Taino Divers — Local services in Rincón

The good news is that Taino came in fourth place of all the dive shops I went with on this trip.

The diving itself was pretty average for Caribbean. But I rated this number four out of four because there was less large marine life than any of the other spots, and even fewer of the more colorful reef fish. Never saw a large parrot fish or Queen angelfish for example. There was a turtle and a moray, and I am sure that on other days there would have been more to look at. And as I understand it, about half the time in the summer, the seas are calm enough to go out to Desecheo, but not at all over the winter. In fact they cancel a lot of dives trips to the close in spots in the winter, which I applaud them for taking that safety step.

The rest of their rating is based on what I considered to be safety and customer service items, some due to the constraints of not having a marina to dock the boat. They had to beach the boat, and instead of getting it all ready for the divers, they had us form a line and load all the gear and tanks, up over the 5 or 6 foot bow, then climb up it ourselves. I have been diving this week with several people in their 70s, and I can’t picture them doing that. Then we took off from the beach, went all the way out to the dive site without having put our gear together. When I was commercial diving I learned not to leave the dock without ensuring that all the gear is there and working. Jut to make sure that everything goes smooth. What if we get out there and my tank turns out to be half full or I’m missing my mask? in fact one diver had to change out an O ring. Of course Taino Divers had one, but they watched the diver change it themselves, which I would never have done as a DM, from a customer service perspective or a safety perspective.

The boat captain was very nice and seemed very competent. Good at beaching the boat in cramped quarters and waves. There was only the 1 DM in the water though, keeping track of 6 divers on Day 1 and there would have been 9 divers on Day 2 if we had not cancelled due to weather. She had a hard time with 6, I was not looking forward to 9. At one point the divers were so spread out that the ones in back could not possibly see the ones in front. I stayed in the middle. And I lost more confidence when she had to surface to find the boat.

On the way back beaching the boat was an issue because it was full of tourists playing. The staff all shouted at them to move. Not in an embarrassed way, as if to say "sorry, we just can't do this any other way, we're sorry to inconvenience you" but more of an entitled, "what do you think you're doing on a beach on vacation?" kind of way. Then we hoisted heavy tanks with 3 year olds running among us. Another potential for injury to the divers themselves but especially the children (whose parents didn't seem to notice a problem). With all the interesting customer service aspects and potential safety issues, they made at least two speeches about tipping. When I was a DM we were not allowed to mention the word. Other dive operations recently have begun subtly encouraging tips, but this was blatant. I would have been embarrassed to make that speech once let alone twice.

Lots of people seem to love diving with them. I won’t try it again, I want my sport diving to...

A mixed bag here, depending on what you are looking for and what your baselines are. But I was disappointed with the communication, in particular.

I had expressed interest in going to Desecheo when I booked, at which point they told me Desecheo isn't guaranteed and is dependent on conditions. Totally fair. I asked what their cancellation policy was (48 hours before departure for a full refund). Three days before my dive, I placed multiple calls and sent multiple messages (text and voice) asking what the forecasts were looking like for Deseceho. Nobody has a crystal ball, but at 72 hours out you have a decent idea of if it is a definite no-go, a "maybe", etc. I did not get a reply back until nearly 24 hours later, some two hours after the 48-hour cancellation window had elapsed. And that reply was a fairly general "Desecheo is never guaranteed", etc. The thing is this: If they had given me their best guess as to what conditions would be in a timely manner, I could have made an informed decision. But that information was not provided.

Simply put, some people are only going to be interested in Desecheo, as the diving there has a very good reputation - please respect that and work with these customers, communicating relevant information in a timely manner.

The dives we did instead were right off Steps Beach in the Tres Palmas Reserve. I found the coral to be pretty enough (it is a well preserved marine reserve by PR standards), but I have seen more marine life in the past just snorkeling off Steps from shore or spearing off the north coast. For the total price charged for two tanks (~$170 with equipment rental), it was not worth it. It's also true that you have to help with carrying the tanks and equipment on board, but that part didn't bother me, as I had read about it beforehand.

The reason I give two stars (as opposed to none) is that I will give credit were credit is due - the attitudes of the captain and divemaster were great, no issues there. And they did let me take along my Hawaiian sling to get a few lionfish (I have a permit from the PR gov't to hunt them in protected areas). The staff did check in with me to ask how I was, if I was enjoying things. But in reality, the damage had been done days earlier by the lapse in communication - that was very disappointing.

With improved comms, I would perhaps recommend, but not as comms...

This is for our dive February 2021. Manny and Alexa were great! The staff that stayed on land were great also, although maybe some seemed unhappy to be working that day. The other tourists on the boat with us complained a lot and brought down the mood some, but my wife and I still had a great time and loved the diving at Horseshoe Reef and another local reef I don’t remember the name of. We didn’t go to the island but that was understandable for February. We asked when is the best time to come back and actually go to Desecheo, and they said summer. We came back late June 2022 and booked on Wednesday evening for Friday morning dive. Alexa called us Thursday morning and let us know they didn’t have enough yet to go out (just 3 in our group) and if they do go it would not be to the island because of conditions — so we canceled and got a full refund. Was nice of them to call, so I’m happy and understand and will try again on a future visit.

The local reefs are still a lot of fun, but don’t expect a Cozumel type of experience diving offshore of a much larger island (run off) in unprotected waters with fishing going on. You should see plenty of colorful and interesting fish though, but small to medium size, and less lobster and turtles and rays and sharks than you see in Cozumel.

I’m just happy to have this option and hope they don’t close this shop. The island no longer has any good/real marinas on the west side, so these guys could easily give up and then we have no options at all. I’m happy to support them in trying to keep some type of boat diving open even if they are limited in boat size and loading the boat from shore isn’t as easy as from a dock.

If you come in winter don’t expect to go to Desecho but still expect awesome service and a good time if you have the right attitude and aren’t expecting Cozumel like marine life. Puerto Rico isn’t famous for diving, you come to dive but also enjoy everything else.

If I was going to quit my job and move to PR, this is where I’d want to work. Seems like more of a daily adventure in a cool location vs the other operators...