Dive Connections Incorporated

This operation is now defunct. Deservedly so.

Overall I did not have a good experience with this charter. The trip started off with one of the passengers arguing with the check-​in person on the dock that he had registered for a wreck dive but the boat was just doing a recreational/​kelp forest dive. There was yelling but the guy ended up on the boat disgruntled anyways. Then the captain shouted at that guy «shut up» when he was talking during the safety orientation (he could have said «please be quiet» for god sake…)
The boat (Zero Gravity) is very slow, and it took us a while to get to the location. We hopped in the water for 1^st dive and I had trouble descending so I had to get back on the boat for more weights. The captain yelled down to me «what’s wrong with you, girl?» in what sounded to me like a «what the fuck is your problem, dumb ass» kind of condescending tone. I finally got sorted out and back in gear and into the water. The dive site was lame… but we all got back on board and were served some nasty ass chicken soup with a bunch of skin in it. A few people got seasick and were barfing. Like they want some gross soup after that! Where is the basic food like sandwiches?
We stayed in place for our 2^nd dive, which was confusing because the first was pretty crap. My friend had to try THREE different tanks to find one that was full — wtf? For some reason the first two he tried were only filled to 2000 PSI and were billed as «full.» So that was lame. I feel like the whole thing was kind of half assed. I forgot to mention that they had virtually no 2lb weights on board and what weights they did have, were un labeled so weighting yourself was a fun little guessing game.
The reservation confirmation stated this trip would take 3 hours, leaving at 2pm. We didn’t leave till about 2:45pm and we were not back at the dock till about 6:30pm.
The only saving grace was that the divemasters were very nice and helpful though. But I would not use this outfit again.

Booked online because it was the only open dive boat that weekend for los coronados, the booking stated it was a four hour trip duration, which I thought was a little fast, but thought maybe Zero Gravity was a really fast boat, I was wrong.
I called the day before to find out whether we needed to arrive at 07 to get gear or before then, if the boat was leaving at 07, I never received a call back, and we arrive at 0645.
The boat did not leave dock till 0830. (Apparently there was a medical emergency the day before and they did not have the appropriate O2 supply, so they had to fix that). It took two hours to get down there, we had two good dives and then headed back. The «included lunch» was make your own sandwich block of cheese and deli meat from a plastic bag, which would have been fine, if they had enough, but by the time I got through to make my sandwich, only a block of cheese was left. Then there was the 2+ hour trip home, getting us back at 1700, we had afternoon plans that day as we were expecting a 4 – 6 hour trip, not the 9 hours it turned out to be. Would never dive with them again.

Any dive boat you can survive a 1hr+ journey on can’t possibly be that bad… which is exactly what we did with DCI, whom we dove the Coronado Islands with (an hour off shore from San Diego, in Mexican waters).
We found Dive Connections via Google and thought they were competitively priced & their vessels seemed well maintained (it was perfect mechanically, though things like the fresh water shower didn’t work and the Head was a little shady… but I don’t care much for either).
We arrived a little before 7a… the check-​in procedures were pretty painless, and their docks were easy to find — being the only dive boat leaving from Quivira Basin docks — and they left fairly on time (in the diving world there’s a lot of ‘ish when it comes to time).
The main complain I have is that they had so many people booked on the one boat — 12 divers, including a O/​W certification group! I understand the operators want a full boat but there didn’t seem to be any staggering of divers… there were certainly traffic jams on the dive deck on more than one occasion.
The other thing that irked me was how long they took to anchor the boat… the site we were at was a very common dive spot for Coronados (Lobster Shack, North Coronados) and the captain/​DM seemed a little uncertain with where to best anchor.
Overall it was a good boat that did what it claimed to do. I am a fairly experienced diver so a lot of things that bothered my boyfriend didn’t bother me as much (such as a briefing that was more a site overview, rather than a detailed briefing).
I can’t say I fell in love with this mob, but will certainly consider them next time I dive SD.