June 2012 – Scuba Dive Advisor

No One Likes a Flooded Camera

11 Comments / Equipment / By Scuba Dive Advisor

Here we were, getting ready for our dive trip to Puerto Rico. We couldn’t have been more excited. This was going to be the 2nd time I would be using our Sea Life DC1400 Duo and the 1st time we would ever be diving in the Caribbean Sea. It was kind of a big deal to us.

After arriving and settling in, I did all the necessary checks (according to page 7 & 8 of the instruction manual) on our camera equipment to make sure that all was well before I jumped into the water.

And we were off. Time to dive Desecheo Island. The excitement level was through the roof. After our buddy check’s and dive briefing, we made our entry and began our descent. The landscape was just breathtaking. The sun was shining through the surface, making the colors of the coral some of the most vivid colors I’ve ever seen. It was so beautiful, I almost forgot to take a picture. Then the unthinkable happened. I brought my SeaLife camera up to my face to take a photo of the landscape and all I see is water floating around the housing. My heart sunk.

I then motioned over to my buddy, Dan, and advised that I would be ascending. We were only 25 feet down, so I made my ascent as quickly as I could without hurting myself. As soon as I got on the boat, I opened the housing, removed the camera, removed the battery, laid it out to dry and continued my dive. I tell you what… Scuba diving knowing that your camera has just let you down, is a terrible feeling. I don’t think I fully enjoyed the diving after that. All I kept thinking about were all the photos I won’t have to post for the world to see. What a bummer.

Now comes the fun part. I get to contact SeaLife to try to get this sorted out. I tried calling their 800#, but it kept ringing busy, so I did the next best thing and tweeted them. Got a response the next day, which I can understand, because it was the weekend.

So, I did what they suggested and called their number. I got through this time and got an agent (who will remain nameless) and explained my situation. So, here’s the deal. I know customer service. I also know that the first thing out of the mouth of someone who is representing a company should never be blame. Instead of being empathetic that a very large wrench has been thrown into our scuba diving vacation, I was told that it was MY fault because “if a SeaLife Camera were to fail, it would be on the first use.”

From March of this year (when we purchased the camera) to up until this phone conversation, I have had a very good impression of SeaLife. It was going downhill fast. I kept my cool and told the representative that I would follow all of the instructions on his email. Send all of the items that were damaged to SeaLife? Got it. I’m responsible for the shipping & packing charges? Got it.

After returning from our trip, I went straight to FedEx, had everything packed and shipped as per SeaLife’s instructions. Forty eight dollars and sixty cents later, my poor little DC 14o0 was on its way to Pioneer Research to get looked at. I guess all we can do right now is sit and wait . . . and hope we didn’t make the wrong decision to purchase a SeaLife camera instead of a GoPro camera.

Stay tuned. I will post an update as soon as I hear something back from SeaLife. Any of you have a SeaLife (or another underwater camera)? Have a similar experience? Share your stories with us!

Happy Diving!

Esther

Scuba Diving @ Island of Enchantment // Day 2

1 Comment / Scuba Dive Operators, Scuba Dive Sites / By Scuba Dive Advisor

Our second day of diving was what many consider to be the best in Puerto Rico and left us wishing we had a few more days to dive here. For day two we took off from a beach called Playa Santa in the city of Guanica, Puerto Rico with Island Scuba. Owned and operated by Dive Masters Pedro and Nayda Padilla, Island Scuba is a professional and well run dive operation with quality equipment to rent and a spacious dive boat that can handle up to 30 divers. A huge plus to diving with Island Scuba is that they are only a 10 to 20 minute boat ride to some of the best diving that Puerto Rico has to offer. If the short boat ride isn’t enough to entice you, the beautiful wall diving should be enough to put even the most traveled divers over the top.

We had two dives with Island Scuba along Puerto Rico’s famous wall and we quickly saw why it is one of the most dived spots on the island. The first site we dove was called Two For You. This site has amazing topography. When you make your initial descent and see the bottom there is an undulating landscape with sandy bottom and large bommies covered with fish and coral scattered all around. Swim just a 30 or 40 feet and you fly out over the ledge looking down a beautiful deep wall down into The Continental Shelf. As you level out between 70 and 90 feet there are huge crevices in the wall running from the top and down as deep as you can see. There are large rock formations that have flat sandy cut outs that you can explore, and all along the wall, there are crevices to explore, so bring your torch to get a good look into the crevices and overhangs. Although the topography is the main attraction at this site, there is abundant coral growth with all sorts of trigger and surgeon fish, regular white and black tip shark sightings and many other beautiful reef fish. The coral is healthy and we were surprised to see scholemia (donut coral) and many plate corals along the wall along with sea fans, whips, xenia and many other colorful corals.

Our second dive with Island Scuba was a site our Dive Master Pedro called the No Name Reef. This was a great shallow dive to finish the day and we would highly recommend that you bring Nitrox for this one so you can extend your bottom time. Our dive was 50 minutes and we came up according to our computers but still had over 1000psi left in our tanks. This dive is 50 to 60 foot at its deepest points and filled with large reefs separated by white sand. You can swim along the white sandy bottom looking under the overhangs for turtles, lobster, crabs, sharks, grouper and all sorts of fish resting during the day. While you are searching the walls of the reef, there are all sorts of blennies, gobies and small fish darting in and out of their sand homes, these are always entertaining to watch as they poke their heads out looking at you as if they would take you on before darting back into their hole. Overall No Name Reef was a relaxing and beautiful dive that we would recommend if you have the chance.

Diving Puerto Rico has been a very pleasant surprise. To have such a great place to dive this close to the mainland US will definitely get us in the water much more often as we plan to come back soon. We hope that if you have been considering Puerto Rico or just wondering where your next dive trip will take you, that this blog has been helpful in making your decision.

Where will you dive next?

Dan, Esther, Lana and Tim

Scuba Diving @ Island of Enchantment // Day 1

Leave a Comment / Food & Drink, Lodging, Scuba Dive Operators, Scuba Dive Sites / By Scuba Dive Advisor

What a pleasant surprise it has been to dive in Puerto Rico. In planning our trip to Puerto Rico we were, of course, excited for a dive trip but, as with any destination we had our concerns about how much we would really enjoy the diving. To our delight we found the four dive sites we experienced to be filled with life and topographies that offer many exciting scenes to enjoy while you are clocking bottom time.

If you are planning your own adventure to Puerto Rico, the first thing to consider is the size of the island. We were staying with friends on the East side of the island in San Juan. It is a beautiful city filled with great restaurants and active outdoor city life. We would definitely recommend staying a night or two so you can experience the energetic city and take in some beach time during the day. There are many beach front bars and restaurants to enjoy, so you can just leave your towel on the beach and go grab a tasty lunch or cocktail. The most important thing to know is, that almost all of the Puerto Rico’s diving is located on the West side of the island, a two-hour drive from San Juan. If you are planning on diving multiple days we would recommend staying on the West side of the island to avoid spending much of your day in the car.

There are many hotels, restaurants and beautiful beaches on the west side of the island. In fact, if you are diving with Taino Divers they have cottages right next door to the dive shop just steps from the beach. Taino Divers offers trips to Desecheo, beach dives around Rincon and other local dives. You can also take trips out to Mona Island if you book in advance (we recommend calling them directly for Mona Island bookings). Conditions and currents around Mona Island can be challenging and it takes good timing to be able to dive there. We dove with Taino Divers for one day and had a good experience.

Some divers will have reservations when they learn that they will be loading and unloading everyone’s gear, but it is necessary as there is a long stretch of sand that the gear needs to be carried across before it ends up on the boat. So line up and start passing gear. Once you are done diving for the day, Taino Diver’s has a great restaurant with an extensive menu including some of the best fish tacos we have ever had. Also located in the restaurant is a fun island style bar that even Jimmy Buffett would be happy to belly up to.

Our dives with Taino Divers took us to Desecheo where we enjoyed two spots called Candyland and The Aquarium. We agreed with the locals that visibility at Desecheo is 100+ feet and to be honest we were amazed because the winds were high and the swell was four to five feet. Despite the conditions on top, we enjoyed a whole day of 100+ foot crystal clear visibility. The fish life at Desecheo is abundant, with loads of surgeon fish, trigger fish, nurse sharks, eels, wrasses, turtles and a healthy population of small reef fish that add to the beauty of your dives. The corals at Desecheo are also healthy and abundant with sea fans, whips, button corals, xenia and many colorful variations of rock encrusting coral. The gently sloping topography at both spots in Desecheo is covered with a white sand bottom and large bommies filled with nooks and crannies to explore, many times housing lobster and small shrimp. Over all the dive sites at Desecheo are a must see if you are diving more than one day in Puerto Rico.

San Juan : Puerto Rico // Pre-Scuba Diving

1 Comment / Food & Drink, Scuba Dive Operators, Scuba Dive Sites / By Scuba Dive Advisor

A great start to our Puerto Rico adventure.

With so many of our trips taking 18+ hours in a plane flying to Southeast Asia, it’s hard to believe that only two hours from Miami, Florida, you find yourself in a tropical paradise with lush rain forests, and from what we’ve been told, some of the best diving in the region (more to come on the diving after our Saturday, Sunday and Monday dives). We are very excited to dive Isla Desecheo with Taino Divers. We were told by one local dive master that a bad day of diving at Desecheo is when there is visibility less than 200 feet. On Saturday we will also enjoy a late afternoon dive at Crashboat Beach to dive a few wrecks. Sunday we will be on our way to La Parguera to check out, what is supposed to be, an amazing wall dive. We look forward to posting the blog and pictures when we return from these dives, so stay tuned.

Day one was filled with familiarizing ourselves with the fun filled, energetic town of Condado located in San Juan, Puerto Rico; just minutes from the airport. It is evident immediately upon arrival that there is a special energy in the Puerto Rican air. Everywhere you turn there are people busy in the hustle and bustle of this massive island city and so far everyone has been very approachable. You can stop and ask anyone for directions or advice and so far on our trip, people have been happy to help and have given great advice.

Night one we enjoyed dinner at a fantastic restaurant called Jam Rum Bar & Bistro. Located in the the tourist area of Condado, Jam is surrounded by all kinds of great shopping, restaurants and bars where the nightlife is filled with all sorts of excitement. If you are up for a moderately priced ($40 to $50 per person, with drinks) dinner, Jam is an excellent choice. The ambiance of the restaurant is chic and modern with a young crowd and a great menu. Jam has a delightful wait staff and a menu that offers many healthy choices of fish, beef, veal, chicken and many of the local root vegetables on the side. With flavors of the islands in every dish, you can’t go wrong with any of the choices. They also offer a great cocktail menu with, you guessed it, tons of great rum inspired drinks and a good selection of wines to enjoy with your meal. Check out Jam if you have the chance, you won’t be disappointed.

Day two we discovered Pinky’s, a busy local lunch spot. If you are in the mood for a great breakfast or lunch then Pinky’s is a fantastic choice. We all went to enjoy a quick lunch and were delighted with delicious sandwiches and wraps with a definite island inspired taste. It was obvious that many of the locals felt the same way as the place was packed with people dressed in business clothes taking time out on their lunch break. Pinky’s has a great breakfast menu where you can everything from traditional bacon, eggs and toast to delicious breakfast wraps and sandwiches. You can build your own sandwich or wrap picking your own ingredients or choose from one of their delicious menu choices, either way you are sure to enjoy the casual atmosphere and great food.

Stay tuned for more from Puerto Rico.