Quick Summary of events The people who wrote this review did not start an Open Water Course. They arrived in Tenerife totally unprepared. They had not completed their home study, and didn’t even bring all their student materials with them. All we could do was take them on a Try – a- Dive until they had caught up with the theory. In the water one of the students would not listen to what he was told or take notice of demonstrations on basic fining technique. A whole day was taken up and no objectives were achieved. Staff were employed, to cover their course, and places on the boat had been reserved. We did everything possible to help these clients. An account of their experiences on this site has been grossly twisted by them. Read my full answer below for the full true facts. Full answer To non divers the nearest comparison to a diving course is learning to drive a car. You pay for your tuition but you earn your qualification. Giving a diver a qualification, when he is unable to meet the performance requirements, which would put him and others at risk is not something I would ever consider, similarly no driving examiner would pass someone who was unable to complete the practical and theory parts of a driving test. Turn up for your exam without learning the Highway Code – well I think you would fail – and then you ask for a refund!!!!!! Hmmmm A and B contacted our dive centre for a PADI Open Water course. As we had a special offer on at the time they went for the Course buddy pack, both complete the course together as a buddy pair and they would save Euros 100. They sent their deposit and by return student kits with home study instructions were sent to them well in advance of their course. Their holiday was only for 1 week, so by completing all 5 modules and all 5 knowledge reviews they would be well prepared leaving the fun part, the diving, to complete in the time. So far so good. A and B arrived they checked in and paid the balance, which is a requirement for the special deal. We were all prepared to commence with the confined water skills (PADI guidelines state - confined water is sheltered, shallow water – not necessarily a pool) but before we could start they needed to complete a medical declaring they were fit for diving, and I would need to go through their completed knowledge reviews with them as they have to understand the theory before we start the practical. First disaster – not only had they not watched the video which was included in the student kits, they hadn’t done any reading either and had not completed any knowledge reviews, and even worse they hadn’t even brought s their log books which were needed to log their dives(an essential part of their certification)!!!!! How did they expect to do the course, did they expect to buy their qualification I wondered, they weren’t prepared, I couldn’t start the course. We had to change plans. To politely get over a tricky situation and not upset our clients we shuffled thing round to take them on a basic Try-a-Dive to get them started. No previous experience or reading was necessary. (Had I known then what I know now I should have sent them away and told them not to come back until they had completed the required reading) Great everyone was happy it would mean scheduling extra sessions for them, but to keep the customer happy you often have to jump through hoops. We kitted them up, gave the standard brief and off we went to one of our training sites, (a sheltered area beneath the famous cliffs of los Gigantes, which passes all PADI guidelines) 2 students to 1 instructor, also well within the guidelines. The standard and easiest entry is a backward roll into the water, if anyone doesn’t like the idea they can slide in feet first assisted by our skipper – who is on our boat at all times whilst divers are down. The report from these people says that one of them had a panic attack – if he had suffered a panic attack in the water he would have been brought out immediately by me as he would have been a danger to himself as well as his partner. He was ok, a bit nervous, which is to be expected, but he was happy to stay in the water. A and B had both been given the standard briefing, very important stay together and stay with me, they were told how to equalise, gently not forcibly, and if they had a problem halt their decent wait try again, if they had problems to let me know. Etc, etc. Had they read their manuals, as they were instructed, the information was there too. Diver A had dived before and was doing OK but it was a different story for B. Students make mistakes, get it wrong, we identify the problem, tell the student, suggest ways to improve, student listens tries again and they eventually achieve all objectives (in 99.9% of cases). Not so for B. He was in a world of his own taking absolutely no notice of what he was being told. I lost count of the number of times I explained how to fin correctly. Poor A was getting rather bored of getting nowhere because I was spending all my time telling B over and over again what to do, as a result she kept fining off ( rather dangerous) but as teaching is performance based we have to work at the pace of the slowest, diver B in this case. Our depth barely reached 2 metres because of the problems. As for the nose bleed – we all have very fine veins running across the inside of our nose. Should we equalise too forcibly (which is warned about in a standard brief) then a slight nose bleed can occur, generally at the end of a dive when you are ascending. A situation which most divers will have experienced at some time, it generally does not stop a diver from diving again in the same day. His nose bleed was slight, certainly not heavy as stated, and as he willingly wanted to try again in the afternoon it couldn’t have been that much of a problem to him. To try to solve their problems we planned another Try - a - Dive in the afternoon but this time I would put A with another instructor so I could spend all the time working with B trying to improve his fining technique – that normally solves the problem and I wouldn’t charge them any extra even though I would have to pay the other instructor. Try – a – dive 2. Both did text book entries into the water – well done, no problems. Diver A was taken for a very shallow 2nd try a dive with another instructor, no skills were taught as they had not read their book. It was not so for B, we spent a good half hour in no more than 2 metres, but he still wouldn’t listen or take notice of the countless demonstrations on fining technique, we were still no further forward. In the debrief two very experienced Master Instructors and a divemaster chatted with him, all offering constructive advise. If he had listened instead of taking it as an insult, and twisting the advice, he might have achieved something. We want our students to be a success not a failure. So we now had an even bigger problem. Day 1 over, nothing achieved, they had still not even started their course, it was a Saturday we close on Sundays. I suggested that I would come in on the Sunday and work with B on a one to one basis with no others around. Again I would not charge extra, it was more important to provide good customer service. They agreed and I changed all my Sunday plans, my other half was not too pleased. Thinking ahead that this guy would probably need 1 to 1 instruction for the remainder of the course to get him through I called another instructor to help out Mon – Wed. The instructor put his other work aside to assist and we agreed on 3 days pay – still no extra charge to the clients. All was planned, I’d better have an early night as it was work again tomorrow. Just getting ready for bed my phone went, it was a text – who on earth is that at this time of night? It was B. “It’s too much work to get through in the time we have left and A won’t do it without me, we want to cancel the course and by the way can we have a refund” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No work tomorrow I need a drink now! Next morning I called to cancel the instructor I had booked, he was furious with me as he had rearranged his week. I had to still pay him. The unused log books were returned to me and as I didn’t have to pay certification fees to PADI they were refunded Euros 40 each. At no time was and PADI standards and guidelines violated, these two declared themselves medically fit to dive, if they forcibly equalised to make their ears uncomfortable then they were not listening to what they were told. Our staff did everything in their power to help these 2 student divers and the damaging report they have made is very unfair.

On booking this trip snorkelers are told that we go by boat along the cliffs of Los Gigantes, we anchor in a shallow bay where there are no tidal currents. You would be given snorkel kit plus a full 5mm wet suit which is very buoyant. You were also clearly told that our skipper stays on board at all times but we do not put an instructor in the water with snorkelers on this trip. You also signed the forms which explain the possible risks of both skin diving (snorkeling) and scuba diving when you arrived at the dive centre. Instead of signing the terms and conditions for our snorkel trip your girlfriend should have asked for an instructor and a lessons. This would cost €50 not the €20 which she paid. For safety reasons all snorkelers are given a big bright orange surface marker buoy (compulsory under Spanish law) which also doubles as a buoyancy aid, if needed. Before entering the water you were briefed as to where to go and where not to go. We tell snorkelers to stay within 50 metres of the boat, not to venture into deep water, as there would be nothing to see, and NOT to go near the rocks as there can be waves. February and March is our winter season and yes sometimes the weather can change unexpectedly and the sea can pick up while we are diving. So cancelling and aborting dives and snorkel trips does happen. On this day the conditions were border line, not perfect but not dangerous. If the sea had been dangerous we would not have allowed you to enter the water and we would not have taken the try a dive either. You say your girlfriend was scared of currents!!!!! There are non in the bay, but if it picks up a bit windy it can be choppy and yes on all coasts and shores there are waves, so it is common sense stay away from the very shallow surf areas. So to answer your specific complaints:- You say you are a qualified diver so why were you near the rocks when you were told not to go there!!! It sounds like your girlfriend was very nervous and not happy with the sea conditions that day so she did the right thing and came out of the water. That is the sensible thing to do. You said your girlfriend was cold despite being in a full 5mm wet suit, but what could we do about it? Pray for sunshine!!! Pull the anchor in and take her back to shore leaving divers in the water!!!!!! Then have several other unhappy customers! If you had come to tell me after the trip that she had to abort the session because she was not confident with the conditions you would have been refunded her €20. Our web site and the signs in the dive centre clearly state this.

We have been snorkelling with the turtles of El puertito for 2 months now.  They are amazing creatures living in their natural habitat.  They are not circus animals, they don't jump through hoops or come to a whistle, and all our publicity clearly states this. We started this excursion as an afternoon trip and after 2 occasions of not seeing them we moved it to a morning trip.  Since doing this we have always seen them. They are very active in the mornings and will come right up to snorkellers. We depart at 09:30 to get their first before all the other tourist boats arrive. We have had many excellent trips now and if you do a googe search or Youtube search for “turtles of El Puertito” you will see dozens of write ups photos and video clips of these amazing creatures. Your statement of “scam there are no turtles” is a rather unfair and untrue. I note your comment about a running commentary - is this what people really want? This is Alcala, this is San Juan.  Instead we concentrate our efforts in heading out to sea to hopefully spot dolphins on the way. Around 75% of the time we do, on days where the sea is choppy it is a bit more difficult to spot them.  On really calm days we also have the chance of passing a pod of pilot whales. A brief of the trip is given by me before departure about safety on board, in the water etc and you are told that there is a large cool box on board with drinks and snacks, you are to help yourself. I'm sorry you didn't see the turtles, but if you return to Tenerife get in touch and we will take you again free of charge. Sheila Los Gigantes Diving Centre