Aqua Center, Dominican Republic

good place to dive, great staff

recently dived with Aqua Center and my friend did a discover scuba dive. he was really nervous but had a training session in the pool and then went out on a dive with the instructor. He loved it and now wants to do his open water. I dived with one of the divemasters (eddie?) and it was also a really nice dive. All over, i highly recommend going with aqua center.

BombSquadAtheist

picture

109 dives

Dsyfunctional and Dangerous

AquaCenter is partnered with LHVC resort in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. LHVC could not give me a phone number to arrange our dives, but after about a week, Amanda replied to my email request for information. We arranged for three days of diving beginning on Monday 7 March 2016, but could not make the payment till we arrived. On Sunday, Chico & Alexander (the Great) tried to poach the commission by getting me to pay them for the dives. On Monday, after a 30 minute Caribbean time drive (US time one hour), we arrived at the Sosua Bay-based dive shop. After about half an hour to pay for the dives, I went through three BCDs before locating one that was not broken. We delivered our BCDs and fins to the beach where the crew attached them to the tanks and put them into a small outboard boat. We were told we would have to push the boat out with our equipment and then swim to the boat (rough surf). The nine divers agreed and we got in elbow-to-elbow and toes-to-tanks. Dive Master Eddie provided NO safety discussion or orientation to expected sea life. We were all told to get our equipment on and get in the water and wait for Eddie. Our equipment was not marked and the crew just told us to pick a tank and fins. There was very little room to get geared up, but we managed. After we were in, we dove for 30 minutes before surfacing with no explanation on why we came up early. Enroute to the next site, three people were very seasick, so we diverted to a beach past the dive shop (surf was too rough to return). There was no water, fruit, or first aid kit on board for the dehydrated divers. Upon arriving at the beach area, the seasick divers were told to go overboard and swim to shore for a 5-minute (Caribbean time) walk back to the dive shop. We went for our second dive, but we had learned to watch our BCDs closely to figure out where the crew put them. At the next dive site, we were again rushed to get in the water – unfortunately, my wife’s BCD was not connected to her tank and she had to tread water while I attached the hose. (I know that is the diver’s responsibility to check their equipment – we’ll take that hit). Upon surfacing before the rest of the divers, my wife took off her dive skin and took a brief swim near the boat to get sand off her skin. Upon the surfacing of the other divers, the captain told my wife to follow the boat (without a life vest – in rough surf) to the other divers – no option to get back in the boat. Upon our return, I asked for a refund of the 2nd and 3rd dive days. We were told that conditions were not a reason for a refund. We informed them that the conditions were not the issue – it was the unsafe crew and underequipped boat. We were told we would get our refund confirmation number on Wednesday. On Wednesday, Chico & Alexander warned me that the dive shop people were untrustworthy and that we should cancel the credit card payment with our bank and pay them for the two dives we did (again seeking a commission for a dive they did not arrange). I thought the “untrustworthy” issue was interesting as Johann and Amanda had made the same claim about the resort staff. On Wednesday, I was told by Johann, that the boss had surgery and we would have a confirmation number by Friday. It felt like they could keep the extra $600 US if we left the DR before the refund. On Friday, I found Johann at the resort and waited with him for an hour while he made phone calls and emails to try to prove that the refund was being processed. The initial credit charge was processed within 24 hours, but the refund was not processed until the following Wednesday (after an angry follow-up email). When the staff doesn’t trust each other, and when the equipment is broken, leaky or non-existent, safety goes out the window. I consider the dive shop AquaCenter to be dangerously dysfunctional.

Incompetent

I finished my open water dives with Aqua Center. However, they didn't send in the paperwork and won't return emails. Save your money.