Tours and Tickets by Scuba Dive Costa Rica
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Review of: Two-Dive Tour at Las Catalinas Islands
Found SDCR online and booked 2 days/4 dives for me and a friend. After arriving at the meeting point, we loaded up on the boat; the two of us, two other customers, and a few students that were doing some kind of research with/for the divemaster. Usually, I have a very large underwater camera rig with me, but this was just a couple of days of diving in the middle of a 10-day trip, so I only brought a small camera and a GoPro for a change. Anyway, when it came time to get our weights, I asked for 16 pounds. I’ve been an underwater photographer for over 20 years and like to dive “heavy”, as it helps with staying stable while working with my gear. In high currents, I’ve carried as much as 22 pounds. I didn’t feel the need to explain this, though, and have never been one to run my mouth about how much diving I’ve done. It’s not a competition. Soooo, the divemaster tells me I only need 8 to 12 pounds. I’m sure I could go with that if I wanted to, but I briefly explained that I actually prefer to have more weight and that I’ve been diving and taking photos for a while. He still told me no anyway, and gave me 12 pounds. Why? If 16 pounds was a safety issue, I’d defer to the divemaster. But, it obviously isn’t. It’s a preference, and when he wasn’t paying attention, I grabbed some more weight. After the dive, he was asking me how it went with 12 pounds. I told him I didn’t know because I’d gotten some more weights before we got in. He started telling me about how he has 11,000 dives (the equivalent of 3 dives per day, for 365 days per year, for 10 years???) and knows way more about diving than I do. Remarkably, after the second dive, he told me that I wasn't breathing right for taking pictures. He said if I used the proper technique, I wouldn’t need so much weight. Just couldn’t let it go. As I said above, I usually don’t feel the need to tell anyone about my experience, but since it’s pertinent to this review, I have a couple of thousand dives in 10 countries, over almost 30 years, and have sold underwater photography to more than 20 magazines in the US and Europe. My work has also been used in 8 books. Suffice to say, I know what I’m doing. Anyway, at the end of the day we said we’d see him tomorrow. He replied that he didn’t know we had more dives booked (even though they were already confirmed and paid for). He took a minute to think and then said it was okay, he’d get it worked out. So, the next day, we showed up and it was just us and the students/research people. They were going to be looking for sharks and rays and using a laser measuring device the divemaster had to record their sizes. Okay, sounded interesting. But, when we got to the bottom, it was like we were in a race. We were moving fast, moving fast, moving fast, looking for sharks and rays. Basically, we had to hurry along with his group on both dives even though we were the only actual customers on them. We barely slowed/stopped for anything other than measuring a shark and a ray, and at one point when I did stop for a moment to get a couple of photos of something else, he used his white board to give me an underwater scolding for not keeping up. I would never dive with SDCR again, and wish I had picked a different company. James W Fatherree…
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Date of experience: March 2021
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Response from Scuba Dive C, Owner at Scuba Dive Costa Rica
Responded Mar 4, 2022
Dear James & Desi, You posted the same review earlier this week and after it was taken down you have posted it again, altering that fact that your experience happened 1 year ago! Here is my reply again. Dear James & Desi, My Name is Phil and I am the Owner at Scuba Dive Costa Rica. We welcome all feedback but generally like to get it as quickly as possible after a poor experience so that it can be dealt with swiftly. I must question your motivation for writing this review 12 months since your visit to us? We do our best to make sure every guest has an excellent time with us and we work with the elements of our business that we can control to make sure guests are happy and go away either wanting to come back, dive another day or at best, refer us to family and friends. In your case, as your time with us seemed to have been so bad, I wonder why you came back for a second day without making any attempt to bring the first days experience to light? I would have been able to make changes for day 2. I really like to deal with negative experiences immediately so that we can; a: Appease you the guest and do our best to send you away satisfied and happy. b: Deal with the problem right away so that the next guest does not suffer the same negative experience. We are very close to being 1 year on from your experience and the Divemaster that you are referring to, no longer dives with us. We have also undergone several major changes since your visit mainly due to the pandemic. Our entire team has changed and the dynamics of our business are very different. With so much time passed, your review has no relevance to divers wishing to dive with us now, so again, I question your motives to post the review now? Regardless you and Desi had a bad time with us and for that, I apologize. I hope you both continue to have positive and rewarding dive experiences in the future. Phil
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Review of: PADI Open Water Course at Playa Flamingo
Great place to get PADI certified or dive for fun. Extremely professional group of instructors, especially Risky (ironic name), Meli, & Earnst. Excellent atmosphere for training, always safe. Dives were incredible. My wife who is an experienced diver came along with us, did a refresher course and had a great time. The management is super responsive and easy to work with. I would recommend this experience 100%. Saw sea turtles, sharks (friendly), octopi, manta/devil/eagle rays, and best of all we could hear whales singing the entire second day of diving. Visibility was ~30 ft / 10 m In January. Based on what we saw and heard, this was the best dive spot in the area.…
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Response from Scuba Dive C, Owner at Scuba Dive Costa Rica
Responded Jan 9, 2022
Hey Ryan, firstly, we are so happy that you had great time and enjoyed the crew, the course and Las Catalinas. Welcome to Scuba Diving. Your comments and feedback are so important to us and future clients. Thank you so much for taking the time to express how you felt about your training and the overall environment. We look forward to welcoming you both back in the future! Keep diving too! Phil.
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Review of: Two-Dive Tour at Las Catalinas Islands
We were very happy with the customer service, our dive instructor Risky made it fun, safe, and met all our expectations and more. Would definitely recommend highly to beginners like us. Thanks team!!!
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Response from Scuba Dive C, Owner at Scuba Dive Costa Rica
Responded Mar 3, 2022
Hello and thank you so much for sharing your experience. We are all thrilled that you had a great time with us and found us to be recommendable to others. We look forward to welcoming you back in the future. Phil
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I reached out to Scuba Dive Costa Rica about a week in advance to try and schedule some dives for my husband and I while we were in Tamarindo. Phil responded immediately and was very helpful. He informed us about all the diving options and we decided on diving at Bat Island with the bull sharks. Unfortunately, with the island being so far and needing more experienced divers we needed at least four people to come out. We decided to wait it out. In the mean time, Phil was very helpful collecting our certification information and answering all our questions. Luckily we were able to go to the Bat Islands! Phil was prompt in giving us recommendations on where to stay and even helped give us directions from our hotel in Tamarindo to the pick up location in Playa Del Coco. The dive was amazing and visibility was great! It was a perfect day. After we got back to our hotel at the end of the day Phil reached out and asked about the dive. This shop knows what it's doing and I highly recommend them. Very professional and could make even the most timid of divers feel comfortable and welcomed.…
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Date of experience: October 2021
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Response from Scuba Dive C, Owner at Scuba Dive Costa Rica
Responded Mar 3, 2022
Thank you so much for taking the time to write up your review of your experience with us to Bat Islands. Candid customer reviews are so very valuable to us to help us improve our services and for people to find us. We look forward to seeing you again one day. Happy Diving. Phil
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Review of: Two-Dive Tour at Las Catalinas Islands
Absolutely love this dive group! There was a group of seven of us, and we all had a wonderful experience. All of the staff were fantastic to work with and definitely were experiencing knowledgeable and helpful to us. We are all very experienced divers, and this dive was a great one.…
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Response from Scuba Dive C, Owner at Scuba Dive Costa Rica
Responded Mar 3, 2022
Hi Megan, Thank you so much for taking the time to write up your groups experience. Our team is over the moon that we are hitting the mark and that we met your expectations. Look forward to seeing you all again in Costa Rica
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