Saturday, May 10, 2008

Palms Diving Center ... NO !

Besides being a semi professional race driver / CoD4 Player / bullshit talker, I am also a certified diving instructor (for real! no kidding!).
But just like my career as a race driver kinda stopped, so did my diving career come to a stand still. And this for no apparent reason! I mean, I am living in a country with lots of coast and water and boats and stuff. But still, I am not diving! I even got all my stuff here for which I had to pay a good amount for over weight taking it with me on the flight from Germany!
I used to go diving every weekend and believe me... my relationship back then suffered big time under this! And this was fresh water diving!! No corral reefs, no color full fishes, no depth deeper then 10 meters, no 26 degree warm water, ... NO! Nothing like this!!! Just cold, murky lakes with a few simple fish inside that you usually don't see and lots of algae!

Now last week I decided it's time for diving again! Weather is more or less nice (at least the temperatures) and the diving schools offer trips again. So I went to the Palms Dive Center, with whom I used to go diving with before, and asked them for an available seat in their boat... not only for me but for a good friend as well. Here is what they told me: "NO!"
They didn't say, 'sorry, we are fully booked' or 'unfortunately not this week', ... no... they just said: NO!
WTF! I understand that a lot of people have the same idea as me and all of the sudden feel the urge to go under water and breath compressed air for an hour... and it's OK for me to wait for a week or two (or even three) to get my turn! I am civilised! I stand in line if necessary!!!
But... NO!
I even asked them for a later trip... a trip in two, three weeks... answer: NO!
No explanation given... nothing...

Their 'NO' finally gave me the rest! Because I already told them LAST YEAR SEPTEMBER that they should order a half dry neoprene suite for me. No matter how much it will cost... no matter what color... I was ready to put serious money on the counter for something I might need 2-3 times a year! Even wanted to give them a downpayment to show them how serious I am! But... NO! They promised me every time I called them that they ordered it but it would not have arrived yet... in fact... they never ordered it in the first place!! SUCKERS !!!

So since I am ranting about them already... let me continue!

I know this shop since 3-4 years... in this time ownership or management changed at least 4 times (got along great with the previous Managers)... boats sunk (for real!! But no one was onboard)... people went missing on diving trips (not really... but I would not be surprised)... AND I was not allowed to hand feed fish! I even swam 300 meters to a boat next to us to get some fish bait!! Look... I know what I am doing there! I really do! And there is nothing better to get someone into diving then showing him/her what is down there... and since fish are usually of the shy kind... you need to lure them out! Corall is nice to look at but it doesn't move and doesn't nibble on your fingers! But... NO!
Shit! I even made big time advertisment for them before! Everyone who asked me for a good diving school in Kuwait or organizer of trips I would send there! Not anymore...

So here is what I have to say to the current (mis-)management of Palms Diving Center:

NO! NO! NO!

Not with me my 'friends'... find some other idiots who are willing to pay for your over priced trips to the same reef every weekend...

1 comment:

Grey said...

Looks like you are on a mission !

no palms diving school for me either...