hemisphere sub

I'm an experienced diver and bought an inter- island dive packet from Bora Diving. I was traveling aboard the cruise ship Holland America as the lecturer on Marine Biology.First the diving in Bora Bora was horrifying - Dan the dive "master" treated coral like it was dead rock which it soon will be.Thanks Dan,Then we were supposed to meet for a morning dive with Hemisphere Sub on Raiatea, Dan told us to go to the wrong place so we missed the first, the boat dive. We took an afternoon dive off of their pier. Visibility was negative zero. You could not see your hand in front of your mask. We did a wreck dive which had nothing growing on it. Not even one sponge. We saw one horribly startled squirrel fish trapped in the dive master's light. That was it. I realize that dive shops can't control visibility, but they knew the conditions and could have easily taken us beyond the murk. I later found much better places simply snorkeling that same day and very close by. Lest you think I am difficult to please, please note that almost everywhere I dove in the West Indies I loved. I was also heartened by the many sites actively doing coral reef restoration projects. I was really saddened by the way I saw coral treated in French Polynesia and the huge amount of bleaching. Bleaching is a matter of temperature and chemical composition, so I don't blame the dive shops for that. But many Dive shops in the West Indies and all in the Dutch Antilles tell people not to touch anything. Quite the opposite at Bora Diving and here- not that there was anything to touch on this dive.I'd definitely go somewhere where they care enough about customers to take them somewhere their might be fish!

HelloThank you very much for your message. It's very nice from you. I hope you will continue to dive anywhere in the world. thank again and i hope to see you again.julien & Farid & René.

Hello Victor and Lisa,I read your comment with attention, and I'm sorry about this dive, I remember this dive to be myself ( Farid) on the boat, I dived with another group.It it is turned out that the current in changed between moment or an instructor it is put in the water to control the direction of the current and the stake in the water of the divers, it was difficult to manage this situation, the rough change of the current is unpredictable. It is an error of our part, I recognize it but even after thousands of dives by raiatea, we cannot be shielded from the changes of sudden conditions under the water.Concerning our instructor, I brought back toreported her the facts, it was in a situation difficult to manage, a diver (equipped with a dive computer ) quickly coming down without waiting for the group.From the others whom could not come down and while diverting him in the current.The French law in dive imposes us a maximal number of 5 divers for an instructor, and the instructor is responsible for divers, the compulsory material does not include a depth gauge in the case or the divers are supervised, It is a professional instructor with in its asset 3000 dives!I am surprised reading your comment, because you have us say nothing the same day, we tried to answer your requirements, ice cube aboard the boat, material I would have appreciated a little of frankness especially that we offered 2 dives of your wife, further to several demands of the company for which your wife had to write an article.I shall allow to send back you 5 I shall allow to send back you $5 US, that you passed on to us for you posted our flyers and information! regardsFarid sediraJ’ai lu votre commentaire avec attention, je me souviens de cette plongée pour être moi-même (Farid) sur le bateau, je plongeais avec un autre groupe.Il c’est avéré que le courant à changé entre le moment ou un moniteur c’est mis à l’eau pour contrôler le sens du courant et la mise à l’eau des plongeurs, c’était difficile de gérer cette situation, le changement brutal du courant est imprévisible. C’est une erreur de notre part, je le reconnais mais même après des milliers de plongée à raiatea, nous ne pouvons pas être à l’abri des changements de conditions subites sous l’eau.Concernant notre moniteur, je lui ai rapporté les faits, il était dans une situation difficile à gérer, un plongeur (équipé d’un ordinateur de plongée) descendant rapidement sans attendre le groupe, d’autres qui ne pouvait pas descendre et le tout en dérivant dans le courant.La loi française en plongée nous impose un nombre maximal de 5 plongeurs pour un instructeur, et le moniteur est responsable des plongeurs, le matériel obligatoire ne comprend pas un profondimetre dans le cas ou les plongeurs sont encadrés, C’est un moniteur professionnel avec à son actif 2000 plongées !Je suis surpris de lire votre commentaire, car vous nous avez rien dis le jour même, nous avons essayé de répondre à vos exigences, glaçon à bord du bateau, matériel … j’aurais apprécié un peu de franchise surtout que nous avons offert les 2 plongées de votre épouse, suite aux plusieurs demandes de la compagnie pour laquelle votre épouse devait écrire un article de presse.Je me permettrai de vous renvoyer les 5 US$, que vous nous avez transmis pour vous posté nos brochures !CordialementSedira Farid

We went for four dives with Hemisphere Sub and all of them were great. Miri had great visibility and the live we crossed at Teavapiti pass was just incredible. Huge tetrodons, loads of black tips, and grey reef sharks, some white tips, massiv schools of trevallies, wonderful view to the blue --> still dreaming about it.Patrice Farid & Julien were all very kind and professional. If it wouldnt be so far away i would spend every weekend there.

I had two great dives in Raiatea.The wreck of the Nordby with David; only the two of us were on the wreck and it was special.The passe of Teavapiti with Patrice; a great drift dive to see some big fish (sharks, leopard rays, school of batfish, barracuda etc...).This dive centre is well run and I would certainly recommend to both novice and experienced divers.

Of all the dive shops we dove with while in Tahiti, Hemisphere Sub impressed me as the most professional, and diver-dedicated shop out there. Julian picked us up at the pier, and brought us to one of their dive shops, which is located within a resort hotel. Plenty of space to get suited up, and a nice large dive boat.Our first dive was a drift dive in the pass, and the second dive was a shore dive. Just a few feet away from the dive shop, is a sunken 3 mast ship. Jump off the dock, and there it is.. starting at 30 ft, and going down to around 90 feet at the bottom. David Ballet was our dive master, and he was outstanding. I was hesitant to enter the wreck, but David guided me in, and made me feel safe enough to experience it.Once we finished diving, a nice large hose and showers to wash everything off with, and a pool to take a quick dip in. I have nothing but compliments for this dive shop.

HelloThanks a lot for your message. It was a pleasure to read this.We are waiting for you another time, next week?Thanks againJulien & Farid

Hello PetraCome to see us again!Thank you very much for the message, we are waiting for you, next week?Thanks againJulien & Farid

Thank you for your review.It was a pleasure to take you out diving during your visit to Raiatea.We are glade you enjoyed your dive with the team. It is always a pleasure for us to make the people happy and make them enjoy their vacation.Effectively we take care of the equipment we supply to our divers, this is a question of safety and comfort.We hope the rest of your cruse was amazing and look forward to seeing you on a extended stay.Best regards.

Thank you very much Marie-Pierre for your great review and your compliments!It was a pleasure to take you diving. The way you enjoyed it was wonderful.Looking forward to see you back again, to do some more great diving!

I am a new diver, and did my first ten dives around French Polynesia in January/February 2013 while on a cruise. This as the only dive that we booked through our cruise ship, the Ocean Princess. I must say that it was also our most disappointing dive of the trip.First, the good. We saw our first sharks on this dive, and it was really exciting. There were black tips everywhere. We definitely enjoyed the dive experience.I had some concerns with how the dive was run. Our DM was Benoit. Being a new diver, I would have appreciated some clearer instruction. Everything seemed haphazard and disorganized, when we were first entering the water. I wasn't sure where to go once in, and our group was falling apart. We lost one group member before we went under, and then lost his wife soon afterwards. He didn't understand the plan, and ended up alone for a while while he searched for us. In the end, everything was fine. The lost divers found the group on their own. I just had a bad feeling that something horrible could have happened. My other complaint was that our dives were really short. We did two, and they were 35 and 38 minutes long. These were the shortest dives of our trip, and I feel like the goal was just to get us in and out as quickly as possible. Overall, a very average experience.

We had two fantastic dives with Julien, who spread a great atmosphere and he was very professional too (well, after more than 5000 dives...).The wreck diving was nice as well as the shark diving, the equipment in super good condition. The Te Moana Pass is a good value which gives you 10 dives that you can also use at dive centers of most of the other islands.

Farid & Julien run a great operation. The diving was great & the dive masters were friendly and very knowledgable. They even picked us up at our hotel. I highly recommend the wreck dive. Very cool. We'll be back!

Après avoir plongé lors de 2 séjours précédents avec l'équipe Hémisphère Sub menée par Farid et Julien, j'ai passé cette année mon PE40 là-bas. Club à taille humaine (rarement plus de 8 plongeurs sur le bateau), fine équipe très pro et en même temps chaleureuse et qui prend le temps de discuter et d'expliquer, voilà un club à l'opposé des usines à bulles qui crée un lien durable. De plus les sites sont beaux et la faune au rendez-vous (bon, en ce qui me concerne sauf les requins-marteaux, je les ai loupés 2 fois...). Le corail repousse après les invasions d'acanthaster de ces dernières années. Bref, à recommander aux amoureux des structures à taille humaine. Et surtout ne venez pas à Raiatea que pour la plongée, cette île mérite un séjour prolongé... mais c'est une autre histoire.

BonjourTout d'abords merci pour ce très gentil commentaire. Merci d'avoir pris le temps d'écrire ce petit mot. Je tenais à vous répondre à propose du petit bémol que vous soulevez : La loi nous limite à la profondeur de 6m. Si vous désirez plonger plus profond vous devez passer le niveau 1. Nos moniteurs respectent la loi. A bientôt j'espère avec le N1Julien & Farid