Chris Sawyer - www,sawyerdive.vi. Excellent operation, excellent reputation. Have fun!

We're using Chris Sawyer in June. I found great reviews on this operator on scubaboard.com and elsewhere. They are out of Red Hook (American Yacht Harbor).

There's also a 10% off coupon on their website.

http://sawyerdive.vi/

If you want to do wreck dives, and don't want to be forced out of the water as soon as the first diver runs out of air try someone else other than Chris Sawyer, plus they have like 16-20 people on their cattle boats. I can't stand diving with them although I'm certified and relatively experienced diver.

I dive with www.blueislanddivers.com they always do a wreck and a reef and they are VERY nice people. The max I have gone out with using them is 8 people. Much more personalized and you can dive on your own if you don't want to follow the divemaster. And if you have more air, then stay down and use it up. No worries and no hurries with them.

I've dived with Chris Sawyers 4 times and I have 7 annoying stories using them, and I will never use them again.

Wow, StuScott, in all my years here haven't heard anything but positives about Chris Sawyer and your negative is a true first. Sorry to hear that. Cheers!

Try SixPaq Scuba out of STJ Cruz Bay. They'll go over to Red Hook to pick up divers. I can't say enough nice things about their operation. Max 6--geared towards the guest and the skill level.

Yes I know, I hate saying bad things about anyone, and I even have a friend that works at Chris Sawyer, and he actually agreed with my assesment. They are a corporate dive shop geared towards the novice or inexperienced diver. And it is a guided tour, no matter what. You follow the group, stay with the group, and get out with the group.

Which is why I don't dive with them anymore.

James at Blue Island is the nicest and most laid back divemaster you will ever meet. Small groups is also highly important so you don't have 15 other divers kicking up silt.

Sorry to hear you are unhappy with Chris Sawyer Diving. I would invite you to stop by and tell us your stories, and maybe we could improve our service to our customers. We have no beef with any other operators here in STT and welcome there sevrvice as well.

OK well since you asked here are SOME of my stories....

1. Night dive on the Gen Rogers. Small wreck, with 18 divers, 2 groups of 9. I had 2 15 year old kids in my group that werer spazzes and kicking up silt. I swam about 10 feet away from the group to get some distance, but I was still within flashlight and eyesight distance. As this grumpy old divemaster (you know who I'm talking about) was looking for stuff unsuccessfully under the boat, I was, like I said 10-15' away, looking at a moray eel and huge red crab. He comes up from behind me and grabs my fin, hard. Now this is not something you want to do to someone underwater at night, and he had not been clanking his tank or anything. Then with hand movements I explain to him that I could still see him and that I was pissed for grabbing my fin. I also showed him that I had found some sea life which of course then he caled the whole group over. At the end of the dive I still had like 1700 PSI and I am not some Zenlike diver, I use up alot of air but these teenagers had sucked down air as they were out of control. OF COURSE everyone had to get out of the water.

2. The Rhone.... The only time I have ever not tipped a divemaster at the end of a dive. I spent $300 to have my visiting brother in law and myself go on the dive. First dive, I was down early, so I explain to the same grumpy old divemaster, just my luck I had him again, that I was going to swim away and come back when people came down. Travis was supposed to be going that day but he was sent home since they didn't need him. Bummer because he is great. Now keep in mind its my first time on the Rhone, it cost me $300, and my BIL and I are both down there waiting for quite a while for the rest of yet another massive group of divers, and I did want to follow the divemaster since it was my first time on the wreck, but would he let me swim 10 feet away and come back to join the group when they all got down. Nope. So now I'm sitting there waiting for a good 10 minutes because someone was having a hard time equalizing. Now I should be out of air first since I was one of the first down. Not even close. Yup after 15-20 minutes up out of the water even though I have 1300 PSI left.

Second Rhone dive, same day but the afternoon dive. Same thing, I was forced back out of the water with 1800 PSI left. 1800 PSI!!!! That is insane.

Get rid of that old grumpy divemaster, he just ruins having a good time.

Hello ! My name is Chris Sawyer and I have operated the Chris Sawyer Diving Center since 1981. When I see things like this written about me and my diving operation I must say it really hurts. In over 25 years in this business I have sincerely dedicated my life to offering a safe and fun diving experience. I do not know who Stu Scott is unless this is his pen name but I firmly believe that there is something funny going on here. Stu Scott ,in all the times he says he has dived with us,
with unhappy results, has not one time ever came to me and expressed his concerns. It is impossible to make everyone happy. Everyone in business knows this. When we do have a customer with a concern or who is unhappy
I do everything I can to correct the situation. Most of the time I am able to, sometimes, probably not. Stu didn't even give me the chance. He would have found me very receptive. We're not perfect, aside from our safety record. Criticism can bring positive results. An unhappy customer can be your best friend.
I am extremely proud of my diving operation and my crew who I consider the very finest in the Virgin Islands. Our goal on every single trip is to have fun and to be safe. My crew very well understands our goals and we work everyday
to see that they are accomplished to the highest possible degree. Our safety record speaks for itself.

When I started my business I decided on a set of standards that I wanted to follow. I am proud to say that these safety and courtesy standards are still the foundation of our business today. These standards included always diving in small groups. Each group is led by a certified diving instructor. Each dive trip is preceded with a very thorough dive brief.
All dive instructors tow a surface float on every dive. This float is used for several reason which is described in our dive briefing. We tow the float in case a diver has a minor problem underwater such as a leg cramp. They are told that they can use the float line to stabilize themselves and stretch out the cramp. In this way we are able to take care of most small problems underwater and without disturbing our other divers. If a diver does need to go to the surface for any reason the dive instructor takes them all the way to the surface. If the problem is solved the diver and the instructor descend together and join the rest of the group who has been instructed to wait together on the bottom.
If the diver does not wish to go back down, for whatever reason, that diver has their BC inflated, is asked to hang on to the float and we stay together as a group as we head back to the boat. I communicate with the diver on the surface
just as I would any diver underwater. Secondly, we use our float and line as a decent line. It is quite normal for divers to have ear and sinus problems. We let them know that they can take all the time they want to make the decent down the float line. The other divers are not interrupted with long waits under the boat because the float line moves right along with me. Thirdly, we use our float as a rendezvous point if a diver were to become separated
from the group. If a diver is separated from the group we ask them to make a sweep of the area and if they have not located the instructor or group within one minute they begin a slow normal ascent to the surface. The rendezvous point for a missing diver is on the surface at the float. This happens only very occasionally but it is the procedure that we follow.
Lastly, we ask divers to give us standard air signals at 1500 and 500 psi. When a diver reached 500 psi and we still have some bottom time left the diver is sent, as per the dive brief, up the float line, now ascent line, to the safety stop depth. They are constantly monitored by the dive instructor. The vast majority of our dives go the full no-decompression limit for the particular depth. We are able to safely take care of the diver low on air and yet satisfy the divers who can make the full bottom time. Divers are helped in and out of the water, their gear is changed for them if they wish us to do so. We have refreshments for them. We really go out of our way to provide the best possible dive sites each day based, of course, on the wind and weather conditions.

Four years ago, based on demand and the fact that our original diver boat was full most of the time I invested in a custom built boat called Seabiscuit. It does carry 18 divers. There are quite a few days when we are full. When we are full we dive in three groups of six. We space the groups out and usually don't see any of the other divers. I often talk frankly with out customers about the fact that the boat is full today but we still can have high quality dives. The vast majority of divers must think we do. I would be happy to compare our return diver rate with anyone in the business, anywhere. A cattle boat we are not!

The situations that Stu sites about the night dive are completely untrue. I would never put that kind of pressure on my staff let along have such little disregard for customer safety. Remember, I have a 25 1/2 year reputation to back up what I say. I'm not sure what Stu has.

Stu's story about the Rhone is also highly implausible. First of all, Stu apparently is a local and I am sure he would not have stood for paying the tourist rate. Aside from that ,when we have a full or fairly full boat I take a safety diver, also an instructor, to take care of any divers who may get low on air so as not to disturb the rest of the group. His story of what happened is so far from reality that it is simply not believable.

I am not a sit in the office kind of owner. At 58 I still dive regularly. I have just returned from a wonderful trip out to the wreck of the Rhone. In the early years of my business I did nearly every single dive along with my partner Perry Cowan. I have done well over 10,000 dives.

In setting up my business the way I have, group dives, surface floats, thorough briefings I have created just the kind of dive business I want. I am not going to change. I realize that some divers are absolutely capable of diving in buddy teams or even on their own. I just have chosen not to offer that kind of diving. The Virgin Islands is not the Caymans or Bonaire. We are not a major diving destination. We do not get many people who want only to dive throughout their entire vacation. We get lots of families with lots of kids. The very largest part of the market are vacation divers, good divers, but usually not with very much experience. They welcome the type of dives and procedures we offer. I simply could not live with myself if I felt that I was offering anything but the safest and most customer service oriented program that I possibly could.
If I went diving when I was on vacation, I don't, I would want to dive by myself or in a buddy team. I would seek out that kind of dive operator. When you dive with Chris Sawyer Diving Center you know what you get and we ask our customers to play by our rules. Divers who want other things should go to other places. I have sent numerous divers to Blue Island Divers when they wanted to dive the Wit Shoal or other dives toward the central and west end of the island. I too, think Blue Island is a fine operator. If I didn't I wouldn't recommend them to any of my customers.
I have literally thousands of letters and e-mails I have collected over the years. There have been a few unhappy divers as well. If any business says that they have never had an unhappy customer they are lying. If these comments were summarized it would boil down to "You have the best dive operation that I have ever seen - and we've been around.
And, "Your staff is the most professional and friendly bunch. They go out of their way to help me feel safe and comfortable. " I hear this every day

Stu, if you have any guts give me a call and lets talk about it. My guess is I'll never hear from you except in some
anonymous way.

Home phone (340) 775-7467, personal cell (340) 690-1651 , personal e-mail [email protected]

Come on Stu, put up or SHUT UP!

Chris Sawyer April 6, 2007 6:17pm

Amen, Chris!

Thanks for posting Chris. We're going with you in June. I have done tons of research and have seen glowing reports from every poster that has gone on dive trips with your operation, on every travel board I have visited.

One of your employees, Tammy, has been very helpful in answering a lot of questions for me via email. She also told me you take a 6:1 max. diver / instructor ratio.

Whenever I see a post that is 180° opposite than every other review, I know to take that one with a grain of salt.

We look forward to diving with your operation in June.

Well said, Chris!

Chris I will call you. I think you run a good operation and I know Travis and have dived with Perry and they are both great. Just this one divemaster in particular I didn't like and unfortuantely I got stuck with him twice.

Chris - No need to get mad I wasn't going to post my stories until someone from your company asked me to. I don't like diving with large groups which obviously created some problems from the get go, but ALL of my stories are 100% true. You guys are a great dive shop for new or inexperienced divers. And your safety precautions are top notch. Yes you take 6-1 diver ratio MOST of the time but then there are 2 groups on the same boat so it gets crowded. I like a more personal feeling of diving, rather than being shuttled in a large group.

So Chris, to each their own opinion. I don't know why I'm not allowed to have mine. If you look in your system you will see my name, as this is my real name. I'm sorry to offend and yes you can't make everyone happy and I'm one of them.

You know the only problem with this board is that if you give honest feedback you get screamed at for posting it. Honesty is the best policy and Chris Sawyer gets rave reviews and I was just posting MY honest review. I'm very surprised by the level of immaturity in response to my postings.

All I was trying to get across was that if you are very experienced diver I would not recommend them.

Stu: There are a good number of very experienced divers who actually do enjoy diving with Chris. I gather you are a Cowboy diver, and to each his own. Incidently, unless you have Captain's license and business license I find your attempts to take people out boating via this board really questionable!

Yank my post Islander! I deserve it. 😉

StuScott,

I feel that you are entitled your honest opinion (isn't that what a forum is for?), and I for one am glad you gave it. I also feel really bad that you got yelled at by so many people. Honestly, I was more put off by people attacking you then the issues that you orginally posted. That's just MHO.

Fuchannini

I very much appreciate StuScott's opinion. Why do people find it so hard to accept that someone may not be happy with a provider? Sheesh...

As for Chris Sawyer's post I thought it was good of him to be proactive in addressing concerns, but what's up with having a different rate for tourists and locals? Hearing that sends me running in the other direction, I hate feeling like I'm getting shafted for being a tourist... isn't it tourists that drive the economy of St. Thomas?

East Ender I do have a captains license and why would I need a business license if I do it for free? DUH? Only need a business license to report REVENUE. Good grief what has become of people. I'm trying to make it more affordable for tourists to get out on the water, and its also self serving since I have a great time for free. Its a win win. Jeez I even picked some cruise people up at WICO for free too so they could save some taxi money to Red Hook. East Ender you sound very bitter about something, I don't know what, but maybe its that you might find it hard to believe that there is a nice guy with free time on his hands that wants to help people. Read some reviews about the tourists that I taken out and I've only taken out about 6 groups TOTAL, and they all say it was one of the best days of their vacation.

Back to the topic at hand....

I had a very good conversation with Chris. Basically what it boils down to is that he is a great safe dive operation that is geared towards the general public, which are usually tourists, and usually relatively inexperienced divers. Which means occasionally you have to dive based on the needs of the least experienced diver on the boat for safety reasons. I agree with that whole heartedly. My point is that since I dive with a computer, not a Cowboy (good grief), I was annoyed that I was forced to come out of the water with plenty of time left.

The pulling of the fin Chris agreed was completely unacceptable, and I would NEVER EVER make up any stories, I have no hard feelings towards anyone, I was just giving my honest opinion and unfortunately it was taken completely personal, which I can understand becuse Chris lives and breathes what he does. For 90% of the diving public they are great. I'm just not one of those, I like wrecks, and small groups of people on the boat.

Chris even offered a full refund for the Rhone dive and my night dive. I thought that was amazing, but also not called for, since money wasn't the issue, and I still got to see the Rhone.

Matt -

I saw your post after I had posted but I will jump to Chris' defense. Almost EVERY store here offers a local discount. We live here and keep them going year around, in the slow season especially. If you owned a dive store and you have a customer come in 15 times a years versus once a year wouldn't you give them a discount. Also those locals then bring their visiting friends as well.

Consider it bulk pricing. But thank you for your support. I had no idea this would blow up so much.

Stu