Visit Date: December 2010

Blue Marine Diving is FANTASTIC! I would recommend them to anyone looking for cheery and helpful staff as well as a great underwater experience.

Florien and his team were brilliant with me from start to finish as a teacher, guide and buddy!

As I was, I would strongly recommend this dive centre. It made my holiday and I forged experiences, friendships and laughs that I would never forget.

Thanks a lot Flo!

Management Response from Blue Marine Diving:

Dear 50spence, thanks very much for your kind comments, it was a pleasure having you and we look forward to seeing you back soon for your AOWD. all the best from all the BMD team.

Visit Date: March 2011

Excellent diving, very friendly diving environment.

Management Response from Blue Marine Diving:

Dear specs007, thanks very much, your comments much appreciated - karibu tena. Florian

Visit Date: July 2010

We are well used to signing our lives away when wanting to dive but this was a different experience. Never before have I been asked to sign a form stating that I have examined the equipment and agree that it has been properly maintained and is in good working order – and that is without even seeing it. Whilst accepting that it is my responsibility to ensure that I am fit and capable to dive and complete all the necessary forms honestly, I have always believed that the maintenance and working order of the equipment one needs to hire was the responsibility of the company offering it for hire. Not so with Blue Marine Diving at the Serena Beach Hotel in Mombasa. Perhaps other dive organisations do this but we have never been asked to be legally responsible for the hire equipment before and we have dived with 11 other dive companies around the world.

After an exchange of opinions, a tank was produced, placed in front of me to check and evaluate!

Having thought about it for a few days, we decided to sign the forms and dive.

We went back to the dive centre to sign up and organise the dives. At no point were we asked for our dive log – nor our PADI cards! What we completed on the forms was taken at face value – no checks, no questions..

The time of year (July) was not the best for diving in that area and as a result the only dive site accessible was the inner reef – a site called Coral Garden. This was a very shallow dive of only 6 metres. Entry into the water was a back roll as it was a small boat. The BCD’s & wetsuits were of good quality and the tanks were obviously OK because I am here writing this review.

As well as ourselves there were 3 novices and 2 trainees on board – no briefing was given, no description of the topography of the site – just instructions as to who was going with whom. The dive itself was OK – you don’t have to go deep to see fish & coral so we were quite happy, however, it is a very small site consisting of two pinnacles and a few outcrops. With such a shallow depth the air would last for hours and there is only so many times you can swim around two pinnacles. We came up after 45 minutes and that was 20 minutes too long.

Getting back on board was via a small ladder – no side rails to hold on to so you had to pull yourself up using the runs of the ladder – not as easy as it sounds, especially when you have passed the first (second & third) flush of youth. I expected someone to help by taking some of the weight off the tank and making it easier for me to get onto the deck of the boat but all of the crew just watched as I struggled, as a consequence, I fell and badly cut my knee and toes. Only then did someone help me up.

On returning to the dive centre there was only one tank to rinse everything, this was also a first - every other dive operation we have used have had separate tanks for the regulators etc - and - no one asked how I was.

All in all – not the best diving experience

and I certainly wouldn’t recommend this company. There are a few other hotels along the beach – all with dive centres. I only wish we have visited them and made a better choice.