JRO
Contributor
Spent the week of May 16th diving with Rainbow Reef and had an amazing time!!!
We landed Sunday night and stayed at the Holiday Inn and began our diving on Monday.
My girlfriend Loren was doing her checkout dives and part of the reason I chose Rainbow was the ease with which they claimed they could convert her TDI class/pool work into a PADI certification. Most other shops wouldn't allow her to dive until we got home and went to the original certifying shop or played some sort of over complicated game of fax and mouse. This was my biggest concern in choosing a shop. The other thing that pushed me towards Rainbow is that they put a guide in the water at no extra charge to you, no one else in the Keys seems to do this. Overall Rainbow seemed to have a flexible attitude that many shops I spoke to lacked...I even had one shop owner yell at me when I explained that her policies would discourage my choosing her operation (she failed to grasp that I was trying to give her an opportunity to get my business). My only suggestion (a minor one) for improvement would be to replace the cookies with some fresh fruit....nothing beats a nice juicy chunk of pineapple or watermelon after sucking dry air for an hour plus.
The water was beautiful and the crew was fantastic!!! Our first day diving, there was a bit of current and I have to take my hat off to Bill who kept four divers in training together and out of trouble despite the fact that if they lost control of their buoyancy the current pulled them up and away. By the way, all new divers lose control of their buoyancy....Bill would make an excellent kitten wrangler.
On our second day I finally got to dive the Spiegel Grove (weather blew me out 6 years ago when I tried to go) and it was fantastic. I was told in the past that there is ALWAYS a current on the Grove...but not this day. I was able to descend and ascend without touching the line it was so calm. Later that day I rejoined my soon to be certified mermaid and we were introduced to Jardin who was finishing up the work Bill had started the day before. Jardin did a wonderful job and made her feel very comfortable not only in the water but in understanding the difference between TDI and PADI terms in preparation for the written portion of her test.
Our last day of diving (my fault, I caught a bit of a cold and didn't make our 4th day) was my mermaids first day as an official certified diver. As a camera guy I am easily distracted (was that something shiny?) and I truly appreciated Rainbows guide (Jardin again) as it allowed me to do what camera guys tend to do.....stop, take pictures/video....fin like mad to catch up with the rest of the group. Doing this with a new diver in tow is not acceptable. So she stuck with Jardin and I tagged along buddied up with Amber who had a similar mind set.
Loren (my mermaid) enjoyed every second of the diving (well, except
for the current the 1st day) despite the fact that she couldn't see.
I discovered this on our last dive when I asked her if she'd seen the
nurse shark on the dive, her response..."sort of". This is when I
discovered that back home she had bought a mask that was close to her
prescription , which meant anything within 6 feet was
visible...anything beyond that was a colorful shape (and she did see a
grey shape)
Suzette and Amber worked their butts off behind the counter getting everyone geared up and making sure all the paperwork was done.....all while smiling like crazy and being very personable. I had the pleasure at the end of the week of diving with Amber as my buddy...1st dive she had a wardrobe malfunction, but she didn't skip a beat and continued the dive (minds out of the gutter, the weight clasp on her BC failed...so she carried the weight for the rest of the dive). Suzette put the cherry on top of the sundae and greeted me on our last day with a beautiful shot of me (I am a beautiful man) taken by Captain Zak that she had printed out the day before.
The only thing I would've changed would have been my hotel selection. I picked the Holiday Inn because I misread the web site and thought it included the buffet breakfast which made it a slightly better deal in my mind to the others. Turns out I was wrong and the breakfast was $10 per person...and wasn't all that good. Next time I will pick either The Ramada or the Marina Del Mar and have breakfast at Doc's Diner across the street which was far better and a bit less money.
All in all a great trip. I hear people now are canceling reservation due to the criminal negligence of BP....don't!!! This may be your last chance to see Key Largo like this and the oil thankfully is still a ways off. If we are very, very lucky it will be stopped short of the Keys....but chances are it won't. My advice, get down there as soon as you can before it's to late!!!
Jeff
We landed Sunday night and stayed at the Holiday Inn and began our diving on Monday.
My girlfriend Loren was doing her checkout dives and part of the reason I chose Rainbow was the ease with which they claimed they could convert her TDI class/pool work into a PADI certification. Most other shops wouldn't allow her to dive until we got home and went to the original certifying shop or played some sort of over complicated game of fax and mouse. This was my biggest concern in choosing a shop. The other thing that pushed me towards Rainbow is that they put a guide in the water at no extra charge to you, no one else in the Keys seems to do this. Overall Rainbow seemed to have a flexible attitude that many shops I spoke to lacked...I even had one shop owner yell at me when I explained that her policies would discourage my choosing her operation (she failed to grasp that I was trying to give her an opportunity to get my business). My only suggestion (a minor one) for improvement would be to replace the cookies with some fresh fruit....nothing beats a nice juicy chunk of pineapple or watermelon after sucking dry air for an hour plus.
The water was beautiful and the crew was fantastic!!! Our first day diving, there was a bit of current and I have to take my hat off to Bill who kept four divers in training together and out of trouble despite the fact that if they lost control of their buoyancy the current pulled them up and away. By the way, all new divers lose control of their buoyancy....Bill would make an excellent kitten wrangler.
On our second day I finally got to dive the Spiegel Grove (weather blew me out 6 years ago when I tried to go) and it was fantastic. I was told in the past that there is ALWAYS a current on the Grove...but not this day. I was able to descend and ascend without touching the line it was so calm. Later that day I rejoined my soon to be certified mermaid and we were introduced to Jardin who was finishing up the work Bill had started the day before. Jardin did a wonderful job and made her feel very comfortable not only in the water but in understanding the difference between TDI and PADI terms in preparation for the written portion of her test.
Our last day of diving (my fault, I caught a bit of a cold and didn't make our 4th day) was my mermaids first day as an official certified diver. As a camera guy I am easily distracted (was that something shiny?) and I truly appreciated Rainbows guide (Jardin again) as it allowed me to do what camera guys tend to do.....stop, take pictures/video....fin like mad to catch up with the rest of the group. Doing this with a new diver in tow is not acceptable. So she stuck with Jardin and I tagged along buddied up with Amber who had a similar mind set.
Loren (my mermaid) enjoyed every second of the diving (well, except
for the current the 1st day) despite the fact that she couldn't see.
I discovered this on our last dive when I asked her if she'd seen the
nurse shark on the dive, her response..."sort of". This is when I
discovered that back home she had bought a mask that was close to her
prescription , which meant anything within 6 feet was
visible...anything beyond that was a colorful shape (and she did see a
grey shape)
Suzette and Amber worked their butts off behind the counter getting everyone geared up and making sure all the paperwork was done.....all while smiling like crazy and being very personable. I had the pleasure at the end of the week of diving with Amber as my buddy...1st dive she had a wardrobe malfunction, but she didn't skip a beat and continued the dive (minds out of the gutter, the weight clasp on her BC failed...so she carried the weight for the rest of the dive). Suzette put the cherry on top of the sundae and greeted me on our last day with a beautiful shot of me (I am a beautiful man) taken by Captain Zak that she had printed out the day before.
The only thing I would've changed would have been my hotel selection. I picked the Holiday Inn because I misread the web site and thought it included the buffet breakfast which made it a slightly better deal in my mind to the others. Turns out I was wrong and the breakfast was $10 per person...and wasn't all that good. Next time I will pick either The Ramada or the Marina Del Mar and have breakfast at Doc's Diner across the street which was far better and a bit less money.
All in all a great trip. I hear people now are canceling reservation due to the criminal negligence of BP....don't!!! This may be your last chance to see Key Largo like this and the oil thankfully is still a ways off. If we are very, very lucky it will be stopped short of the Keys....but chances are it won't. My advice, get down there as soon as you can before it's to late!!!
Jeff
