Dive Review of TOPdive/Maitai Rangiora in
French Polynesia/Rangoria

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TOPdive/Maitai Rangiora: "Great diving / poor rental equipment", Mar, 2024, by Hugh Westermeyer, CA, US ( Reviewer 5 reports with 4 Helpful votes). Report 12935.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We stayed at the Maitai which was an excellent hotel. The accommodations were very nice – all bungalows, and the restaurant was fantastic. Service was friendly, but slow – they should have more staff, but if you put yourself into an “island mode” it’s fine. The Maitai is a few KM’s from the dive shop and the dive shop arranges free transportation for you. This is good, but can be a bit of a challenge if your dives aren’t back-to-back and you have time to kill. If I did it again, I would consider the Kia Ora resort which is much more grand, but 2x as expensive, but is right next to the dive shop. We dived with Topdive. The staff are all friendly and English was spoken fluently. We also rented gear from them which was awful. The regulators routinely leaked, so you would get a bit of seawater with each breath and they always breathed hard. One more than one occasion we switched to our octopus instead. The BCD’s were old and without integrated weights. We all notified the divemaster about the gear and our complaints were acknowledged, but nothing was done about it. Nitrox was standard for everyone – regardless of Nitrox certification, or lack of certification. Topdives dive scheduling is also problematic, and they don’t let you know the dive schedule until the day before. This pretty much prevents you from scheduling anything else. I’m convinced that they are just trying to maximize revenue and don’t want to assign people to the single boat until as late as possible. The result, besides not being able to plan ahead, is that you might have a dive at 9 AM followed by one at 4 PM, and there isn’t anything to do in the area. This is why it would be more convenient to stay at the Kia Ora, which you can walk to. The actual diving is great. It’s all drift dives with significant current and only a 10-15 minute boat ride from the shop. You all go in together -and stay together the whole time, so you can exit together. We saw schools of reef fish, blacktip, whitetip and gray reef sharks, eagle rays, Napolean Wrasse, turtles and dolphins. The dolphin experience was amazing as they came over for scratches – they was no feeding involved an dactually just wanted to interact with us. Due to the current, it’s hard to look for anything smaller or hidden in the coral, but the large fish more than make up for that. This is a more advanced dive as it’s deep at times (100 feet) and you need to watch yourself with the current. Visibility was great – probably 100’ or more. There is no thermocline - it's the same temperature top to bottom. The one negative staff experience we had was when the Topdive divemaster ripped a sponge from the reef and used it to clean the inside of her mask while we were underwater. I believe in the “touch nothing” school of diving and was shocked to see the guide to that. I would definitely return, but I would look into another dive shop. Also, I would not use Topdives gear again – it did not seem safe. We also did a couple of snorkeling trips with Topdive which were great. The snorkeling at “The Aquarium” is excellent.
Websites	TOPdive Maitai Rangiora
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	All along the California coast, throughout the Caribbean and Hawaiian Islands
Closest Airport	RGI - Rangoria	Getting There	Easy from Papeete
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	86-86°F / 30-30°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	75-125 Ft/ 23-38 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Needed to stay together due to the high current. This made sense and didn't come across as overly restrictive.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	Schools	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Great for large fish; limited macro opportunities

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Dive Review of TOPdive/Maitai Rangiora in French Polynesia/Rangoria

TOPdive/Maitai Rangiora: "Great diving / poor rental equipment", Mar, 2024,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

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

Dive Review of TOPdive/Maitai Rangiora in
French Polynesia/Rangoria