Native Spirit Scuba
Native Spirit Scuba
4.5
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Monday
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Tuesday
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Wednesday
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Thursday
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Friday
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Saturday
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Sunday
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
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Native Spirit Scuba
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stellina615
Hollis, NH29 contributions
Jan 2023 • Couples
We went to Native Scuba for a PADI Discover Scuba course and had such a great time that we managed to squeeze in a second dive before our vacation was over! Oscar was endlessly patient and kind with us, even holding my hand underwater on our first dive until I felt comfortable . We dove at Northern Exposure and the underwater sculpture park and they were stunning! Mary in the office, and Gandhi, Orville, and everyone else on the crew were lovely to spend time with. We’re looking forward to returning. Thank you for making our first adventure into the world of diving a special one.
-Erin and Jon
-Erin and Jon
Written January 25, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
thejetlaglife
Kirkland, WA260 contributions
Feb 2023
I did a Discover Scuba course with Native Spirit and they were wonderful. Prior to my trip to Grenada, I had several questions and they quickly responded to all of my emails. On the day of my dive, I did a scuba lesson in the pool, then afterwards the dive instructor went over safety questions with me. The dive at the Underwater Sculpture Park was awesome, and I met a fun group of people on my tour. This experience was one of the highlights of my trip, and I highly recommend!
Written March 17, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
CherylB0306
Denver, NC131 contributions
Dec 2019
Recently dove with Native Spirit on our vacation in Grenada. It is located on Grand Anse Beach and adjacent to the Radisson. Great location.The owner of the dive shop and staff were very accommodating in getting us enrolled prior to us arriving and setting us up on a private dive charter our first day. They also provide diving services for all levels of divers plus snorkeling trips. Thank you everyone for your great service
Written January 9, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Alexandra M
2 contributions
Dec 2022 • Couples
I don’t know if we caught them on a bad day or what, but this was by far the worst dive experience I’ve ever had. We were picked up at the water taxi dock and it was my boyfriend and I along with about 6 or 7 others. Then we pulled off the dock and waited for another 10/15 minutes for people who were running late. When they found their way there, another ~10-12 people piled onto this tiny boat. Then we headed on a crammed boat to the dive shop, where I had been told we would get off and get checked in and sized for gear.
Well we did not get off, but they instead just piled a bunch of gear and MORE people onto the boat. In the end it was 4 divers including myself and my boyfriend, along with all the snorkelers. Including the crew there were over 30 people on this tiny boat, and not enough room for everyone to sit.
Our first dive was supposed to be around 2pm. By the time we got to the dive site it was close to 3pm. They then got the 25 snorkelers in the water first. So we got the last pick of gear, and my boyfriend did not get properly fitting fins and got a mask that clearly had not been washed and had hair in it. The dive brief was lacking and we were not told how deep we were going and went to 80ft. We didn’t get to set up or check our own gear. The dive was fine.
When we surfaced, all the snorkelers were on the boat so we had to get on and get our gear off with 25+ people already on. Then by the time we got to the second site, we were told we only had 45 minutes there because some people had to be back to board their cruise ship. Well by the time the divers would have been able to get into the water we would have had time for maybe a 20 minute dive, and being a dive should be at least 45 minutes, I did not want to pay for the second tank so we bailed on it. We had to sit on the boat and wait for the snorkelers, while 4 people got sick and were throwing up. Not the dive shops fault but certainly not made any better when there are too many people, making it difficult to get away from these people.
Overall, I was thoroughly unimpressed with this dive shop. It was extremely disorganized and impersonal and gave the impression they were just cramming as many people as they could to make a profit without any regard to safety or comfort of the guests. I expected more from a dive shop that markets themselves as the only native-owned dive shop on the island. Would not recommend this shop to anyone.
Well we did not get off, but they instead just piled a bunch of gear and MORE people onto the boat. In the end it was 4 divers including myself and my boyfriend, along with all the snorkelers. Including the crew there were over 30 people on this tiny boat, and not enough room for everyone to sit.
Our first dive was supposed to be around 2pm. By the time we got to the dive site it was close to 3pm. They then got the 25 snorkelers in the water first. So we got the last pick of gear, and my boyfriend did not get properly fitting fins and got a mask that clearly had not been washed and had hair in it. The dive brief was lacking and we were not told how deep we were going and went to 80ft. We didn’t get to set up or check our own gear. The dive was fine.
When we surfaced, all the snorkelers were on the boat so we had to get on and get our gear off with 25+ people already on. Then by the time we got to the second site, we were told we only had 45 minutes there because some people had to be back to board their cruise ship. Well by the time the divers would have been able to get into the water we would have had time for maybe a 20 minute dive, and being a dive should be at least 45 minutes, I did not want to pay for the second tank so we bailed on it. We had to sit on the boat and wait for the snorkelers, while 4 people got sick and were throwing up. Not the dive shops fault but certainly not made any better when there are too many people, making it difficult to get away from these people.
Overall, I was thoroughly unimpressed with this dive shop. It was extremely disorganized and impersonal and gave the impression they were just cramming as many people as they could to make a profit without any regard to safety or comfort of the guests. I expected more from a dive shop that markets themselves as the only native-owned dive shop on the island. Would not recommend this shop to anyone.
Written December 30, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
kencatron
Las Vegas, NV1,789 contributions
Jan 2023
There are no really "bad" dives in the Caribbean but this was certainly not a very good dive. I'm not sure if they just were going through the motions or what, but neither of the dive sites were particularly stimulating. Didn't see a lot of great stuff as far as colorful coral or sea life and there were just too many people on the small boat. The dive master never once asked me for my air. Wasn't a really big deal since I'm a very experienced diver, but several others on the dive weren't and they weren't asked either. Adrian was friendly and picked up us from the cruise ship but the process wasn't very organized once we got to the dive shop. After the dive, we were informed that the credit card machine wasn't working and we needed to pay in cash. My suspicions are that they don't accept credit cards anyway. He had to take us into town to a bank to withdraw the money from an atm machine. Not terribly professional. Overall, it's an okay dive shop but If I returned to Grenada I'd try another one.
Written January 25, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Kevin Luster
3 contributions
Dec 2019 • Solo
Native Spririt Scuba is outstanding in every way. I stayed at the adjoining Radisson for 3 weeks so I got to know the entire staff quite well. During my stay I attained my PADI Open Water Scuba Certification and they were fantastic in their teaching of the skills!!! They are extremely friendly and very accommodating from the owner straight through the entire staff!!!! I cannot recommend them enough!
Written January 10, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
diversafety1
1 contribution
Dec 2014 • Business
So I want to give a little background about me so people will hopefully trust my opinion and NOT use this dive operation. I have been diving for 21 years, have been a divemaster for 12 years, and an instructor for 10. I have worked in six different dive shops (as a divemaster and instructor) in five different countries, and I've probably gone diving with 75 different operations in my life... and Native Spirit was hands down the WORST operation I have ever encountered. I literally have never written a review about anything, good or bad, in my life but this place was so bad that I felt compelled to warn every other diver than may be thinking about going to this place, because it could cost you your life.
The good: The lady who worked in the front was nice and pleasant, and was accommodating. No problems there. The boat driver was fine. Stabilized the boat sufficently for loading and unloading divers properly. But. That's. About. It
The bad: First off, the divemaster, Oscar, wouldn't let us chose the gear we were using. He said "No worries, I know your sizes better than you do." And when I needed a weight belt, "No worries, I know your weight better than you." Look, I understand island mentality, and I understand there are a lot of inexperienced divers out there, so sometimes helping them out is necessary. But part of the DM's job is to ask questions about skill level and look over the list of divers before hand to know the level of divers he'll be working with. As an instructor, I don't appreciate telling him how much weight I need and them him arguing with me and then giving me a different amount. But fine, whatever, I can take weight off. But the absolute worst, and most troubling thing that happened (or has ever happened to me at any dive shop ever) was that I asked this idiot, Oscar, to let me look at the equipment... you know, the stuff that would be protecting my life 90 feet underwater... and he said, "No worries, we got it." So I asked again, wanting to not just inspect the equipment, but to simply familiarize myself with the equipment that I literally would be entrusting with my life. Again, he was completely dismissive and would not let me look at the equipment. This was incredibly alarming. Having worked as a DM and instructor in many shops around the world, I would never dismiss a diver wanting to familiarize themselves with the equipment. And what do you know, as it turns out, both mine AND my buddy's gauges were broken. Neither of our depth gauges worked. Of course, this is a gauge that can be quite useful in diving. I told the moron (aka Oscar) about this after the first dive and he again was dismissive, saying he'll give it a look after we get back in for the day.... and not even thinking to offer either of us new regulators. I gave him the chance to, he didn't, so I asked for one. Again, "Oh it'll be fine, man." This guy should be fired immediately. He is risking people's lives. I would never dive with this company again simply because of Oscar, and in good conscious I could not allow this behavior to go unaddressed and I had to write a review.
There were several other things that happened, while they weren't life threatening, they were certainly annoying.
First thing, during one of the dives I was taking a picture of a lobster.... I may have been 5-10 yards from the group, and the other Native Scuba employee on our dive came and yanked on my fins telling me to go and move on. Unbelievable. Visibility was great, it was an open water reef dive, and that guy wouldn't let me hold up for 15 seconds to take a picture?
Second, Oscar made everyone come up at the same time on both dives regardless of how much air we had left. I know this isn't that big a deal to some. But if you have, say, 10 very experienced divers, and a person on their first ever dive, are you going to make the entire group return to the boat because of the one diver? No. Typical protocol is if you have another DM with the group, and we did, you let them take the divers up who are low on air while the rest can continue their dive near the boat. Of course, various circumstances can change this, like if it's a drift dive, rough seas, bad visibility, or a very strong current, etc... but both of these dives had 60-80 ft of visibility, no current, very calm waters, and coral heads right under the boat. But no. Oscar made everyone get back on the boat at the same time even though most of the divers had a good bit of air left (I asked them on the both), my buddy had over half a tank and I had about 2/3s of a tank left! I told the idiot underwater, it didn't matter. We also had snorkelers on the boat, so that's even more of a reason to let the dive continue. The divers who were done could've just snorkeled.
Thus.... WORST. DIVING. OPERATION. EVER. Fire Oscar immediately. He risks people's lives.
The good: The lady who worked in the front was nice and pleasant, and was accommodating. No problems there. The boat driver was fine. Stabilized the boat sufficently for loading and unloading divers properly. But. That's. About. It
The bad: First off, the divemaster, Oscar, wouldn't let us chose the gear we were using. He said "No worries, I know your sizes better than you do." And when I needed a weight belt, "No worries, I know your weight better than you." Look, I understand island mentality, and I understand there are a lot of inexperienced divers out there, so sometimes helping them out is necessary. But part of the DM's job is to ask questions about skill level and look over the list of divers before hand to know the level of divers he'll be working with. As an instructor, I don't appreciate telling him how much weight I need and them him arguing with me and then giving me a different amount. But fine, whatever, I can take weight off. But the absolute worst, and most troubling thing that happened (or has ever happened to me at any dive shop ever) was that I asked this idiot, Oscar, to let me look at the equipment... you know, the stuff that would be protecting my life 90 feet underwater... and he said, "No worries, we got it." So I asked again, wanting to not just inspect the equipment, but to simply familiarize myself with the equipment that I literally would be entrusting with my life. Again, he was completely dismissive and would not let me look at the equipment. This was incredibly alarming. Having worked as a DM and instructor in many shops around the world, I would never dismiss a diver wanting to familiarize themselves with the equipment. And what do you know, as it turns out, both mine AND my buddy's gauges were broken. Neither of our depth gauges worked. Of course, this is a gauge that can be quite useful in diving. I told the moron (aka Oscar) about this after the first dive and he again was dismissive, saying he'll give it a look after we get back in for the day.... and not even thinking to offer either of us new regulators. I gave him the chance to, he didn't, so I asked for one. Again, "Oh it'll be fine, man." This guy should be fired immediately. He is risking people's lives. I would never dive with this company again simply because of Oscar, and in good conscious I could not allow this behavior to go unaddressed and I had to write a review.
There were several other things that happened, while they weren't life threatening, they were certainly annoying.
First thing, during one of the dives I was taking a picture of a lobster.... I may have been 5-10 yards from the group, and the other Native Scuba employee on our dive came and yanked on my fins telling me to go and move on. Unbelievable. Visibility was great, it was an open water reef dive, and that guy wouldn't let me hold up for 15 seconds to take a picture?
Second, Oscar made everyone come up at the same time on both dives regardless of how much air we had left. I know this isn't that big a deal to some. But if you have, say, 10 very experienced divers, and a person on their first ever dive, are you going to make the entire group return to the boat because of the one diver? No. Typical protocol is if you have another DM with the group, and we did, you let them take the divers up who are low on air while the rest can continue their dive near the boat. Of course, various circumstances can change this, like if it's a drift dive, rough seas, bad visibility, or a very strong current, etc... but both of these dives had 60-80 ft of visibility, no current, very calm waters, and coral heads right under the boat. But no. Oscar made everyone get back on the boat at the same time even though most of the divers had a good bit of air left (I asked them on the both), my buddy had over half a tank and I had about 2/3s of a tank left! I told the idiot underwater, it didn't matter. We also had snorkelers on the boat, so that's even more of a reason to let the dive continue. The divers who were done could've just snorkeled.
Thus.... WORST. DIVING. OPERATION. EVER. Fire Oscar immediately. He risks people's lives.
Written January 13, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
589Rsmith
Boston, MA14 contributions
Oct 2012 • Couples
Went to Grenada on Oct 7-17 and loved the island, off season was great. Had the island to ourselves, (wife and myself). Ate at seven or eight different restaurants, all were wonderful. Thats the good, now the bad. My wife doesn't dive so I was the only one diving. Which in all fairness may be the reason I got less than stellar service. I signed up to dive five days and left it open to dive more. I usually dive every day but the price ($104.50) was too much for that. When I showed up the first day, the owner said we would be taking the small boat out, very understandable, under the circumstances. The boat was not set up for diving and with a center console was rather cramped with fins on, but we made do. To clarify, I often dive cozumel and mahahaul out of pangas, so I'm used to small boats and back-rolls. We took a very short boat ride out to a wreck just outside the St. Georges' harbor. The divemaster splashed first to tie off the boat, and told me to get ready. As soon as he surfaced he started telling me to hurry up because there was a turtle on the wreck. I guess his intentions were good, but most divers I know do not want to be rushed, and I knew that chances were, the turtle would be gone by the time I got in anyway. Plus having more than one thousand dives, I've seen plenty of turtles, not that I wouldn't like to see more, but it's not the end of the world if I miss this one. So now we are in the water, vis is 30'-35' at best, not anyone's fault but going out a little farther might have improved the clarity. It was the end of rainy season, not much anyone can do about that. After 45 minutes divemaster signed to surface, I still had half a tank, but I quess that was it. During the SI I asked if it was policy to end dives with so much air left, and was told " We dive these sites all the time, after 40 minutes we get bored". I was shocked, I am a divemaster and have led many dives as well as been led on many more and have never heard of telling a diver that I found the dive "boring" (even when some are). So now we have a SI of about twenty minutes and the divemaster tells me to get ready. We had moved the boat to a sandy patch in about 35' of water and the divemaster throws out an anchor with about 50' of rope on it. All I could think was "good luck". Now the divemaster and the boat driver ( I refuse to call him a captain) are switching jobs, which is fine with me. We hit the water and the first thing I see is the anchor has dragged all the way across the sand patch, and has lodged in some of the reef, and is tearing the reef apart. This "divemaster" ignores the problem and swims off. This guy wasn't even a real diver let alone a divemaster, I realize people have to get experience, but not like this. His fins were constantly on the bottom or kicking the reef as he swam at a heads-up 45 degree angle. I admit, I am a very slow mover, and the first divemaster told him that, but the only way I could keep track of this guy was by the cloud of silt he had kicked up. No fish at all, very little to see, so after 45 minutes when he said surface I was more than ready. By now the anchor had torn up a strip of the reef (soft coral and sponges) about 80-100' long. Needless to say, I will be looking to dive with someone else next year when I do go back. Yes, go back, the island itself is that nice, friendly people, great food, beautiful beach, and oh yea, Carriacou, which is a short, and very enjoyable, ferry ride, is supposed to have better diving, so I'll try at least once more.
Written November 13, 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Valerie P
Stratford, Canada22 contributions
Nov 2018 • Friends
We arrived at a neighbouring dive resort only to be told that their boat was broken and would remain so for at least a month. We later learned from others that it had already been broken for several months. In other words, they don’t dive during the low season. When we said we needed them to hook us up with another dive shop who would pick us up on site, they called Native Spirit. We sure got lucky!
Native Divers catered to our every need without our even needing to ask. They set up our gear, they helped us in and they helped us out again. We pretty much just had to remember to breathe. In fact, at the end of our first day of diving, the watersports centre at our hotel (the one that was not offering the advertised diving), did tell us we could store our equipment there. On the morning of the second day, Native Spirit picked us up promptly at nine, but no one had come to open our watersports centre and our gear was still locked inside. Native Divers took us in their boat back to their own dive centre and provided us with loaner equipment free of charge. From that day on when they dropped us off at our resort after diving they took our gear back to their shop where they rinsed and stored it for us overnight and brought it back to us each morning, all set up and organized for us to just slip into.
What a great experience with Adrian and his crew, Dexroy and “Shamar”!
Native Divers catered to our every need without our even needing to ask. They set up our gear, they helped us in and they helped us out again. We pretty much just had to remember to breathe. In fact, at the end of our first day of diving, the watersports centre at our hotel (the one that was not offering the advertised diving), did tell us we could store our equipment there. On the morning of the second day, Native Spirit picked us up promptly at nine, but no one had come to open our watersports centre and our gear was still locked inside. Native Divers took us in their boat back to their own dive centre and provided us with loaner equipment free of charge. From that day on when they dropped us off at our resort after diving they took our gear back to their shop where they rinsed and stored it for us overnight and brought it back to us each morning, all set up and organized for us to just slip into.
What a great experience with Adrian and his crew, Dexroy and “Shamar”!
Written November 26, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Canada C
6 contributions
Aug 2014 • Family
We have been checking out dive shops to dive with while here in Grenada for hurricane season, but after witnessing Native Spirit Scuba's dive boat 'Juliette' repeatedly roar through the middle of a very crowded anchorage at full speed (within 50 feet or less of anchored noats) over the past couple weeks, we will be checking out the other dive operators here instead. Our son has been bumped around considerably by their wake while swimming beside our boat, and children swim between the boats regularly, which does not seem to be a concern to the operators.
When we called their office to ask to speak to the owner about their dive boat "captain's" disregard for other boater's safety, I was shocked to be told that the owner Adrian was the driver and to call him on his cell. Both the office and Adrian, in separate phone conversations, advised me that as we're not in the marina or the lagoon there 'are no rules' and 'if I want rules, go into the marina'. Evidently, this complaint has been made before, and this is the official company position, as both used the same language. Advising them that Martins Bay off of Grande Anse is shown on all navigation charts as an anchorage was simply dismissed.
To be clear, moving less than 100 yards further out on a parallel track would move them out of the anchorage and add no distance to their overall trip when we watch them go to their dive sites.
Based on our experience, we will be using other dive operators during our time in Grenada.
When we called their office to ask to speak to the owner about their dive boat "captain's" disregard for other boater's safety, I was shocked to be told that the owner Adrian was the driver and to call him on his cell. Both the office and Adrian, in separate phone conversations, advised me that as we're not in the marina or the lagoon there 'are no rules' and 'if I want rules, go into the marina'. Evidently, this complaint has been made before, and this is the official company position, as both used the same language. Advising them that Martins Bay off of Grande Anse is shown on all navigation charts as an anchorage was simply dismissed.
To be clear, moving less than 100 yards further out on a parallel track would move them out of the anchorage and add no distance to their overall trip when we watch them go to their dive sites.
Based on our experience, we will be using other dive operators during our time in Grenada.
Written August 15, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
No questions have been asked about this experience
Native Spirit Scuba - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)
Native Spirit Scuba Information
Excellent Reviews | 90 |
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Very Good Reviews | 7 |
Native Spirit Scuba Photos | 106 |