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Ogden Point Dive Centre
Categories: Education Specialty Schools Shopping Sporting Goods Specialty Schools, Sporting Goods [Edit]
199 Dallas RdVictoria, BC V8V 1A1
(250) 380-9119
- Price Range:
-
$$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
2 reviews for Ogden Point Dive Centre
2 reviews in English
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Review from Hahaha M.
Vancouver, BC
5/14/2012
An adequate dive center that gets most of its customers due to the proximity to a good dive site.
The staff are often knowledgeable and helpful. The instructors are qualified. It's a decent dive shop.
I've heard way too many stories about the service here. I've met most of the employees. They are all nice people, but the place is just generally too disorganized. I've had friends order stuff, and when they phoned a month later, the order had been forgotten. I've had regulator sets take over a month to have a check-up. I've rented tanks with frayed o-rings that should have already been replaced.
I've seen the classes around here. Some of the Open Water classes have way too many students for one instructor. That just seems irresponsible and a high risk in case of a potential issue. Even without issues, there may be too little time per student to make them an adequate diver.
Charters range from good to okay. Good is that they have their own boats and hold charters regularly. However, sometimes lack of preparation leads to going to a site at a time when the tides are not ideal.
Still not a bad dive shop, and I could still recommend it. -
Review from Bryan R.
12/1/2010
I feel a little bad giving these guys a two star; know that it bordered on 3. The fact is, they were pretty good, but I've definitely experienced better dive charters.
We chartered a boat for two days with them to dive some wrecks in BC and Nanaimo; again, they were pretty good, but not great.
The first thing to know is that they provide no food, and while they said they'd have no beverages we were able to make some hot water for coffee and hot chocolate, which was great. Maybe Canada does it a little more bare-bones, but being from Seattle, I think it's really easy and really nice to get at least a sandwich and something hot to drink when you get out of the cold water. A ready hot beverage at minimum; no such luck.
The boat itself was a little tight, though we had it packed to capacity. The main problem is that they keep their emergency dingy on the deck in transport, which takes up half the space back there and makes 12 divers trying to get in wetsuits and set up gear before we get to the site a real pain. Another drawback was the eddy-effect the dingy had on airflow; the presence of the boat caused air to flow back over the deck, which recycled the engine's diesel fumes constantly and gave most people not below decks a headache.
The leadership on the boat also left something to be desired; while the captain was good at orienting us to the dive sites, he and the divemaster (I assume he was a divemaster and deckhand, but he really just kind of hung around and dove by himself) didn't really take charge enough. We were all experienced divers, but you need someone to take charge and tell you when to do certain things on this boat at given times. We were left to figure most things out and were only corrected when we did something wrong.
I don't mean to be mean to these guys--the captain was nice and funny, and was very accommodating once we were in the water. He had some fun stories and allowed us up in the wheelhouse to shoot the breeze, which was nice. Overall, it felt more like you were throwing a guy you knew some money to go diving on his boat than a tried-and-true dive charter operation. They'd be good if all you were looking for was a ride to a dive site, but you might consider going a different route if you want more than that.
