Dont Use Dressel Divers!!!!

[Scott912]

I recently visited the Iberostar Paraiso Del Mar in Mexico (June18-25, 2005) and had an awful experience with Dressel Divers there and wanted to post a warning message to anyone who is considering using them. Dont! Below is the actual e-mail that I sent to their headquarters in Spain about this incident:
Dear Elise, I just returned from the Iberostar Paraiso Del Mar in Mexico and wish to make a formal complaint about your Diving Center located there at the resort. I had originally decided to use Dressel Divers before my departure and you had sent me your price lists by e-mail. Prior to my departure to Mexico, I decided instead to use Anita Divers located on Cozumel because they offered a better dive package at a lower price. I had also heard that diving is better off Cozumel. I also checked several Scuba Diving web sites and saw that many divers had not been very happy when using Dressel Divers at that location and they were not highly regarded. I booked a two tank dive with Anita Divers for June 22nd. I invited my brother and Nephew to join me for that dive but they decided to go only on the free dive with Dressel offered by Apple vacations for our 1 week stay. I decided to join them for the free dive and then use Anita Divers 2 days later. We scheduled for June 20th but the weather was bad so we rescheduled for the next day , June 21st.  The meeting time was 1:30. We checked out our equipment and the Dive Guide –Jorge went over the dive instructions. I was a buddy with my brother and my nephew. The weather was good when we left and we arrived at the Punta Maroma reef about 2 pm. There were about 9 divers and only Jorge as a guide. After we descended, my brother’s ears were giving him problems due to a recent cold. He ascended and descended several times but was having problems and decided to surface by himself. He said the boat picked him up shortly after surfacing. The boat was about 150 yards away he said. I was then paired with just my nephew. Jorge had said at the pre dive briefing that if one dive buddy wanted to go up alone that was ok as long as the other buddy agreed. Jorge also said he would send up the surface buoy that he had attached to himself for divers to use to ascend. I was using air faster than my nephew and we would show each other and Jorge how much air we had left. When I started getting closer to 750 psi I showed Jorge my air gauge several times and he gave me the ok sign. When I reached 750 psi he indicated for me and my nephew to go up. I had been down approximately 30 minutes. I showed my nephew my air gauge and indicated it was time for both of us to go up. My nephew had a little over 2000 psi left and he indicated that he wished to stay down and that I should go up alone. I began my ascent by myself and kept waiting for Jorge to send up the surface buoy. I indicated that several times but he didn’t seem to notice. When I reached the surface I was shocked to find out that a squall had moved in and the weather was horrible. It was raining so hard I could barely see 1-2 ft in front of my face. The waves were crashing over my head. There was a terrible storm in progress. I immediately tried to get the attention of the divers below me about 40 feet down. I was trying to indicate for all of them to surface or to send up the buoy. I tried several times and no one seemed to notice me at all. The surface current was stronger than the current below and I was having a difficult time trying to stay in visual contact with the divers below. I soon lost sight of them and there was still no surface buoy. I decided to yell to see if the boat would hear me and pick me up. I yelled over and over and over. The storm was so strong that they could not hear nor see me. For 15-20 minutes I floated and yelled to get the attention of the boat. Nothing. I decided during this time that I had better conserve my remaining air in case I was going to be adrift in the storm for a long time. I had no idea if the storm was going to last 5 minutes or 5 hours. I had no idea how long it would take for them to find me. I held my regulator up as high as I could to keep water out of it so that it would be ready without a purge and yelled for the boat for 15-20 minutes and looked for the surface buoy. About 15-20 minutes after surfacing I spotted the buoy about 40 feet from me. I swam after it and after 1 minute reached it. The weather had begun to improve. The rain was not as strong and the waves were not as rough but the surface conditions were still bad. I could tell from the angle of the line that Jorge was still down below but I could not see any divers. I held on to the buoy and tried to get the boat to hear or see me. Nothing. Shortly after reaching the buoy I felt about 4-5 bumps from below on my fins and my legs. I thought at first that it was a diver coming up the buoy line and bumping into me but no one surfaced. I could see a black shadow near me and again thought it was a diver coming up. I was too busy holding up my regulator with one hand, using my other hand to hold onto the buoy and keep it from getting entangled and yelling for the boat to see what it was below me. I believe now that this was most likely a Bull Shark as Jorge had told me they are in this area and I know Bull Sharks bump into their prey prior to attack. I also tried to get Jorge to surface by pulling on the rope 3 times quickly.  I did this several times. I have read this is a standard signal for the diver below to surface. He did not.  About 10-15 minutes after finding the buoy the other divers heard me as they had just surfaced. I could not see them, as they were far off. I heard them yell what sounded like “reel yourself in” so I began pulling myself along the rope to the other divers. When I reached them the excess slack of the rope had wrapped around the lower parts of my legs. I tried to free the rope myself but it was a little difficult. When Jorge saw that the rope was around my legs he became sarcastic. He stated, “What kind of diver are you”? I tried to explain what had happened after I surfaced but he didn’t want to hear it and told me to put my regulator back in my mouth. I put one hand on his bc to help steady myself to make it easier for him to get the rope off my legs but he just pushed me away. The boat was nowhere to be seen for at least 5-10 minutes after I reached the other divers. We finally spotted them but it took a while for them to see us. We reached the boat about 3 pm and were back on shore about 3:25pm.  As you can see I went through a traumatic experience that could have turned deadly. Your Dive guide Jorge did not do what he said he would do in the briefing. He did not send up the buoy with the first nor the second diver up. He did not keep adequate supervision for the first two divers after they surfaced. He did not surface when I repeatedly pulled on the surface buoy rope connected to him. The surface crew on the boat lost contact with the divers and did not alert the divers below as to the weather turning bad. They should have cancelled the dive when the weather turned bad and notified the divers by either sending down a diver or giving an audible warning such as metal hitting metal.
I have been a diver since 1975. I have a lot of experience diving lakes and in the ocean. In the 80’s I worked part time for a commercial diving firm, which required a security clearance from the U.S. Government. In the 30 plus years I have been diving I have never seen as terrible a diving outfit as Dressel Divers. On this dive the Dive guide did not do what he said he would do and disregarded my safety and was sarcastic to me. The surface crew disregarded our safety below. Even the crew on shore at the office didn’t do what they said they would do. When we had left, we put our clothes and bags, ECT in the crates they provided. They said if it started to rain they would bring everyone’s crates inside. When we got back to shore the crates were not moved at all and everyone’s stuff was soaking wet. My gear bag had a puddle of water on top of it and my dry clothes were soaking wet. The other divers were not happy about this either. When I told the office there what had happened they did not seem to care much and said it will help make you a more experienced diver. I was so upset at this experience that I cancelled my dive for the next day with Anita Divers. There is no excuse for the terrible operation that your company runs at that location. Jorge should be fired for his incompetence, poor lack of judgement and sarcastic attitude. Look and see what other divers have said and you will see that I am not alone in my opinion. I will never dive with Dressel Divers again and will warn as many other divers as I can to not use your service ever. I plan to send Padi a copy of this letter. I have already notified Iberostar about this incident. 
Sincerely,
              Scott M                                   

[mexicanbob]

WOW interesting report Scott. I personally am not a diver but I can certainly see why you would be upset. I can only imagine how terrible that would have been let alone with someone who has far less experience. Glad you arrived back safe though.

[Dave]

Scott,

Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience.  Sounds like that was very scary and frustrating for you.  It sounds like you have totally lost confidence in Dressel Divers.  What you experienced is something that all divers fear.  Coming up and being in the middle of a storm and not seeing any way to get to safety is something right out of a horror movie. 

I have been diving for more than 25 years and have had similar experiences, except mine were in Cozumel.  Not much fun.

I have been to three different Iberostar resorts and all used Dressel as their on site dive shop.  I choose not to use Dressel for the last trip which was three weeks ago at the Maya.  I decided to use local shops for a variety of reasons.  The biggest reason was the cost.  I found Dressel to have much higher costs than any other dive shop in the area.  When I did use Dressel however, I found them to be overly safety conscience and catered to the new diver or the Discovery diver with a resort certification and no experience.  Different dive masters I suppose.

I have some thoughts on your situation:

•   In the sub-tropics storms come up and leave very quickly.  Usually they have hard rain and strong winds.  It happens.  If Jorge had understood your message and pulled everyone to the surface early then everyone would have experience the same bad conditions.  That might have made you feel a little better but it may have petrified the other divers.  They were actually safer under water at depth than you were on the surface.
•   Ever though there was a storm blowing when you came up and the boat wasn’t close by to pick you up, I wonder if you were actually in danger from the weather.  I assume you had your BCD inflated so there was little chance of drowning.  The boat wasn’t near by so there was little chance of being run over.  And you had relatives on board so there was little chance of being left to fend for your self. 
•   If you rent equipment, as I do when I dive on vacation, you may not have had a dive sausage (buoy) with you.  If you had your own equipment, the sausage is one item I would suggest purchasing and diving with every time.  The trained diver is responsible for their own safety.
•   As far as the shark goes, and recent events in Florida to the contrary, diving with sharks is not that dangerous.  Very few divers are attacked and the ones that are are usually feeding them or spear fishing.  That must have been exciting for you?  I’ve seen many sharks while diving, but never one that was close enough to bump me.  Wow!!  That is something to tell you grand kids about.

Floating in the water waiting to be picked up is not fun and doing so in bad weather is much worse, so I can understand where you are coming from.  Perhaps some day you may come to see that although not much fun, this was a good experience for you as a diver, hopefully a learning experience.  You must have confidence with the dive operation that you use.  I suspect Dressel will not be on your vacation agenda in the future as it won’t be on mine either.

Both the dive shop and Iberostar could have been more understanding.  When you complained, were you asking for any thing specifically or just relating the experience?  Just wondering what you were expecting?

Sorry for the long response.

DW

[CoralReef]

Wow, what a scary story! Thanks for posting that, it was very interesting and informative. I'm not a diver, and now I remember why not!

I wonder if Dressel lowballs their bids to Apple for the free dives by using less experienced divemasters.

Sorry you didn't get your Anita dive as a result of this awful incident.

[Raven]

Oh my gosh what a nightmare.  Sorry you had such a scary experience.  Just the thought of what might have happened gives me chills especially when it could have all been preventable so easily.

[scuba]

I too have had a bad experience, although I have been with Jorge and did not find him incompetent (at least on the dive I did with him).  I did have a bad experience with one divemaster (unknown name) who after going to the bottom with us kept swimming into an unbearably strong current.  I and another diver could not keep up - the lead group was almost out of sight and the divemaster never looked back once to check on his group.  I fortunately have a subduck and I blasted it to get his attention - he finally swam back and returned to me and my buddy.  When we got back I chewed him out and complained to the dive shop - things did improve after that and they paid very close attention to me.

[John Greenstreet]

It's a shame that many people have read Scott M's one-sided commentary and have decided not to give diving a try.  If Scott were an experienced diver, he would not have let his sick brother go diving (you should never dive with a cold and allow at least two weeks for all cold symptoms to disappear) and he wouldn't have sucked his tank down to 750 psi in 30 minutes unless he was at 30m/100 feet.  I have been on many a dive with know-it-alls like Scott and they are the most dangerous divers out there.  All the skills and certifications in the world don't mean a thing unless you dive regularly, and thinking otherwise is just ignorant.

At any rate, here's our positive experience with Dressel Divers:

I, my girlfriend and her 15-yr old son just got back from the Dominican Republic and have nothing but praise for our weeklong diving experience at the Iberostar Domenicana in Punta Cana. The dive shop is run by Dressel Divers (now Manta Divers S.A.), and everyone we encountered on our six dives was friendly, skilled, experienced, and fun.  My girlfriend was so confident in them that she let her son go on one of his advanced certification dives without her, which she's never done before!

We thought their prices were very reasonable.  We're both NAUI-certified divers and I'm almost through my NAUI Advanced training taken through my local dive shop (South Jersey area). My girlfriend wanted to get her advanced certification too, so it almost seemed to good to be true that we could do six dives with Dressel Divers and get our PADI Advanced certification at the same time for only the cost of the book and a filing fee on top of the dives. For USD$430 cash, we got six dives, two of them full-day excursions to the other side of the island with meals included, wetsuits and weights (we have our own equipment), lights for the night dive, and our advanced certifications.

Since I was tired of my Atlantic ocean training dives getting blown out week after week, we both decided to get our PADI Advanced certifications through Dressel divers. Since I had just been on several NAUI Advanced training dives, I had a great basis for comparison.  I found the PADI materials exceptionally well written and the training dives very thorough.  Some NAUI people say that PADI simply churns out lots of under-trained divers, but this was certainly not the case here.  My navigation dive actually required me to perform two more skills than the NAUI navigation training dive!  However, in all fairness, we're talking about comparing a shallow dive in warm Carribean water to a 9°C quarry dive in May.  There's simply more time available in shallow, warm water.

In all, we got to see two wrecks (Armstrong and St. George) and three fantastic reef systems (do check out Coco Loco!), go on a spectacular night dive, and go very deep, all in four days with absolutely no problems of any kind. Even the meals on the excursions were excellent, and once the day's dives were done, the rum flowed freely.  It truly was a fantastic week and definitely the best dive week in terms of fun. Our divemasters/instructors were Nestor and Mark, so ask for them if you can.

Incidentally, the rental equipment her son used was all very new and in excellent condition--if every shop had equipment like this we wouldn't have bought our own!

[Scott912]

I would like to respond to John Greenstreet's reply to my previous post. First of all John I would not say I am an inexperienced diver. I have been a diver since 1975 and have logged numerous dives all over the world. I have both lake and ocean diving experience as well as commercial diving experience. My guess is that I have a lot more experience both in number of dives and number of years diving than you. I don't consider myself a know it all and am not a dangerous diver. In fact I consider myself a very safe and cautious diver. I regularly dive and continue my diving education both by reading and even plan to upgrade my certification level next month. It was never my intention to discourage anyone to try diving John. In fact I encourage everyone to try it.  My brother is a certified diver and is perfectly capable of making his own decisions as to dive or not. He did do a check out dive in the resort pool with Dressel to see if his ears were ok prior to this dive and he felt they were fine. If you were an experienced diver then maybe you would know by now that 1) each diver is different in their air consumption. I was very conscience of my air usage and was trying to slow down and conserve my air on this dive. I have dives that lasted from 30 minutes to 1 1/2 hours with the same amount of air. 2) There are bad dive operators/dive masters in the world. I took the time to research this particular dive shop even before I left for my trip and decided not to use them because of bad post by other divers on diver post boards. I only decided at the last minute to use them because it was a one tank free dive and it would be my only opportunity to get to dive with my brother and nephew. Anita Divers called me at my hotel that evening to confirm my dive the next day and agreed with me that the divers should have been recalled. They said it was a large squall that they had monitored on radar from Cozumel. I had even asked Dressel before leaving what was the criteria for canceling a scheduled dive. They said the Navy has to give permission to leave port and it must not be bad weather such as raining or large waves because the captain must be able to observe the diver's bubbles to follow the group. If the weather was this bad prior to leaving it would have been cancelled. So using the same criteria, it should have been cancelled during the dive when the same conditions were met. When dealing with bad weather , you err on the side of safety. Dressel either did not stay properly informed of the bad weather moving our way, chose to ignore it or underestimated it's size and strength. When the weather turned bad and the Captain could no longer see the diver's bubbles, they should have either gave an audible warning such as banging on the ladder or sent down a diver to recall us. 3) A dive instructor such as Jorge should not lose his cool. This is totally unprofessional and does not give a good impression. Also if their employees cannot even supervise people's gear on the ground a few feet in front of them, how can they be trusted to supervise people below the surface? There is alot more I could say about this event and I will treat it as a learning experience. My main concern is to warn other divers about this particular location. I am sure there are other Dressel locations that are well run and operated. This is not one of them.
Regards,
            Scott M.
 

[bjarvis]

I must say that I have had excellent diving experiences with Dressel Divers at the Iberostar Tucan.  For the past two summers, I have stayed at the Tucan and have gone on numerous dives.  With only being a 24 year old female, I felt very safe and confident in my dive master.  He made sure to check all equipment, brief us before and after the dive, and I don't think there was more than a minute underneath the water that he didn't turn around and check on us or swim along side us.  All the dive masters at the Iberostar Tucan were VERY friendly and willing to give us extra attention if we needed it.  The dive shop at the Tucan does a great job and I am once again looking forward to diving again this summer down there. 

[hansen]

I recently read an old complaint by Scott M on not using Dressel divers at the Del Mar and he couldn't be more wrong!!!!!!

I had a wonderful experience with them.  They were very professional and caring! 

As a newly certified scuba diver who had never dived in the ocean and had some concerns and was a little nervous they made it a point to make sure I felt more at ease and also checked me out to make sure I was ready to go before the main dive.  They would not let me go on a regular dive until I did a refresher with an dive instructor and his two students he was certifying (I believe his name was Anai (sp?).  He was very attentive and concerned about all of us.  Then I went on the second dive which was with all certified divers and a wonderful instructor, Eric.  He was wonderful, caring, concerned about everyone, constantly checked on us.  I had an absolutely wonderful time!!!!  It was the highlight of my vacation!!!!!  I can not stop thinking of it!!!!!!  And I don't think I could say that without having a totally positive experience with Dressel Divers!  They were wonderful.

[johnnylaser]

I have dived with Dressel through the Tucan and through the Maya.  I agree that they are more expensive than the shops in Playa, but they are more convenient. There were often a large number of divers, but they separated us by rating and experience, and sized the groups and selected the dive sites accordingly.  I had nothing but great experiences, and I'll use them again when I go back this summer. I'll probably dive with one particular local operator and instructor when I go to the cenotes, though.

[starshell]

I was certified by Dressel Divers and loved it! If you have nothing to do, take 4 days and get certified. I made a whole bunch of new friends, and the dives were easy. If one person hit 50 bars, we all went up. The instructors were friendly, and it made my experience wonderful. They may have changed since last March though, since I don't recall "Jorge" working as an instructor anymore.

[esh023]

Things aren't any better after changing their name to Manta Divers.  My 12 year old son and I booked a dive trip to Catalinita Island from the Iberostar Hacienda Dominicus.  Manta Divers charged us $500 which is an exhorbitant price by any standard.  At home in Florida the going rate for a 2 tank dive is $50 per diver.  They also said we needed to go on a shallow check-out dive the afternoon before the Catalinita Island trip.  The check-out dive turned out to be a total waste of time.  We waited on the surface for 20 minutes while the instructor was doing exercises with student divers halfway down the decent line.  Then he said he had to do more student exercises on the bottom and for us to swim by and wave at him every 5 minutes or so.  After this "check-out" dive, Manta Divers told us we were OK to go on the Catalinita Island trip and to show up with our gear at 9:00 the next morning.

The next day Manta Divers refused to take my son on the dive saying it was their policy not to take divers under 15 on this particular dive.  We had stated he was only 12 on the forms they made us fill out the previous day.  I told them they were in breach of contract and demanded our money back.  They admitted fault, but only gave us back $400.  They said they planned to keep the other $100 as that was their charge for the check-out dive.  I advised them not to count on it and promptly contested the charge with MasterCard.

In case anyone should question my diving experience as with Scott's original post, here's the answer first.  I have been regularly diving the Atlantic, Caribbean and South Pacific in various countries since receiving my certification in 1987.  My son is clearly less experienced, but holds an advanced certification.  He doesn't get in the water without first showing me we are planning a safe dive on his tables and performing a complete BWACF buddy check.

[Scubababe]

I'd just like to say that each dive is different but the constant is that you MUST have confidence in your instructor and it is the one thing I have learned after having 2 bad dives with Dressel Divers (on different occasions - one at the Maya and one at the Hacienda Dominicus).

I am not an experienced diver and my son and I always buddy each other and will not dive if we haven't been briefed or gone thorugh our own safety checks.  We have just returned from the Hacienda Dominicus and planned to do our Advanced course.  We went on the 'free' fun dive with Verena who firstly challenged my weights and ended up giving me less than I needed.  Consequently, I had trouble descending and then halfway through the dive started to float to the surface.  I did all the things to try and stay down, but must have hit a current.  She got really cross with me and dragged me down by my air gauge and I couldn't equalise fast enough, which made my ears hurt so badly.  I signed to her that my ears were painful, but she continued to pull me down and somehow I managed to equalise.  She then preoceeded to hang on to me throughout the rest of the dive which left my son on his own, so I was looking around for him all of the time, which negated the reason for being 15metres down in the ocean!

When we reached the dive centre, she gave me hell! She asked me if I wanted my head cut by the boats!  I am not a person lacking in confidence but I was so upset, I started to cry and couldn't respond to her the way I wanted to.  In the end my son stopped her rant and we left.  We cancelled the Advanced course and the dive manager came to find me to get my side of the story.  I explained what had happened and he was really cross that she had ignored my pleas to stop when my ears were hurting and refunded the cost of the course minus the books.

I found out afterwards that the dive site is on the route of speed boats going to Saona Island and they disregard the buoys showing divers below.  So my question is: Why the hell do they take people there?  What would have happened if something had happened like it did to Scott and he had to ascend?

We were spoilt by having the most fantastic first instructor who we did our PADI course with and unfortunately his standards have stuck with me and for mine and my son's safety, I will not compromise and so will not be diving with Dressel Divers again.

SB

[boomer68]

I am very sorry for the experience you had with Dressel.  My wife and I (newly certified in the U.S.) did our 1st ocean dives with Dressel (12 dives altogether) while we stayed at the Paraiso Beach.  I thought they were great and would not hesitate to dive with them again.  Jorge was my 1st divemaster and he really helped we relax and enjoy the dive.  Next were Camiel and Jeffrey for the rest of the dives and they were awesome.  Again sorry about your experience, but some of us (i will speak for myself) have had great experiences with Dressel.  My only complaints with Dressel is they do not offer 2 tank dives every morning and I think they should treat their divemasters better.  Just my 2 cents.