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Li-Shen
Site Admin
Joined: 23 Dec 2005
Posts: 444
Location: New York, NY
Number of Logged Dives: 101-200
Certification Level: Divemaster
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 Ocean Encounters
Dive Op at Lions Dive, Breezes, Kontiki Beach & Playa Kalki
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Ocean Encounters is a family owned and operated busines.There is a full service retail shop on the premisses from baby bathing suits to technical diving equipment. There are over 200 Air tanks in service at Ocean Encounters. All are Hydrostatically tested every five years and visually inspected every year. Guests enjoy the ultimate diving experience in a safe and relaxing atmosphere. In addition Ocean Encounters is a PADI 5 Star Gold Palm IDC, National Geographic Dive Center, IANTD Technical Training Facility and DSAT TecRec Facility.
Locations: centrally located on the grounds of the Lions Dive Beach Resort between the Seaquarium and Mambo Beach; at Breezes Superclubs; Toucan Diving at Kontiki Beach, and Ocean Encounters West at Playa Kalki.
Ocean Encounters
Bapor Kibra Z/N
Willemstad, Curaçao
Phone: +(5999)/461-8131 / 465-8991
Fax: +(5999)/465-5756
info@oceanencounters.com
http://oceanencounters.com/
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Last edited by Li-Shen on Wed Aug 16, 2006 1:52 pm; edited 1 time in total |
 Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 5:25 pm Last edited by Li-Shen on Wed Aug 16, 2006 1:52 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Li-Shen
Site Admin
Joined: 23 Dec 2005
Posts: 444
Location: New York, NY
Number of Logged Dives: 101-200
Certification Level: Divemaster
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I dove with Ocean Encounters for 6 days during my stay at Breezes Curacao in July 2006. The first thing that I didn’t like about this dive op is that even though I had been diving recently and am training for my divemaster cert, I was still subject to a mandatory check out dive when I got there. I’m not opposed to this, but since I didn’t have a buddy, and their guided dive that afternoon was fully booked. So I had to wait until day 2 before I could do my check out dive and I was told that I wouldn’t be able to book a boat dive until after the check out dive. So after my check out dive, I tried to reserve a spot but the next day the boat was all full. This meant no diving on day 3 for me. I tried not to get upset and just reserved spots for all my remaining days. The diving was absolutely amazing which is why I was so bummed that I only got one dive in the first three days of being there.
Another thing I did not enjoy was the fact that they had a dive schedule pre-determined. Each day of the week has its corresponding dive sites and they aren’t open to taking suggestions as to where they should dive. There was one day that the waters were amazingly calm and they did suggest we try a different dive site (Black Rock) which was much further south and usually too rough to dive in.
I did the excursion to the Mushroom Forest which was fabulous. Breezes will pack you a lunch to take with you and the bus picks all the divers up around 7:45 and drives everyone out to Ocean Encounters West which is about 45 minutes away. The diving was great, albeit the boat was pretty crowded (about 20 people, 2 divemasters and a captain on a 30-40 foot boat). The two dives on this trip are spectacular (Mushroom Forest and Watamula), I even saw my first seahorse!
I met a number of divers who had taken the excursion to Klein and loved it. You leave really early—6:30 maybe and they greet you with a nice breakfast when you arrive at Klein followed by a morning dive, a bbq on the beach, an afternoon dive and then head back to your hotel.
I also recommend the Superior Producer (they only dive this site on Tuesdays if there are no cruise ships or navy boats so keep your fingers crossed). This wreck is really spectacular and a great photo shoot site. The boat sits perfectly upright in 100-110 feet of water. If you get to go, pray that the current isn’t strong because the day we went it was pretty fast (~1½ knots) and made a traditionally advance beginner dive (due to the depth) an intermediate dive.
Other great dives…Tugboat & Saba.
Overall Impressions:
•Unorganized (especially booking/reservation system & payment)
•Sometimes dive boat was too crowded
•Divemaster quality was spotty (met a few who absolutely amazing and a few who weren’t so friendly)
•Free shore dive each day and free rental equipment (if you stay at Breezes)
_________________
Thanks for visiting! Please post so that this site can stay alive!
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Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:15 am
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ronbeau
Joined: 04 Nov 2006
Posts: 3
Number of Logged Dives: 16-50
Certification Level: Advanced Open Water
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Ocean Encounters Review
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| Li-Shen wrote: | I dove with Ocean Encounters for 6 days during my stay at Breezes Curacao in July 2006. The first thing that I didn’t like about this dive op is that even though I had been diving recently and am training for my divemaster cert, I was still subject to a mandatory check out dive when I got there. I’m not opposed to this, but since I didn’t have a buddy, and their guided dive that afternoon was fully booked. So I had to wait until day 2 before I could do my check out dive and I was told that I wouldn’t be able to book a boat dive until after the check out dive. So after my check out dive, I tried to reserve a spot but the next day the boat was all full. This meant no diving on day 3 for me. I tried not to get upset and just reserved spots for all my remaining days. The diving was absolutely amazing which is why I was so bummed that I only got one dive in the first three days of being there.
Another thing I did not enjoy was the fact that they had a dive schedule pre-determined. Each day of the week has its corresponding dive sites and they aren’t open to taking suggestions as to where they should dive. There was one day that the waters were amazingly calm and they did suggest we try a different dive site (Black Rock) which was much further south and usually too rough to dive in.
I did the excursion to the Mushroom Forest which was fabulous. Breezes will pack you a lunch to take with you and the bus picks all the divers up around 7:45 and drives everyone out to Ocean Encounters West which is about 45 minutes away. The diving was great, albeit the boat was pretty crowded (about 20 people, 2 divemasters and a captain on a 30-40 foot boat). The two dives on this trip are spectacular (Mushroom Forest and Watamula), I even saw my first seahorse!
I met a number of divers who had taken the excursion to Klein and loved it. You leave really early—6:30 maybe and they greet you with a nice breakfast when you arrive at Klein followed by a morning dive, a bbq on the beach, an afternoon dive and then head back to your hotel.
I also recommend the Superior Producer (they only dive this site on Tuesdays if there are no cruise ships or navy boats so keep your fingers crossed). This wreck is really spectacular and a great photo shoot site. The boat sits perfectly upright in 100-110 feet of water. If you get to go, pray that the current isn’t strong because the day we went it was pretty fast (~1½ knots) and made a traditionally advance beginner dive (due to the depth) an intermediate dive.
Other great dives…Tugboat & Saba.
Overall Impressions:
•Unorganized (especially booking/reservation system & payment)
•Sometimes dive boat was too crowded
•Divemaster quality was spotty (met a few who absolutely amazing and a few who weren’t so friendly)
•Free shore dive each day and free rental equipment (if you stay at Breezes) |
My expereience was generally pretty good. The dive operations people at Breezes were great. They were extremely helpful. I agree with your comment about the reservations process.
I ordered Nitrox for my boat dives with Ocean Encounters. They indicated that they always pump Nitrox at about 31.9% O2. When I analyzed the tanks on the boat the first cylinder contained 35.9% O2 (roughly EAN36). I then analyzed the second cylinder which was roughly EAN32. Obviously, I used the EAN32 cylinder for the dive on the Superior Producer (105 feet) and kept the EAN36 cylinder for the second dive at SABA (about 60 feet). This certainly supports the practice of the diver personally analyzing Nirtox cylinders you use.
I have seen a few other people on ScubaBoard point out similar things with regard to Nitrox from Ocean Encounters.
The dive boats did not appear to be crowded and the dive briefings were thorough.
On balance, other than the reservations process I thought Ocean Encounters did a good job. Their staff at Breezes was especially helpful.
On balance I was pretty happy with Ocean Encounters and would use them again.
I also stayed at Breezes and will post an article in that section of the web site.
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Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2006 11:52 am
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