JADS – THE RIGHT CHOICE! When my boyfriend and I planned a 12 day trip to Aruba last month, diving was our primary objective. Because we are both new divers (just one year) we wanted to be sure to find the right dive operator. We went to ScubaBoard.com to solicit some opinions on the many dive operators working in there. The choice was eventually narrowed down to three. After several email exchanges and some telephone conversations, our choice was made, JADS it was.

Let me start by saying JADS exceeded all of my expectations. On a scale of one to ten, they earned an eleven! We scheduled ten dives, and wish we scheduled more with them. I felt as though each dive experience was catered to me personally. Jean-Pierre, (or J.P.), the owner and every dive staff member was professional, skilled, and just a great group of people. Initially they interviewed us to get a sense of our experience, and then created a dive schedule based on our skill set. The first dive was planned so that they could determine our comfort level. I felt completely at ease from the start. As a new diver, most of my diving has been in New England, so I was really looking forward to getting into the warm water and see what everyone says diving in the Caribbean is like. I was not disappointed. Did I mention what a great group of people work for JADS, from the folks managing the shop, to the dive instructors and dive masters who led the dives? They literally tailored their dive schedule so that we would not repeat a dive to the same location during the entire trip. Honestly, I wouldn’t have been disappointed if that wasn’t possible, but I know they made a concerted effort to make sure that our dive experience in Aruba was amazing, and they succeeded! We dove from one end of the island to the other, ship wrecks, plane wrecks, reefs, shore dives…….ALL AWESOME! At the end, I felt like a completely different diver.

I don’t want to forget something really important. We stayed in the low rise hotel area. JADS is at the far end of the Island, next to Baby Beach. The first dive, they picked us up and began our trip down the island to the shop. Then we packed up, got back in the van and started back about half way back to the boat. At first I thought “what a far distance to travel to get to the dive boat”. But by day two, I came to enjoy and appreciate the rides back and forth nearly as much as I enjoyed the dives. We really got to know the staff, as well as many interesting facts about Aruba and the natives. Also, you really get a better sense of the natural desert beauty (palm trees are definitely not indigenous to the Aruba).

I recall when we started planning our trip my boyfriend asked if I wanted to take an all dive trip. I thought I wasn’t ready for that. So he planned to dive five of the ten full days we were going to be there. I wish I planned more. My confidence and comfort level has grown immensely, and I owe a lot of that to the JADS dive team.

Thank you J.P., Jair, Jairo, Walter, Kitty, Christy, Paul, Ghi Ghi and everyone from the shop! I can’t wait to get back there and dive with you again!

My son and had 5 dives with Jads over 3 days. The variety of the dives were great and the individual attention they give is commendable. JP is a personable individual who truly wants everyone to have a save and enjoyable dive. The last dive we took was at Baby Beach in fairly rough surf and I always felt safe. We went with 2 Dive instructors for 2 divers. The dive shop is at the opposite end of the Island as the Hotels, but if you rent a car it leaves you with time at the end of the day to explore the more undeveloped side of the Island.

I have been to Aruba approximately 8 times over the last 12 years and went diving previously on the Hotel side. It was enjoyable but did not compare with JADS. I give them 2 thumbs up and will certainly use them again.

This was my third visit to Aruba (my girlfriend has been visiting there since 1991 and has lost track of the number of visits). We visited JADS in search of a couple of replacement masks for snorkeling, figuring that a "real" dive shop outside of the resort district would yield better equipment than the overpriced resorts which usually sell low-quality tourist gear at huge markups.

We knew we had made the right decision when the woman at the shop took the time to carefully assure a perfect fit for both of us and when we observed that the emphasis was on fit and comfort rather than the price of the mask.

This led to a dicussion of my girlfriend's bad experience over ten years ago at a neighboring island while taking scuba lessons. On her first open-water dive, while she was still not comfortable with the whole experience, the instructor, as a "joke," had deflated her vest just as she entered the water. Since he had grossly overweighted her as well, this sent her hurtling to the bottom, wearing neither mask nor regulator. The near-drowning experience caused her to quit her training and swear off scuba diving.

On hearing this story, the owner of JADS ("JP") and one of his instructors (Walter) sat down with us and convinced us (most importantly my girlfriend) that Scuba was worth an additional effort. They agreed to take the two of us down for an introductory dive which would be focused on getting her past the previous bad experience. Walter led the dive and was extremely patient and understanding -- beyond anything we might have expected. Not only was the dive a success, we came back the next day and did it again!

Unfortunately we had to return to the US too soon to take the entire course at JADS, but we're now embarking on the classroom and pool portions of the course and will be returning to Aruba in the fall for the express purpose of doing our open water dives with Walter. These guys clearly love what they are doing. They are top-flight professionals. And what's more, they're willing to go the extra mile and beyond for their customers. I can't say enough good things about them.

We had been told that taking a scuba diving lesson was not worth our time in aruba given the other options. but decided to give it a try. We could not have had a better experience. JP, the owner picked us up at our hotel, pointed out historical spots along the ride and was our guide through the experience. One of the best things about JADS is that the ratio of instructors to divers was 1 instructor for every 2 divers. My girlfriend and I dove with another couple and 2 instructors. After a quick video and a basic lesson we were on our way for our first dive. We were given the option to leave from the nearby shore or to take a boat. We chose to leave from baby beach. JP was very attentive to our safety while both he and the other instructor took several underwater pictures and videos of us during the dive. Our experience was so great, we decided to take JP out for drinks after the dive. JADS was perfect for our first dive and we would definitely go back on our next visit to aruba. JP, the owner is very sensitive to making sure that the dive locations are not disturbed by divers and really wants everyone to love scuba diving as much as he does. He also gave cards that allow us to apply our dive to our PADI open water certification back home.