Notes on Dive Shops in French Polynesia

[DrSch]

Just returned from 10 day cruise on Pacific Princess in French Polynesia, the majority of which was spent Scuba Diving.

 

For those looking to book dives there, you pretty much have 3 options.

 

Option 1: Dive with Princess.

 

Very limited. On our cruise, diving was only offered as an excursion on 2 of the islands: Rangiroa and Bora Bora.

 

Option 2: TopDive.

 

Topdive has dive shops on most of the islands visited during the cruise. The story is that they came in, and bought up several small companies, giving them a "global presence".

 

Option 3: Te Moana Pass.

 

We chose this option. There is a consortium of several smaller shops located throughout the islands that allow you to buy a package of 10 dives at a discounted rate that is good at any of the islands they are on. This gave us access to a few dive sites that Topdive did not have, including Rangiroa and Raiatea.

 

On Tahiti, we dove with Eleuthera Plongee Tahiti.

From the moment you send an email to Marion at Eleuthera Plongee Tahiti, you know you are working with professionals. Unlike many tour operators in French Polynesia, she is quick to reply, friendly, and eager to make sure that your dive desires are fulfilled.

 

We spent 3 days diving with Eleuthera Plongee Tahiti (EP). We were always picked up promptly, and the dive masters were knowledgeable and friendly. While we don't speak French, they made it their business to insure we understood them.

 

Guillaume Martinez is an outstanding dive master / instructor, that accessed our abilities the first few dives, and then allowed us a bit more freedom once they knew we were capable of handling it.

 

We had brought all of our own equipment with us, but was impressed with the Scubapro dive equipment offered by EP. If we hadn't brought our own, we would have had no problem using theirs. There is also a very well stocked scuba store attached, with most everything you might need.

 

One of the highlights was a night dive. Marion scheduled a special night dive at our request, and changed the day they normally do them to accommodate us, knowing that we were only able to do it one of the nights we were there. That is what you call top notch customer service. Diving a shipwreck, and seeing all the marine life that at night was indescribable. And then the fresh baguettes, brie and meat and wine served afterwords made us feel like family.

 

Our next dive was in Rangiroa. We dove with The 6 Passengers.

 

There were quite a few people at the dive shop when we arrived, as there were divers from the cruise ship, other independents, and snorkel groups setting up.

 

Our Dive master, brought our group into a side room, and gave a thorough briefing about the dive we would be doing. To our dismay, the current was running out to see this day, so we could not do the drift dive that so many have talked about. However, we were going to skirt the current to the sides, and were promised an amazing adventure.

 

Rangiroa delivered. We saw turtles, wrasse, a pod of dolphins, and more.

 

We had our own equipment, but the rental gear that we observed seemed to be in very good condition. The staff seemed very concerned about safety, and the well being of the divers.

 

We were diving Nitrox, and when the tanks were delivered, the dive masters re-tested in our presence, and realized their setting on the fill tank was wrong, so they re-filled the tanks and we got a proper level.

 

Next up was Bora Dving Center in Bora-Bora.

 

 

We did 2 dives with Bora Diving ,and while the dives were great, and we saw lemon sharks, and manta rays, Bora Diving needs to tighten up their operation.

 

 

The good:

 

The dive instructors are careful, courteous, knowledgeable and very safety oriented.

 

The bad:

Dive groups should be separated into new people and experienced. On our dive we were with several people on their first dives, or their first dives with lemon sharks. One started to hyperventilate and went through his tank in less than 25 minutes. The dive master put him on his octopus and took care of him, but once that happens, he is no longer available for anyone else on the dive if there is a problem. I am glad they didn't call the dive, but in retrospective, it could have been quite a dangerous situation. One of the people in our group, dove with a similar person the previous day, and the dive operation that he was diving with called the dive and everyone had to go back up.

 

Bora diving has one of the best t-shirts out there. We wanted them. We had to wait at the dock for an hour and a half for them to bring them to us. For some reason, they did not want us coming back to the dive center with them. I am curious to know why. We were about to give up waiting on them, and head back to the ship, when they pulled up at the last minute. It was frustrating but worth the wait, if you like t shirts as souvenirs.

 

The ugly:

 

I am not a big fan of shark feedings, I would rather see them naturally. However, if we are on a dive, and you are going to put bait for the sharks in an area, please make sure to give detailed instructions during the dive briefing as what areas not to go into. We saw several people have to be pulled out of the area where the bait was..

 

 

On more than one occasion, the dive masters told people to go ahead and step on, or handle the coral. The coral there is just starting to live there again, and I saw several chunks destroyed.

 

We bring our own equipment with us when we go diving. Usually after a dive, there is a hose, or a bucket or some way to rinse off important things like computers and regulators (let alone wetsuits). Since we were picked up and dropped off on the pier, and their business model is designed around people renting all the equipment, there was nothing available. For those of you renting equipment, this should not deter you from using Bora Diving; for those of you using your own equipment.. just something to keep in mind.

 

 

The final dive shop I am reviewing is Hemisphere Sub in Raiatea.

 

Of all the dive shops we dove with while in Tahiti, Hemisphere Sub impressed me as the most professional, and diver-dedicated shop out there.

 

Julien picked us up at the pier, and brought us to one of their dive shops, which is located within a resort hotel. Plenty of space to get suited up, and a nice large dive boat.

 

Our first dive was a drift dive in the pass, and the second dive was a shore dive. Just a few feet away from the dive shop, is a sunken 3 mast ship. Jump off the dock, and there it is.. starting at 30 ft, and going down to around 90 feet at the bottom.

 

David Ballet was our dive master, and he was outstanding.

 

I have nothing but compliments for this dive shop.