Warning: Bad Belize Dive Experience

[zenpash]

Fellow Divers,
Upon our return from 16 dives in 6 days on Ambergris Caye, I feel compelled to warn all divers/snorklers of a dive operation in my opinion to be at best negligent and gravely dangerous. They do offer an underpriced package for 2 tanks for 2 days at $99 but please know that I feel fortunate that a tragedy did not ocur while using their services. I have dived in many underdeveloped countires and have yet to see the lack of attention to safety as I experienced with Aqua Divers in 20+ years of diving. There were multiple levels of concern with both boating and diving safety, while doing a dive to the Blue Hole and I will list them below:

Lack of attention to Engine and Boat Maintenence
Instructing 20+ people onto the Fly bridge ( capacity 8 ppl )
Instruction to enter water w/ air turned off
Little to no dive plan or instruction prior to dives
Head dive instructor making derrogatory "gringo" comments during the trip
Lack of safety / buoyancy devices onboard
GPS - disengaged during entire trip
Taking OW divers to 132 ft depths ( one OW diver was doing her first dive)
Absolutely no pairing of dive buddies/ all levels including snorklers were chaotically in the water together
All dives were ended prematuraly as little as 20 min. on 1 dive
Leaking tanks due to faulty o-rings ..( not sure if replacements were onboard) jsut to name a few

Multiple people including dive instructors and doctors both Mexico along with myself, approached the owners of Aqua Divers in an attempt to inform them of the incident and most of which fell on deft ears. One concern of mine was that the owners are non divers so the entire operation seems to be run by an instructor who was nothing short of obnoxious and rude. En route to the Blue Hole I realized ( I have been to Capt. school ) there were not buoyancy devices onboard w/ approximately 28-32 diver/snorklers. The Capt. next to me questioned the Capt. and asked why the GPS was not activated his response: "I have it all in my head!" ..right so I don't need a computer because I have dive tables in my head! ..I became quite concerned at this point...then the engine failed, I think a clamp broke away from a hose ( I assume there was no replacement onboard) so they opened a scuba tank to blow air on it ..hhhmmm...combustion??..Everyone was then ordered to move to the Flybridge..now it became really scary as the capacity was 8 ppl. and we were at least 28..at 1/2 speed we forged on to the Hole..I am not quite certain how many "unskilled" divers entered and dropped down to 130ft. but judging by the lack of buoyancy control - I would say at least 7..I was so uneasy - I could not enjoy my own dive. We were then rushed to eat lunch and immediately do the Half Moon..people were complaining about their undigested lunches..now this dive began with no dive plan whatsoever and although it was absolutely beautiful, again the chaos was overwhelming. ..thirdly we were rushed ( in my opinion , I think they made sure they got everyone in the water so it could be stated that all dives were done) for the 3rd dive whcih lasted 20 min. We did not get onto the island as paid for $40 park entrance fee and refunds were refused. We were then hussled onto a smaller boat with other divers/ snorklers to return. I have dived out of dinghys in Africa and done some other obscure diving but never had I been in a more potentially dangerous scircumstance. Please avoid this operation for your own safety and the safety of your dive buddies. We moved to another operation after this incident and I will be more than happy to refer them and the wonderful people where we stayed. Thank you for listening, Marcie

 

[jlevine]

It sounds like the OP had a bad experience due to many factors. I do not live in Belize but have been there a few times. I have no knowledge of this shop and cannot “defend” the shop. I am not qualified to speak on boat management, emergency management, and safety. I also have no knowledge of Belizean tourism and maritime law so I’ll only make some general comments.

There are two sets of issues raised in this post. The first set has to do with the dive operator. I am not going to speak to those because there are some pieces of information not covered in the original post and I don’t want to make too many inferences.

The second set of issues as to do with the divers as individuals. No matter how good the shop is, once you are a certified diver, you are to a great extent responsible for what you do. Before I jump in the water, I check my gear. Even if the shop sets everything up for me, I am responsible for its use. I have to check my weights, BCD, regulator and air. If my air is not on, that’s my problem.

While the dive coordinator often puts people together, I can still take the initiative to ask someone to be my dive buddy. I often travel solo so I sometimes go to someone and say, “Would you mind if I buddied with you?” I have never had anyone say no.

It’s also up to me to determine whether I can safely dive in a given situation. I have bailed on dives where I did not feel comfortable with my ability to handle the conditions. That’s my choice.

It’s interesting that *diving* is viewed differently from *driving.* Once *drivers* get their licenses and get behind the wheel of a car, they are responsible for what happens. Similarly, *divers* have to accept responsibility too.

The matter of OW-only divers going into the Blue Hole has been covered on other threads in this forum. I have some issues with it but, on the other side, I am not convinced that a short AOW class necessarily gives someone the skills they need to dive the Blue Hole right away. It’s my understanding that Belizean DMs are required to be in the Blue Hole with divers for this reason.

In terms of the $40 park fee, I believe that fee is for entering the Blue Hole “district” not just for going to Half Moon Caye. The shop is on the hook for that fee so they can’t refund it.

Again, I cannot speak about the other issues raised by the OP concerning the shop, the boat, the handling of the emergency, the management of the dive, etc. Those are all worthy of review. I am in no way defending the shop. I do, however, feel that there are some issues that belong more to the diver than the shop.

 

[ibj40]

To read the headline, one would first assume that there are wholesale problems with diving in Belize. My two experiences to that country are to the contrary.

 

[nimoh]

sounds like you didn't have a very good experience, however, I sense a few of these issues are a little blown out of proportion:

Lack of attention to Engine and Boat Maintenence - subjective, an engine problem doesn't necessarily mean lack of maintenance
Little to no dive plan or instruction prior to dives - with many dive operators, this is up to the divers (assuming this was not a class)
Head dive instructor making derrogatory "gringo" comments during the trip - in my experience "gringo" is not derogatory, it just means you are not from Belize
GPS - disengaged during entire trip - very common for captains to not need GPS when in familiar waters
Absolutely no pairing of dive buddies/ all levels including snorklers were chaotically in the water together - again, this is commonly up to the divers
Leaking tanks due to faulty o-rings ..( not sure if replacements were onboard) jsut to name a few - not a big deal, but I agree that any leaks are unwanted


other thoughts:

1. All dives were ended prematuraly as little as 20 min. on 1 dive - for what reasons?

2. did they really "instruct" you to enter the water with your air turned off? i.e. when you were about to turn your air on, they said "no, you must do that in the water"

3. did they really "take" OW divers to 132', or did OW divers go to 132'? i.e. leading OW divers to 132' is different than OW divers going to 132' on their own.

4. I am surprised that as you describe the "chaos" of OW divers going to 132' with no buddies, that there wasn't a DCS incident.

I will definitely agree that this doesn't sound like a good operation for new OW divers, although I prefer a "hands off" dive operator where they can transport my buddy team to the site, and we are free to plan our own dives.

 

[DeputyDan]

Isn't the reality of the situation that the blue hole really isn't a safe dive for most recreational divers - both OW and AOW.
So you could say that any operator that takes recreational divers to that dive site is by definition - unsafe?

Just wondering. I have never done that dive and passed on it when we did a liveaboard in Belize. It just did not seem prudent.

 

[AWMIII]

The reality of it is that Belize is the wild west when it comes to the dive tourism industry. There are a very few operators who follow the standard practices of operators in other parts of the world. The other issue is that Aqua Scuba charges half of what the others do for the same trip to the Blue Hole. At some point, you have to wonder if you might get what you pay for? They have a big sign at the end of their dock with the price. I have heard other reports of their Blue Hole boat breaking down on the way. I don't think that the other operators are making as much money as Aqua Scuba's price infers. Aqua Scuba has many many positive reviews on Trip Advisor. They must make many more people happy than angry.

I don't find fault with some of the things that the OP mentioned particularly the GPS issue. Unless it was foggy(very very rare), that trip is pretty straight forward. Nothing bothers me more on a boat than when people spend more time focused on the radar, chart plotter and other instruments than on the horizon around the boat. But, maybe the GPS doesn't work?

I still think that some international instructors and dive masters would do a world of good. The fact remains that it is extremely difficult if not impossible for a non-native born diving professional to work 100% legally down there.

 

[peterbj7]

A point of fact. PADI training trains divers to dive to 60ft (Open Water) and 100ft (Advanced Open Water). Those two courses both often go through "on the nod" in many countries, including the US. In the PADI system diving to 130ft requires Deep Diver training, a course which I for one spread over most of a week. By this stage personal performance is coming strongly into it, and I do not certify people just because they got to the end of the course - they have to have convinced me that they're intrinsically safe.

I talked to a dive operator recently on what should be required of a diver before they can be permitted to dive the Blue Hole. Essentially I outlined the above as my preferred route, and his comment was that that would result in 90% of divers being turned away. That would result in no boats going to the BH, and the dive essentially becoming off-limits for commercial reasons.

Yet it is a fact that despite the technical validity of the issues which many people raise, including the OP of this thread, many BH dives are conducted each week and incidents beyond the trivial are very rare. The dive clearly CAN be conducted safely with relatively inexperienced divers, because most days that is exactly what happens.

I think the biggest single improvement that can be made is in briefing. Rather than the present system of a quick briefing on the boat just before jumping in, it might be an idea to have a more formal briefing in slower time before the boat ever leaves the dock. Since that's very early in the morning it would need to be the previous day. But how many guests do you think would turn up for such a briefing?

---------- Post Merged at 09:57 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 09:53 AM ----------

A point on boat reliability. Boats belonging both to the cheapest operator and to the most expensive operator have both shed engines in the past few months. They have also both lost transmissions. One was catastrophic, causing a fire that cost the entire boat - and that was with the expensive operator. Don't blame the boat operators for this, blame Caterpillar who make them quite unreliable. In my own operation, now thankfully closed, I got through three Caterpillar engines.

 

[ScubaSteve]

The dive clearly CAN be conducted [-]safely[/-] without many incidents with relatively inexperienced divers, because most days that is exactly what happens.

I personally do not feel that "Safely" is how many of these dives are done. I agree that the history speaks for itself, but "safely" implies that there is sound logic rather than blind luck in how the dives are run. Just my opinion but the above change better reflects reality.

 

[eelnoraa]

... The Capt. next to me questioned the Capt. and asked why the GPS was not activated his response: "I have it all in my head!" ..right so I don't need a computer because I have dive tables in my head! ....

Not that I don't agree with OP as a whole. But without GPS may not be a big deal as the skipper probably do this route every day. It is like a cab drivers not using GPS.

Also, many divers, including myself, also mainly dive with gauge/timer and table in our heads WITHOUT computers. In fact, most tech divers I know conduct very complicated dive in the same way.

But anyway, glad that everyone is OK tho

 

[promocop]

Why is it that someone posts a very articulate letter describing the circumstances surrounding an experience so that others can be fore-warned and the haters come out of the wood-work? Is it not possible that his experiences are honest? Or that he's not allowed to post negative comments? I had a HORRIBLE dive experience with a dive op in Fiji a few years ago and got crap for it. The Dive Op is no longer in business because of their very unsafe practices. So be it! Let the truth come out!