Joined In Mar 2024
No info available
TLDR: small dive shop at a protected water park. Good scuba dive master. Good experience. Would go again.
The story: Three of us were staying at the Caribe Hilton and read about Scuba Dogs which is basically a 5-minute walk from our hotel. There is a protected snorkeling park behind it with small man-made structures, reef balls, and statues scattered around. There was a surprisingly good amount of marine life considering how many people snorkel there. For $80 you can do a 1 tank scuba dive using their equipment with a dive master who takes you out past the barrier to see the area outside.
We arrived at 1045 for our 11 am one tank dive. It looks like this location sees a lot of foot traffic snorklers, but their SCUBA equipment is acceptable, although their BCDs do not have integrated weights so I had to wear a weight belt for the first time while diving. My back started hurting toward the end of the dive. They had to call the dive master in from home – I guess someone dropped the ball on that one – no big deal, we hung around and talked. Our Dive master, Samual< showed up about 20 minutes later. He was a great fit for us. He made sure we were familiar with all the equipment and checked it with us. He worked with us at our skill level to make us feel safe but at the same time letting us explore as we felt comfortable. Great guy. Felt comfortable the whole time.
They have a wash tank for your gear if you bring it and lockers with a bathroom, so we felt like our belongings were going to be there when we came back from the dive.
Overall, we had a great experience and enjoyed the experience. It’s up to you to decide if $80 is too much for a relatively tame, one tank shore dive, but I enjoyed it as our first dive of the trip and a chance for our friend to get his sea legs back under him after not diving for a couple years.
The Good: fair price. Good staff. Samuel was great. Good location. Protected bay.
The bad: nothing
The mediocre: the gear is not the best but completely serviceable. The price? - via