pacific paradise dive shop & ocean lovers

I took a 2 tank dive to Isla Iguana in February 2015. We saw a lot: Sea Turtle, reef shark, many eels, and lots of beautiful fishes. the highlight of the trip was honestly our diving instructor Kerri: she has been fantastic. my gf took a discover scuba diving course and Kerri was so nice, so patient and you could tell she loves teaching and sharing her passion of diving with others. We all felt very safe with her, from the first email exchanges where she explained all the logistics, til we left the boat at the end of the trip. would definitely recommend her for both fun dives or Padi courses.

Great diving business! Kerri is a great person to work with- she's friendly and accommodating. We had 2 great dives with her during our vacation. Viz was not great, but nothing Kerri can do about that! She's safe and that is what I find very important in any dive operator! Thanks for the fun!

I would also like to say that my son, daughter, and myself, had a diving experience over the Christmas holidays, and Kerri was the dive master. I was a bit concerned as my daughter is 12 years old, however, Kerri was excellent, as dive master. The visability was a bit poor that day, however she made the day a special one.

We went for a double dive on last Christmas with Kerri and it was by fare the best gifts we could offer us for the holidays! Kerri is a friendly and easygoing person, but what is much more important, she's a highly professional dive master. She made it a personal goal to make our day a successful and fulfilling one. She appears to be someone who can adapt to the level of each diver. Her equipment is brand new and good quality (Mares). Brand new tanks, BCD and regulators wich were all bought in USA. She makes it a priority for the divers accompanying her to be respectful of the coral reef and it's inhabitants wich related to our values. Apart from the many eels and schools of fish (angel, grouper, parrot,...), we were blessed on that Christmas day by the appearances of a reef shark and a sea turtle wich were the two denizens that we were wishing to meet! We suspect her to have some kind of mystic bounding power's with the local marine life...But that we can't confirm and we highly recommand that you go veriy by yourself! :-) We have the chance to live in Panama for the next 2 years and we surley dive with her again! Katleen and Simon

Had a great dive!Isla Iguana is beautiful. ☀️*Plan your trip to match the whale season.

We've been scuba diving with other providers in pedasi, but this group is most definitely the most professional one. Very safe and fun experience

I did the Open Water certification with Kerri last summer, and I think it was the best idea I had during my entire summer...She has been a great teacher, she knows how to make you confident in the water, and training was, in fact, quite easy thanks to her.My only regret is that now that I learned to dive in such an awesome place (the beautiful Isla Iguana), I will have to travel the world again to find something as amazing.^^

We visited Pedasi this past November and contacted the owner of the Pacific Paradise Dive Shop, Kerri. She immediately contacted us back even though it was after hours, and she took the time to set up a dive for us the next day at Isla Iguana. I am an experienced diver with over 90 dives yet I found Kerri to be one of the best dive masters I have ever had the pleasure of diving with. She was an underwater encyclopedia of the local marine life, relaxed and personable. My friend was much less experienced and had some trepidation about diving, but Kerri was extremely patient and made her feel comfortable and safe. Kerri had the best equipment and maintained it excellently...something you worry about in a third world country.Besides experiencing a fantastic dive trip with her, Kerri further enhanced our Pedasi experience by recommending local places to go, and setting up a fishing trip for us with a trusted local boat captain.If you want a fun but safe exceptional dive experience with personalized service, this is the only place to go in Pedasi.World traveler, Marge

From the first e-mail we exchanged until the end of the dive trip, Kerri was extremely professional, overcoming by expectations of a dive shop in Panama. I have been diving all over Panama, and I'm sure she is the most professional dive masters/instructor in the country. She was on-time on the meeting point, very clear instructions and very responsible with the Corals preservation. I strongly recommend her for anyone who wants to dive in Pedasi , or wants to learn how to dive.I strongly recommend her for anyone who wants to dive in Pedasi , or wants to learn how to dive.

Kerry i must say this is 1 of the best experiences i have ever had, than you so much for encourage me to take this adventure, i feel so safe with you.I was always afraid of diving untill Kerry teach me that nothing to be afraid just to have fun and enjoyIm a photographer and now i want to take photos under the seaI recomend Kerry all the time she is so profesional and make you feel safe I never imagine Pedasi under the sea would be that amazing :)

We were roadtripping Panamá this last september. We arrived to Pedasí late at night and we tried to contact to dive centers at Panamá...and nobody would take us to dive the day after :-( and we really wanted to go. Someone at our hostel gave us Kerri telephone and we phoned her. She would be taking us to Isla Iguana for some diving :-) !!With almost no time, she organised everything very effectively: she was very professional and very commited.We met in the morning and we noticed that the equipment was very new, in a very good condition and Kerri did not hesitate in explaining everything that was needed for the dive with the best detail.We went to Isla Iguana, where we saw sharks, turtles and a huge variety of fishes. It was a very nice diving day and we saw that Kerri was a very responsible and professional dive master, taking care about safety, but making a very fun dive; showing you a lot of underwater life, but being concious and caring about the environment. And even more, after the dive she gave us tips about what to see around Pedasí (and how) and she was very nice to us in every way.We were very happy with all the day.I really recommend this dive shop. If you go to Pedasí for some diving, do not hesitate to go to Pacific Paradise Dive Shop. The experience wil be great and Kerri will be great with you!.

I did my training for Open water diver with Kerry, the owner of Pacific Paradise Dive Shop. The experience of doing the training in Pedasi was amazing and all the course was really complete and easy to follow. The diving in Isla Iguana is something that every diver should try, the colors and the life in this part of Pacific Ocean is beautiful. I totally recommend this dive shop for training and dive trips, Kerry will take care of everything and you will enjoy the experience.

Even being in a large group Kerri managed to provide all of us with great equipments, impressive punctuality and a very detailed focused service.Although we had already paid for a whale watching tour after the divings, based on her vast knowledge of the area, Kerri felt that that wasn't a good day for the tour and offered to return the money we had paid, which she delivered in our hotel along with our dive logs signed. Definitely recommended!

Two years ago Kerri taught me to dive amd has since taken me on dives to Isla Iguana. She has the perfect balance of safety, organization and fun that leads to a wonderful experience for everyone. She was clear, personable, well prepared and patient. She was able to balance my "dive right in" attitude with the caution and fear of my friend who had never been in the ocean and was very nervous. She knows the currents creatures and locations around Isla Iguana like the back of her hand and is very good at communicating clearly underwater. She also knows the locals well and has good relationships with the boat captains so the trip is always smooth and safe. I cant say enough good things about Kerri and the experiences I have had diving with her.

We recently did a “whirlwind tour” of Panama and had a couple of days to spend in Pedasi, on the Pacific coast of Panama. We spent one of those two days diving with Kerri Lusk-Barnes, who runs Pacific Paradise Dive Shop there, and had 2 great dives, making us wish we have planned more time for Pedasi. Also to note is that Kerri’s equipment is top notch – we did not bring anything but computers since we were moving locations every couple of days.Both dives were off the coast of Isla Iguana, a wildlife refuge that is a 30 minute boat ride (26 foot panga) from Pedasi. The island makes for a nice surface interval, and instead of having squirrels interested in your lunch, there are iguanas and hermit crabs.We were not sure what to expect, and we were pleasantly surprised. Both dives we did were relatively shallow, which was fine since it meant more light and more bottom time. First dive we were “cautioned” that since it was right off the beach, it had seen more snorkelers (and boats) over time and was not as pristine as other sites around the island. Kerri is very professional, and cautious with new-to-her divers, and wanted to see how were did before taking us to other, better sites. I know some folks may get annoyed with that (“do you know how many dives I have logged?”), but then again we have all seen plenty of “wince” moments when divers have no idea as their fins are whacking the reef as they swim by (and we have a few hundred dives each). So we applaud the respect for the reef with this approach. I will also say it was the first time I was asked to wear a PFD on the boat rides. We noticed this seemed to be the case in much of Panama, so maybe it is a law, and in any case not a big deal.In spite of the managed expectations, the first dive was nice, plenty of fish (not abundant, but plenty) – a number of turtles, Moorish idols, chromis, lots of porkfish, butterflyfish, several green morays, and about every kind of puffer and porcupine fish you might expect to see outside a Fish Id book. There was also a guest appearance by an old stingray, who had lost about ½ its tail somewhere – we named him Bob.Second dive was Los Hongos (the mushrooms), and was a vast coral bed in 20-30 feet of water for the most part. By vast I mean it seemed to extend to the edge of vis limits, which was 40-70 feet. There were a few small white tip reef sharks, lots more eels. In our dive logs we noted “10 acres of coral”. Maybe an exaggeration, but it was really something. Pedasi is a quiet little town, one main drag and a few side streets, and worth spending some quality time in. It’s about a 4-5 hour drive from Panama City, but worth the trip.