Snuba of Key West — Local services in Key West

This was an unforgettable experience for me and my daughter.

Here is a bit of detail. There was a guide and several divers total (the scuba divers have the large cylindrical air tanks) accompanying our group of 6 guests. There were a total of 23 guests on board and 7 staff including the captain, Joel. Typically 1 guide, 1 safety diver, and one camera person on each dive. Our dive lasted perhaps 20-25 mins. Our guide was CJ, who was excellent, strongly recommend CJ. There is about a 25 minute safety and procedure briefing on the way out to the dive site given by the guide. This included numerous reminders of the most important things to remember.

We were custom fitted with a mask, weight belt and fins (not flippers, as CJ said, Flipper is a dolphin), The weight belt is for making you buoyancy neutral in the water. There is a hose, like a compressor hose attached to a common tank which floats on a small raft that everyone is connected to for air supply.

I think even rather inexperienced swimmers would find this activity enjoyable. There was a youngish girl in our group perhaps 12 years old crying before the dive for 15-20 minutes, and in the end she came up all smiles.

The technique of using the breathing equipment and the fins, and such takes some getting used to . I would say about 10 minutes or so for me and my daughter. Once comfortable, it becomes much easier. It would be nice if they could figure out a way that guests could acclimate to the breathing equipment in a pool or something prior to the dive because it's quick distracting until you get used to it. If you've scuba dived or snuba dived before, I'm sure it's much easier, but I was a first timer, and so was my daughter.

The good news is once acclimated, it's a lot of fun, I'm glad my daughter planned this...

I cannot say enough great things about Snuba Key West, but particularly, The Lori-C crew, Josh and Svetta from the Looe Key trip with Divemaster Jake and a newer member in training whose name escapes me. We went with girls aged 18, 14 and 8--none of which had been on a boat in the open ocean, much less did any snorkeling. I am a certified diver, and have also utilized a Brownie's third lung in the Keys and elsewhere before, but none of the girls or my wife had. Jake was a fantastic asset in getting everyone up to speed and acclimated before and after hitting the water, and his marine biology background was much appreciated by all of us. The Looe Key location was spectacular as well. Lastly, and most importantly, I'd give a 10 star review if that was an option because my 8y/o lost her mind out on the water thinking boats might collide with one another while moored, the boat might sink, we'd be stranded, storms, waves, sharks--blah, blah blah. She had a mini-meltdown that only her dad can shake her from. However, the crew was incredibly patient, kind and further, accommodating of her episode and did everything possible--without asking for anything--to make her not only feel safe but be happy. And she was. If you have small children, and you are looking for an experience where you won't be treated like a number or some random tourist who has already made their payment, this IS the company for you. Kudos to them--hope to use Josh to get the girls certified to dive in an ideal location where I know the people are...

I was part of a group of 7 that went out on July 29th on the 8:30am excursion. The weather was beautiful.

Overall we had a good time:

The staff at Snuba of Key West were awesome. The Captain and crew were friendly and safety conscious. The boat/catamaran was great. It was very spacious and comfortable. I like this a lot as other excursions have so many people loaded up, you don't have room to move around or for your gear. We felt like we were on a private tour! The equipment was good quality and worked great. One staff member took many pictures, and at a reasonable cost when split among our whole group

A few things I would have like to see better: the first dive was very disorganized. Snuba divers were just floating around in one spot and getting tangled up. For the SCUBA divers, they had us just staying close to the Snuba group and not exploring the reef. Although the dive staff member was very nice, I think they were a bit inexperienced.

Second is the cost structure. Our boat had both SCUBA and Snuba divers in our group. It was the same price for everyone, which allowed the SCUBA divers to go on 2 dives, but the Snuba divers had to pay an additional half price to go on a second dive. When you have groups doing mixed diving types on the same boat, why not structure the cost differently to include 2 dives for everyone? The Snuba divers were just sitting on the boat for an additional hour. They were able to snorkel for free on the 2nd dive, but they were there to Snuba, so it didn't make...