John Trecker
Contributor
Live Aboard Experience: Bad Equipment + Crowded + Bad Sites = Sad Diving
Felt compared to share this after recent experiences to perhaps help others in making decisions.
I am experienced diver with over 250 dives and have dived with SS over 5 times over the past 10 years. Just did a 5 day trip with them. Chose SS because we had gone with them before, and no other trips fit the days we had available. We did not choose for price but they are very reasonable.
In the end, I could not recommend these boats again, and would not come back.
The permanent staff is great, the food is delicious and plentiful, the accomodation fine, the boats sufficient, but all of that is outside the core: DIVING. And the DIVE experience is simply not good at best, and DANGEROUS at worst.
1. EQUIPMENT IS BAD: I knew from past experience that their equipment varied, so we went to the shop to choose. We spent an hour picking through piles of worn out, damaged, and even completely defective equipment. We thought we had picked the best, but even that failed repeatedly on the trip. Broken valves, ripped BCs, leaking Rgs, etc. Even more disturbing, both in the shop and on the boat, when things were clearly damaged or malfunctioning, they just took it off and threw it back in the pile for the next unsuspecting guest. We had 3 BCs with ripped bladders. THIS IS NOT SAFE!!!!
2. TOO MANY PEOPLE: There were days when the boat had 50 plus VISITORS. This is a boat built to handle 18 divers. NOT 55. It cannot handle people, DMs, equipment, etc safely. Simply cannot be done. In addition, where are the life jackets for that many people? If there were to be an emergency, there is simply no way that safety coudl be observed.
3. RUSHED: Given they have to process dozens of dive groups, everything is rushed which means LOW SAFETY. They were literally pushing people off of the side of the boat to get people out and back in time. People are falling, stumpling, dropping tanks, going in and out on top of each other, etc. VERY UNSAFE.
2. LIMITED DIVE SITES: Because of the nature of the setup above, the dive sites are chosen NOT based on best conditions, visibility, or marine live, but on what is FASTEST to get 60 people in and out of the water. So we repeatedly visited dead, over visited, crowded sites. This means NOTHING INTERESTING TO SEE. Highlights were clown fish and sea anemones. There are good sites in the Andaman's but they don't go there. Even when we visited RRock, we didn't do a second dive there because we had to rush back to get ready for 50 day trippers.
3. DM ROULETTE. In our 5 days on the boat, I think we had 5 dive guides. Sometimes these were changed at the point of entry (no you go with them). Many of the DMs are just contractors who don't know the sites, don't know the equipment, don't know the boat; don't know the conditions, etc. One of our guides said he was looking forward like us to RR because it as his first time to (at that point we asked for an experienced guide). On one dive our guide spoke no English and never once looked back or checked on anyones status (leaving me to help a couple of times). Ask direct questions about your guide and their experience.
A visit to the Similans is all about the diving - you just one get that here.
If you are looking for something where timing or budget is limited, and safety not a concern, then this could be an acceptable option. Just interogate the company about your equipment, sites, guides, etc.
Sad this is no longer an option.
Felt compared to share this after recent experiences to perhaps help others in making decisions.
I am experienced diver with over 250 dives and have dived with SS over 5 times over the past 10 years. Just did a 5 day trip with them. Chose SS because we had gone with them before, and no other trips fit the days we had available. We did not choose for price but they are very reasonable.
In the end, I could not recommend these boats again, and would not come back.
The permanent staff is great, the food is delicious and plentiful, the accomodation fine, the boats sufficient, but all of that is outside the core: DIVING. And the DIVE experience is simply not good at best, and DANGEROUS at worst.
1. EQUIPMENT IS BAD: I knew from past experience that their equipment varied, so we went to the shop to choose. We spent an hour picking through piles of worn out, damaged, and even completely defective equipment. We thought we had picked the best, but even that failed repeatedly on the trip. Broken valves, ripped BCs, leaking Rgs, etc. Even more disturbing, both in the shop and on the boat, when things were clearly damaged or malfunctioning, they just took it off and threw it back in the pile for the next unsuspecting guest. We had 3 BCs with ripped bladders. THIS IS NOT SAFE!!!!
2. TOO MANY PEOPLE: There were days when the boat had 50 plus VISITORS. This is a boat built to handle 18 divers. NOT 55. It cannot handle people, DMs, equipment, etc safely. Simply cannot be done. In addition, where are the life jackets for that many people? If there were to be an emergency, there is simply no way that safety coudl be observed.
3. RUSHED: Given they have to process dozens of dive groups, everything is rushed which means LOW SAFETY. They were literally pushing people off of the side of the boat to get people out and back in time. People are falling, stumpling, dropping tanks, going in and out on top of each other, etc. VERY UNSAFE.
2. LIMITED DIVE SITES: Because of the nature of the setup above, the dive sites are chosen NOT based on best conditions, visibility, or marine live, but on what is FASTEST to get 60 people in and out of the water. So we repeatedly visited dead, over visited, crowded sites. This means NOTHING INTERESTING TO SEE. Highlights were clown fish and sea anemones. There are good sites in the Andaman's but they don't go there. Even when we visited RRock, we didn't do a second dive there because we had to rush back to get ready for 50 day trippers.
3. DM ROULETTE. In our 5 days on the boat, I think we had 5 dive guides. Sometimes these were changed at the point of entry (no you go with them). Many of the DMs are just contractors who don't know the sites, don't know the equipment, don't know the boat; don't know the conditions, etc. One of our guides said he was looking forward like us to RR because it as his first time to (at that point we asked for an experienced guide). On one dive our guide spoke no English and never once looked back or checked on anyones status (leaving me to help a couple of times). Ask direct questions about your guide and their experience.
A visit to the Similans is all about the diving - you just one get that here.
If you are looking for something where timing or budget is limited, and safety not a concern, then this could be an acceptable option. Just interogate the company about your equipment, sites, guides, etc.
Sad this is no longer an option.