by biccnora » Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:43 pm
I've been diving in the Cayman islands every year for the past 6 years, tried quite a few of smaller dive companies, including Off the Wall. When we first dove with them in the late 90s they were our favorite Cayman dive company. A couple years ago their owner Danny sold the company and that is when I believe the Off the Wall diver death toll started. Danny was one of the best divemasters we had the pleasure of diving with, over the course of a dozen or so dives we were never disappointed, and always found the service to be exceptional. The last time we went with Off the Wall was last year and the only thing the same was the boat, and even the boat was not in the same shape that Danny kept it. For all intents and purposes Off the Wall Divers ceased to exist when Danny left the company.
I firmly believe that it's the people that make the dive companies what they are, especially the smaller mom and pop type of dive outfits. With Danny gone, the boat in dire need of maintenance, and the divemaster just a hired hand, they really should change their name. As far as I know there were no diver fatalities when Danny was running the company and out on the boat, all of that started happening after he left.
As far as I know Danny is not in the dive business anymore, or even in the Caymans, so Off the Wall is a new dive company, one with a bad safety record, a poorly maintained boat, and a staff that doesn't seem to care much about customer satisfaction or safety.
Anyone who used to dive with Off the Wall need to know that they are not the same company they used to be, and there are quite a few dive companies that only take small groups who DO have the owners on the boat. Why is that important? Who would care more about the satisfaction of their customers, a hired hand or the owners of the company?
Last trip we used a new dive outfit called Living the Dream and they were at least as good if not better than Off the Wall. The owners ARE on the boat and their dedication to customer satisfaction is extraordinary. They took us to sites well beyond the usual with only about a half dozen people on a boat designed to take twice that. Since then they have gotten an even larger boat and still limit their divers to 6, or maybe it's 8 now, but their boat is so big and well designed it could easily hold twice the number they take.
I think Living the Dream would be the best replacement for anyone who used to dive with Off the Wall.