La Jolla dive — Local services in San Diego

Really disappointed in this experience, especially for paying for a 2 tank dive for 2 people for nearly $500. We had Julian who asked us the day before to show up at 7am instead of 8am for "parking" so we had to make a couple changes to our trip plans to ensure that we can drive hours to La Jolla and get there on time. Once we showed up at 7am, Julian didn't even show up until 730 and was completely antisocial and rude the entire time. My boyfriend is a Dive Master who wanted to see the kelp forest, which was the whole point of booking this experience. I've grown up in SoCal and am used to swimming in the Pacific, plus did my dive lessons in Laguna. Julian just walked to check the surf and said it's not good. Then 2 people, a dad and son, showed up AND JOINED OUR GROUP without us ever being told of this! They showed up at 8am. Even worse is the dad/son group were completely new to diving, literally their first ocean dive ever, first dive after certification in a lake in Colorado, and they were both extremely nervous. They had a 1 tank dive. Julian forced us to go do a sand shelf dive on the beach without offering us a reschedule for a proper dive. His attitude was annoyed and angry, like he didn't even want to be there. Just avoiding all of us the entire time, walking away without telling any of us anything, and only coming over to any of us to be condescending. It was as if he was expecting my partner to do his job for him but then turns around and lectures my partner for helping me get suited up then goes on about how he doesn't like my personal gear that I had even though the rental gear he was giving us was all torn up. My partners tank didn't even have a plug to show it was full and Julian didn't care. My partners rented BCD also had issues with inflation as it would get stuck in the inflate position which required him to constantly emergency deflate to maintain buoyancy. After the first dive Julian was made aware of the bcd issue and he didnt care, didnt change my partners bcd. My bdc was too big for me but Julian didnt care. The dive was murky and Julian didn't care about any of us. The dad/son didn't know how to equalize and kept signaling how they were having issues the moment they descended. Julian didn't care about their signals and kept swimming off. He blasted past all of the animals that I was finding because he just wanted to get the dive done. He wouldn't stop for anyone which resulted in my partner and I losing sight of him since there was only 3ft visability and it took seconds for him disappear if I found an animal to point at to my partner. We ascended since we lost the rest of the group and Julian and the dad/son ascended after a long while and they were extremely far away from us. Julian failed to even realize that we weren't even with them for the entire time! The dad and son both had huge bloody noses from lack of equalizing the entire time and Julian just told them off. Then told my partner and I off saying he was giving us leniency for distance since my partner is a dive Master but we are still under his dive insurance. Once the other group left we had a longer second dive and I found every single animal aside from Julian finding some octopus. Don't even get me started on the misogynistic comments coming out of Julian's mouth and how he would go on complaining about his wife and son. Really disappointed in this activity, and honestly we could've brought our own tanks and easily have done this dive ourselves for practically nothing. Definitely NOT worth the price and it was not what we paid for. They should be more cognizant of pairing people based on experience level. The first dive was a complete waste of time and money because of the inexperienced dad/son who Julian had join us without informing us. Just because my partner is a Dive Master doesn't mean we were paying for our first tank dive to babysit other divers in a murky basic ocean dive. The photo is us waiting and trying to call Julian to see where he is at but he never answered or responded to our...

Unorganized and chaotic. I’ll preface this by saying I am a new diver and will not pretend that these conditions were not unbelievably challenging. Scheduled a 2 tank dive for 8am. Changed the time of the meeting to 7 am at 7:30 the night before and despite the text saying to reach out with questions did not respond to one I had. I arrived promptly at 7am and we waited around for almost an hour while they got equipment sorted prior to getting moving. Seemed to lack proper equipment options and sizing for all in the group. I ended up with fins that were the wrong size. Conditions were a rough and we were briefed about the dive and entry. Got in the water, which was challenging given conditions. Two divers had to go back because they did not put weights in- instructor seemed agitated and blamed it on the customers. Then another two divers needed to go back due to issues. Rest of group waited floating for over an hour prior to being able to dive. For the group of our size we should have had more support or a smaller group. Finally got down and viability was pretty awful. I had to clear my mask several times and in that time lost the group. I surfaced after the two minutes of looking for my dive buddy and took forever for the instructor (my buddy) to realize I was missing. Was meant to feel like I was the problem and instructor barked orders to try to get us together again, Got back to shore and was exhausted and freezing given the amount of time we waited in the water to get moving. Decided not to do the second dive, as did many. Of course- no refund could be offered even after requested and sharing my experience. Although I am a novice diver this experience was terrible compared to others I have had. I felt it lacked organization, customer service mindset, and preparation for the conditions here. Skip this dive...

UPDATE.

So the owner decided to lie about his business practice after my initial review. 1) He falsely claims that I was offered a private dive, I wasn't offered it. 2) Claims I was messaged day before about being joined by two other divers with minimal experience and had the chance to reschedule. I wish this was offered! I would have taken it. 3) I caused the group to end dive early because my diving lead them to be on low tank oxygen levels. Not at all, we had plenty of air and we were constantly monitoring our levels and went well beyond 40 minutes.

I specifically asked the owner what is the dive that visits the kelp forest in the La Jolla Cove area and was told it was the 8AM dive not the 1PM dive. For whatever reason the dive master/guide did not take us to the kelp forest on that dive. Granted there were two complete beginners on this dive, one person being an 11 year old on his second dive ever, which may have influenced the dive masters decision. Yet when I asked why we didn't go he told me afterwards. we did see some kelp,.. yeah, two kelp branches is not the forest and we weren't even in the Boomers Break area where it is, we were in the cove area the entire time. I know because i snorkeled it many times.

If you have a diver with experience, which my PADI card states I have been diving since 2005, maybe bring two dive masters, one for the newbies and one for the experienced divers and not just take someones $132.00 because its easier that way and costs you less. Its even more frustrating when you drove down from LA and got a hotel the night before to make this dive!

I will be back to dive the kelp forest, but with a different tour guide, one that actually takes you where they say and...