. All told we left port about 7:20 AM and arrived back about noon.
I brought all of my own equipment except tanks, and I noticed some serious problems with the rental gear being used. TWO sets of regulators had to be switched out for hose bubbling and I personally had to switch tanks (Steel 80s) TWICE because they were leaking where the valve and the tank meet. Others had the same problem and the captain said they Have a lot of that, so I usually just overfill at the compressor in the morning so if they lose 200 PSI out to the site its no big deal. Also be advised that if you want to use their weights then it is an additional fee along with the tank rental.
My opinions:
1. Not having a rinse area is inexcusable. This is my biggest complaint and really showed how Coastal Scuba seems to focus on their fishing charter more than their dive charters. I.E .Get everyone off the dock so the fishermen can get on.
2. Renting weights when they are already stored on the boat?!?! Really just increase the price by $2 for everyone and stop nickel and diming us.
3. Your charter boat is well maintained .why is your rental SCUBA equipment that someone is breathing from not subjected to routine maint?
4. Costal Scuba looks at itself almost as a taxi service only.
5. There are several other posts talking about how high the entry point was. From deck to sea calm is 12-18 however I can see that if you had 3 seas and your timed your jump into a trough how you could get a 6-7 entry. However, this is not Costal Scubas fault.
6. There really should be more of an effort to assist divers if you are going to break out the tip box. If you dont carry, assist or generally make yourself useful why again am I tipping you?
