knotical
Puffer
To err is inevitable.
Posts: 36
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Post by knotical on Dec 1, 2004 9:02:28 GMT -5
I think Undercurrent magazine can be a useful way to choose a dive operation / destination. They accept no advertising and publish reviews of dive operations they get from divers. They’ll let you browse parts of back issues and have several on-line or paper cost options. See www.undercurrent.org/Apparently they qualify as not-for-profit in order to get the .org designation in their URL, (as does NAUI). Recently I’ve seen links to In-Depth who also claim to accept no advertising, and to be “for divers who want facts”. They say they offer objective evaluations of scuba products and services. I know nothing more about them. They don’t offer a way to see any of their content, and I hesitate to spend $60 for a pig in a poke. See www.in-depth.net/Is anybody familiar with them? What “facts” do you get for $60 per year? |
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Post by tekmac on Dec 1, 2004 9:11:30 GMT -5
Undercurrent I can only recommend!Its my best friend when I plan my divetrips and vacations.Sofar they were never wrong.
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Post by manta on Dec 1, 2004 9:55:19 GMT -5
It's a shame that there's nothing on the In Depth site to even LOOK at - you get a link to the subscription page or the member page - and they expect people to pay without even samples?
I don't subscribe to Undercurrent, but I know many who do - and they swear by it as well.
-k
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Post by Nelson on Dec 20, 2004 18:54:15 GMT -5
As a previous live-aboard captain I can tell you that Undercurrent is NOT always accurate. No names mentioned, but 'we' got a bad review from the magazine on one of our trips. When I read it in front of my crew I told them that we had to be open minded and listen to the comments so that we could improve on the areas mentioned in the article.
Please believe when I say that 80% of the comments on this particular article were exagerated or unreasonable. Several guests that came on later trips mentioned the article to us and some even sent their own reviews. The reviews they sent (the customers sent me copies) were nothing like the Undercurrent article. Consequently, these contrary reviews that were written were never published.
Notice I said 80% of the comments were exagerated or unreasonable! The person that wrote the article made TEXT comments that DID deserved our attention.
I'll will continue to read Undercurrent, but I will not swear by it and I will also do my own research.
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Post by sea gypsy on May 27, 2005 6:43:45 GMT -5
I've worked on trips where you'll find one of the passengers was trying to work the " if you give me a free trip I'll write a good review of your operation" Most seemed to write travel articles for e-news letters or Rodales write about your dive trip section. I have yet to meet one that worked for a legit. mag. or paper.
Some even seemed to expect preferential treatment, like they were more important than the other 30 people that week. If I remember correctly, none of them stood out as even competent divers and so expected to be have a DM in the water with them at all times and had nothing but special orders for the cook the whole week.
Some of these reviews did end up in Under Current and Rodales. The best way to check out an operation is to ask someone you know that has been there before. Dive shops are great places for info. like that. These people work in the business and have a more realistic expectation. We can't control the weather, currents, rocking of the boat, etc. One place not to trust is the pictures and ads from the place that is trying to get you there. Look at the employment ad for Nekton, sounds great, pictures look good, looks like a dream job. Need I say more?
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