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In 2001 I had a mishap where I went to do a dive after getting fills 2 weeks earlier from the Jupiter Dive Center and had to abort the dive because I got a loud buzzing in my ears and felt dizzy at 40 feet. A check of my tanks found oil in all 4 of the ones I had filled there. I called the owner of the shop and he offered to refill them for free. I declined. First, because I live 2 hours away, second because I didn't trust the fills there at the time and third because I had to get all 4 tanks recleaned for O2 service at $30 each. I was not a happy camper.
Three years go by and I am diving there again on a two day weekend trip. I figure I will give them another chance. Maybe it WAS just a one time thing, after all. I bring my empty tanks in on Saturday afternoon and ask for EANx34 for dives I am doing the next morning. I show up Sunday morning and test my mix and what I got was EANx30. Well, with no time to refill, I wound up taking what I could get and went on the trip. As a result, my last dive of the day put me in DECO. This left some time for me to think and be a little peeved while in my DECO stop anout the poor fills I had gotten. If I had the right mix, I feel I would have been well within the NDL. They got a second chance after a bad fill and blew it. They are now 0 for 2, with their poor fills causing 1 aborted dive, 1 cancelled dive, $120 in tank cleaning bills, and an unwanted DECO dive.
So, to make a long story even longer, are there any GOOD shops in the Jupiter area where one can get fills? One that, of course, isn't the Jupiter Dive Center?
I sympathize right up to the point where you blame the shop for your deco dive.
A compressor seal failure and contaminated fills are bad(especially if it's due to old filters), and a lean mix is shoddy, but you control your dive depth, time, and overall profile.
This is not a slam. While I have never had a problem with contamination, I have received the wrong % on a mix. I either ask for a new fill if it's short of O2, or an air overfill to dilute it. But if I have to live with the mix, I modify my dive plan to accomodate it.
Air Fills- The only real education I ever got about air and blending came during my nitrox class. There was a approximatley 30 minute rant about how it is done, how important it is and a COMPLETE tour of the blending station, the different agencies that inspect the air quality, and how you should ask to see those reports any time you are using an unfamiliar facility.
This fellow (Coby) had his certificates framed and mounted like they where returning world champion belts or back to back nobel peace prizes. He went on about The standard is .05 PPM and I have .002 (numbers used for comparsion only do not remember) that is a really, really small particle.. that is so small I think that (expleitive deleted) guy brought it with him on the tip of his sensor from the last place!
I would recommend touring the air fill station and let him give you his very proud presentation.. I can only remember getting service from someone that proud of their buissiness a handful of times.
"...to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned LIONFISH! Thus, I give up the spear!"
I agree that the DECO was my choice. That being said, you plan your dive and dive your plan. I didnt wish to allow a poor fill to disrupt my plan and keep me from missing a dive. Since it was a low O2 fill, adding more air would have made it worse. The only was to fix is to drain the tank and start over, which wouldn't have worked in the time allowed.
So I chose to make it a DECO dive. MY choice. Still, when a shop is given 2 chances to get it right and fails both times, I take my business elsewhere. We ARE talking a life support gas here. The fact is, I asked for a particular mix and they did not deliver. I could have aborted, or spent more time shallower, but I wanted to do the dive and I did. Still no excuse for poor quality control.
I have heard bad things about that particular group, dont know of many other stores in town besides Jupiter Diver Charters out of ScubaWorks (i assume they are still running). As for deco - you cant begin to blame that on this shop, your choice 100% to dive as long as you did at whatever your planned depth, there is no shifting of blame there. They got your fill wrong, but like Mempilot says, if you cant do anything about the fill (due to time) then adjust your profile to suit - simple.
I sympathise about the bad LDS/charters, there are a few around here too. Anyway you can get fills up here (i thought you were in Kissimmee?) during the week before the dives and head on down? Of course if its a second day down there that is something else, but the way you phrased it was a 4 tank day i believe.
I dived with this operation twice, which was two times too many. I can't comment on the way they pump air, but they run their dive ops like idiots. There are guys on E-divers who still think the world of them, but you will never see me on their boat again.
Also, on most of the dives out of Jupiter, they head south. Most of the dive ops in Riviera Beach to the south head north, and there's a lot of overlap in the prime dive spots on the reefs off Juno.
There's a lot more dive dive boats I'll go out on out of Riviera Beach, like Ray on Narcosis.
I remember your wife posting that. I think I put a post in that thread about them not having enough air tanks for all the divers, so they gave them nitrox and told them how to dive it on the boat ride out.
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Originally Posted by sharpenu
If you want to talk 
