Has anyone stayed at Belmar Apartments since Buddy's Dive took over the dive operation? were you picked on Belmars's dock?

We stayed at BelMar from 9/30 through 10/14, and dove with Buddys the first week. The dive boat dock was not repaired, so we had to drive to Buddy's for the boat dives. As far as we could tell, there was no effort made to repair the dive boat dock. It appeared that the pilings for the dock were still sound, and all they needed to do was replace the decking (about a day's work for a 3 man crew).

That was not too big of a deal, but it was not what we paid for. What was irritating is that they did not tell us until we after we arrived that we would not receive the service that we had arranged and paid for.

On the other hand, Buddy's was great to dive with.

Thanks for the info. We stayed there the middle two wks of Sept and the dock was trashed, but we did our diving with Toucan. We figured anyone staying after we left would have a long drive every AM.

We stayed at Bel Mar Oct 20- Nov 2nd. Buddy Dive
is doing a good job. Ericka and Rob are making
changes to the dive shop with a new coat of paint,
art work and retail equipment. Ericka if you
remember worked at Bel Mar when Toucan Diving
was there. One nice thing about Buddy Dive is
their tank pick up and drop off at there drive
through at Buddy Dive Resort. It makes it nice
when your diving the north shore dive sites.
Buddy Dive is also thinking about leave tanks
down by the water at Bel Mar. Other than that
there's not that much difference that you should
notice between Toucan and Buddy. One more thing,
you can dive on the Buddy Dive Resort house reef
and use there tanks. Now if only Bel Mar would
get their docks repair but like everybody else,
their on island time so it takes awhile.

I don't know if Buddy's is going to be different but Toucan never picked us up at BelMar, even though it was mentioned somewhere on their website.

Mike, so Buddy's isn't providing tanks at Belmar currently? I just want to make sure I understand correctly. As far as the boat dives, since we don't do any, that's no big whoop...but not having tanks right there might be a pain...

If you have to drive to Buddy's now instead of
to Toucan to get tanks and catch the dive boat I would say it is a big deal. Toucan had tanks on site and their dive boats are only five minutes away from the Belmar. Buddy's on the other hand is fifteen to twenty minutes away.

Greg, I agree, that's why I would like to know if they are providing tanks on the Belmar premisis. THAT is a big deal to us.

You can get tanks at Bel Mar 24/7 just like when
Toucan was there before. You can also dive
at Bel Mar. Their stairs going down into the water off the pier have been repaired. The other
pier and cross over pier have not been repaired.
If you are going to dive the north shore dive sites it is easier to pick up your tanks at the Buddy Dive Resort and go through their tank
pick up and drop off drive through rather than
hauling the tanks from Bel Mar when you go up north. You can also take tanks from Bel Mar
if you choose.

Mike, thanks. That's the info I was looking for (that they have tanks at Belmar, for diving at Belmar). We've used Buddy's before, and usually just fill the back of the truck up with tanks for our shore dives (LOVE the drive through tank station). I just wanted to make sure that there were tanks on the premisis at Belmar for diving off the dock there

Oh yeah - think of it as dual locations - Bel-Mar for south side diving and Buddy for north side diving. Ahhh - they beauty of it all. LOL!