Seastar Watersports

★ 5 · Henric Rosvall · 2013-10-29

Simply put, a relaxed and nice environment with great prople and amazing diving. I took my Anvanced OWD and my girlfriend took her OWD certificate, then we went on 8 additional dives (that we hadn't planned on, but we just couldn't resist). The instructors and dive masters have great personalities and are really passionate about teaching as well as diving. Basically, sea star (and club Murjan which is kind of the same thing) is a "beach club" located 30 meters from the ocean. So they have a pool, a small restaurant, sun beds and a dive center all in one. They pick you up for free at the hotel. Then after the morning dive you go and relax by the pool, do some carbo-loading in the restaurant (relatively cheap, 3-5 JD for a dinner), and just relax in good company. The gear generally works like it should - but it has seen better days (which is the reason for the 4 stars when it comes to "Attention to safety and environment"). But that detail is totally overshadowed by the amazing overall experience we had and the wonderful people that work there.

★ 1 · likesscubadive s · 2013-07-21

This is definitely the worst place where I have ever dived. First, I was assisting others in loading SCUBA gear and one of their instructors touched my backside in an inappropriate way (and he and I are both men, which makes it that much more creepy), so I told him to stay away from me and he only continued to stay close by, and then when I was in the water with my dive group, he undid the strap on the back of my SCUBA gear, causing my tank to drop. I told him again to stay away from me and he just smiled. I made a complaint to the owner, who told me that that instructor would remain with the dive center. Second, we went to a dive site in a van and several SCUBA tanks and other gear poured out of the back of the van onto the street, and the instructors just loaded those tanks back onto the van and everyone dived—no inspections to ensure that the tanks were safe for diving. Third, there was a boat dive where the air in the tanks was putrid, so the dive shop cleaned every tank; one of the instructors told me that SeaStar doesn’t clean its equipment as often as it should, and I saw that rather than buying new filters for the machinery, they just washed the current ones in soap and water (and even after washing them several times, they still were caked with filth). Fourth, the gear that this place uses is very dilapidated—the wet suits have rips in them, the scuba booties have holes in them, etc. In contrast, I just spent about two weeks diving with a Club Med facility in Egypt, and I thought that their staff was very professional, their facilities were outstanding, and the gear that they had for rent was quality. If you are planning a dive in this part of the world, I would avoid SeaStar due to its lack of respect for health and safety as well as its creepy instructors, and I would recommend almost any other dive centers.

★ 4 · Marie Kenneth · 2010-06-14

Have just returned from diving Aqaba in Jordan. We chose this dive company as they are one of the longest established. In fact, I think they are the longest running company there so we figured they would know the reefs. And, no surprise - they did! The other reason we went was to avoid all the crowds further south into Egyptian waters and that worked well too. In a week we only saw one other group of divers on the same site as us which was just bliss. The diving here is similar to Egypt - same types of coral and fish - and just as pretty in most areas, but what makes the underwater side different is you see fish and no divers. OK, I mentioned that already, but this means you can also stop and take a photo, sit and watch the life and not feel hassled to move on. Because of this we were also seeing far more of the critter type things than in Egypt. We even saw Pegasus sea moths and rare nudibranchs we have only ever seen in Asia. There is less big, pelagic life, but we still saw turtles on most dives. Jordan isn't cheap - compared to Egypt - but we would pay the extra to get a whole dive site to ourselves any day! Management Response from Seastar: Thank you for the glowing report..WOW!! it is a lot to live up to!! We hope we can maintain other divers' expectations after reading it! Aqaba is certainly the undiscovered gem of the Red Sea and although we would like more divers to experience and enjoy its great biodiversity, we would not like the reefs to become overdived .. a fine line to walk! Or in ths case "to dive". Thank you from all the Seastar Dive Team and we look forward to seeing you again in Aqaba.