06/21/2023
Yelp review
Thank you Lee for the great review
Lee R.
03014
6/20/23
Here's my short (and long) of my recent experience with Finatix Scuba Diving and Tammy Goodbar. The short version; Tammy and Finatix are my "go-to" for dive instructions and dive guides in the West Palm Beach area. Professional, accommodating, attentive and very, very safe. She just did a refresher for me after 4 years without diving. She was gentle but firm in confirming my skills in gear prep, dive planning, buddy procedures, hand signals and both beach and boat procedures. I would highly recommend her to anyone looking for scuba dive training or dive guides. The Long Version; I first met Tammy when I was doing a underwater macro photography workshop at the Blue Heron bridge in Riviera Beach, Florida back in August 2016. At the time I had been a certified diver for almost 30 years. Tammy was one of the guides and I was lucky enough to be in her group. I was impressed with her professionalism and her eye I spotting the little critters we were there to photograph. Over the three days of the workshop I got to see that my first impression was not a fluke. Day after day Tammy was a pro wrangling the photographers and uncanny in spotting subject for us to shoot. I left that workshop impressed and with her number. By the time the Covid 19 pandemic hit I had some non-Covid medical challenges that required a couple major surgeries. The results of which made my ability to continue scuba diving a question. I live in California and although we have some great diving the water temperature is never really warm. When considering how best to determine my ability to dive I remembered diving with Tammy in the (nice warm) waters of Florida. At the beginning of 2023 I called her to see if I might retain her to review my abilities and skills one-on-one. She was immediately on board and we determined that June would be a good month for both of us and the waters would be warm. I booked her on the spot. I got down to West Palm Beach this last Saturday (6/17/2023) and came by Finatix to select rental equipment, sign the ever present paperwork and review our plan for the next couple days. We set a time to meet for the beach dive at Blue Heron bridge the next day. We met there and went through setting up the gear. As balance issues are one of my residual challenges Tammy insisted on carrying my gear to the beach. We reviewed our dive plan and got in the water. On descending we reviewed some skills and started the dive. Tammy led and kept an eye on my checking that I was "OK" regularly. Inn our 50-minute dive we managed to spot; Southern Ray, Eagle Ray, Yellow Ray, lobster, crabs mating, A Sharp-Tailed Ray feeding and a playful Octopus. We ended the day with an agreed time to meet for a 2-tank boat dive the next day. Tammy took the gear and brought it to the boat dock as well as getting it on-board. Before we boarded we reviewed boat procedures again. We went out for our first dive and she was careful to make sure that I could safely manage the difficult task of getting into the water off a rolling boat with heavy dive gear on my back. We continued practicing dive skills and cruised the reef seeing more great stuff including several sea turtles and eels. As this was drift style diving, we came up after doing the required 15' safety stop for 3 minutes in mid-water. A good test of buoyancy control. The boat picked us up and she monitored my ability to remove my fins, hand them up and climb the later with my gear on. After a surface interval we did a second dive then headed in. Tammy took care of the gear, signed my logbook and insisted that I had accomplished all the skills review that would confirm that I could still dive. I know the next time I'm down in the West Palm / Riviera Beach area Tammy and Finatix are going to be my first call.
