Valentines Dive Center, Nassau

My husbabnd and i are from the west coast of Florida. We have been coming to Harbour Island for years. We dove with valentines years ago when we met a wonderful guy,Sterling Moss who was the captain of the boat at the time. The year after that we came back to Valentines Dive Shop and Sterling no longer worked there. My wife and i ask Laura Bartenfelder who is the owner if she knows where could we find Sterling Moss? Laura told us oh he is in jail he tried to kill her family and was sent to jail in Nassau. My husband and i went into Valentines marina which is across from thhe dive shop and asked the lady at the front about Sterling and why is he in jail. The lady said Sterling is not in jail he is sitting on the dock waiting on sum guest from the marina. My husband and i walked down the dock and there was Sterling getting his boat ready for his customers.What kind of crazy woman is this.? She has a serious problem. We also heard stories from friends about how they work without work permits and do whatever they want. What kind of Government do the Bahamas have? Why are these kind of peolpe are allowed to run a business in the Bahamas?.Is there laws in the Bahamas? I would never recommend anyone to dive or do any kind of business with these sick minded people who only care about your money.These people should be jailed for trying to ruin Mr Moss business and all their dirt that they do. This is very sad that foreigners could be allowed to get away with crap like this.

I read the prveious review and agree with everything the person wrote about the owners of the dive shop. I am friends of the Bartenfelders and i own a house in Harbour Island. The gentlemen they are talking about is a well known captain and fishermen. The Bartenfelder have slander his name to all the winter residents in harbour island and Mrs Bartenfelder posted lots of lies on facebook. The stories they tell people are so far from the truth. I play poker with Mr Bartenfelder and sum of the winter residents and some local guys. When ever he get drunk and use drugs he always brags about how they pay people off in the Government and could do what ever they want.They brag about how they have for years save thousands of dollars by not getting work permit and still could work. These people are my friends but i hate to see how they have destroy this young man name on the island. These people are not Bahamains and run a have ass dive operation for years. They came here with nothing and are trying to leave with the island. Their boats are never runnung properly and uses their staff to do their dirty work and tell them if they dont they will be fired. This local fisherman have done nothing to the Bartenfelders but took them to court a few years ago when he and his wife worked for them and they had to pay him for firing him without cause. This story is well known to everyone thanks to the Bartenfelders who have not stop trying to destroy this young local fisherman character from then til now. The sad part is Mrs Bartenfelder appears to be very nice person so if you dont know her you will be sucked in by her. They are like thieifs in the middle of the night. i got certify with the dive shop six years ago without even diving or doing a exam. I paid them and they sent my info to pada and pada send my card to my Florida adress. What kind of dive shop certify's a diver without diving. They use to bring foreign dive masters in as vistors and let them work for a while and then send them back home. They always say the Bahamas laws are slack and they could work around them. So if you are thinking about diving i suggest you seriously consider putting your life in someones hands who cares about your safety and not just the money.

i am a certify diver and have been diving with valentines for years. nice dive shop but the owners christopher and laura bartenfelder are all into money and are best described as pirates of the carribbean.They have tried to destroyed business of every local who worked for them in the pass. Their boats are poorly managed. Their tanks are always leaking and not up to date. Their dive masters must have never dove before. Their captains are known for hitting sand banks and reefs.Boat never running on two engines.Mr and mrs Bartenfelder are friends of mine. They down the local community saying black people are stupid you can get them to do anything for nothing. I was visiting the island last month when her husband visited a local fisherman house drunk and drugged up and tried to fight this guy in front of his family and the gentleman had to defend his family by using a liscense shot gun. This is how the story went but this is not how the Bartenfelders told it to me and everyone else they meet. Mrs bartenfelder said the local guy is a crazy guy and tried to kill her family before and now he shot her husband. She has told me that she will be sure that he goes to jail no matter what it takes and no matter how much money it takes.These people are very dangerous people. i have been friends with Mrs Bartenfelder from she worked in Nassau and she was always a shady character who loved money so this was no surprise when she tried to lie about this incident. She has told all her friends and clients who she knows that to be careful of this guy because he could lose his head any time and kill you. this gentleman name has been slander so bad that i dont think he will ever get a job again as long as the Bartenfelders are on the island. This is so sad because this local guy was highly recommended to us to go fishing with every year by every hotel including valentines marina. He was and is by far the best captain on the island and is very good with kids. Our kids look forward to fishing and snorkelling with him every year. my family did not get to go fishing this year with him because of the story Mr and Mrs Bartenfelder told my husband and i. I later found out the truth from some one else. Unfortunately it was too late when i did. Very nice captain and fisherman and has a beautiful wife and two lovely kids. I am so sorry we didnt get to see him and tell him about this but im sure he will hear tthat we were there because the island is very small and everyone knows everybody.If you are thinking about diving i highly recommend LIl Shans Water Sport. Another local guy the Bartenfelders dont like. Very good instructor. Take my advice and dont be caught up and dive with these criminals who only want your money.

We dived with Valentines Dive Center at Harbour Island in May 2007. The diving was OK and the instructors did a fine job. However, the management (owners) are all in it for the money. They managed to screw us on one days dive that we had prepaid. A very unpleasent story that put a damper on our vacation. Harbour Island is a great please to visit though, I can strongly recommend it. If you think the food is pricy try to find some of the smaller places where the locals eat, great, rustic and affortable.

The staff was friendly, courteous, and accomadating. Diving the cut was a lot of fun. Vis on most dives was 80 feet or so. There is a shortage of marine life though and the coral does not appear to be very healthy.

We set out on several dives with Valentine's the first week of August, 2007. Wonderful experience and the crew was very helpful. Previously took a trip with Fox but I will definitely use Valentine's in the future.

I only have 10 dives under my belt but I was not pleased with my dive experience with Valentines. There were more than a dozen people on the boat and only 2 dive masters, one was occupied with his 2 students. So the other had the rest of us, all of us. We were rushed to get in the water, which I can understand, people hate waiting for everyone else to get in. But with so many people on a horribly designed boat, its just impossible. The DM didn't point out anything of interest at the Plateau, which as a site was less than amazing. there was no site orientation so we were jumping into an unknown. All other dives I have been on we get to the site, the DM says "this is the site, its XX ft deep, we'll be diving for ~XX minutes, safety stop...it slopes off over there, we often see X,Y,Z, watch out for this or that." On this dive we got there, rushed to get in and had to catch up to the DM who had started on. One of the DMs was not overtly friendly, the other one was relatively friendly. My fiancee didn't dive the second dive because she was so uncomfortable with the DM and operation. They won't be getting my business again.

My husband and I did our open water certification with Valentine's. The weather wasn't the best, but they managed to find us a place to dive, so that we were able to get our certification. Dave, the dive master, was very friendly and helpful. He pointed out aquatic life that I was swimming right past. Luther, the boat captain, was helpful and knowledgeable as well. We had dolphins swim within five feet of us, which I understand never happens when you are diving. When we got back to the marina, the whole place was abuzz about us seeing dolphins. Even before we got there, I exchanged several e-mails w/Valentine's, and they recommended places to stay and ways to get there (we were staying on another island). It was well worth the money to get certified here. Would also recommend Valentine's Resort & Marina if you want to spend the extra money for a fantastic room!

We were at Valentines recently over Thanks giving and what a wonderful time we had. The people helped my wife , who was a nondiver to be able to take the open water class and become certified. I can not say enough about the quality of teaching, safty and professionalism displayed. We have made our reservations for Christmas and hope to return many times. We are bringing several groups of friends since we had such a good experience. My wife will bring her sister to learn to dive as well since they provide such excellant instruction. Please anyone who wants an excellant dive experience be it your first or fiftyth go to Valentines.Thanks Ted

My family are at all different levels for diving - my son a complete novice did the resort course and had a great experience - the lesson given in the pool before going out in the ocean was excellent - the instructor took the time, was relaxed, no pressure but so professional. I had some great dives - The Grotto a fab dive site - the dive leader was so attentive and pointed out sea life I may have missed. We plan to return for Easter next year as Valentines Dive staff made our vacation and my son will want to get certified next. If you go to Harbour Island check them out you will not be disappointed.