I'm with you Codman...dive ops need to be responsible and cover their :mooner:
I'll take you
four additional steps past that...
- The DM's have to have
a day-off sometime. Compressors are worked on, boats are fussed with, etc. A whole lot happens between the Friday afternoon "dry-off" and Sunday's first dive.
- Call it a "check-out" dive if that's what they really do, but very very few divers arrive in paradise with any idea of proper weighting. Want proof? Sit for a few minutes near where they hand out weights and listen to the lengthy conversations~ even with those who didn't show up with a new wetsuit.
An ORIENTATION is what CoCoView calls the process that
begins Sunday after breakfast and ends after your first dive. You'll hear the verbal lecturettes which many deride as they are chomping at the bit to get wet. There you will learn of the physical process and facilities for diving- how to night shore dive, how to signal that you want your gear placed aboard the boat every morning... or not.
Most arriving divers get their weights and promptly ignore the warnings and basic Newtonian common sense physics- they then place their entire array of lead bars up on their locker shelf. This causes a number of follow-on phenomena, including the shelves pulling away from the walls and sporadic loud crashes when dropped. CXommon sense goes out the window, stupid prevails. The Orientation Speeches are designed to avert the obvious bone-head moves, yet some divers manage to blunder through.
During orientation is where they explain where the Photo Shop is, or where to buy candy bars or whatever. Every week, there are comment cards suggesting that the resort instal a Photo Shop or a place to but snack food. Go figure.
So there are variations between resorts in that Pre-Dive Orientation program, but most are designed to move you safely and effortlessly into the process. At CCV, the first dive is rightfully called an "orientation dive" because it shows you all of the u/w landmarks on the shore dive... where the ship is, the DC-3, the chain that leads you thru the reef. It also teaches you that you do not want to do that again with five (and more) over weighted divers who are thrashing around like wounded tarpon- the standard experience for the first day of diving.
Anyone who mildly objects to any form of "check-out dive" should be observed with eager anticipation... I suggest turning on your video camera immediately.
- It is an accepted fact that the great majority of arriving visitors to Paradise are dehydrated from airplane flights and the stress of travel... possibly that beer at lunch. Dehydrated divers cause DCS. Relax, un-pack and hydrate with non-alcoholic beverages.
- It is only just recently that arrivals at Roatan were early enough on any given Saturday that you could get-in a first day dive. This early arrival is kind of unique for most "more removed" dive islands. Understand that you can get to Cayman and the Bahamas for breakfast, Cozumel for Lunch, Roatan for afternoon tea, but the rest of the real big (
comparatively unvisited) dive world in the Caribbean it will be pushing darkness by the time you get your first no-see-um bite.
The people that complain the loudest about not being able to fall out of the plane and right into Dive #1 seem to be the ones who are logging the big 1.85 dives per day when the week is all said and done. I have made an effort once to dive on Day #1, but
it was a major hump to get my act together and be ready for the evening night dive upon arrival. Was it worth it?
You're in paradise. Relax, have a Coke, get your gear sorted out. Listen to the DM's when they explain the dive-op.
You are entering in an industrial environment and oh... look! You're not wearing steel toed boots.
Take it slowly.
But i'm glad they are willing to do this now! i'd gladly have paid 15$ plus extra for a tacnk or two to get in the water the first day...
