Private Dive Guide?

[rhwestfall]

re: Dive Bus

and with their crew of instructors and DMs, they might also have someone dive with you.

Ask them! They really like working with people to make their experience great!

 

[Chris_T]

My daughter and I were new divers with only 6 dives under our belts when we went to Curacao in late October. We dove with the Dive Bus and found them to be excellent and patient. The small groups were friendly and supportive. It really cemented our love of diving. We ended up with 12 additional dives under our belts with 8 of them with the Dive Bus.

As others have said, you won't go wrong with the Dive Bus.
Chris

 

[34109411]

Hi all,

You’ve sold us on going to Curacao. My husband (non diver) and I will be there at the end of April. I’m considering Ocean Encounters. I’ve emailed for information but, after calling some other shops, it seems hard to hire a private guide.

Is it typical to be able to hire a dive guide that’s private? The first dive of the trip will be my 5th dive and I want someone knowledgeable to go through my buddy check and be an engaged/alert buddy underwater. I’m worried about holding up a group if I need to go slow to equalize and/or getting left behind/lost. I’ve read bad dive buddy stories over on Reddit and would like to feel supported as I gain experience in my first post cert dives. I also would like to take advantage of the shore diving opportunities.

I’m considering doing a specialty course while down there (underwater navigator or coral restoration). I thought about AOW but I want to get comfortable with just OW dives and not have a ton of pressure like Deep. My OW cert was in Key Largo and our max depth was 33ft, so Deep intimidates me a bit. I was totally comfortable in Key Largo and felt good with my buoyancy/awareness but I don’t know how 60ft will feel compared to 33 and I haven’t had a lot of varying conditions experience. We had super clear visibility. I dove in really poor visibility for my first two OW dives in a lagoon, but it was only 20ft deep.

TL;DR: how do I hired a private dive guide, is this normal, and does anyone recommend someone in particular?

go 60 feet find the bottom( no ledge or drop etc..) have a visual reference ask you guide to drop a line and follow it. go 15-20-25 and so on. Take your time look up check the water column above you and under you. Make yourself comfortable at each level take your time...

 

[FT]

I agree that there was good personal attention from the Dive Bus, including my checkout dives when I had an instructor and his wife all to myself.

The shore dives that I happened to get (Atlantis two tanks, Pierbaai and Carpile) were underwhelming even by Caribbean standards. I should perhaps have been more flexible on my days so as to get sites farther from town.

Glad I booked a day with Go West to do Santa Cruz and Watamula. Very, very glad. The underwater scenery was excellent and both sites were quite fishy. A full hour on each.

Now, that was a full boat, as I’m sure most Watamula days would be, but my instabuddy was terrific, conscientious and an air-sipper. GW had a dive master in charge of the group and two helpers who acted as sweeps bringing up the rear. There was no objection to letting me hand my BCD up. Everyone else climbed the ladder in their full kit, but my knees would not permit that.