Moorea Tahiti Dive Operator Options.

Are there any recommendations for a DiveOp in Moorea? I will be staying a the Hilton Moorea and the in-house DiveOp is TopDive. I dont mind using them but one thing I notice is that their price for dives includes gear weather you bring your own or not.

In other words, whether you bring your own gear or not the price is the same. I will always rather use my own gear than not. But the convenience of having them right at the resort...

http://www.topdive.com/topd/dive--tarifs.htm

Are all the dive ops the same in Tahiti?

BikerManiac:

Are there any recommendations for a DiveOp in Moorea? I will be staying a the Hilton Moorea and the in-house DiveOp is TopDive. I dont mind using them but one thing I notice is that their price for dives includes gear weather you bring your own or not.

In other words, whether you bring your own gear or not the price is the same. I will always rather use my own gear than not. But the convenience of having them right at the resort...

TOPdive - Tahiti diving Rates

Are all the dive ops the same in Tahiti?

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We used Top Dive in Moorea and Bora Bora three years ago during our honeymoon. That trip was my first dive trip, so to be honest, I'm not sure how helpful my thoughts would be. Having said that, TD seemed fine. Our first dive was a true check out dive with the DM/Instructor (?) and my wife. We stayed shallow and the DM ran me through some basic skills (like everyone's favorite - flooding the mask). The dives were great and we were well taken care of. Now, if you ask me questions like did they have oxygen on boats, I couldn't tell ya.

I would avoid TopDive. I have a very specific reason for this. When we were in Tahiti two years ago, we had friends joining us who came in early. They went over to Moorea and dove with TopDive. The boat was unattended during the dive, and when our friend went to reboard, she fell and broke her arm. This was a consequence of the way the reboarding ladder was set up and the fact that there was no one on the boat to assist her. It was a bad injury.

We dove with the same operator two weeks later, and they still had no one on the boat while we were diving, and had done nothing to change the reboarding setup.

I don't blame them for the original accident, but I do blame them for not making procedural changes after someone got hurt.

The fact that the instructor who was the dive guide was unpleasant to us for doing a buddy check before getting in the water was just icing on the cake.

I'd use somebody else. And anybody who knows me, knows I have rarely, if ever, written a condemnation like this.

Edited to add: We had lovely experiences with TopDive Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Rangiroa. All TopDive franchises don't run things the same way.

<buddy check hassle> geez, why does this ever happen?! A hassle should be for NOT checking your gear before every single dive. As many times as I've found gear incorrect, I never skip it.

Ok this is from my experience. Topdive was purchased or merged with Bathy Diving.

So my experience with the operator Topdive at the Hilton was not so great. He was one of the most unpleasant and rudest divemaster I have met. For some reason he seemed so unhappy about doing his job and I believe he was very rude to another customer. I never said more than a few words to him and he never said much to us either. I only dove with him 1 day. I will call him "Mr. S"

Every morning we would board the boat at the Hilton and "Mr. S" would shuttles us to the main Bathy dive center. The ride is the NICEST commute I've ever had. It was/is breath taking.
"Mr. S" was our dive guide the first day only. Thank God.


No Bathy is a completely different story. They are a top notch operator. Everybody was so nice, helpful and funny. I was 100% satisfied with their service and liked all the Dive Guides. Would definitely dive with them again,.

Bathies in Moorea has been my best dive boat experience so far.