This morning we went for two easy dives, my clients are fairly new divers, so we chose the dive sites that would be best for their level.

As always, we met at Sharky’s Shop before nine, checked the air, prepared the equipment, loaded everything to the boat and went to dive sites called Park I and Park II. It was a beautiful sunny day, as most of the days here in Bayahibe, Dominican Republic. After a short, about 10 – 15 minute boat ride, we arrived to our first dive site. The dive was great, visibility 100 ft+, water temperature 27 C / 81 F (still too cold for me but the clients loved it). We followed the reef and by the end of the dive our captain with Sharky picked us up. We had little bit of current, so we decided to go for the second dive the opposite direction and hopefully swim with the current, but this time on the other side of the reef. We got ready for the second dive and just as we were entering the water another dive boat full of divers arrived. I didn’t care too much, because this diving area is huge and you can choose different path so the groups do not interfere with each other at all. I know that most dive shops dive a loop and return to the same spot to accent by their boat, so for that reason I prefer going along the reef, our is following us and picks us up when we finish the dive. That was again the dive plan with my two divers. We reached the bottom and began slowly drifting by the reef; we stopped by the cannons and played a bit with the cannon balls. When we were leaving this underwater playground I noticed the divers from the other boat approaching the same area. I didn’t pay too much attention to them because they had their own guide and their own dive plan.

We were going our way, enjoying the dive, looking at corrals and fish and suddenly I saw four divers from the other group following me. I knew something wasn’t right, I stopped and tried to figure out what was happening, where was their guide, but in that moment the group turned around and started to swim the opposite direction. So I thought everything was fine. After few minutes I looked back again and realized that all the divers from the group disappeared, except one and he was still following us. We stopped, I approached him and I clearly saw in his eyes that he was lost and scared. I quickly checked his air; made sure he was OK and gave him the signal to follow me. We changed our course and turned back heading towards the boats.

It didn’t take long to see the line from the buoy and when we started the accent I saw the guide coming down from the surface searching for the lost diver. The guide tapped my shoulder to thank me for bringing the diver safely back and I could see a big relieve in his eyes.

We continued with our dive, we just changed the direction, but we still had a great time, saw lots of marine life, didn’t cut the dive short, and at the end everybody was happy.  Before we finished the dive the other boat was gone. After we got back to the boat, our captain told me how everybody was panicking on the big boat; the wife of the missing diver was crying that she lost her husband.

This day had a happy ending, only few unanswered questions left. Why all this happened? Was it because the guide had seven divers, some of them beginners? Or was it a bad briefing before the dive, maybe no briefing at all? Where was the buddy system? How can you lose half of your group in 30 ft of water with 100+ ft visibility? Was it luck of professionalism? How the rest of the divers felt when their dive was ruined by this incident and they had to cut their dive short? We can ask many more questions that won’t be answered. I do not question other dive shops and their practice, when I see a diver that needs help I help. For me to go scuba diving is fun and should be fun for everybody all the time. Unfortunately some professionals do it only for money, the diving stopped being fun for them long time ago.

So when you are planning your next Scuba Diving Vacation, doesn’t matter if it is Scuba Diving in Dominican Republic, or anywhere else in the world, please do your homework. Search the dive shops in the area, ask questions at different scuba forums or travel forums and see what past clients say about each dive operation.

Dive safely and choose your next dive shop wisely

]]> http://divingdominicanrepublic.com/dive-logs/planning-scuba-diving-vacation-choose-your-dive-shop-wisely/feed/ 6 http://divingdominicanrepublic.com/dive-logs/fun-dive-at-the-atlantic-princess/ http://divingdominicanrepublic.com/dive-logs/fun-dive-at-the-atlantic-princess/#comments Sat, 09 May 2009 00:03:22 +0000 Vladi http://divingdr.com/?p=1059 Some of our clients ask if I ever go for a fun dive since I am diving all the time. Here is the answer.

This afternoon I went with two friends, one is a scuba instructor as well and the other one is an underwater videographer to have fun under water without any worries about clients. Just for pure fun, and boy I can tell you it was. Playing around like little kids, looking at everything, having a good time. I hope I get the video soon so I can post some clips from it too.

We found couple places that weren’t safe for tourists, so we removed some doors that were still hanging there, tightened some loose ends to make sure nobody gets hurt. Thanks guys for the great time!!!

After the first ocean dive everything was getting better and at the end the students – now certified divers – enjoyed every second of their time being under water.

This is what we love, meeting great new people, that become our friends at the end of their vacation. Hope to see you guys back sometimes!!!

We went for a dive to Tortuga, hoping to see again the nurse sharks that live there. I guess they went for a weekend trip too and we didn’t see any. The visibility was great, so even we didn’t see the sharks on this dive, we saw lots of big stingrays that were very friendly and let us watch them from a very close distance. Lots of puffer fish and gigantic trumpet fish.

After the dive we cruised along the coast, stopped at Piscina Natural, then continued to mangroves and a beautiful lagoon at the end. On the way back we went to see the wreck of Atlantic Princess, it’s getting ready for a move to a new location where it will be sank as a new wreck for divers.

We finished the trip like most of the time snorkeling by Casa del Mar (new name Dreams resort) in Bayahibe Bay and as always we saw tons of fish there. A perfect trip with a perfect end.

We’ve heard from locals that there are many other areas that could be interesting and they see sharks frequently there. The local fishermen are the best source of info, they know their waters the best.

We spent all day going to different spots we’ve heard about, did few dives, but unfortunately we couldn’t see any sharks. Little tired, we decided to return and were going slowly back to Bayahibe bay, when we spotted a group of dolphins. And that was as exciting as finding anything new under water. They were jumping and playing around our boat for about an hour. So our expedition was succesful at the end, we saw something that we don’t see here everyday. Look at the short video we made.

Dolphins in Bayahibe Dominican Republic

We met Mike and his family that wanted to see the underwater world for a first time. Everything went well and they had a great first time diving experience. Hopefully they will become a part of the diving community in the near future.

Then we did the cave dive with their son (experienced diver already) and he loved it. The cave dive seams to be the most popular dive these days.

Thanks guys for diving with us, hope to see you in Bayahibe, Dominican Republic again!