Tarpoon Lagoon, United States

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Dave

13/11/21 at 15:20

personal weight- 203 3mm suit

Orlandosjm

02/07/16 at 15:34

The next dive was supposed to be at the Belzona Barge but there was another dive boat there so the Captain took us over to Rainbow Reef which was a shallow dive at 24 feet in depth. I was still not feeling well but knew that, if I got in the water, I would be fine so I was ready to go when the Captain yelled, dive, dive dive. I made my way back after checking on Simone and entered the water immediately. I went to the bottom straight away. The depth was really only 25 feet and I would never in-gas enough to limit my dive time so the only limit would be the air in my tank. As I’m a shallow breather I knew I would probably be able to stay under for well over an hour. I was a bit nervous about getting away from the boat as the visibility was only about 40 feet today and I couldn’t make out the boat if I got too far away. I found the mooring line attached to the seabed and I just hung out there paddling in a few directions while using up my air. The reef was quite beautiful and had a decent amount of sea life though not overly abundant. As the depths were not great here I was able to make out colors that I normally don’t see at 45 to 80 feet. I’m not used to seeing green which was nice. I hung out paddling around for an hour and I still had over 1,500 psi of air left so I could have stayed down probably for another 45 minutes at least but the Captain said we were to be there for an hour so I surfaced and rebounded the boat.

Orlandosjm

02/07/16 at 14:00

Simone finally splashed in with me and we held onto the trailing line of the boat while she prepared to go under. I turned on my dive computer and we slowly descended under the water. Simone takes a little bit of time to equalize so it took us about five minutes to get down to the bottom which was only at about 40 feet. Unfortunately, at that time we went down to Baron sand and I could not see the Neptune memorial anywhere in any direction. I kept a strong eye on Simone to make sure that she was comfortable and never let go of her hand the entire time. She was doing just fine and we got to the seafloor and started paddling in the direction that I thought the memorial was at. The whole time I was keeping an eye on Simone and not being in a rush but just kind of sauntering along as I did not want her to become anxious. We were down on the bottom for about five minutes when Simone decided that she wanted to send as we were not finding the dive spot. We did our normal three-minute safeties stop at 15 feet before service saying on the ocean. To my surprise we were about 200 yards off of the stern of the dive boat, well away from where we should have been diving. Apparently, the current had pushed us away from the boat while Simone was equalizing and I wasn't paying attention to where we were going as I was focused only on her. The waves were at about 2 to 3 feet intermittent though not so terrible that we weren't that we were in any kind of trouble. However, Simone immediately had an anxiety attack as the waves kept rushing over her face since her BC it was not keeping her high enough out of the water. I could see the panicked look in her eye and she was starting to thrash around and take her regulator out of her mouth trying to get large gasps of air. This would not of been a problem but the waves every 20 seconds or so came over her head and over her face which made her even more hysterical. She kept pulling her regulator out of her mouth. I worked on getting her to where she was at least semi-manageable and then with one hand I held onto a D ring on her BC and started paddling my way towards the boat. I knew it was going to be a long time and probably a semi futile effort but I think it helped Simone to know that we were doing something to get back on board. I was kicking away and the boat did not seem like it was getting any closer but I just kept going. I could hear Simone gasping and screaming and I knew she was OK as long as I could hear that she was breathing. I just needed to keep her breathing and I knew she would be just fine even though the situation seemed quite desperate to her. Naturally, time compresses during these events and it felt like it was forever paddling away trying to get to the boat but at one point out of nowhere one of the crew of the boat showed up with a line that lead back. At the end of the line was a huge foot and a half wide buoy which I attempted to give to Simone to keep her a little further out of the water but she was not interested and just kept hyperventilating. I gave Simone my rubber bungee that I had attached to my BC to hold on as I dragged both of us back to the boat. I worked my way along the line handover hand glancing back occasionally to make sure Simone was there. The crew member that had come out to us was trailing behind us casually watching what was going on. I would glance up occasionally and look at the boat which didn't seem to be getting any closer but I just kept going handover hand on the rope knowing that eventually I would make it. Simone was lying on her back holding onto my BC with one hand so I knew she would be fine once we made it on the boat. She pretty much hyperventilated the entire way. It seemed to take hours to get back to the boat but I finally got her onto the ladder where she stood as the Dive Boat Captain talked her down from her anxiety. I knew, at that point, she was fine and I boarded the boat on the starboard ladder taking off my equipment and securing the tank with a bungee. I made my way to the back of the boat where Simone was still hysterical even as the Captain was attempting to talk her down. I pulled her onto the boat and held her as we walked over to our spot and sat down. She was calming down finally and just kept apologizing. I held her for quite a while until I could sense her breathing going back to normal. All was fine now and she was safe. I did some calculating later and discovered that we were in the water for 10 to 15 minutes though it definitely seemed to take longer.

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Boston6ir1

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0 dives

Posted on 20/02/17 at 00:21

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Unsafe and unprofessional

I had enrolled in the scuba diving open water certification class with this company and paid them the full fee of $425. I was told by them that they are fully PADI certified to provide such class and that the fee included all training necessary to obtain the PADI certification. I not only was unable to complete the certification during the period I took the class (October 22-23, 2016), but was also treated in an unprofessional, impolite manner, and put in dangerous situations. The first day of training I experienced a sense of sexism and discrimination based on my gender. I was the only woman in the class, and the instructor, Emilio, gave me a wetsuit to wear, which I had trouble putting over my hips and then over my chest. I was not only denied any help but was told I was "being difficult" and rolled eyes at. The second day of training (with a man named Pat) was completely unsafe and extremely unpleasant. This instructor kept assigning us things to do which he deemed were "fun" and were not part of the certification training (e.g. climbing up side of the pool walls and doing summersaults in the water) instead of focusing on what was needed for the certification. He did not go through the safety checks explained in the online videos as being part of every single diving encounter. When the ocean was deemed unfit for our last 2 dives, he drove us 45 minutes away to a man-made lake. He packed the equipment on his own. When we arrived to the lake, he told us to quickly put on our equipment and head to the lake. He was in a rush. He did not check his own equipment and did not instruct us to check ours. However, I decided to check the pressure on my tank, as should be done. I was shocked to see that the tank was empty. This instructor would have had me dive into a lake to 25 ft depth with an empty tank. Once we were under water in the lake, we got to a platform at 25 ft, depth which I believe is greater than what was required for the certification, and then the instructor started talking to me underwater and pointing at the compass. I indicated using underwater signaling that I did not understand what he was saying. I indicated so twice, and then he pushed me off of the platform. Shocked and unprepared for this, also not knowing what he wanted me to do, I started to descend. The descent was very fast, so I gently pressed on my BCD planning to get back up to the platform. At this point, he dove after me, grabbed my BCD and pressed it so forcefully that my entire BCD inflated to full capacity. I spun out of control, and since visibility was so low, I could not see where I was or in what direction I was going. I started to deflate the BCD but could not do so fast enough especially given the fact that I felt excruciating pain in my ears and sinuses, and difficulty breathing. I was at the surface - which I reached by hitting my head against the dock - within seconds.This is extremely unsafe. The instructor - after failing to communicate properly - panicked, overinflated my BCD, and almost caused serious physical injury to me. After this, I refused to go back into the water with him, and hence was 1 hour away from completing my certification having to stop the training out of concern for my safety. I reported this to the company, and they refused to refund me any portion of the training, even though I am not from Florida and cannot return there to complete 1 single dive (1 hour) of the entire course to obtain my certification, which I paid for. They also stated that the problem was not with their instructors, but that I was too afraid and that this was the reason I did not get the certification. I spoke with many friends who got certified elsewhere, and they were shocked to hear how poorly I was treated. Tarpoon Lagoon also does not give out calculators and official PADI dive books, but in the end you end up with a black and white copy of a small booklet they make. They also refused to sign my booklet indicating the dives that I did complete, and I had to send them a certified letter requesting this before I could get them to comply and send the signed pages over. I would never go back, and I do not recommend this facility to anyone.

Orlandosjm

Estrella Dr, Orlando, FL , USA

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58 dives

Posted on 03/07/16 at 23:30

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Good Professional, Safe Boat

It was a full boat this weekend of 4th of July and mostly new divers so we stayed above the 45 foot level. The boat was run efficiently and safely. I would use this operation again.

Pascal

Paris, France

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122 dives

Posted on 04/11/13 at 15:42

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