Stay Away from Florida Keys Dive Center

[DandyDon]

I wanted to wait a few days to view the broad spectrum of comments. It is obvious the jerk from FKDC was the first one to comment on this post.

Nope... :lol:

For him to provide you with his pressure gauge, he has to stop what he is doing and watch you use it less it vanish as tools so often do. He felt it has already been checked by his staff. Using your reg & spg was appropriate since he was trying to get a big boat ready to go.

Again, I showed up more than an hour before the boat left the dock, there may have been 3 or 4 customers at the shop total, with zero line at the fill station. I paid for fills from the shop. I don't see any problem with asking to use a pressure gauge to check the tank when I am the only one standing there. I was not going to 'walk away' with the gauge, I wasn't preventing the idiot employee from doing anything in the least. He was standing next to the fill station right next to my tank, which he had filled a few minutes prior.

I know when I loan tools out, I have to watch them being used so I get them back - or hope for the best, often tracking them down, searching for where they were laid or hid. An hour before a big boat is launched on a busy holiday, I am sure everyone had plenty to worry about and plenty of work to do without tourists questioning their work.

So anyway, did you take your own tank down from Massachusetts to Florida? I guess that gets you the locals discount. How much did it save you...?

As far as the 25 diver situation, yes I have learned to use a six pack dive op and not a cattle car. If there are two boats available it seems logical to utilize both boats and allow customers to not be packed like sardines, but that is just my opinion. I understand there is a cost associated with running a second boat. I also understand that the short term (tips) and long term (repeat customers) will greatly improve the bottom line for the crew and business when customers are happy.

It costs twice as much to send two boats out for one boat load. Would you and the rest been happier paying twice as much that way...?

I was only going to post one last time but this brilliant comment deserves a response. It is obvious by your comment that you some how feel that you (the employee) are in competition with me (the customer). This is not a win or lose situation, there is only information provided. I've made my decision regarding this dive op. I can not / will not decide what other divers will do. My goal was to share information with fellow divers, and I have accomplished this.

:laughing: Dude, I do not work for any dive op, or in Florida, etc. You did not reply to dozens of posts so I guessed. Whatever - enjoy the rest of Scubaboard and the rest of the Keys.

By showing up at a dive op at 7:30am prior to other customers arriving I do not see the relevance to it being a holiday weekend. This would surely matter at 8:30 or 9 once other customers showed up at the dive op.

Actually I have thought that way at times, I know - but they wouldn't have even been there at 7:30 if they didn't have other work to do. Going to sea is risky business, everything needs to be right and checked, make sure nothing is missed, and then you get a couple of dozen tourists to please - one with an attitude.

 

[Splitlip]

Oh, thats freakin funny!
Moonlighting as a dive shop employee in Florida are you Dandy Don?
OMG! So funny!

Must be a hell of a commute.

 

[Rescue Diver68]

Dude. Not only would Dandy Don have let you use the tank pressure gauge with no problem. He would have suggested you test your tank for CO, rented you a Gps, a snorkeling vest, and gave you helpful hints about bags of sand in case you intend to smoke on the boat.

 

[conchrandy]

uhh, xj-my Newton went out today at 1:30 with a whopping four divers.. 2 ft seas. 50 vis...missed you....

 

[Splitlip]

Ya know I can't agree with the op on his boat complaints. I do wonder however why he wasn't permitted to test his tanks.

Every shop I use here provides gauges to check tank pressure when you pick them up. In fact if it's a nitrox tank the diver must analyze mix AND pressure for the log.

Anyone know if this shop provides nitrox fills? If so there should have been a means to test pressure even if it was at the nitrox analyzers.

 

[DandyDon]

Dude. Not only would Dandy Don have let you use the tank pressure gauge with no problem. He would have suggested you test your tank for CO2, rented you a Gps, a snorkeling vest, and gave you helpful hints about bags of sand in case you intend to smoke on the boat.

:lol:​

No, it's CO and I will loan my analyzer, but I will stand there and watch to make sure I get it back. I don't trust Gps and I only carry one vest - that I wear, and I use baking soda for butts. Helps control smell.

Ya know I can't agree with the op on his boat complaints. I do wonder however why he wasn't permitted to test his tanks.

Every shop I use here provides gauges to check tank pressure when you pick them up. In fact if it's a nitrox tank the diver must analyze mix AND pressure for the log.

Anyone know if this shop provides nitrox fills? If so there should have been a means to test pressure even if it was at the nitrox analyzers.

I have only dived at that Op once, many years ago. Not my fav but no complaints. I'm sure they have analyzers for Nitrox, but the Analox model usually used does not check pressure.

I have never seen a customer borrow a tank pressure gauge altho I have seen employees using one to check tanks. I suspect they only had one with other plans.

 

[HowardE]

hmm... doesn't every diver have a pressure gauge of their own???

Wouldn't it be attached to their FIRST STAGE??

 

[Parsons]

I have used this dive shop many times without an issue. All this thread has done is make me want to get back down there and get some dives in.

 

[Splitlip]

hmm... doesn't every diver have a pressure gauge of their own???

Wouldn't it be attached to their FIRST STAGE??

I do, but I seldom have my regs with me when I pick them up.

I drop them after my dives and usually pick them up during work and store them at home. That way I am ready to go where ever I'll use them next.

 

[HowardE]

I do, but I seldom have my regs with me when I pick them up.

I drop them after my dives and usually pick them up during work and store them at home. That way I am ready to go where ever I'll use them next.

Don't you have them when you're going diving though?