Avoid Tank Ha In Playa Del Carmen

[Shasta_man]

Born2Dive53: You knew most of the responses were going to be questioning YOUR skills and experience and, of course, bodily function, here. That's how the Internet works.

I got that leaving you bobbing in 8 foot seas wasn't cool and that the companies response didn't hit the threshold of concern you were looking for otherwise, you probably wouldn't have written this. You have forewarned me that diving is tough in that area and to be particularly careful about checking for equipment, and setup of the boat.

Tank-Ha: While it appears that lessons were learned and improvements made, his mention of discussing this with you at adventure conclusion and the apparent lack of warm concern was his notification before posting. As you have 1 posting on the board, I'm more concerned about you coming on to defend yourself not quite jiving with your "quality" message. However, what you say here is not important but what happens on the trips. Good luck in the future.

 

[billeelou]

As I said before, I have used Tank Ha and found them to be one of the better ops in PDC. There is a briefing before every dive there that points out the name of the boat, capitain's name and radio signal, " in case you are seperated" on every single COz/YUcatan/PDC/Akumal ocean dive. If that never happened, why would all of them give that little talk? I have seen the Yucatan Dive Ops swap regs, bc's and even DM's if needed, the reputable ones all work together to make every dive safe and enjoyable

Rough seas is sometimes a concern there, but the "lack of concern" after the dive appears to be the motivator in this case. Tank Ha has been in operation a long time, one bad employee shold not D *MN an operation forever, but if there appears to be a pattern of bad dives, lax safety concerns, etc. then be all means avoid them.

I am not a "homer" for Tank Ha, just want to give a little of the other side to the discussion

 

[techdiver2us]

I have Tank Ha exclusively in PDC and have only fond memories. They even accomodated me on a cruise ship stop for my birthday this year by getting me to the Mama Vina. Their Cozumel trips are convenient, cenote dives well organized, and though I had to snorkel I did have fun on the whale shark trip. Sorry to hear of your difficulties, but I will continue to use and recommend Tank Ha based on past experience.

 

[ScubaQTX]

I'm gonna check out Tank Ha in mid July. I'll get back with a report. I tend to take bad reports with a grain of salt. It's a lot like a bad visit to a restaurant. After a bad experience a dissatisfied diner tells at least 7 people about it. After a good experience in a restaurant? Maybe 1. On the other hand, most of my "what the ..." dive moments have come when diving in Mexico. In any event, i'll take from this discussion a good point. It's always good to be as self sufficient as possible when diving, but this seems especially prudent when diving in Mexico.

 

[jmb]

I've dove with Tank Ha many times and have always had good experiences with them. Sorry to hear of your bad experience, but am glad that all ended well. I feel confident that Tank Ha has taken this seriously as they've always been very safety conscious. I will still continue to dive with Tank Ha and feel comfortable - every DM I've been out with has been very careful and professional, the staff at the office is always friendly and a pleasure to deal with. Thank you for the report !

 

[ApexLongimanus]

my wife and i were in pdc exactly that week. we only did one ocean dive with a dive shop i don't want to name and had a similar experience. can happen. with all the traffic, we were never in a dire situation, just an inconvenient one. for the rest of the week we used tank ha.
we've been diving with them for two years now and never had anything to complain about. management is going out of their way to accommodate any requests you might have.

 

[on_two_wheels]

I'm a firmly believe there are three sides to every story. His side, their side, and the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle. A little embelishment isn't a rarity. The OP responded to many comments defensively and occasionally with sarcasm. That said, if TO HIM it was a bad experience, then it was a bad experience. Period. Does that make Tank Ha a bad operator overall? Nope. Just on that day. There are more people on here with positive reports of the company than negative so most could assume that it was just a bad combination of incidents on a particular day. Regardless, it always sucks when it happens to you. Hope the rest of your trip went great, though!!

 

[Marvelle]

I'm surprised. I actually JUST got my certification there and they were totally professional. I got one-on-one training with the instructor and she was very vigilant about my skills before moving on to the next portion of the training.

We had an incident too where we had to wait about 5 minutes before the boat showed but everyone had a sausage, a whistle, and our DM even had an air horn that she was about to use but didn't have to. My understanding is that surfacing without the boat being around is quite common so I'm not sure one incident should ward off potential takers.

Tank-Ha was great, the staff was friendly, and we did some great dives (Los Arcos and Cerebros were my favorites). Tortugas was great too (about 100 feet) despite the absence of any "tortugas".

Anyway, just wanted to offer a different opinion on Tank-Ha. They've been in PDC for 13 years and everyone knows them, which is a lot more than can be said about the other newbies in PDC. Whoever you go with, just don't accept being treated like cattle. The most people we had on the boat for a dive with Tank-Ha was 5 (which I understand is pretty cozy).

Other shops that LOOKED good were Scuba Playa and Phantom but I can't vouch for them as I didn't dive with any of them (the shops just looked professional).

 

[HammerHead05]

I'm surprised. I actually JUST got my certification there and they were totally professional. Tortugas was great too (about 100 feet) despite the absence of any "tortugas".

You just got certified and they took you to 100ft? Sez something about their op.....

 

[ApexLongimanus]

there are two "tortugas" dive sites. one has a maximum depth of 80fsw, the other one 75fsw. so the 100fsw can not be correct unless someone was digging.....a lot...