Having read all of the reviews we have to say we disagree with the negative comments. We dove this shop for 4 trips one of which we booked after the first two. Not once did any crew member or divemaster mention tipping, and I was astonded to see how few divers actually tipped. The divemasters we dove with did a great job pointing out creatures and we saw nothing but a focus on safety. In fact one of our dives had a shorter exploration bottom time as we had to chase down two members of our group who left the group and went off on their own. we also heard a story how one divemaster had to help one diver with constantly adjusting her bouancy who should have been taking more pool training than open water dives.
My wife was doing her 5th dive after getting certified, they were very aware of the level of each diver in our group. Did we have a dive master who took a lot of pictures, you bet, but by doing so he was showing us the things we may have missed, like the yellow frog fish no bigger than you thumb nail. we had sharks, eels, eagle rays, lobsters, and more fisd\h than I could write down in my logbook. We dove until we were down to 700 psi and then did a safey stop. Not once was I hurried to get out of the water and on the boat.
Our dive sites provided the best conditions and vis available for each days conditions our gear was chaged out on after each dive and we paid attention to our gear, set up, etc. as it's not the crews responsiblity as it's the gear we are diving with, so we did buddy checks of each others gear and rig.
Yea, we walked from the shop to the boat and from the boat to the shop, but it's a 10 minute walk and a great time to talk about the dives with the people you met on the boat. Yea we waited for our gear, but if you are on a time line while diving, find another sport. The shop provided rinse tanks and a place for us to store our gear between dives, this space could have been larger but we did not have to haul our gear back and forth from our hotel. We went to Hawaii to relax not be on a schedule, it's island time and it's better than any other island time I have been on.
C3 does a great job providing the opportunity for divers to have pictures of the dives they completed, the shop staff were outstanding, helpful and always had a smile for us. This is not the only shop we dove in Hawaii, we dove in Kaui as well and that shop, while smaller did a great job as well.
Thank you Rebecca, Gwen, Dan, John, Mike, and all the other boat crew members and shop staff . You made my wifes first dive a success and one she enjoyed and was challenged by experiencing new u/w environments.
My bet is if you had a bad experience it was your own doing or your own attitude problem. Were the prices on the high side, maybe, but the boat was in outstanding shape, clean and uncrowded, we saw whales and dolphins on the way to and from each dive and most importantly we felt safe and a valued customer.
The Wilson's Yorkville, IL
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
