I did 2 dives with these guys in Feb and the dives themselves were good, but Pacific Divers have some pretty shoddy dive practices. There was a group of 5 of us diving, 4 with rental gear and 1 using his own. The rental gear they supplied looked in reasonable condition and mine was certainly ok. From the dive shop, it was about a 20min drive to the boat. At the boat we had a very short briefing about the dive. This didn’t include basic information such as depth and time and was more of a ‘just follow me’ than a briefing. The first dive site was a wreck and about 5 mins from harbour. Once at the site we geared up and when we got in the water one diver descended on his own. No one had a buddy, so it was every man for himself. At the bottom of the line one of the divers signalled to the dive guide that their computer wasn’t working, he signalled ok and off we went ignoring the problem. We were led around the wreck, then about 20mins into the dive away and deeper, and deeper, and deeper! At the time I didn’t know what experience the other divers had, but talking to them after the dives 2 of them had done a few dives of dives and had only dived to 18m. At 40 minutes into the dive I was at 28m and about 5-6m above the others who were following the guide down. Eventually one of the divers realised how deep they were and managed to get the dive masters attention who at the time was just swimming away into the blue. We then turned and headed back towards the boat. At this point I stated to ascended as my computer was getting low on no-deco time with the others still below me. Back at the line we did a 3 min stop where one of the divers lost buoyancy and popped up to the top. This after a 48min dive with a max depth of around 35m playing follow the leader with the guide and two divers without dive computers (one faulty and one with his own gear). The second dive was the same deal, just over an hour after the first dive we dived a coral site and did a 48 min dive to around 28m, I stayed above the group yet again (to 23m) and just out of deco. Fair enough, the divers shouldn’t have just followed the guide, but dive guides should be more responsible with newbie divers. Needless to say I didn’t dive with Pacific Divers again.

I did 2 dives with these guys in Feb and the dives themselves were good, but Pacific Divers have some pretty shoddy dive practices. There was a group of 5 of us diving, 4 with rental gear and 1 using his own. The rental gear they supplied looked in reasonable condition and mine was certainly ok. From the dive shop, it was about a 20min drive to the boat. At the boat we had a very short briefing about the dive. This didn’t include basic information such as depth and time and was more of a ‘just follow me’ than a briefing. The first dive site was a wreck and about 5 mins from harbour. Once at the site we geared up and when we got in the water one diver descended on his own. No one had a buddy, so it was every man for himself. At the bottom of the line one of the divers signalled to the dive guide that their computer wasn’t working, he signalled ok and off we went ignoring the problem. We were led around the wreck, then about 20mins into the dive away and deeper, and deeper, and deeper! At the time I didn’t know what experience the other divers had, but talking to them after the dives 2 of them had done a few dives of dives and had only dived to 18m. At 40 minutes into the dive I was at 28m and about 5-6m above the others who were following the guide down. Eventually one of the divers realised how deep they were and managed to get the dive masters attention who at the time was just swimming away into the blue. We then turned and headed back towards the boat. At this point I stated to ascended as my computer was getting low on no-deco time with the others still below me. Back at the line we did a 3 min stop where one of the divers lost buoyancy and popped up to the top. This after a 48min dive with a max depth of around 35m playing follow the leader with the guide and two divers without dive computers (one faulty and one with his own gear). The second dive was the same deal, just over an hour after the first dive we dived a coral site and did a 48 min dive to around 28m, I stayed above the group yet again (to 23m) and just out of deco. Fair enough, the divers shouldn’t have just followed the guide, but dive guides should be more responsible with newbie divers. Needless to say I didn’t dive with Pacific Divers again.