Problems with AquaWorld

[IchiroBoston]

Hi Everyone,

Im new to this forum but thought this important enough.
I Originally posted this in the MEXICO section but just discovered this board.

Mods: Sorry for cross posting.

Quick Background, We (my wife and I) are fairly new to diving, we have done a bunch of resort dives in Cancun and got the bug, so now we are newly certified
We use AquaWorld before (last year) and our crew was very good, equipment looked like it was maintained but with the volume of people they go through im sure its not always perfect.

This year was a very different experience, we went with two different companies this year, the Cozumel trip was with AquaWorld, which this story (warning) is about.

Also, we had 3 other fully certified friends with us (one with over 70 dives, and is dry suit certified), The major problem happened with his equipment.

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1. Equipment (BCD, Tanks, 1st Stage, and regulators were all in VERY poor condition) One of our friends (a certified diver with over 70 dives, this is the 1st time he has ever experienced this problem) equipment failed, not just the main regulator but at the tank valve area itself. It was not the Tank but a VERY dirty 1st stage. Both regulators failed and the pressure gauges showed very little PSI and moved while breathing. He was fortunately close to my wife so he was able to grab her 2nd regulator and they both surfaced. This cut their dive short.
The Dive master did not apologize or help any bit. Even after the dive none of the crew gave a damn, all they did was replace the unit and that was it. My friend was having some headaches because he surfaced a bit too fast but of course none of the Crew cared. This dive was on May 6h, 2006

Fortunately My Wife and Friend are both certified so they were able to stay calm and surface, but if this happened to anyone of our other friends (Resort divers) it could have ended very badly.

2. On another dive two of our BCD's failed, I had to repair mine by myself while under water. My friends was so damaged she had to get assistance by another diver because she could not stay afloat. She did the Resort Diving cert and this was her 1st dive! This dive was on May 3th 2006. And again, NO one from the Crew or AquaWorld gave a damn about us.

3. Our dive on May 6h, 2006 was in a "cliff" area (Los Palmas, Cozumel), most of us were flying within a day and some of us were also resort divers anyways so we were not certified for anything below 10m. I noticed that I did not have a depth gauge so I asked to replace my gauge. They gave me a new depth gauge (I reset the max setting knob).
After surfacing I noticed that we maxed out at 65 feet (19.82m)!!!!! We were following the Dive master the whole time!!

Again the crew on the boat did not apologize or help our friends that were in distress.

Both my wife and I have done 7 tank dives with AquaWorld and will never deal with AquaWorld Because of the poor equipment supplied to us. I don't feel safe with AquaWorld and will never refer AquaWorld to anyone. Even if we purchased our own equipment I don't think I could trust the air that AquaWorld pumps in their tanks!

I hope ANYONE thinking of diving with them seriously think twice about it.

I have notified AquaWorld (but of course have not gotten any reply from them) but I also notified PADI about this. PADI has replied to me (very quickly).

Thanks for reading my post. And I hope this helps.

 

[divebutt]

I was in Cancun back in 2003 and did a few dives with them. Overall a poor operation based solely on revenue and not on diver safety and satisfaction.

Good call on alerting PADI, please keep us in the loop with regards to any actions taken. In my opinion, they should lose their PADI rating for that quality of service.

By the way, feel free to ask anyone here for advice on were to dive. I dove with another operation in Cancun and was very pleased. On some dives, it was just me and the DM.

Cheers,

Matt

 

[scubawife]

I replied to this post on the Mexico board. While a dive op should not knowingly rent faulty or badly maintaned gear, I also feel that the certified divers should have known and followed pre-dive procedures of checking all their gear. Doesn't matter if it's your own gear or rental, you should visually inspect everything before the dive. And, you should turn on the tank to make sure you have good fill, your pressure gauge is working, purge and breath on your reg and octo to make sure they are ok, test your BCD inflator, etc. If it's rental gear and an item doesn't pass your pre-dive check, ask for another set or choose not to dive.

This should not happen to anyone, and I don't mean to offend anyone, but, I do think that a certified diver needs to assume some responsibility if they didn't take the time to go through a pre-dive gear check. I own my own gear and know that it's properly cared for and serviced, and I still check everything before every dive.

I have no experience with Aquaworld and have never dived in Cancun.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I agree with scuba wife. As a certified diver you are responsible for the dive. This includes checking your gear and making sure it's in good working order. You are also responsible for what goes on during the dive. Did the DM know you were flying? If not it is not his responsibility to watch YOUR depth! And even if he did you are still responsible for your own safety and you have the right to call the dive if you do not feel it's within your limits or training. This is what gets me about so many divers today. They are not taught that they are responsible for themselves. The DM is a guide not a baby sitter. The inferior gear is inexcusable but you should take some of this on yourself. And finally if you were that close to flying that you were that concerned about it you should have been lounging on the beach instead of diving. Anything could have gone wrong and it seems it did. But you chose to dive that close to your flight.

 

[whatdecostop?]

I concur with JimLap, as a certfied diver, the ONUS is on you!

Only in circumsatances of GROSS negligence can you blame a DM,LDS or whoever.

 

[miketsp]

Quick Background, We (my wife and I) are fairly new to diving, we have done a bunch of resort dives in Cancun and got the bug, so now we are newly certified
We use AquaWorld before (last year) and our crew was very good, equipment looked like it was maintained but with the volume of people they go through im sure its not always perfect.
..snip..

Rental gear at most tourist places is intensively used. Even while good operators will carry out a weekly inspection, you still don't know how it was treated by the last user. As a certified diver you should be capable of carrying out a pre-dive check and taking a decision on whether or not to request a substitution.
If I spend a week diving at a popular location on a boat with say 20 divers, most of whom are using rental gear, I would expect to see several minor equipment failures and requests to change gear while kitting up.

..snip..
1. Equipment (BCD, Tanks, 1st Stage, and regulators were all in VERY poor condition) One of our friends (a certified diver with over 70 dives, this is the 1st time he has ever experienced this problem) equipment failed, not just the main regulator but at the tank valve area itself. It was not the Tank but a VERY dirty 1st stage. Both regulators failed and the pressure gauges showed very little PSI and moved while breathing. He was fortunately close to my wife so he was able to grab her 2nd regulator and they both surfaced. This cut their dive short.
The Dive master did not apologize or help any bit. Even after the dive none of the crew gave a damn, all they did was replace the unit and that was it. My friend was having some headaches because he surfaced a bit too fast but of course none of the Crew cared. This dive was on May 6h, 2006
..snip..

A first stage failure without warning is pretty rare if it didn't give any indication during pre-dive check. If your friend didn't see any symptoms it's difficult to accuse the operator of negligence.
Why should the DM apologise if an experienced diver, with access to an alternate air source surfaced too fast?

..snip..
2. On another dive two of our BCD's failed, I had to repair mine by myself while under water.
..snip..

Just curious, what sort of failure was repairable under water?

3. Our dive on May 6h, 2006 was in a "cliff" area (Los Palmas, Cozumel), most of us were flying within a day and some of us were also resort divers anyways so we were not certified for anything below 10m. I noticed that I did not have a depth gauge so I asked to replace my gauge. They gave me a new depth gauge (I reset the max setting knob).
After surfacing I noticed that we maxed out at 65 feet (19.82m)!!!!! We were following the Dive master the whole time!!
..snip..

From what you describe you were diving multiple dives on multiple days. You should not have been doing anything other than snorkelling in the 24 hours before the flight. Why should the DM restrict his dive profile prejudicing other divers paying good money just because you were abusing the no-fly window?
You only noticed that you maxed at 20m after the dive????
Were you not taught to monitor your own depth?
Given that you decided to dive within the no-fly window there was absolutely nothing to stop you following the DM & the group mid-water & sticking at 10m if that was where you wanted to be. Vis in Cancun is normally perfectly adequate for this.

Sorry if this sounds harsh but YOU and only YOU are responsible for your own safety, not the DM.

 

[miketsp]

..snip..
By the way, feel free to ask anyone here for advice on were to dive. I dove with another operation in Cancun and was very pleased. On some dives, it was just me and the DM.

Cheers,

Matt

I would be very suspicious if I were the only diver on a dive boat in Cancun. I'd be asking myself why???
Why are all the other divers avoiding this operator?
Could it just be that someone complained about them on SB?

 

[IchiroBoston]

I agree with everything you guys are saying, the issue is that this was a "beginner / resort dive boat" Everyone on the boat is assumed NOT to be certified. It was just that some of our friends were certified and we all wanted to dive together. I agree. If I went on a "advanced" dive I would setup and check everything myself. But when your on a "resort dive / beginner" boat you don't have that knowledge, you have to rely on the company for that part.

Since I am certified, I was a bit concerned about our depth, that is why I asked to change my guage so I could make sure how deep we went. I even went to all of my non certified (1st timers) and checked their equipment. And yes the Dive Master / Instructor and AquaWorld knew people were flying, no less than 20hr after our last dive.
From what we were taught, if your dive is shallow (33ft) then you should wait 12hr before flying. Since we were on a "Beginner boat" our max depth was supposed to be 33ft. As I said before we almost 2x that depth even though our dive master / guide knew of us flying soon.

About my BCD Failure: the hose's tie either broke off or never existed so it kept popping off while trying to inflate THEN the quick exhaust part kept popping off, I had to hold the tube connecting the BCD to the inflator unit AND hold the round quick exhaust part on the BCD at the same time, while trying to get to the boat. My friend's BCD was even worse... Too much to explain but she had to hang onto another person's inflated BCD which he gave up to my friend while that person swam to the boat without a BCD.

Yes I know 1st stage failure is rare, but it still happened.
On the surface everything worked fine, regulator seemed okay, flow was okay.
PSI guage was solid (not moving) during breathing....etc. It was not on instant failure.

No matter how many dives you do, if you run out of air... it's not a good time.

The MAJOR problem that I have with AuqaWorld is that this was a designated "Resort Diver / Beginner Boat" with crew that all knew that some of these divers were 1st timers. They don't know all of the technical rules and every safety senario, that is why we went with a "Beginner Boat" so our Dive Guide can GUIDE us.

When we left Cozumel there were 3 AquaWorld Boats: Snorkle, Beginner and Certified... we were all on the beginners boat. Diving in Cozumel is not cheap especially with AquaWorld and I felt VERY bad for my friends that never dove and spent all that money.
And even worse for my friend that lost air!

I hope this clears some more questions and please excuse my poor spelling LOL
Ichiro

 

[miketsp]

..snip..
The MAJOR problem that I have with AuqaWorld is that this was a designated "Resort Diver / Beginner Boat" with crew that all knew that some of these divers were 1st timers. They don't know all of the technical rules and every safety senario, that is why we went with a "Beginner Boat" so our Dive Guide can GUIDE us.

When we left Cozumel there were 3 AquaWorld Boats: Snorkle, Beginner and Certified... we were all on the beginners boat. Diving in Cozumel is not cheap especially with AquaWorld and I felt VERY bad for my friends that never dove and spent all that money.
And even worse for my friend that lost air!

I hope this clears some more questions and please excuse my poor spelling LOL
Ichiro

OK that's a fair point in part, from your 1st post I didn't realise it was a beginners boat.
So the question is, "Did the non-certified divers get more hand-holding or not?"

The problems you describe only appear to relate to the certified divers. If the DM knew you were certified and conditions were good he could easily leave you alone to take care of yourselves and spend more time with the newbies.

Did you see if he checked over the gear of the non-certified divers or not?
Did he pay attention to the newbies UW?

 

[IchiroBoston]

OK that's a fair point in part, from your 1st post I didn't realise it was a beginners boat.
So the question is, "Did the non-certified divers get more hand-holding or not?"

The problems you describe only appear to relate to the certified divers. If the DM knew you were certified and conditions were good he could easily leave you alone to take care of yourselves and spend more time with the newbies.

Did you see if he checked over the gear of the non-certified divers or not?
Did he pay attention to the newbies UW?

Yeah Sorry about that... (beginners boat)

To answer your question, NO, Non-Certified divers did not get more hand-holding.
No one on our boat (crew) knew that there were Certified experienced divers on the boat, just resort divers.

About the Crew: They all assumed that we were all Resort Certified, they "checked" everyones gear...It looked liked all the checking they did was making sure there was at least 3000 psi on the guage.
But of course things change when you put it under pressure. I heard some air leaking out of my friends BCD (that failed) and they said "No Problem"....

But stupid me still put some extra trust in AquaWorld's crew because we were on a beginner boat. I learned my lesson now! ALWAYS check your own gear. Just before I got up I noticed none of my harnesses were tightened.. not that it's that "important" but especialy for a beginners boat, don't you think they are supposed to check that for you? (How are you even supposed to know to check?)

Also the clarify, the AIR issue was with the certified diver, but the BCD issue was with a 1st timer (resort diver)... but we were all assumed to be resort divers by AquaWorld crew on this boat. Im still upset the Crew did not attend to my friend who's air failed after we surfaced, im happy my Wife (who was JUST certified 1 or 2 days before this dive) was there to keep him company and calm.

And this might sound "cheap" but we paid something like $140 USD EACH for this dive, my Wife and Friend got maybe 15min out of the 1st dive.

This is how AquaWorld's Cozumel Operation went with us:
When we got to the dock at Playa-Del-Carmen to get on the Cozumel ferry the AquaWorld guy checked all of our credentials (Resort diver's card or PADI card). At that point he handed us tickets for the ferry. After that it was all up to us.

After we got off the Ferry, we just looked around for the AquaWorld boats and headed that way. At the Cozumel Dock with the AquaWorld boats, they asked us to separate to three groups, 1.Snorkle, 2.Beginner and 3.Certified. There was NO verification of who went on what boat. Just how many heads, not even a list with names! (I was looking)

I don't know how "normal" this is either but after we left the dock (on the AquaWorld Boat) we met up with a few other AquaWorld boats because we were short on equipment (fins and regulators), nothing that serious but I guess I just expected more (especially since the good service from last year). Also after our 1st drive (2 tank dive) we had to dock somewhere else and they THREW empty tanks to some guy in a van and then THREW full tanks back to the boat. LMAO. Those guys are strong hu? I don't know how strong the valve heads are but damn I dont want to be around it if it breaks off.

As I said before, I really feel bad for the 1st timers... that they had to experience this. Stuff happens and we are all trained for it, but your still dealing with life support equipment... keep it clean and safe. Especially when the Company your dealing with knows they are dealing with new divers (that really don't know what to look for in equipment)

Sorry if this sounds like just a huge complaint post, but when I had my 1st real "resort dive" our experience was amazing, the crew helped us so much (setting up our equipment, fitting our BCD) and got me diving! I Even freaked out for the 1st few minutes in the water but the DM Calmed me down, got me to the bottom and it was just amazing, im hooked for life.

But this time they messed with my friends life (I blame them for giving my friend faulty equipment. Of course after thinking about it more things comes to mind, like when we surfaced I asked to see the Equipment my friend had, he took it to the captian's cabin and would not let me inspect it. I bet the 1st stage was a mess.)

AquaWorld gave my friends a horrible 1st diving experience and wasted our money!

I hope I can convince my friends to go on another drive with us so they can experience a real fun dive. But we will see, it will be a while since most of us live in Northern USA (MA, CT, NY, MD) lol not really great for new divers. But I hope to get back to Cozumel soon, this time with my own equipment and not with AquaWorld.

I hope this post will help future divers.