Bad experience with Rainbow Reef dive center in Key Largo, Florida
by Arthur
Posted on Monday, November 6th, 2006 at 10:17 pm CET
On our holiday in South Florida two weeks ago we wanted to make some dives at the beautiful coral reefs of John Pennekamp State Park, so Amy had picked out a well-rated dive center on Key Largo: Rainbow Reef. We are fairly new divers (we had 17 dives in the Red Sea and the Netherlands prior to this trip) so we opted for a guided dive. Well, that was a huge mistake; apparently being a dive guide at Rainbow Reef means pulling out and scaring off as much wildlife as possible, in order to (we assume) ultimately get a higher tip.
Arthur at Molasses ReefWe arranged our dive trip for Tuesday 17 October. We would join Rainbow Reef’s afternoon boat that day on a trip to Molasses Reef. Conditions were a bit rough and there were fewer customers for the shop, so we were on a different boat (Rainbow Explorer) and visiting different locations than we had first been told. We joined three other divers (Americans). Including ourselves and the guide there were six divers.
The Rainbow Explorer was much smaller than what we had experienced on our first dive holiday in Hurghada. It was quite windy with 3 to 5-foot waves that made me very sick to my stomach. We didn’t get much of a briefing, except for the plan to quickly don our gear, jump in the water (no time for buddy-check) and quickly descend to get below the current. This is not really standard procedure but we had to adjust for the rough seas.
Amy at Molasses ReefI felt like I had to throw up the whole time on the boat, but I felt better as soon as we hit the water. It was a shallow dive, 30 feet max, and I noticed right away how the other divers were extremely close to the bottom, dragging their fins and instruments over the sand, coral and plants. The guide, too, was dragging his equipment over the bottom, and he was continuously pushing himself off on rocks and coral, and using it to balance himself. We couldn’t believe this; it was unlike anything we had seen on our previous dives in Egypt, where no one touched anything, not even the algea on the mooring line.
Coral at Molasses ReefThe first thing the dive guide got all hyped up about was a moray eel. Amy and I actually never saw it, keeping safe distance, but the other three divers were right on top of it as the guide stuck his arm into the hole to try and pull out the poor creature. Doing this, he startled a nurse shark which immediately took off. Well, wasn’t that cool? That surely earned the guide a few extra bucks tip.
Then the guide went on to find more exciting things, completely ignoring his buddy, who was way behind him and constantly bumping into us. The guide’s buddy was actually busy inspecting the coral by breaking off pieces! He was acting like a 3-year-old, the way he would pick barnacles off of brain coral, hold them up to his mask, then flinging them away and break off another piece.
Christmas worms on
a brain coralThen the guide found something else: a Blue-Tipped Reef Shark. We all saw it as it swam away. Cha-ching! If we could have seen the guide’s face he would have had dollar-signs in his mask, but he already had his eyes on something even better, a Spotted Eagle Ray! He frantically got our attention, and then he just took off after the ray and left us and the other three divers (including his buddy!) behind. We didn’t see him for a minute or two, and never saw the ray either.
Our second dive was similar to the first. Amy and I swam after the group, but mostly tried to ignore the times he stuck his diving equipment into holes to poke at animals. We couldn’t believe a guide of a PADI 5 Star Gold Palm dive center would act in this manner. And in a state park marine sanctuary no doubt! He was setting a terrible example. No wonder the other three divers were also poking and touching stuff; if that’s how the dive guide acts it must be okay, right?
Amy ready to dive
from the Quiessence IIIWe were so turned off by the whole experience, we didn’t dive the next day and didn’t know if we wanted to dive in Florida again. Was that how all divers operated here? However, on Thursday we tried it again, this time with Quiescence Diving Services. We decided not to have a guide this time, and it was great. At Quiescence the crew on the small boat was extremely friendly and very helpful and informative. We went to Molasses Reef again, but got a much better briefing and actually knew where we were going. The dive was much better, and I’m sure we’ll come back to Florida on future vacations to dive there again.
Note: All photos are from the Thursday dive with Quiescence.
On our holiday in South Florida two weeks ago we wanted to make some dives at the beautiful coral reefs of John Pennekamp State Park, so Amy had picked out a well-rated dive center on Key Largo: Rainbow Reef. We are fairly new divers (we had 17 dives in the Red Sea and the Netherlands prior to this trip) so we opted for a guided dive. Well, that was a huge mistake; apparently being a dive guide at Rainbow Reef means pulling out and scaring off as much wildlife as possible, in order to (we assume) ultimately get a higher tip.
Arthur at Molasses ReefWe arranged our dive trip for Tuesday 17 October. We would join Rainbow Reef’s afternoon boat that day on a trip to Molasses Reef. Conditions were a bit rough and there were fewer customers for the shop, so we were on a different boat (Rainbow Explorer) and visiting different locations than we had first been told. We joined three other divers (Americans). Including ourselves and the guide there were six divers.
The Rainbow Explorer was much smaller than what we had experienced on our first dive holiday in Hurghada. It was quite windy with 3 to 5-foot waves that made me very sick to my stomach. We didn’t get much of a briefing, except for the plan to quickly don our gear, jump in the water (no time for buddy-check) and quickly descend to get below the current. This is not really standard procedure but we had to adjust for the rough seas.
Amy at Molasses ReefI felt like I had to throw up the whole time on the boat, but I felt better as soon as we hit the water. It was a shallow dive, 30 feet max, and I noticed right away how the other divers were extremely close to the bottom, dragging their fins and instruments over the sand, coral and plants. The guide, too, was dragging his equipment over the bottom, and he was continuously pushing himself off on rocks and coral, and using it to balance himself. We couldn’t believe this; it was unlike anything we had seen on our previous dives in Egypt, where no one touched anything, not even the algea on the mooring line.
Coral at Molasses ReefThe first thing the dive guide got all hyped up about was a moray eel. Amy and I actually never saw it, keeping safe distance, but the other three divers were right on top of it as the guide stuck his arm into the hole to try and pull out the poor creature. Doing this, he startled a nurse shark which immediately took off. Well, wasn’t that cool? That surely earned the guide a few extra bucks tip.
Then the guide went on to find more exciting things, completely ignoring his buddy, who was way behind him and constantly bumping into us. The guide’s buddy was actually busy inspecting the coral by breaking off pieces! He was acting like a 3-year-old, the way he would pick barnacles off of brain coral, hold them up to his mask, then flinging them away and break off another piece.
Christmas worms on
a brain coralThen the guide found something else: a Blue-Tipped Reef Shark. We all saw it as it swam away. Cha-ching! If we could have seen the guide’s face he would have had dollar-signs in his mask, but he already had his eyes on something even better, a Spotted Eagle Ray! He frantically got our attention, and then he just took off after the ray and left us and the other three divers (including his buddy!) behind. We didn’t see him for a minute or two, and never saw the ray either.
Our second dive was similar to the first. Amy and I swam after the group, but mostly tried to ignore the times he stuck his diving equipment into holes to poke at animals. We couldn’t believe a guide of a PADI 5 Star Gold Palm dive center would act in this manner. And in a state park marine sanctuary no doubt! He was setting a terrible example. No wonder the other three divers were also poking and touching stuff; if that’s how the dive guide acts it must be okay, right?
Amy ready to dive
from the Quiessence IIIWe were so turned off by the whole experience, we didn’t dive the next day and didn’t know if we wanted to dive in Florida again. Was that how all divers operated here? However, on Thursday we tried it again, this time with Quiescence Diving Services. We decided not to have a guide this time, and it was great. At Quiescence the crew on the small boat was extremely friendly and very helpful and informative. We went to Molasses Reef again, but got a much better briefing and actually knew where we were going. The dive was much better, and I’m sure we’ll come back to Florida on future vacations to dive there again.
Note: All photos are from the Thursday dive with Quiescence.
December 11th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
[...] Key Largo is surrounded with some of the world’s best dive sites, including John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and to the north Biscayne National Park. Key Largo has many dive shops that will typically take you on a two dive trip in the morning, or a two dive trip in the afternoon. We had a bad experience with Rainbow Reef dive center, so don’t take them, but instead I recommend Quiescence Diving Services. [...]
December 31st, 2006 at 8:23 pm
[...] Worst adventure - When we stayed on Key Largo in October we made two dives with Rainbow Reef and had a very bad day with them; the guide and other divers were constantly poking at animals, chasing them out of holes by sticking in their fins and other equipment and even breaking off coral on purpose! We couldn’t believe this! We almost gave up diving in the Keys, but tried again with Quiescence and diving with them was much nicer and no fish were harmed on that trip. [...]
March 27th, 2007 at 12:30 am
Cool! kabababrubarta
August 28th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Unfortunately there are crappy divers and dive masters all over the world. Some divers just don’t get it.
July 20th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
That is awful! I can’t believe a diving guide would act that way! Do they not realize it’s the wildlife that makes people want to dive in the first place? That really saddens me…