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Dive Review of Sea Ventures in
Puerto Rico

Sea Ventures, Aug, 2008,

by William Ungerman, CA, USDA (Sr. Contributor Sr. Contributor 24 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 4280.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 3 stars Food 3 stars
Service and Attitude 3 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 3 stars Shore Diving 3 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 3 stars
Advanced 2 stars
Comments We made advanced arrangements to dive with Sea Ventures through their website. They have operations at three PR locations. We opted for the Humacao/Palmas Del Mar location after talking to Kristine, their booking coordinator. Sea Ventures is located in the gated community of Palmas Del Mar, an upscale facility occupying hundreds of acres about an hour's drive southeast of San Juan. We scheduled and were booked for five days of tw0-tank AM dives. We arrived on Sunday and were promptly advised by Kristine that there was a problem diving on Monday. The excuses ran the gamut from a Coast Guard inspection, the boat needing repair, the boat captain leaving and making trouble and a few others. Bottom line: No diving on Monday unless we were willing to drive fifty miles to their Fajardo location and go out with that boat. Ah, no thanks.

On Tuesday we got out for the dive on the 42 foot jet drive boat. It was big and comfortable with "Felix" as D/M. He was professional, courteous, and responsible. We dove "Islands In The Sand" and "The Room," aka, "The Crack." Neither one was noteworthy and both unimpressive even judged by Caribbean standards. However, we did find a Nurse Shark in a little caveran. These are virtual open ocean dives with land on the distant horizon. The seas were rough, real rough and the reboarding ladder was a lethal weapon. Hang on to the current line and pull your way back in. Currents were strong but manegeable.

We went out again on Wednesday and did a couple more dives on sites called "Lidia's Reef" and "Briar Patch." These were carbon copies of the first two and were indistinguishable. Besides a couple of huge French Angels there wasn't much else.

That night we received a call from Kristine cancelling the Thursday dives. It seems that there were a number of insurmountable problems again, although I strongly suspect that the real problem was that they couldn't get anymore divers to go and they didn't want to go out with just the four of us. Now, we were originally promised that the first day of diving would be at the rate of $109.00 per person for the two dives with the subsequent days discounted by 10, then 15, and finally 20 percent. Well, despite the fact that they were cancelling the dive days, they refused to honor the discounts beyond the ten percent. Point to note: Sea Ventures is the only game in town.

Our family of four opted to cancel the balance of the diving which was probably just as well because it was learned we were going to be cancelled anyway because of the lack of (either/or) a boat captain or the requisite number of divers. I'll let you draw your own conclusion as to our level of satisfaction overall. Now, admittedly, we only dove one small part of Puerto Rico and I understand that Vieques and some parts on the Western coast have good diving. I'll leave that to be verified by someone else. However, my philosophy remains that a bad day diving still beats any day working. And a positive not: Sea Ventures has great T-shirts.

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 501-1000 dives
Where else diving Indo-Pacific, California, Caribbean, Tropical Atlantic, etc.
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, windy, dry Seas choppy, currents
Water Temp 85-86°F / 29-30°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 40-80 Ft/ 12-24 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Pretty liberal but the divemaster was attentive and if you needed attention or help, he was there.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? N/A

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles None Whales None
Corals 2 stars Tropical Fish 2 stars
Small Critters 2 stars Large Fish 2 stars
Large Pelagics 2 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 2 stars Boat Facilities 2 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 1 stars Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments Not foused on U/W photography requirements.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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