Dive Fair Helen

★ 1 · Hubert Smith · 2013-03-19

Dive Fair Helen - the name says is all. They are only 'fair'. Not great. Not even good except for Alvin, Marlon and Bernadette. ?As Canadians, we are probably the most easy going people in the world. It takes a lot to upset us but I feel the need to provide a less than favourable review of this non professional organization who left a string of broken promises and a wealth of poor and non-existent communication. They can dive but they can't run a business. My wife and I were in Marigot Bay in early November, 2012. We pre-booked for scuba and snorkelling packages with Dive Fair Helen. ??I took my first two scuba dives on Saturday, November 10, and was so excited and thrilled that I decided I would like to pursue PADI certification. I mentioned this to Alvin, the dive master and my instructor that day, Andre, and also asked whether I would be able to change my booking for Monday, November 12 from snorkelling to scuba diving. I was told that I could easily switch my second day to scuba, and that the instructors would speak with me about certification. I gave them contact information (both email address and our villa location in Oasis Marigot) for them to get in touch. I told them that we would be in Marigot Bay for another five days which should have been more than enough time to do the reading and the dives required. I was enormously enthusiastic about scuba diving and thought that Dive Fair Helen would be interested in my certification, the prospect of such an easy sell and the extra money! When we got back to the villa, we called Dive Fair Helen, left a message about PADI certification and switching from snorkelling to scuba diving for that Monday.?? My wife and I both went out on Monday, November 12th. My wife stuck with snorkelling, but I dove another two times that day. The instructor and the dive master both mentioned that they would talk to me about certification, but neither one said anything specific to me that day. The dive master indicated that all four of my dives could be counted toward certification. This was confirmed later by Michael, the owner. Andre, the instructor never spoke to me about certification. He spent the time not in the water reading a book in the cabin or eating all the left over lunch meal. We also encountered Bernette when we were at the grocery store in Marigot Bay on Tuesday, and told her that we were very disappointed about the lack of response. She suggested that I should get official log information giving me credit for at least some of the dives I did with Dive Fair Helen, but that has not happened either. After this conversation, I telephoned and spoke to Samantha, who confirmed our telephone number at Oasis Marigot and my email address, but we heard nothing before we left on November 15. I also telephoned Samantha in early December after we got home, to ask about receiving log entries for his dives. I asked if these two days of diving (4 dives) could be considered equivalent to the training dives 1 through 4 from the PADI Open Water Referral Course. She told me that we would hear from someone about this, but we never got any response either by phone or by email. She did apologize for the staff and thought that only the 1st dive can be used for the certification, but she was not a PADI instructor. Alvin, the dive master, Andre, the instructor, and Michael, the owner, all PADI certified, said the dives could be used for certification but I guess this Samantha, who isn't certified can overrule the people who can actually dive with their vast experience as PADI certified divers. Samantha also said that she would look into all this other stuff that the staff told me. If she did, she didn't tell me or get back to me. She also promised to send the log pages and also register me on the PADI site as a DSD. I was told that this has been done but I have no way to confirm this. Very poor communication and absolutely no followup. ??We spent quite a bit of money on these dives, and do not regret having done so, but we are very disappointed that communication issues and lack of followup have caused us to feel less positive about Dive Fair Helen. On the first dive I asked the staff about certification. On a call to the office I asked about certification. On the second dive I asked about certification. Every time I was told to talk to someone else, or simply ignored. I should not need to go chasing after anyone to achieve that. Dive Fair Helen provides the courses. Contact me and earn your money, the cost of which I see, has gone up another 8%.?? If they were a professional organization, I would be PADI certified, registered with the PADI site, have my logs for the 4 dives and have happy memories about Dive Fair Helen. When we complained, our wrongs should have been righted and provisions and compensation made. Neither has happened. We were told and promised many things by one and all but nothing has happened and nothing ever will.The owner, when contacted, initially promised to right the wrongs. I gave them every opportunity to correct their errors. The owners response was 'beyond his comprehension and based on a misunderstanding.' After 4 months of calling and emailing, I have given up and am posting this poor review. I now know why his staff acted, or rather didn't act the way they did. The example comes from the top. Do yourself a favour. Choose another dive shop.

★ 2 · Peter Jeffers · 2011-12-22

I never have taken all day to do two dives very unorganized and cater to the cruse ship so be prepared to wait and be second class. You can dive some very bad spots with some very bad divers and, bring some fish to see, there are very few here.

★ 4 · Mark Laws · 2011-07-15

Some of the real highlights from diving around St Lucia was coming up from your safety stop breaking the surface right under the Piton’s.  A really spectacular ending to the dive. Some of the dives around the Pitons are in their own right a lot of the fun with the drift dive “superman” site offering that lazy diving! Another highlight was diving the Lesleen M wreck where the dive briefing was done by Andre (Owner of Dive Shop) who was, back in the day, the person in charge of creating the artificial reef when working with the islands Fishery Commission. That insight made the dive even more enjoyable!