#20745 - 02/26/04 08:56 PM
Top Dive for new Divers?
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Rook
Member
Registered: 12/05/03
Posts: 108
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Any opinions on Top Dive in Bora Bora for new divers?
We are going in September for our honeymoon. We have never been diving, but plan to take the certification classes this summer. While in FP, we will be diving for the first time, for a real dive.
We were contemplating staying at the Top Dive resort to take advantage of their discounts on diving and food. But, since they are such a big dive operation, I wonder how good they would be for new divers. I would not want to go diving for our first time and be in a large group.
If we don't stay at Top Dive we will likely go with Blue Nui or Bora Dive.
Also, any diving websites that review and discuss the dive organizations?
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#20746 - 02/27/04 03:29 AM
Re: Top Dive for new Divers?
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Anonymous
Anonymous
Unregistered
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We are open water certified and dived with Top Dive. They are a very professional outfit and have excellent equipment. I would imagine they are a very reliable dive op to learn with and I would certainly have no qualms using them. Their dive briefs were comprehensive and I felt very secure diving with them and at no time felt I was diving beyond my abilities. I do not dive regularly and I was impressed that they asked when I last dived, asked to see my certification and did I want to go through some skills beforehand. They also ask you to sort out your own kit, but check that everything is set up correctly before you enter the water. To me this is a sign that they have the balance right between divers taking responsibility for themselves and the dive op ensuring diver safety. I have dived elswhere in the world where its all done for you and I find that a little unnerving. Everyone has different experiences with different dive ops, our was very good, but I have heard of others who were less impressed with Topdive.
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#20747 - 02/27/04 06:15 AM
Re: Top Dive for new Divers?
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yllams
Member
Registered: 02/12/04
Posts: 121
Loc: Cleveland, OH, USA
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The Blue Nui outfit is located at the Pearl Resort, it is owned and operated by Gilles. He's one of the top dive masters in FP and is highly regarded. We dove with him on our first 3 open water dives and couldn't have been happier. His site is http://www.bluenui.com, you may want to check out Rodales web site since they are probably the best diving resource on the web, but I'm not sure that they reveiw different operations.
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#20748 - 02/27/04 07:21 AM
Re: Top Dive for new Divers?
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Rook
Member
Registered: 12/05/03
Posts: 108
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Yllams, I was highly considering Blue Nui, in part to your past recommendations. But, to save money overall we were considering staying at the Top Dive resort, which would mean diving with Top Dive.
Id, your comment is reassuring. I would consider your experiance as one I would prefer over one where they did everything for you as well. I have heard many suggest they were a good operation. My only concern is that I would not be happy if we were one of many customer divers and felt more like cattle and did not get adequate attention for first time divers.
Maybe I will contact them to see if that can ensure diving in a smaller group.
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#20749 - 02/27/04 07:51 AM
Re: Top Dive for new Divers?
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yllams
Member
Registered: 02/12/04
Posts: 121
Loc: Cleveland, OH, USA
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Rook - sorry I didn't read who wrote the question, I realize we've discussed that before. I understand the money thing, you'd get no argument from me on that. I read very few bad comments on any of the dive operations before we went so I think you'll be fine with whoever you end up with. Good luck on the trip, enjoy it, and take some pics underwater to share when you get back...I miss it daily.
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#20750 - 03/02/04 09:08 AM
Re: Top Dive for new Divers?
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Anonymous
Anonymous
Unregistered
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We travelled out of season, so the groups may have been smaller than normal, but on most of the islands there were no more than 5 in a group (with any lone divers buddying up with a dive master). On the manta ray dive on Bora Bora there were about 7 or 8 on the boat, but we were split into 2 groups one advanced and one not. So no one was diving beyond their ability and no one was held up by more novice divers. If I recall correctly there were usually one instructor and about three dive masters(one as camera operator). I booked a package of dives over email with topdive which allowed us to dive on several islands. The owner Lucien was very helpful and we were able to book exact dive times and dates prior to arrival and let him know what we were interested in (ie the Manta Dive on Bora Bora). Check out http://www.topdive.com
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#20751 - 03/05/04 11:45 AM
Re: Top Dive for new Divers?
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Anonymous
Anonymous
Unregistered
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We had a really bad experience with Top Dive and would not recommend for beginners (like us). We have our own equipment but they gave us a bad tank of air which made my husband sick as a dog. The second dive they took weights out of my belt to add to my husbands. it was a drift dive and I had no time to get additional weights. We also stopped our first dive when our air reached 500 PSI. The divemaster tried to tell us the tank had a hidden reserve and we should have stayed down until our gauge hit 0. Another dive master told us that was incredibly dangerous and we were absolutely right to surface with a reserve.
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#20752 - 03/08/04 04:41 AM
Re: Top Dive for new Divers?
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Anonymous
Anonymous
Unregistered
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What a terrible experience. We had such a different time with them. Went through all the usual procedures, turned back at 100 bar and then surfaced at 50 bar, safety stop the lot. Just goes to show that experiences can be very different. I looked into a few dive ops before I went to FP and chose Topdive for the Scubapro kit they use. I don't have my own kit so knowing the kit, especially the regs are serviced and in good repair was important for me. Was the drift dive on Rangiroa?. We dove with them there also and it is a significantly smaller outfit than on Bora Bora. On Bora Bora they are more than set up for beginners I would have thought.
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#20753 - 03/09/04 10:36 AM
Re: Top Dive for new Divers?
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Dan
Member
Registered: 02/18/02
Posts: 99
Loc: Walnut Creek, CA.
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We also had a very bad experience with Top Dive. Ours was the opposite of Teresa's, however. My wife and I have been diving over 20 years and have logged over 2000 dives. My wife is certified rescue diver and I'm a dive master, I nearly finished with my instructor certification when I had to drop out due to work commitments. We were never asked once for our C-cards even though we offered our log books and cards a number of times. I specifically requested and was told we would be on a boat with advanced divers. Instead, we had an uncertified diver on both dives. The first dive was a shark feed and they brought the uncertified diver down 25 meters or close to 80 feet. This is VERY dangers for an uncertified diver and much deeper then PADI allows for an introduction dive let alone on a shark feed were she could have flipped out!!! My wife and I stayed very close to her since they just left her with the group.
During the same dive, the dive master kept trying to get my wife and I to hang onto live coral during the feed, we have excellent bouncy control and can hover even in surge and currents. We refused to hold onto the coral and were yelled at once back on the boat for not doing it. I told the Instructor/Dive master that these practices were why the reefs were in such bad shape and he should be ashamed for taking an untrained diver to those depths. He just said something in French to me that sounded quite rude and dismissed me. Needless to say, we canceled are remaining dives with them.
I wouldn't recommend Top Dive to new or advanced divers.
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#20754 - 08/21/05 02:45 AM
Re: Top Dive for new Divers?
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beachfan
Member
Registered: 10/30/04
Posts: 47
Loc: Thousand Oaks
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Wow, I thought Top Dive wsa the top place until I read this post. Can we get some more recent comments on this thread?
Thanks
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