Tahiti/Moores dive operator recommendations

[akulamd]

Hi folks,
I am taking my family to Tahiti/Moores over the New Years. We are all scuba divers and primary goal is to dive. My son also wants to do some surfing.
Does anyone has any recommendations on dive operators in the area? We want to dive as much as possible and plan to bring our own equipment. There are five of us. All rather experienced divers. The kids have about 100 dives each from shore and from boat, the adults are divemasters. All nitrox certified. All strong swimmers and we don’t mind setting our own gear etc. we just want someone to show the best sites and safe, reliable boats.
Any constructive advice much appreciated.

 

[akulamd]

Oops sorry. “Moorea”

 

[ACHiPo]

Sounds like a great trip! I dove from the Paul Gaugin 3 years ago at Bora Bora and Moorea. Heading back next May on a charter cat in the Tuomotus. I’m told the charter will use a local dive company, but don’t know who or how good they are. An LDS owner dove with Top Dive in Rangiroa and said they were great. No idea if they are also good in Moorea.

 

[Altamira]

Top Dive has a wide presence in Polynesia, and I have used them on a two tank dive in Fakarava a couple years ago. They did an excellent job with a diverse group of divers whose skills ranged from very good to "holy crap"! I watched two DMs deal with six AOW divers who talked a good story, but could not find their butts with both hands, and wondered how the hell they ever got certified for OW much less AOW. Any dive op that can handle those divers qualifies as a winner.

 

[akulamd]

Thank you, both people who responded. Appreciate the info. Will report on diving in January after I come back.

 

[diver_steve]

Hi folks,
I am taking my family to Tahiti/Moores over the New Years. We are all scuba divers and primary goal is to dive. My son also wants to do some surfing.
Does anyone has any recommendations on dive operators in the area? We want to dive as much as possible and plan to bring our own equipment. There are five of us. All rather experienced divers. The kids have about 100 dives each from shore and from boat, the adults are divemasters. All nitrox certified. All strong swimmers and we don’t mind setting our own gear etc. we just want someone to show the best sites and safe, reliable boats.
Any constructive advice much appreciated.

My last NFG (no fu*ken good)dive of the trip in BoraBora
After almost a week of FANTASTIC diving with TopDive Rangiroa it was time to start our weeklong cruise on the Wind Spirit, our fifth Windstar cruise but first one here. The dives and dm’s in Rangiroa were great underwater but did have a couple of equipment problems on my gear with there hurried and rough handling as they setup my gear. For the first time ever I had my tank come out of my bc (the second safety strap wasn’t fastened I saw AFTER the dive), on another dive on the decent I went to adjust my bc’s air & nothing then looking down saw the pressure hose was no longer attached which I’ve also never experienced in 40 years. I do understand the final blame falls on my shoulders for not giving a through pre dive check of their sloppy work.
As an advanced certified diver with over 700 dives logged all over the world in 40 years I know when there’s a problem brewing. Usually I book my dives with a researched dive shop and when on a cruise I privately book my dives in each port as opposed to booking an excursion with the ship, lining up transportation in each port to the dive shops can be a hassle so on this Windstar cruise around Tahiti aboard the Wind Spirit sailing yacht I decided to bite the bullet and book the most expensive 2 tank dive I’ve ever done, $300 which is more than 3 times the price I’ve ever paid. The first red flag arose waiting for the dive boat to arrive at our ship there was only one other “certified “ diver waiting with me. I have ALL my own dive gear and he had NONE, not even mask & fins and after a short conversation I knew he had little experience and was close to my age. The dive boat arrived with one divemaster that was a French woman. As I was concerned with the dive I’d have I told her I was an “easy breather” (very good on air consumption), she informed me it would be a 45 minute dive and for me only using 1/2 my air would be the norm. She also explained the boat was tied to a mooring and as there was no current we’d be ending the dive back under the boat. The 3 of us entered the water and the dm (dive master) gave the descent signal. As I started down I immediately saw black tip sharks which was great and started using my camera. When on the bottom I looked up and saw the 2 other divers near the surface and he was having problems with his decent which didn’t surprise me so kept watching the sharks and nice corals. He finally got down and we started exploring the area, in a little while I hear the dm banging on her tank to get our attention, the other diver was headed the wrong way, as she was too lazy to go after him I chased him down grabbing his fin a pointed him to the dm. At about 25 minutes into the dive I look up and at around 15 feet I see the both of them and she signals me to follow, I signal her to get him into the boat and come down as I was holding the mooring chain so I could finish my dive! I’m looking around and the next thing I feel is her GRABBING my buoyancy vest and inflating it which takes us to the surface without the industry standard safety stop at 15 feet to clear nitrogen from your system and more importantly no SLOW assent the last 15 feet to the surface! She then informs me she’s returning me to the Wind Spirit without my second dive! If you look at the end of this vid you’ll see him and the dm with a huge endless stream of bubbles, no wonder he was about out of air. Before writing this I spent time with the Wind Spirit excursion director explaining my side and she contacted “Top Dive” BoraBora but both declined a refund so I wanted to give a heads up to other divers lucky enough to come to see the FANTASTIC diving of this area to avoid diving with #WindstarCruises & #TOPDIVE BoraBora!
BTW: STILL LOVE the Windstar and their excursion’s just steer clear of their diving!