Diving in Guam

[IslandHopper]

Sure, I'll comment...

I am VERY sorry you had such a bad experience diving my island !
I can only say that your experience would have been VERY different with Micronesian Divers Association.

I'm not affiliated with them in any way except that I dive from their boats several times each week. They DO NOT put more than 32 divers on their 42' dive boats. ... And they limit their bookings to 28 (the other 4 seats are for mistakes and the occasional last-minute local).

They also don't provide Guides unless you request (and pay) for it. You'll get a thorough site briefing, but otherwise, you are free to make your own dive with your own small group.

You got screwed by not going outside the harbour ! ... It is very rare when weather conditions make that a bad idea, and only twice have I been on MDA's daily boat when the first dive was not done outside the harbour ... usually at Crevice or Blue Hole.

I can't say I've ever dove with GTDS, mostly just because MDA is closer to my house. But after reading your experience, I wouldn't even consider it now.

Again, I hate to think someone had a bad experience diving Guam... If you come back, let me know and I'll make sure you enjoy your dives !

 

[sinners]

Hey IslandHopper/And All who read this

No offense, I am merely relating my horrible experience. Guam is a beautiful island, the beach is fantastic and believe or not, I took more photos with my mask, snorkel and camera at the beach than on the dive trip.

I agree, if we had gone outside the harbour, I am sure we would have seen better, but my point are:
1. We paid US$75 for 2 tank dives, which supposely included a Dive Master, which it did, but sure the Dive Master or Dive Masters should have been around to cater to the different levels of divers? Not only the Japanese Divers right?

2. If everybody were given a proper place to rig up, then surely we should have gotten the same right? Why did we have to rig up on the floor?

3. I was there went they counted the people on the boat, 52 people. I heard the Captain say that 52 were the maximum poeple on the boat, but was that above the maximum diver capacity?

I agree that the weather could have played an important role, and I do admit the waves were slightly coppy, but they were fine for an advance diver like me but not fine for beginners.

I guess the important thing to note, is to ask more questions from an operator before making the final choice and to always check with people like IslandHopper before we make the deal.

I will definately go back to Guam, and trying diving with another operator as soon as Priceline comes up with the same fantastic deal.

Cheers!

Sure, I'll comment...

I am VERY sorry you had such a bad experience diving my island !
I can only say that your experience would have been VERY different with Micronesian Divers Association.

I'm not affiliated with them in any way except that I dive from their boats several times each week. They DO NOT put more than 32 divers on their 42' dive boats. ... And they limit their bookings to 28 (the other 4 seats are for mistakes and the occasional last-minute local).

They also don't provide Guides unless you request (and pay) for it. You'll get a thorough site briefing, but otherwise, you are free to make your own dive with your own small group.

You got screwed by not going outside the harbour ! ... It is very rare when weather conditions make that a bad idea, and only twice have I been on MDA's daily boat when the first dive was not done outside the harbour ... usually at Crevice or Blue Hole.

I can't say I've ever dove with GTDS, mostly just because MDA is closer to my house. But after reading your experience, I wouldn't even consider it now.

Again, I hate to think someone had a bad experience diving Guam... If you come back, let me know and I'll make sure you enjoy your dives !

 

[Iruka]

Just a couple of quick comments...probably 90% of the weekday divers...or more...are Japanese tourists, so if you get on one of the normally-scheduled weekday boats, they tend to go to the same few places over & over. Both shops have more "out of the way" points scheduled, but you have to check with them or their websites to find out about times, prices, etc....and if weather conditions or # of customers aren't to their liking, they don't always follow the schedule. Sometimes ocean conditions make it unsafe to go outside the harbor and that's something we just have to live with.

A 15-minute wait & 12m limit...sounds like you had some "intro" divers along...uncertified people just trying diving out. (it's legal...called "Discover Scuba" by PADI)...but it can mess up the dive for the experienced people, depending on how good/bad the intros are...and some of them are BETTER than experienced divers, but that's another story.

Crowded boat...well, tourism is very seasonal, and as far as I know, both shops (there are many others, of course, but those 2 are the biggest) prefer a full boat to empty seats. Not as convenient for the divers, but it's hard to expect them to turn away customers UP TO the legal passenger limit. Certainly should have found a way to get your gear stowed properly, though. And I'm not sure what was going on with them asking you to carry OTHER people's gear. Usually if I have a small group, or small/weak divers, I'll carry their stuff for them.

Unless you get a charter (which is cost-prohibitive unless you have 4~6 people) individual divers don't have much say in choosing the dive sites. Numbers rule. Divemasters generally have 6~8 divers each...though I prefer 6 or less, myself...too many things can go wrong with bigger groups....it's always a probelm trying to tailor a dive when you have, for example, 3 people with 4 dives each, who last dove during their OW course, 1 year ago, and 3 more who have hundreds of dives each. I try to give my experienced divers what freedom I can, while still keeping everybody's safety in mind. As someone said earlier, if you're an experienced, competent diver, just paying the boat fee ($35 or thereabouts) won't give you a guide, but you can ask for a briefing or (although some DMs get upset about this) just "tag along" behind one of the guided groups, which will at least help you to get back to the boat. Just be aware that the guide won't want to alter their dive plan for people who are not in their group.

Anyhow, I hope you have a better experience if you get back this way again. I have a handful of photos on my website, along with some dive site descriptions which might give you an idea of things you missed seeing this time around.

 

[415Gem]

Hello All!

Over the long Easter weekend, I went to Guam. I am from Singapore but now live in Hong Kong.



Part of the trip was dedicated to a day dive consisting of 2 tank dives. Guam is a beautiful island and it is surrounded by great waters, clear blue with a visibility of 30m minimum.



We signed up with Guam Tropical Dive Station, http://www.gtds.com . We were picked up from the hotel at 7:40am and hurdled into a van with 4 Japanese tourist.

We then went along to another hotel to pick up some other diver. We were driven to the GTDS's shop were we were asked to fill in the Waiver Liability Form and to show our diving cards. I was shocked to see that a Japanese couple had no diving card but claimed to be able to dive, was allowed to go on the trip.



After all the formalities were done, we were driven about 15 mins away to a jetty to dive!

I was really excited up till then.



We arrive at the jetty and I were told to wait for the boat. While waiting, I was asked to help carry other people's rented gear to the boat. I am complaining, I usually help out when I used to go on dive trips to Malaysia, but there is one big difference here, everyone helps. All the Japanese just watched, while I carry the stuff, My wife and I were both pissed off.



We get on the boat, and guess what? There are 52 people on the boat, yes 52, and with the exception of say 4 people, everyone was diving. That means 48 divers on a boat. I have dived countless times in Malaysia and 30 people on the boat is cool, but 48 was crazy. But bear with me, here is why?

We were not given a proper space to rig up, like the other 45 divers, we [my wife, a HK man and me] were asked to rig on the floor, while everyone had a proper seat to rig up.



The first dive: GABGAB 2

We get into the water and there is hardly any fish, the dive master is order to make it worth our time, pulls out a pack of sausages and gives it out to us to feed the fish.

Hold on! I thought as divers, we don't feed the fish, we are just there to observe the beauty?

The next thing that freaks me out, is the dive master is picking stuff off the seabed.



The 30+ min plus dive is uneventful.



The second dive: Finger-Reef

We are told that we can hold on to the corals if we need support before the dive. Shocking!

We are also told since 2 new dives are joining us, we have to dive at max 12m. For God Sake, I am an advance dive and my wife an open water, and we have 60 dives among ourselves, in the last 13 months. We are not newbies.

We were told to do a giant stride, and wait at the rear of the boat for everyone else. We spent 15mins there waiting for the newbies to get into the water, surely, another dive master should have been there to take care of the newbies and another to take care of the others right?

As you can imagine, we see nothing at all.





The dives were a completed disaster. I had email GTDS at least 15 times, explaining that we were certified dives and we were bring out camera and wanted to dive at good spots. But all we got was basic dives in a crowded boat.



Comments anyone?

Sorry to hear about your lame experience. You at least ( commendable ) doing the good turn by warnings. Hope it doesn`t happen again. Kevin

 

[CA Diver]

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Unfortunately, the Dive masters with the Japanese have a history of feeding the fish there, especially at Gab Gab 2. The submarine Atlantis is notorious for this so I am suprised there were few fish there.

I dove with MDA for about 10 boat trips (20 dives) and there were never more than 30 divers on the boat. There were a number of days when I was unable to get on the MDA boat because itwas full at 30.

 

[cjames]

I dove with GTDS last October as the third leg in a Yap/Palau/Guam trip. Of course the diving was somewhat pale compared to Palau, but overall it was still good. The highlight was filming the Atlantis submarine coming in to the feeding station, made for some great video. Regarding the shop, my experience was positive with a couple of caveats. They drove us from the hotel to the shop and we ended up going to a couple other hotels, then waiting for a japanese couple that never showed up. Because of that it took over an hour to get to the shop. Folks at the shop were friendly and helpful and were doing all the right things in terms of checking c-cards, etc. When we got to the boat, we did unload the gear, which surprised me for what the dive cost, but I grew up diving boats in California, so no big deal. The boat captain was pretty cool and pointed out all the interesting Navy boats on the way out. The boat had 10 people on it i think, all Japanese except for me and 2 divemasters. We dove the Crevice and GabGab2. The current at the crevice was fairly ripping so the poor divemasters had their work cut out for them with the newbie Japanese divers, at one point towing 4 of them back to the moring line I saw a turtle, got some nice footage of hawkfish, but in general wasn't a lot of life. Next we went to GabGab, by the Atlantis moring. We were thouroughly briefed about not getting too close to the sub. In the water, while the reef looked nice and healthy, clearly there were feeding stations set up to collect lots of fish. Honestly that doesn't bother me too much if its done on a limited scale because it may get kids on the sub excited about the sea and therefore aware of protecting it. The divemaster did a good job of keeping the newbs off the coral, a very non-trivial job. Back at the shop, they gave us food and drink, and filled out log books. I tipped the guy well because, being an instructor and divemaster at one point in my life, I felt bad for him when no one else tipped him that I saw.

So...I think the shop is OK, but after hearing other's experience and given I'm usually shooting video or stills, if I go again, I'll probably look for a six-pack.

 

[CA Diver]

The boat captain was pretty cool and pointed out all the interesting Navy boats on the way out.

On a number of my dives the "Nitrox Twins" - COMNAVMAR (Commander Naval Station Marianas) & his buddy the Commander of Marianas Coast Guard Station - were on the boat so we actually took a small tour of the Navy Marina during a surface interval. (With permission of course.)

MDA has a six pack they use for certain dives. I agree that the diving in Palau is much better but with the viz here in SoCal last summer and what it is shaping up to be this summer Guam is fantastic.

 

[Iruka]

Cjames....tipping in Japan isn't customary, so Japanese divers here usually don't tip....it just doesn't occur to them most of the time.

 

[cjames]

Makes sense Chris, I probably would have tipped the guy extra anyway. I was tired just from watching him

 

[Kracotka]

Like Chris and others said, I too am sorry there were some bad experiences on Guam.

I don't represent or work for any dive shops. But, I've been diving on Guam since 1976.

Chris didn't quite explain that Guams economy is not technology, industry or manufacturing. It is tourism and military. The vast majority of the tourists are from Japan. They are Guams bread and butter. This is the nearest resort for Japan. Japan investments and interests virtually rebuilt 90% of the island economy, hotels and businesses after devastating typhoons in the 1990's and since.

This doesn't excuse bad service from any merchant, in any business.

How-ever, regarding dive boats... Most experienced divers know the one thing you can depend on an "open dive boat" (not private or chartered) is an eclectic mix of skills, experiences, interests, and goals. It's rare to see a dive boat advertised as a "guided" dive. Those that do, charge a large fee, or have a special interest group onboard a regularly scheduled trip. And they usually have their own guide or Dive Master. Most Guam dive shops will charter you a boat for an average $150 an hour with a minimum 3-4 hours, if you have a enough dive buddies, this is the best way to ensure you get the personalized dive you're looking for.

Guams dive boats are cheap in comparison to other areas. Hawaii and California come to mind, running $80-$150. And load up the boats too.

Regarding GTDS, I know they indicate on their boat schedules, "combination" boat; meaning: dive, snorkel, banana boat, whale/dolphin watching. It seems many people overlook this information when signing up for a boat.

The Guam people are friendly and helpful. All the dive shops have professional and helpful Captains and crews... despite the stinging and defamatory rhetoric between the comptetition.

Anyway, to the topic of my reply...
If you're military or DOD, check out the Pacific Divers Club new web page. The old one was created by a past President and hasn't been updated in years. We don't have a boat, but we have much to offer eligible divers.

http://www.guam.net/home/pacdivers/