I had a lousy experience with divemaster Jaime Martinez, resulting in an ear injury for me, and ruining the rest of my planned dives for this trip. He was uncommunicative above the water, but once under water, he wouldn't leave me alone (or respond adequately to the one thing I needed a moment to deal with). His behavior was bizarre and unprofessional. Details:
We were cenote diving, and headed out with four divers accompanying him on this trip - three men and me. We had a 1+ hour drive to get there. I found it odd that the divemaster did not introduce himself or greet us in any way. I'm ok with quiet car rides, but the complete lack of any information about where we were going, who he was, etc. was a bit odd. I only found out his name by asking another diver. He asked a cursory question about diving weights, but didn't really listen to the answers.
At the cenote, he exited the van, again, pretty much without a word. He took our regs and set up the gear. In the water, he wanted me to go first behind him, since I was the least experienced diver, which seemed reasonable. At the edge of the water, he rushed through the dive plan like he had somewhere else to go. His main points were to follow him and to not disturb the sediment on the bottom, so as not to reduce viz for subsequent divers. We began our descent and I began having some trouble with my right ear. This cenote requires a pretty steep initial descent, and I signaled him that my ear wasn't clearing and I needed a little time. He grabbed my arm and came up beside me, which made it difficult for me to maneuver to clear my ear. I don't know what assumptions he'd made, but from that moment on he did not leave my side.
The ceiling of the cavern limited how much upward movement I could make, so down we headed, me still struggling with my ear. It sort of cleared, painfully and in stages, with him pulling me along. That was unpleasant enough, but MUCH MUCH more unpleasant was that throughout the whole dive he wouldn't leave me alone and swim ahead. I was not in any distress besides the residual discomfort in my ear - I signaled over and over that I was ok, that he should proceed with the dive and let me follow in accordance with the plan - but he never did that - he stayed glued to my side, half a foot behind me, which made it impossible for me to really swim in any kind of normal way, or get my bearings. Every time I tried to relax, he was right there tugging at me, or adding or subtracting air from my BCD (himself?!? ... I mean, WTF), shining his light in my eyes...WHY? I was not disturbing the sediment, I was breathing normally, I was not panicking, I was physically ok - but he wouldn't let me be. He NEVER moved into his position at the front of the line like a normal divemaster should, but instead ran the whole dive with one hand on my elbow. Since he was slightly behind me, it was hard for me to really tell where we were headed (leading to constant prodding and redirection from him). It was an absolutely miserable experience - I got zero enjoyment from it, despite the cavern itself being intriguing. I have never been treated with such utter disrespect on a dive, and I am certain that he would not have treated a male diver in this way.
What was worse was that after we surfaced, he didn't ask me a single question, or offer any explanation for his behavior. I had a bloody nose from barotrauma, and was again having pain in my right ear. He saw my bloody nose and had to be aware I had an ear injury, but he didn't even ask if I was ok. Nothing at all - he just silently climbed out of the water and went to prep the second dive.
I was not getting back in the water with this guy, so I headed back up to the van. Even then, he had nothing to say to me - he dismantled my rig without comment, and went back down to conduct the second dive without me. At no point did he address me directly, or even ask my husband why I wasn't continuing. It was extremely rude, unprofessional, and inconsiderate behavior.
Maybe he'd say that saw me as 'in distress', but that is bs. Whatever his reasons, he decided to treat me like shit. I had a nice conversation with the van driver while the rest of the group completed the second dive. Then we packed up for a silent ride back to the dive shop. I had originally planned for more dives, but I canceled, both due to my ear and because I didn't want to give these people any more of my money. 48 hours later, my right ear still isn't back to normal.
If you actually expect some communication from your divemaster, or if you're a woman and expect the same treatment you'd expect for a man, be sure you insist on a different Solo Buceo divemaster than Jamie Martinez. The reviews indicate that this shop has a pretty good reputation overall, and they currently have over half a dozen other divemasters to choose from. It is a shame that despite the other courteous and professional staff at Solo Buceo, my overall experience was abysmally bad. read more