Couple months ago I wrote an article about safe diving. Scuba diving is a safe sport, if you follow the basic rules, and choose the right people to go diving with.

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

Few days ago I read an article about another scuba diving accident at Key Largo Florida . It makes me so sad to read news like this, especially when I think this could be prevented. The article didn’t have any details about what went wrong. I don’t know if the woman had some equipment trouble, a medical condition or if it was just a small little thing like losing her buoyancy that escalated into a big tragedy. There isn’t any information about the exact amount of divers on the catamaran and the amount of professionals on the boat when this accident happened either.

According to statistics most scuba diving accidents happen to new, inexperienced scuba divers when diving without guidance of professionals. I am not saying all the accidents can be avoided, but the majority can be prevented.

Boats loaded with tourists

Some call it a booze cruise

I’ve seen many touristy places in the world where dive operators take 20 – 40 divers with only 2 – 3 professionals onboard that sometimes don’t even go to the water with the clients. They just briefly tell them where to go and what they might to see and let them go down. It’s very hard to control a large group of scuba divers and make sure everybody is safe; especially with recreational – resort divers, where people of different diving skill levels and experiences are diving together. I personally believe that diving in few smaller groups and using more dive guides is much safer and more fun. That’s why I don’t dive with larger groups and I specialize in scuba diving with small groups only. I limit the amount of divers to 5-6 maximum, sometimes even less depending on their diving experience.

When I dive with newly certified divers, I usually take a MAXIMUM of three people but prefer to have only two, that way it’s much easier for me to control them. I focus more on their safety, then looking hard to find something new and unusual. There is always so much to see underwater and everything is all new for them anyways everything is exciting and makes them very happy. I never have new divers behind me, because it’s more difficult to control them without having the additional help of another dive master. I always keep them by my side, where I can see them all the time and provide assistance when they need it; before a small problem grows into a big one.

Diving with more experienced divers is a bit different; I give them more space, they always dive in pairs with a buddy and an odd diver is always my buddy. I am aware of my divers at all times making sure they dive safely and keeping myself in a position to assist anybody in need immediately.

Small groups scuba diving and snorkeling

Scuba diving and snorkeling with your family only

So far all of my clients love the way I dive with them. It doesn’t matter if they were new divers with no experience or advanced divers with lots of experience. I always give them the feeling of freedom and security at the same time. My clients can stay under water as long as the air or bottom time limits allow them; I don’t rush anywhere because I don’t have any other group of divers waiting for me to do another dive that day. If you dive with me, it is your time, your dive and your fun. I’m here just to assist you and make sure you are safe at all times. For me diving is a passion not a business and I love to share my passion with everyone.

So if you don’t like to dive on crowded boats, Contact us to enjoy great and safe scuba diving in Dominican Republic. Please make sure to book your diving trips with us ahead of time as it may be tough to accommodate you last minute when you arrive.

Trip to Catalina is always exciting, specially if the weather is nice.

It originally started as a request for 5 divers to do a double tank dive at the local  dive sites around Bayahibe and ended up as a trip to Catalina Island with 26 people.

Even though the weather wasn’t the greatest (but on the other hand better then then the night before when we had pouring rain from about 6PM till 4 AM the next day), everybody had a good time. The newly weds and 3 more divers did 2 dives, the visibility after the heavy rains wasn’t as good as normally is, but they enjoyed the dives. The snorkelers and the rest of the group spent some time on the beach  while the divers went for the second dive. Good to hear from you guys that everybody had a good time on the trip to Catalina Island.

Congratulations and all the best as a married couple.

More  pictures for the trip to Catalina island

xx

We had a great diving trip to Catalina Island today. We did two dives , The Wall and The Aquarium. The water was nice and clear, the visibility was good. We saw a spotted eagle ray, about 7 ft long and 4 ft span, lobsters, a huge puffer fish and lots of other marine life. We had great time and enjoyed every minute of it.

After the dives we went to the island to have a lunch and relax for a while on the beautiful white beach. The high season ended so the island wasn’t crowded at all.

On the way back to Bayahibe Bay the ocean was a bit wavy. We came back at the right time, an hour later we had a quick tropical shower.  The divers usually don’t mind the rain, but it’s better to enjoy the boat ride under sunny sky then in a pouring rain.

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!!!

Today after leaving  Sharky, walking by the other end of the bay I saw a fishing boat full of fish. It wasn’t on the main beach, but on a secluded area, away from the daily traffic. The fishermen, not from here (I know most of them by now), were unloading their catch to a small truck.  I passed by to see what kind of fish they have; maybe I could get some good one for dinner. I stopped and looked and what a sad view that I didn’t expect.

Beside other fish they had five nurse sharks, most of them really small, only about 3 feet long, two or three good size eaglerays chopped already. I couldn’t believe my eyes and I felt like crying. Unfortunately I didn’t have a camera with me to take a picture and report them to the local authorities. For the rest of the day I couldn’t stop thinking about how the people ruin the marine life not realizing that if they don’t let the fish reproduce there won’t be much to fish later on.

What a surprise this morning, Octopus in Bayahibe Bay!!!

Well THE OCTOPUS -  the eighth largest yacht in the world, owned by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft. Built in 2003, it has permanent crew of 60 some of them former Navy Seals. There are seven boats, 10-man submarine, remote-controlled vehicle for crawling the bottom of the ocean and two helicopters on board. According to Dominican news Bill Gates of Microsoft is on board and Paul Allen might join him too.

They docked in Casa de Campo Marina couple days ago and came to Bayahibe, Dominican Republic this morning to scuba dive. Our Sharky could fit in the opening of the yacht about three or four times.

The new cave we discovered in January is beautiful. Since not too many people know about it, the cave is still untouched, not damaged yet by anybody.

The cave dive is our favorite, especially the cave that nobody goes to. Everything is so beautiful and undamaged.

The diving and snorkeling trip on this beautiful Sunday, was probably the best trip ever.

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.