Mermaid Sports Divers

Pros: Reasonable price
Cons: Limitations of small operation

My husband and I dove with Mermaid Divers two years ago. They are a small operation - one dive boat and an office about 15 minutes away from where their boat is docked.

They were recommended by someone at our timeshare and we were able...

Pros: We loved diving with Mermaid Sports Divers. Everyone was so friendly and unrushed.
Cons: None.

We loved diving with Mermaid Sports Divers. Everyone was so friendly and unrushed. We purchased the unlimited dive package that was only $260.00 for up to 20 dives using our equipment and their tanks and weights. They picked us up from our hotel 8:30 AM...

Pros: Conveniently located, will work a deal
Cons: Unprofessional

It has been quite a few years since I dove with Mermaid and I will certainly never go back. I was a ...

Pros: Excellent diving locations and lead conditions with small experienced groups. Watermelon on board!
Cons: For experienced divers only, that can give as well as take.

I dove with Mermaid in 2007 and was very pleased with my dives and enjoyed Carlos and family, Tito, Berro, and all.
Berro instructed me in AOW certification and except for a few language miscommunications was very thorough and informative. Boat was properly equipped, but operating on just 1 engine at this time. Also, I was given no instruction from the crew as to boat decorum; ie. going aboard w/o invitation, the loading and unloading of gear, and that the rinse tank on board was for cameras only! I hate being reprimanded when ignorant of procedures.

The vehicle that took me to and from the dock was less than expected, but as I sampled other operations in 2008, I see that Mermaid now have a nice new van in service.

The unprofessional reputation that they have gained appears to be in the drive to and from the docks, as Berro and his dive companion make many sexually explicit inuendos in some very immature conversations (particularly about women in the streets and their nice "shoes".) This behavior can be very embarassing, especially with women sitting in the vehicle with you.

Pros: You could negotiate with them
Cons: I think they leave novice divers to quickly on their own

I remember I did a resort dive, i.e. a sort of diving primer in the pool / classroom and then your first real dive. I ended up with my brother in a wreck (antilla?) as the first real dive. I remember I entered the wreck and had to ascend, because the wreck was not flat on the bottom.

Unexperienced as I was, I did not trim and the ascend became uncontrolled until I was somewhere on the roof of the wreck. Nice detail: Nobody withnessed this event

Later when I became an advanced open water diver, I recalled the experienced when I read about wreck diving: even with the advanced open water license there was a warning in the PADI books, that I was in theory not trained enough for wreck diving.