AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Trip Reports Dive Report: Diving with protech

I did two days of two tanks dives with Protech in early April and had no problems, whatsovever. I had suggested a couple of days I was interested in by emails before leaving the states and they called my room when I arrived to follow up and confirm my intentions. Their boats picked us up, more on Belize time, rather than right on schedule but it wasn't a problem. I found no problems with their equipment or operation and paid for my dives when I was completely finished for the week with a credit card. I thought the dive masters were excellent (Brian and Mynor) and they had the safety of their divers as their top priority. I would not hestitate, at all, to dive with them, again.

I was in S.P. from 15-Apr to 18-Apr and dove with Protech without any problems. I found their staff to be courteous, knowledgable and friendly. I was planning on taking my IANTD Nitrox course, but due to a short weekend of diving and being tired, I am postponing that until another trip this coming September. Protech was even courteous enough to bring me out by myself with no other paying customers so I could get an extra dive in on my short weekend there. I brought my own brand new gear with me and due to a tuning problem with the 1st stage from the factory (found out after the fact), I blew one of my O-Rings. One of their techs opened it up and replaced the O-Ring without question and with no charge. I am not familiar with this Amigos dive company, but when I return to Belize, I will dive with Protech. I found them to be very courteous, professional and since they are the only source of Nitrox and Trimix in S.P and as far as I know, the only IANTD Nitrox and Trimix certified instructors on the island, I am sticking with them. They were recommended to me by someone who had just dove with them during the week of April 1st and also had glowing reviews. Sorry your experience with them was less than stellar, but from my experience, I have no reason to change and will recommend them to anyone else who needs a dive center in S.P.

WillDiveForBeer, how funny - I was in AC 4/15 - 4/18 as well and we are close in age. Wonder if our paths crossed... I don't dive but I drink! LOL!

jfabes glad you had a good time fishing and had good fun... but looks like a few glitches ,made for a few bad karma moments . but you sound like you had a good time overall .so glad you got to live the dream a little. to me not being a diver, and as I follow the boards every day.. the choice of dive operator in sanpedro should be obvious ..but again I am not a diver and no nothing on this subject just what I read and hear from the locals .. but when I lose some weight will try ,to learn as I love to snorkel and feel comfortable in the water..but I can see clearly who is the the best in class here....

An appalling story, which I regret I knew I knew nothing about till now. I've investigated, and whilst there are some mitigating factors the gist of what Jason says is true. I'm glad he enjoyed his experiences in the water, but I can find little good about what surrounded them.

Due to the general hiatus in credit card processing his total charge of US$289:94 has not been processed and I have now cancelled it. He will pay nothing for his experience with us, and I hope he will accept my apologies. I wish I had had the opportunity of speaking to him while he was here.

It seems that the counter clerk (new to us) forgot to arrange for him to be picked up on the first occasion, could not telephone him as the phones were down, so went to his hotel at around 9am - too late - crossing paths with him. On the second occasion she cancelled his pickup and left a message for him to call, but for whatever reason the message was delivered to the wrong room in the hotel. We know this is the case as the person who actually received the note later came to us. The clerk assumed (unwisely) that the message had been received and he had simply chosen not to answer.

As to the costs, she assumed without checking that the first trip had been to Hol Chan when in fact it hadn't. The equipment rental is however correct - it was given free for the course but charged for for the subsequent dives.

This makes me acutely aware that the counter clerk has a key role to play and I am again looking for a new one. The previous one didn't leave us - she is now the DM Jason enjoyed diving with. Not that her record in the earlier job was impeccable, as Coreen points out. At the end of the day, people are people.

Protech certainly got it wrong and I am not going to try to defend the indefensible. But the reality is that there is no dive operation here with the 10-10 record that has been quoted.

Peter Jones
owner of Protech

I think Peter's response speaks for itself.

Being a lawyer and perpetually unable to give anyone the last word, I will however add my two cents to Protech's reviews. I've got @ 300 dives spanning most of the oceans on the Planet. When I dive I dive with my own gear, not other's, simply because I've seen too many bad things happen with gear the diver didn't know. That said, I've never come across newer gear in a dive shop than Protech maintains. Good divemasters can be found everywhere but Protech's are the equivalent of any I've been underwater with. Exactly the right amount of attention without rushing or forcing the group to maintain a certain pace, but with instantaneous handholding if you need it.

I've been on trips with other operations in SP. Of the five other dive masters I've been in the water with 4 were excellent and I would dive with them again without hesitation. 1 I wouldn't let in the water with my dog. The deciding factors for me are the size of the operation (I'm not interested in the biggest), the knowledgability and fun factor of the staff, and the willingness to take us where we want to go and when.

While it is certtainly just the experience of, in this case, three divers, we wouldn't dive with anyone else in SP.

That said, I am sorry for the intial poster's difficulties.

Pedro2, what a great reply and what a super gesture.

Dear Capt Jeff, It is saying a lot that Jfabes enjoyed the fishing with Capt.Bicho because he went fishing with my family and myself. My son, who was looking forward to the fishing trip for months, just chummed the water for us. Poor Jfabes had to watch that! He is the nicest sport and definitely not a complainer. Even though my son was ill, I had great fun attempting fishing with Capt. Bicho and his wonderful son. Thanks for the suggestion.

All of us even the most reccomended have bad days however just because one or 2 people have a bad experience it is TOTALLY unfair to judge an operator on an off day when it is OBVIOUS to those that read the message boards that in general Protech have a very GOOD record for HAPPY customers and they should be credited for that.

While I will be the first to say Amigos is a top knotch operator It is tiresome to see every time someone posts a negative to another operator that the die hard boarders jump on it an try to trash the competition while pumping there favorite there is only one operator that deserves that and anyone that reads the dive message boards can clearly see who that is with constant bad reviews and it certainly is not Protech.

Give the guy a break Protech and Amigos are top knotch this is Belize and for those that dont live and have a business here YOU HAVE NO IDEA what it takes to build up a good name for yourself here with all the pitfalls against you so beofre you start typing THINK and use your knowledge of what you have read and LETS KEEP IT REAL and FAIR

JMHO

Dive Safe

Gaz Cooper

Peter I dont really know what to say. Overall I did have fun on every one of my dives and the dive masters were great, but there definitely is something lacking in the office area at the dive shop on the pier. I just expected more out of the dive operation from all the rave reviews I had read from members on the board. I find it even more troubling that you are the owner and operator of this company and you did not know of any of these problems until I had posted the dive report. Peter could you please email me, my email contact is in my profile.