New divers beware: Choose your dive operator carefully

It seemed like this forum thread is slowly burning out so I'm here to throw a little more fuel on the fire. After removing my original review on Tripadvisor.com I started reading some of the other reviews for Deep Blue. Here's links to the ones that jumped out at me.

“Deep Blue - not for beginners”

Deep Blue probably wouldn't like me saying this, but I don't think this operation is for beginner divers. There are other very qualified shops on the island that do cater to less experienced divers and I would suggest exploring those instead of using Deep Blue.

“Topside work could be improved upon”

I am sure the divemaster was not as focused on his divers as he should have been after forgetting his gear. But, he needed to show a little more guidance and control over his dive party. I know some of you are going to say that the divers should know better but, let’s face it, just because someone is certified does not mean they should be let loose.

“BEWARE of Deep Blue Divers!! They are UNSAFE!”

During our pre-dive discussion, I asked Pedro how we would be paired for dive buddies. He seemed surprised and said, "Dive buddies? We don't need dive buddies. We all look out for each other." He also told us that his equipment was bad and could "blow up" anytime during the dive. He told us that if his equipment did blow up, he would surface without us and we were to continue the dive without him. Not very professional at all, in my opinion.

Following our first dive, which reached a depth of about 90 feet (or 30 meters), we went directly to our second dive site. Rather than wait the recommended Surface Interval Time, our divemaster said we would be diving again immediately, less than 15 minutes after completing the first 90 foot dive. No dive tables were discussed, let alone used.

Please note that I am not a very experienced diver and have always been in the company of very professional divemasters. Even if I had confronted the divemaster, I don't believe it would have changed his behavior or the very poor performance of Deep Blue. Based on our experience, I would caution anyone from patronizing Deep Blue.

 “Mediocre- must be better out there”

The staff is very disorganized and forgot several items of gear repeatedly. We had gone into the shop to try on gear to make sure we had the right size the day before. Then we waited at the dock for a while the next day and almost thought they weren't going to show. When they did, they did not bring wetsuits for us!? We waited an hour or so for them to drive wetsuits to a dock for us to pick them up. The next day, they forgot our computers. One day the computer was out of batteries. Gear, if they remember to bring it, is not in good shape- holes in wetsuits, etc. The final straw was when we scheduled another morning dive and they didn't show to pick us up at our condo.

“Going downhill”

Switched to Deep Blue on the advice of my lodging hosts, and had a great dive in 2009 at Devil's Throat and Cathedral. So signed up for more dives late 2009/early 2010 and it was a disaster. Wanted to do a special dive like the one last year, but they couldn't make it happen. All the dives ran VERY late, equipment was missing, and I even lent some gear to other guests. Granted, these were some of their busiest days of the years, but they should be able to count gear correctly, especially given the extra 45 minutes it took to get going. Once under the water, the dives were great but it doesn't make up for our wasted time.

“Deep Blue Cozumel Unsafe & total disorganised.”

As a diver with 70+ dives I can tell you they are basically unsafe and total disorganised over busy periods. We dived in total 6 dives with Deep Blue and on each dive they failed to get right things even a basic open water might know; to name a few issues

• Failure of basic kit checks before they depart meaning many divers each time either could not dive or had badly fitting kit.
• Inability to depart on time with 30/40 min waits due to lack of basic organisation meaning only the closest dive sites where the only option. (not the reason you are going to Cozumel I am sure)
• So called “dive masters” which had clear gaps in their training such as basic signs to start a dive and more of a focus on the amount of “colour” we would see rather than simple dive briefings.
• Faulty and badly maintained kit e.g. regulators with mouth pieces completely bitten off, wet suits failing to bits, shared equipment between dives unwashed.
• 9+ divers rammed on one boat with only one diver instructor.
• Lone divers allowed to drift off 400meters ahead of the group and instructions don’t mention a thing after the dive.

After talking with the dive School about these issues plus others they explained during busy periods they hire in freelances and equipment so standards do drop and we expect to get a few complaints but they suggested we come back in the off season. This dive school is a total mess and should hold their head in shame knowing they are putting divers lives at risk.

After speaking with other divers that had dived with other schools we learnt the deep blue in about $10US more per dive than other companies which also provide a full hot lunch between dives.

Conclusions: Deep blue I am sure used to be good but their success seems to have gone to their head.

Out of 38 reviews for Deep Blue here are six (not including mine that I deleted) that I would call negative. That's roughly 15%. Compare that to Scubatony which had 213 reviews - none rated "poor" or "terrible. ScubaDu had 89 reviews and only 3 rated as "poor" or "terrible" that's 3% negative rating. Pro Dive Mexico had 175 reviews and a 2% negative rating.

These opinions speaks volume for the operation they run.